Maya Fuhr’s voyeuristic new show is an ode to edging

“Edging is fun!” exclaims artist and photographer Maya Fuhr as she tells me about her new and first US solo exhibition Compersion – an immersive experience complete with latex and lube, which opened, aptly, on Valentine’s Day at Gallery SADE in LA.

In this instance, edging is the ‘sexual infrastructure’ of Fuhr’s sculptures’ aesthetics, a slow, focused process of layering, rubbing, and whipping mould-making latex onto photographs of queer and/or sex-positive celebrities from her archives. Climax is reached when Fuhr peels back the layers, and the images of Mia Khalifa, Brooke Candy and Shea Coulee, among others, peep through slits and tears, occasionally pierced with safety pins.

“The process is the most important part,” she explains. “I interact with the shapes and bodies in my photographs. Each latex sheet takes a long time to create and a lot of patience. I’m whipping and slapping on latex, knowing that eventually I’ll be able to peel the latex off the surface, revealing the shiny texture and image below, and I need to wait. The anticipation is part of the thrill!”

Compersion is a world-building exercise. Upon entering the space, visitors will encounter the scent of baby powder and the sounds of latex restricting and snapping. For visitors wishing to be more than a voyeur, they can ask for consent to slip on a pair of gloves, squirt some lube, and give specific works a rub.

The title is borrowed both from Buddhism and the ethical non-monogamy community. Essentially, it means the opposite of jealousy. “Compersion is our wholehearted participation in the happiness of others,” says Fuhr. “It’s the sympathetic joy we feel for somebody else, even when their positive experience does not involve or benefit us directly.” She likens it to the joy of seeing your partner with someone else. “I’m interested in non-conventional ways of connecting and being in love and the different possibilities of what that can look like.”

Translating this to the gallery space, Fuhr continues: “Art generally provides compersion for the viewer because they are invited to step inside and discover the artist’s world, meanwhile passing strangers that are simultaneously interacting with the work too.”

The work ultimately invites us to embrace our inner voyeurs with the queer and sex-positive icons pictured acting as “referential caricatures in the space”. These latex works, Fuhr explains, “invite the viewer to slow down, get to know their bodies for pleasure beyond fashion photography. Here, they reach their appropriate fate as necessary research into how we process the aesthetics of sex in contemporary popular culture.” 

Alongside Fuhr’s latex works and sculptures, an inflatable ponytail made in collaboration with Canadian artist duo Studio Rat serves as an archway to transport visitors to an intimate space fostering safety and play. For those who attended on opening night, a BDSM performance by Mistress FIX and their submissive Sammie Veeler took place to reflect on how experience is “flattened for screens and measured in impressions” as well as “the precarity of digital representation for trans people and sex workers.” By filtering exhibitionist contact through these perspectives, the male gaze is reduced. “It allows the sculptures to exist as vulnerable archives of fetishism (that) emphasises perversion through an intersectional queer perspective,” says Fuhr.

Part of the proceeds from art sales will also go towards the non-profit Center for Positive Sexuality, which supports queer, sex-positive research of various communities impacting sex education and gender studies in academia. 

“It’s sad we don’t learn about edging or consent when we’re young,” reflects Fuhr. “In high school, sex education revolved around penetration: conventional sex. We can learn a lot from edging: relaxing into sensations and being present instead of focusing on the climax.”

Compersion runs at Sade Gallery in Los Angeles from February 15 – March 15, 2023