Actually Huizenga is a musician-performer-video artist. Her work focuses on power-play, fantasy, the stranger side of the occult and, probably most obviously, Sex. It's art for pleasure, whether it be her's or the audiences. Her first solo record "Wet Look" is due out very soon and her pop porn video pieces (SoftRock 1 & 2) have just been shown at the George Pompidou Center in Paris. Alongside her fellow Director Socrates Mitsios, SoftRock3 is currently in production with plans to make it even bigger this time. The concept of Actually's 'Pop Porn' intrigued me, as did the Video artist, and I wanted to find out more.

 

Adam Bryce: If SoftRock could talk, what would it say about why it needs to be completed?

Actually Huizenga: If SoftRock could talk, it would probably be slightly moaning. But in a sexy, lightly breathy way you know? And when it finally had the time to talk...It would totally be saying so much crazy sexy stuff that you would probably just want to throw it down on the ground and rape it. I don't think that a 'talking SoftRock' would even be able to talk about itself because SoftRock is so much about confusion. There is purity and simplicity in the beauty of the sets of course, but the goal of finding truth in 'sex' is so beguiling and strangely oppressed that talking about it gets my stomach into knots. SoftRock is really just about 'sex,' but 'sex' has so many connotations that punch it into such a pulp of tension that it is almost afraid to be itself. How can something so elemental be so repressed, feared and despised? Why are nipples NC-17 and a chopped off head not? How can 'sex' even defend itself with words? It has to be shown. SoftRock needs to be completed so that the word 'sex' can find itself unbound by obvious fetishistic associations. I think SoftRock is addressing the fetishes outside of the obvious frames. It needs to be completed so that Socrates Mitsios (my Co-Director, Co-pop porn actor and Spartan sex pot) and I can really explore 'sex' in the ways that we have always fantasized about since our early years. The sexual fantasies that you had in kindergarten are really the purest...and often the most demented. 

 

AB: What do you hope your audience feels when they engage with your work?

AH: I really truly just want my audience to have a good time... Socrates and I want to display something carnal and wanted but in the prettiest way that we can manage: In a way that may offend but at the same time really draw in the audience because of how beautiful the actual display is. For example, there is a cunnilingus scene but the rich colors and the way in which the fireplace throws light upon the whiteness of the quaking hip bones is really just so delicious in a way so beyond hard-core or even soft-core sex, that one might even be embarrassed that they want to watch. I want the audience to be embarrassed in a first kiss kind of way...to feel a flutter in their chest; the hard- on is the second most important thing! But first...the flutter!

 

AB: Tell us a little bit about your collaborators?

AH: Socrates Mitsios is my partner. He is the other half of the SoftRock series. I, on my own, am just the pop star...but with him...I am the pop porn star. SoftRock is the first time in which I ever had sex on camera. Socrates is a photograher and lives in London. He is 100% Spartan by blood and that is why he is so good looking in the strangest, almost alien way.

 

He is like a Greek version of one of those Lladro porcelain figurines that my grandma was so proud of having in her display case. I was always so turned on by the male ones...so tall and sleek and skinny. That is pretty much what he looks like. The best part about Socrates is his nearly sadistic attention to detail. I met him on a shoot...and he made me hold the most uncomfortable positions for such a long amount of time that I almost screamed, but after that I realized it was perfection. Some of the most amazing scenes come out of pain and severity. He has never spoken sweetly to me during the shooting of our best work.

 

My music collaborator is Chaz Windus...he worked on the soundtrack for SoftRock 2 with me and he will be doing 3 and 4 with me as well. He is my band mate in 'ACTUALLY.' He is totally amazing and can read my mind once I have had a couple bottles of cheap white wine (mixed with cranberry juice- We call that drink 'The Blushing Black Lady' and she is Very important to us!).

 

Simon Preen Is Pure Sex. He is our earliest collaborator. As a designer, his vision and his clothes have influenced us on a very intimate level. He is our poster boy, exalting himself as a gay icon. He will finally show his pale, well-toned body in the final installment of the SoftRock series.

 

AB: What do you hope to find at the end of the SoftRock journey... once the series is complete?

AH: My 'hoping' is really just a 'hoping' to have the experience to discover the essence of 'sex,' but outside of all those forced connotations that I have been trained to think about. I want to go back to those sexually charged, wild thoughts of my early years. I used to draw insanely erotic images on pieces of paper, stamp them together, ponder over them for a week and then bury them in the back yard. I used to tie myself up in my pink and blue canopy bed with scrunchies. I was really quite demented. Of course my family always says now " What went wrong? She was always such a sweet, talented little girl." Well, actually...I am really just trying to get that purely twisted eroticism of my youth back. So many of us forget what sex felt like before we masturbated.

 

AB: What or who will you be in your next life?

AH: Amazing! everyone always asks what you were in your last life... Well, I would really like to be a smoking hot faggot rock star (if I'm human). Like realllly feminine but totally a dom...and there would be stories of me being such a cruel sexual master to all of my groupies (male and female just for the hell of it). I would be sooo universally sexual but in the gayest way. But, then again...I'm practically that now...so maybe I should think about this answer more and get back to you?! - What was the last thing that made you laugh or cry? SOCRATES in many different ways...on both sides.

 

AB: What kind of kid were you?

AH: haha! well, I think I half-way answered this in my "journey" answer! Aside from my sex brain...I was very much into animals, reading, making art...ya know, yer totally cute little weirdo kid.

 

AB: You studied fine art, and have through softrock had your work shown at some very high profile museums and galleries - when did you decide your work would take this path through this medium?

AH: One of the main reasons for making SoftRock was that Socrates and I wanted to see this kind of imagery in large galleries: Pop, iconic, sexual, immediate and superficial...and yet subversively layered with meaning.

 

AB: To those who ask is this art? what do you say to them?

AH: YES!

 

AB: Why is Sex important?

AH: The "sex" thing happens because it is the purest element with the most complicated connotations...It is a very rich and giving yet dangerously fickle master. The secret to my control (in art) is the fact that I give a lot of control away in other areas of my life.

 

AB: Whats the goal for Softrock 3?

AH: Major galleries, big tours....and lotsa cash so we can take it even further. And believe me...we will spend the money in the right way. I have been making videos with so little money in the last few years...it would really just be amazing to finally be able to do exactly what we want. I am SO not blowing money on crappy, expensive catering!

 

You can help make Softrock 3 & 4 happen if you pledge your support at Kickstarter. There's only 25 hours left.. so be quick!

 

Adam Bryce