The Softest Place on Earth

Baby won’t you come inside, I’ll take you on a fantasy ride. Take a journey through my universe, My love’s the softest place on earth. ⁃ as sung by Xscape As I began to think about this body of work, I looked back at the works I created for my previous solo Teach Me Tonight and I knew I wanted there to be some sort of continuity between the two shows. Both shows took place within the same year and I felt as though I was only in the beginning stages of exploring my relationship to the imaginary and how through it I can create a space for lesbian desire. At the suggestion of my friend Morgan, I read up on the weekly salons hosted by Gertrude Stein and became very interested in centering the location of my show in a space very much like this. Teach Me Tonight had taken place in a jazz cafe and now The Softest Place on Earth would take place in the domestic space of an apartment. In this apartment, women would be convening to discuss art and culture and actively take part in creating it. At this party, books are simultaneously read and written. They are worshipped over, used to cast spells and reanimate goddesses of the past. Books and bodies are sites of pleasure and knowledge creation. Magical orbs are served as dessert and lactating breasts create new universes and symphonies. Shadows, ghosts and spirits walk among the house guests at this party — all have been invited. The women who are in attendance are overflowing with creative passion and desire; it spills out of their bodies to create new bodies. In this salon, creation is intellectual, emotional and physical. In the microcosm of this apartment party, a new world is being created. The new world is chaotic and in its infancy, stumbling to find its feet and its language. Through this cacophony, however, permeates a constant throbbing and steady heartbeat. Blood is pumping and the air is filled with desire and excitement. With each of these paintings I hoped to capture and reveal just a moment of this sapphic genesis. - Ana Benaroya