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She kept a pet leopard named Chiquita. She
prowled the stages of
Paris. She performed the banana dance. She was Josephine Baker,
the “most beautiful of panthers”—and given her sinuous dancing and
her sexy singing, it’s fitting that, in honor of Black History
Month, she’s the star of a mini-exhibition at the World Erotic Art
Museum in Miami Beach (also fitting, given that Baker’s European
success coincided with the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs,
which produced the name "Art Deco").
At 12,000 square feet, and crammed with a range
of Victorian, pin-up, folk, surreal, gay, fetish, interracial, and
saloon erotica, the World Erotic Art Museum is the world’s largest
public view collection of erotic art. With thousands of titillating
(and often jaw-dropping) pieces of erotica, the collection includes
a giant ten-foot, gold-leafed phallus, numerous photographs of
Marilyn, a Danish lithograph of four nude Beatles—as well as the
murderous white fiberglass phallus from the film A Clockwork
Orange. Sometimes kitschy, sometimes in questionable taste, but
never less than fascinating, the collection is an ongoing reminder
of, interestingly enough, our humanity—with our sensuality as our
common bond. Or as president and curator, Naomi Wilzig (aka Miss
Naomi) likes to say, “the harmony of mankind in its most natural
state.”
To mark the occasion of Baker’s residency at
the WEAM, members of the cast of Absinthe (now playing its
final week at Spiegeltent in Miami Beach) showed up to find their
own natural state amongst Wilzig’s collection—and perhaps it was no
surprise that the fit was perfect. Whether straddling a phallus or
cozying up on a four-phallus (rather than four-poster) bed, the
Absinthe cast members assumed the position with ease—as well as
with leers, lip smacking, and come-hither glances, all of which did
Josephine Baker proud.
Do yourself a favor and make a trek to WEAM—and get in touch with
your own inner panther, in honor of Josephine Baker.
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