Glitta Supernova is the cult pioneer of sexual performance art, bringing red-light surrealism to intimacy and objectification. She is one of the featured acts at Guilty Pleasures Cabaret & Burlesque Festival 12–14 May.
You call yourself a ‘sex clown’. What is that exactly?
I coined the term sex clown in the late 90s to describe my work, which assassinated the absurdity of gender and sexuality stereotypes through the mirroring of the ridiculous and the grotesque. It was inspired by Baubo, who is a fun-loving, bawdy, jesting, sexually liberated – yet very wise – Goddess. Baubo is celebrated as a positive force of female sexuality and the healing power of laughter.
From the mid 2000s Sydney artists began to take the term on as a description and identification of the genre, which aims to shape diversity and the freedom to be, regardless of the boxes that bring only limitation.
What’s your take on gender and how you like to shift how it’s perceived in your performance?
From the moment we are born we are brainwashed to be a product of this grand illusion society has created. That with our gender, class, sexuality etc I believe we are all fluid in spirit and able to transform and move ourselves into anything our heart desires. Coming from the female filter that I live in when I am parodying the female condition with a big fat mirror, I present like a hyper-femme cartoon version of what femininity is. It is very 2D, a drag queen. This is my clown mask. On a deeper level, I am about reclaiming our power, expressing the sexuality and gender identity that is unique to each person. My work is about being a woman in this society. I’m focused on strong female identity. I have no interest in portraying the pretty mass-media heteronormative female that is everywhere.
What influences do you draw on for your shows?
Usually the horror of it all is what inspires me most; turning this horror into humor is something that keeps me lighthearted and sane.
My life’s work is about the She Beast within, the wild, organic and uncontrolled nature of the feminine, pre-patriarchy, pre-capitalism and pre-marketing/media culture controlling our inner and outer being. I love to play around with modern archetypes and subvert and pervert them into another dimension. Society is very scared of the strong sexually empowered woman; she is considered grotesque so I embrace the grotesque with my art activism.
What do you think powers the imbalance between men and women? Straight and gay? Do you think we’ll ever move past this binary approach to how we define ourselves?
It comes down to the brainwashing again and the media machine. We are all responsible for keeping this machine rolling, but once we can break free of these spinning cogs we can truly live free from this binary within our own communities; hopefully when we are free we can live by example and inspire the change further in society.
I have felt just as confined in the gay world as the straight or even among other woman. People love and need boxes and to identify themselves to a group, and they like to know where to put you.
It’s safe that way. This is fine, and each to their own, but once someone puts me in a box I just want to prove them wrong, feel annoyed, and I need to change. That’s my nature. I’m an anarchist, but please don’t put me in the anarchist box.
Tell me abut the Gurlesque Lezzo Strip Joint?
Gurlesque was a social experiment of what would happen when a bunch of strippers opened up a stripclub that was for women by women. It was a revolution! This was about seven years before burlesque as we know it would hit the mainstream.
I was co-founder of Australia’s infamous cult club Gurlesque (1998–2010), which also holds the title of ‘Australia’s first burlesque club’, which received two Green Room Award nominations. Gurlesque influenced an entire generation of sexual performance art in Australia. Audience members such as Chrissy Amphlet and Peaches at times rivalled onstage guest artists such as Penny Arcade and Elizabeth Burton, further cementing Gurlesque as an ideal of underground club subculture format, style and visionary success.
What are you presenting at Guilty Pleasures?
As the Saturday night show is themed ‘Pleasure that do not see the light of day’, without giving anything away let’s just say ‘the light comes from within.’
Glitta Supernova performs at Guilty Pleasures Cabaret & Burlesqlue Festival in Brunswick Heads 12–14 May. For more details go to guilty-pleasures-fest.com.au.
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