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14 Pieces of Erotica for February 14
was created with Soho sex shop Coco de Mer. The work consisted of 14 Flash animations displayed in Leicester Square.
No documentary photographs exist of the artwork in public space, which is unusual. The project may have been rushed, thought unimportant by the artist, or displayed for one day only on 14 February 2002, accounting for the absence of documentation.
Firrell also gave readings from a limited edition handmade book (with slightly longer texts) at the Coco de Mer store on Valentine's Day 2002.
14 Pieces of Erotica for February 14
, artist's book, 2002.
u2002.1
14 copies of the booklet were hand annotated by the artist with 'extra filthy bits' and these were gifted to Coco de Mer customers at the artist's whim.
Several contemporary journal fragments refer to the artwork:
I want to begin by making an all-white book; 14 pieces of erotica... not just hearts and flowers at Valentine's, but erotica.
PR Chris rang and said Coco de Mer want to talk about the tie up with me for Valentine’s day; he said come along and be celeby.
'Then I bound 8 copies of the
14 Pieces of Erotica
... ready for the meeting tomorrow with Coco de Mer.
And the Coco de Mer readings were a huge success.
The texts of the 14 Pieces of Erotica read as follows:
01 Innocence. You don't know why you're weeping, wanting to weep after the fact of the lover.
02 Desire. Wanting to be owned completely, taken completely, laid waste by your desire.
03 Pursuit. You are an object of want, a delirious, needing, wanting, disbelieving object of want.
04 Possibility. Nothing but the act, nothing more to say, no further thought or desire.
05 Force. You have the sense of controlled force or power and being lifted by that, the roughness of you. Your size.
06 Fear. Desire fuelled by the fear of the consequences of desire. You are fear. And you are desire.
07 Roughness. The weight and readiness of you. The firmness of your shoulders and arms under your clothes.
08 Shamelessness. Taken in all of your shamlessness, allowing everything, taking everything.
09 Nakedness. Your nakedness is reason enough to weep. Lost. Hurt by it.
10 Truth. Not wanting to speak in the dark. The truth of it all taken in by the body.
11 Shock. After the shock has subsided: a stunned aching, low down in the belly.
12 Possession. The lover naked, muscled. You, impossibly pale, stretched, not muscled or thin.
13 Pleasure. Your willingness - stretched out naked in the early morning light, warm still from sleep - to be used for pleasure.
14 Exhaustion. Taken to exhaustion so that the immensity of the act destroys sense itself.
