Contract (2021) is a ten-week endurance performance which unfolded through the framework of a BDSM relationship between Cleo Ouyang and Empress Wu, a.k.a. MJ Tom.
Cleo played the role of Artist to MJ Tom’s Art Dealer, submissive to her Dominant. The Artist is to produce, and Dealer is allowed to enforce production by any means necessary, including daily check-ins, isolation/confinement (called “residencies”), sleep deprivation, enforced wake-up times, and more. This became a slow and grueling ritual of transformation.
Below you’ll find documents from this process, beginning with the physical contract itself, through the different works created by Cleo as part of this process. The final piece is a poem written in alternating stanzas, a dialogue between Cleo and MJ about intimacy.
Cleo played the role of Artist to MJ Tom’s Art Dealer, submissive to her Dominant. The Artist is to produce, and Dealer is allowed to enforce production by any means necessary, including daily check-ins, isolation/confinement (called “residencies”), sleep deprivation, enforced wake-up times, and more. This became a slow and grueling ritual of transformation.
Below you’ll find documents from this process, beginning with the physical contract itself, through the different works created by Cleo as part of this process. The final piece is a poem written in alternating stanzas, a dialogue between Cleo and MJ about intimacy.