24-year-old transfer student Jonathan Yegge caused a commotion after presenting his Art Piece No. 1 at the San Francisco Art Institute. A male volunteer signed a liability waiver aggreeing in advance to participate in acts "including and up to a sexual or violent nature." Then Yegge led him out into a public area, and in the presence of an art instructor, a security guard, 20 other students, and random passersby, the pair engaged in mutual oral sex. Yegge tied up the volunteer, leaving him blindfolded and gagged. Yegge gave the volunteer an enema, then defecated and placed the result in the other man's anus, after which the volunteer reciprocated on Yegge. The whole episode was videotaped.

Soon after, the volunteer developed misgivings over the episode, and complained. A friend explained, "He felt he was being violated. He just didn't think this was cool." The volunteer's mother was rumored to be a judge, and it was feared the student might sue. The administration placed Yegge on academic probation, and banned him from engaging in public sex on campus, ostensibly for engaging in unprotected sex without a condom. Officials also had lengthy meetings with Yegge's instructor, Tony Labat, who later called the piece "irresponsible," "bad art," but who did nothing to stop it while it was taking place, and apparently even signed off on Yegge's basic premise prior to its performance. One student was so upset after witnessing the incident, that she enrolled in Labat's class specifically to perform her own piece protesting Yegge's piece.

Yegge explained his intent by saying, "It's about Heidegger, Derrida—all this stuff. It's about pushing the notion of gay sex, pushing the notion of consent, pushing the notion of what's legal. We are living in the era of AIDS. This is about his responsibility, my responsibility. During your tenure in this school you're required to read The Tears of Eros by Georges Bataille, where he discusses pain and the history of erotic art. You jump across time and you jump across eras. You might present this performance art, then the students might read Bataille and it might make sense. Or they might see this performance and then see Bataille." Yeah right.

Yegge quit the Art Institute, on principle. "I'm just shocked and appalled that you can't do certain things in art school," he announced.

[Ed.: The Institute previously awarded Karen Finley an honorary doctorate for the sort of work it punished Yegge for performing.]

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