By PROUD & Kinky Magazine Staff

The Erotic Heritage Museum has long been at the forefront of boundary-pushing exhibits and shows in the realm of sexuality for Las Vegas since it first opened in 2008. With a mission of preservation the museum is home to erotic artifatcs, fine art, film, educational events and performance art. From their long-running stage show, Puppetry of The Penis, to their centerpiece exhibit, an interactive and animated homage to the Northern renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, they constantly surprise visitors with their whimsical curatorial vision.

The pandemic has taken its toll on this Las Vegas institution, as it has on the whole city, but the museum’s director, Dr. Victoria Hartmann, has taken it in stride. As well as grasping the opportunity to focus on her Sex Nerd podcast and spruce up the exhibits, she’s hired a new curator and together they are preparing for a brand new exhibit opening in August 2022, showcasing the artwork of Polly Superstar.

You haven’t had to be hanging out in dungeons to know that the name might sound familiar. Polly Superstar is founder of the infamous international sex culture community, Kinky Salon, and author of the book Polly: Sex Culture Revolutionary. While her events have been on hold for the last two years, this Las Vegas resident has been busy in her art studio dreaming up the colorful and thought-provoking sculptures that will be on display at the museum. Inspiration for her erotic sculpture work came to Polly from a number of influences stemming from the new shared reality that Covid brought, however she described it best when she said,

“Work on the sculptures began before the pandemic but took on a new depth in the global crisis. If we can’t gather anymore, what does our sexual subculture look like? I started to imagine the future of post-pandemic sex culture and it poured out of me like a dystopian sex fantasy on acid.”

Polly’s large-scale, erotic sculptures are built from colorful, inflatable latex, harking back to her early career as a latex fashion designer in London in the ‘90s. The Fuckball is a six-foot diameter latex ball covered in penetrable vulvas. The Pleasuredome, another piece in this series, is of a similar scale but designed to crawl inside. During their stay at the museum, the sculptures will not be within reach of visitors, but they were designed for their interactivity. As well as being a serious commentary on objectification and the perceived value of female sexuality. There’s an undeniable element of playful mischievousness, that flows from the artist, through this exhibit causing the viewer to question their own instinctual reaction to the art. As Polly so eloquently puts it, “The sculptures have been fucked,” and with the truth of that statement reverberating into the exhibit, it’s difficult not to reevaluate your response.

“I am motivated by the desire to create transformational experiences that remove the line between audience and artist, immersing everyone involved in a deeply personal yet shared adventure. Simultaneously taboo and intimate, sexuality powerfully and viscerally affects our consciousness and therefore provides the perfect context for such experiences.”

The exhibit opens on August 1st, 2022 at the Erotic Heritage Museum located at 3275 South Sammy Davis Jr Dr, Las Vegas, NV. The Erotic Hertiage Museum is great place bring a date or the whole polycule. It most certainly will ignite some sin-talating conversation and perhaps more. The museum is open daily from 11am-7pm, but you must call ahead to make reservations. If you would like to find out more about Polly Superstar and all of creative things she is presenting to the world, you can do so at www.pollysuperstar.com.

This article was originally published in the premiere issue of PROUD & Kinky Magazine. You may read it in its original format here.

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