Jeanelle Mastema

Jeanelle Mastema (born September 15, 1984) is a Mexican-American experimental body and performance artist from Boyle Heights, California. Mastema incorporates ritual into her work through play piercing, hook suspensions, live magick and sacred objects. She performs internationally, solo and in groups, often acting as a medium for group intentions or a symbolic altar for channeling energy. Through performance, Mastema enters into a meditative head space to disconnect from mundane consciousness. Her major influences include: Butoh, Kenneth Anger, Surrealism, Psychedelic Art, the Viena Actionists, Kembra Pfaher, Leonora Carrington and Alejandro Jodorowsky. She also works as the West Coast sales manager for an adult novelty toy store. She also worked at the Pleasure Chest for many years and is featured in a film called, Thank You Come Again, based on working there.

Early life and education In 2010, Mastema studied Music Technology at Los Angeles Community College. She was asked to compose a piece of music and put it to video. She decided to make an art film called 'Contatus,' which was inspired by the Viena Actionists. The word 'contatus' is related to the inertial and survival instincts all people have. In the student film Mastema puts three cheek spears in her face. Aesthetic Meat Front (AMF), Coven of Ashes, the Church of Coyote, and Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CORE).

Embrace Chaos Suspensions Embrace Chaos Suspensions, headed by Matt Brawley, is an artist collective of suspension practitioners that provide public and private hook and rope suspensions. They also facilitate the hook suspensions for many performance art groups. They have collaborated with groups and artists such as Aesthetic Meat Front, Sheree Rose, Martin O' Brien, Virgo Rising, Coven of Ashes, Missy Munster. Embrace Chaos appears on television such shows such as Ink Master, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and more. Sheree Rose incorporated BDSM and sadomasochism into her relationship dynamic with Bob as a tool to manage the chronic pain he experienced from cystic fibrosis. Rose documented her daily interactions with Bob through photography, video, drawings, and personal artifacts such as jewelry and sex toys. Martin O'Brien is Rose's current performance art partner since Flanagan died. O'Brien almost has cystic fibrosis.

Aesthetic Meat Front (AMF) Aesthetic Meat Front is a performance group based out of Berlin, Germany created by couture fashion designer Louis Fleischauer. Fleischauer is known for AMF Korsets, his avant-garde line of wearable art and his performance art shows. AMF's performances are often public rituals where people are turned into human instruments through piercing, springs, blood and fashion shows with people hanging from hooks wearing leather corsets with wings.

Performance Interpretation

The most noteworthy AMF performance Mastema was a part of was The Nestle Death Curse at the Lethal Amounts gallery in downtown Los Angeles. This performance was a collaboration between Aesthetic Meat Front, the Church of Coyote, and Sheree Rose. In the performance Mastema's forearms were nailed to a cross and she had hooks in her chest. The performer's bodies were the medium

Coven of Ashes Coven of Ashes is an all femme ritual performance group based out of Los Angeles, California. The group is founded and directed by ritual performance artist and blood witch Lauren Davis. This ritualistic performance group incorporates themes such as the feral feminine, the occult, body autonomy, death and rebirth. Using their bodies as mediums, they also incorporate channeling, automatic writing, bloodletting and Ankoku Butoh.

One Coven of Ashes performance, Desecrated in Death: The Path of the Unholy, marked the release of Missy Munster's fashion line Let the Devil In. The performance featured dramatic lighting in which performers crawled onto a giant spirit board, fell into a trance state and bled from their foreheads. One blindfolded performer in the middle of the circle hung from two hooks in her back. She paced back and forth around the circle and was lifted into the air as a human pendulum. Later in the performance, Lauren Davis, playing the role of shadow demon, summons the dead. Jeanelle Mastema and Carmen Carrasco, playing the dead, hung from flesh hooks. They spun in a circle like a mobile until finally resting in their coffins. A sermon was given, while Munster was brought out, bound by rope. With the assistance of Lauren, Munster cut through her restraints and proceeded to insert a spear in her face and cut her chest with a scalpel.

The Church of Coyotel The Church of Coyotel is a performance group headed by Steven Johnson Leyba. Leyba is a performance artist with indigenous Apache and Jewish roots, and was adorned as a minister of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey. His work is often controversial and deals with personal political issues. Many of the Church of Coyotel's themes include anti-corporate values, reclaiming of indigenous identity, rejection and rebellion of patriarchal values, intersectional feminist ideologies and more.

Performance Interpretation

On September 15, 2018 Jeanelle Mastema performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, Arizona. Steven Leyba brought Mastema in as a performer and member of the Church of Coyotel. The exhibition their live performance was featured in was called Blessed Be: Mystics, Spirituality and the Occult in Contemporary Art. The performance called INVOKATION OV RECKONING: A Curse on Your Corporate Masters, A Magickal Retrospective. To begin the performance Mastema knelt on a bed of broken glass. She had pierced needles into her cheeks with peacock feathers on the ends, and she painted a diamond shape on her chin to represent the tongue of the Hindu goddess Kali. Mastema painted sigils on paper and a fellow performer bled on them. Mastema got up from the ground to reveal a chalice hanging from a vaginal weight. Mastema proceeds to burn the designs and urinate on them to extinguish the fire. Leyba recited spoken word preaching a new Avalon of creativity.

Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CORE) Constructs of Ritual Evolution is a performance group founded by Steve Joyner. Steve Joyner is on the Association of Professional Peircers Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Chair and Committee and Board of Directors. CORE was a suspension performance group in the early two thousands.

Performance Interpretation

In 2014, CORE performed with Fakir Musafar in Dallas Texas. In the thirty minute performance Jeanelle Mastema suspended in a cross-legged position with two hook in her back and two in each leg. She spun in circles above the stage while other people performed below her. One of the performer's burdened a kavadi in which he had a cage of spears inserted into the mid-section of his body. Fakir inserted hooks into his chest and pulled against them. He then interacted with a performer named Luna who suspended from two hooks in her chest.

Body art and performance art Scholars have written about incorporating pain in performance art. In Performing Bodies in Pain, Marlo Carlson, "propose that pain is unique among sensations, not because it is inexpressible or radically un-shareable, but because it creates an urgent need to communicate things which no one is eager to listen." Carlson makes the point that watching pain brings up emotions for people that are often difficult to confront. Carlson then goes on to say that, "dramatized pain typically serves as a means to get at the consciousness of the person who inhabits the body, thereby also serving as a call to action for the spectator." 2015 Nestle Death Curse Lethal Amounts Los Angeles, CA Collaboration with Chvrch of Coyotel and AMF 2013 Flesh Art Vanilla Gallery Tokyo, Japan 2012 Public Ritual Wasteland Weekend Mojave Desert, CA 2009 Bulkow Castle Poland Ritual to Release Desires Sadistic Circus Tokyo, Japan Embrace Chaos Suspensions September 14, 2019 Torture Garden Los Angeles The Globe Theater Los Angeles, CA Jeanelle Mastema performed with Embrace Chaos suspensions at one of the most infamous fetish parties, Torture Garden. Makeup by Missy Munster. 2018 The Ascension-Sheree Rose & Martin O'Bien Jason Vass Gallery Los Angeles, CA Performance by Sheree Rose and Martin O'Brien with Ron Athey. Suspension by Embrace Chaos Suspensions. 2018 Fetish and Fantasy Ball at Dom Con Los Angeles Sanctuary Studios LAX Los Angeles, CA October 31, 2017 Disobey: ANTON LAVEY Exhibit w/ Kenneth Anger + special guests Madame Siam Los Angeles, CA Suspension by Embrace Chaos and Threshold Suspensions. Mastema suspended from a pole with a chalice dildo inside of her. Chvrch of Coyotel September 15, 2018 INVOKATION OV RECKONING: A Curse on Your Corporate Masters, A Magickal Retrospective The Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson Tucson, AZ A live performance that was part of the Blessed Be: Mysticism, Spirituality, and the Occult in Contemporary Art exhibition at MOCA. Curator: Ginger Shulick Porcella October 7, 2011 The Code-Hex ALLMENTARIUS Curse Ritual Against Monsanto Denver, CO Sixteen Point Crucifixion Suspension with Fruit Cheek Speet

Needles in Face Virgo Rising Solo Project of Janelle Mastema 2018 Flesh Into Gold Dragon, Rojo Tijuana, Mexico December 10, 2010 Show Cave Los Angeles, CA Debut Virgo Rising Performance Mastema had needles in her face, throat, chest, and stomach.

She drew a flaming knife in front of her body and pulled the needles

out to simulate as if she had bled from the knife.

At the end of the piece, she falls over and 'dies.' Then the band passed out flowers to the audience as a symbol of serenity.

Ace Farren Ford played live experimental noise music Coven of Ashes 2018 DESECRATED IN DEATH: The Path of The Unholy Private Gallery Los Angeles, CA A show for the launch of MM Fabrications fashion line "Let the Devil In." Mastema performed a hook suspension and modeled in the show. 2018 "Dakhma- The Tower of Silence” at Shadowdance Oakland Opera House Oakland, CA 2018 Belle Book and Candle Los Angeles, CA 2015 The Ceremony Of Black Art lV The Black Castle Los Angeles, CA 2018 Thou Art Darkest Masonic Lodge Los Angeles, CA Performance for Behemoth 2018? Whore of Babylon at Illumination? Oakland, CA January, 2017 Satanic Mass Das Bunker Los Angeles, CA December 17, 2016 Lethal Amounts Christmas Party Lethal Amounts Los Angeles, CA Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CORE) Puja Lakewood Theater Dallas, Texas Collaboration between Fakir Musafar and CORE Omega Collektiv 2010 Autumn Lights Los Angeles, CA Fashion Show, Played Jeanelle's Student Film Filmography +FilmYearTitleDirectorPartNotesRef2016 Jane's Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual Alive at Twenty-Five 2016 Silver Spoon Anniversary Tour DVDHerself 2013 PAINing POORtraitsAdam Cooper-Terán and Steven Johnson LeybaHerself Lost Film Festival Program November 8, 2010 ContatusJeanelle MastemaHerselfStudent Film- LA Community College Mastema was in school for music technology. Her assignment was to put a piece of audio to a film. She ended up making an art film inspired by Viennese Actionism, where she put cheek spears in her face.1

Television

Music videos

(Media Pollution)Mastema hangs from 24 hooks in her back, front, arms, forehead and throat. Suspension by Embrace Chaos Suspensions (Matt Brawley and Dahlia Datura)Revolver Magazine

KERRANG! Magazine

Books and publications

Additional reading

Aldersey-Williams, Hugh. Anatomies : a cultural history of the human body. . OCLC 881832175 Ana Finel Honigman (2014) Enabling Art, Third Text, 28:2, 177-189, DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2014.885201 Brayshaw, Teresa (2013-10-01). "The Twentieth Century Performance Reader" doi:10.4324/9780203125236. Burton, Johanna, editor. Bell, Natalie. Trigger : gender as a tool and a weapon. . OCLC 1011099218 Di Bella, Maria Pia, editor. Elkins, James, 1955- (2017). Representations of pain in art and visual culture. Routledge. . OCLC 1009067648. Diamond, Elin (2017), "Feminism, Assemblage, and Performance: Kara Walker in Neoliberal Times", Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 255–268, Flanagan, Bob (2017). The Book of Medicine. PrimrosePathPress. . Granata, Francesca, (2017). Experimental Fashion : Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body. I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. . OCLC 978979920. Johnson, Dominic (2013). Pleading in the blood : the art and performances of Ron Athey. Bristol, UK: Intellect. , 9781783200351 Lattin, Don; Writer, Chronicle Religion (1997-05-08). "Davis Party Performer Says He's Satanic Priest". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-03-11. Lea., Vergine, (2007). Body art and performance : the body as language. Skira Editore. . OCLC 231021228. Leyba, Steven Johnson (2015). Coyote Satan Amerika: The Unspeakable Art and Performances of Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba. Last Gasp. . Leyba, Steven Johnson (2008). The Coyotel Way. Coyotel Press. . Logan, Barbara Ellen (2011). "Performing Bodies in Pain: Medieval and Post-Modern Martyrs, Mystics, and Artists (review)". Comparative Drama. 45 (3): 303–306. doi:10.1353/cdr.2011.0016. ISSN 1936-1637 Metzger, Jane. Sean A Shanks, Gwyneth (2016-01-01). Performing the Museum: Displaying Gender and Archiving Labor, from Performance Art to Theater. eScholarship, University of California. OCLC 1078235377 Musafar, Fakir (2015). SPIRIT AND FLESH. Arena Editions. . Oliver, Sophie Anne. (2010) "Trauma, bodies, and performance art: Towards an embodied ethics of seeing," Continuum, 24:1, 119-129, DOI: 10.1080/10304310903362775 Paffrath, James (1984). Obsolete Body / Suspensions / Stelarc. JP Publications. Petra., Kuppers, (2007). The scar of visibility : medical performances and contemporary art. University of Minnesota Press. . OCLC 182857333. Phelan, Peggy. (2012). Live art in LA : performance in Southern California, 1970-1983. Routledge. . OCLC 876441952 "Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc". web.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-11. "Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985". Panorama.2018. doi:10.24926/24716839.1653. ISSN 2471-6839. Regan, Margaret. "Art From the Dark Side". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved 2019-03-11. Rothstein, Adam (2015-10-26). "Meet the Artists/Occultists Channeling the Death of Monsanto". Creators. Retrieved 2019-03-11. Santana, Analola (2018). Freak performances : dissidence in Latin American theater. Michigan: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press.