Content warning: This post contains material about sexual assault.
As part of sexual assault awareness week at her university, my friend created a performance art piece called “Two Girls, Ten Tubes of Paint” to educate about consent (as a concept in sex and in relationships in general). She (Riley) and a friend (Alice) set themselves up in a gallery with brushes and paint. Participants could paint the two women’s bodies if they entered into a conversation about where to paint and what to paint. According to the artists’ statement: “They invite visitors to join them and paint their skin. Before any sexy painting occurs, the artists discuss with each other and with people who ask to participate what will be painted and where it will be painted, collaborating with their “partners” to create a living artwork, their bodies the canvas, that affirms the creative and mutual nature of intimacy.” The idea was that something beautiful could emerge out of consent. Consent need not be dull or unimaginative.