Devil’s Work
Italian missionaries called 玲珑 (longyan - dragon eye) porcelain that is carved very finely for translucency because work that fine could only be done by the devil! Red light districts were frequently known as the Devil’s Acre, Devil’s Mile and the like, because the women that worked there were consorting with the devil to corrupt godly men with their wicked feminine wiles. These illuminated sculptures/lanterns shine light through historic photos of (faceless) hookers from Storyville, paired with mugshots of women arrested in San Francisco for Section 13 - Prostitution violations, staring straight and unflinching into the camera. Male photographers undoubtedly snapped these photos. By returning faces to these women, and celebrating the women’s painstaking and difficult labors, I seek to defang the idea of a devil and exorcise it from women’s bodies and labor. I am sickened by the casual violence and escalating rhetoric aimed at women and their bodies in this historical moment, and I seek to sanctify my own flesh by returning agency and identity to these historical women.
Photos courtesy San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library and E.J. Belloq archive, via public domain.
