The Torture Garden
Hi tortured or torturers it is that time again Halloween. The movie I have never been so frightened, white sheets are barred from my place unless you fancy some role play but I want to wear the white sheet!!
Why Torture Garden and TG?
Torture Garden was named after the 1899 novel The Torture Garden (Le Jardin des supplices) by Octave Mirbeau, set in a Chinese Garden of Torture. We chose it more because of the exotic and mysterious images that it evoked, rather than the specific novel itself. From the beginning, we often shortened “Torture Garden” to “TG” because it was shorter and didn’t scare the bank manager! Yet it was also a reference of influence to an earlier TG – Throbbing Gristle – the seminal industrial experimentalists and founders of Psychic TV, Thee Temple OV Psychick Youth, Coil and Chris & Cosey – to name a few! What about the logo? Believe it or not, TG’s circle logo was inspired by the back of a lorry, spotted on a rainy motorway drive. Keep an eye out in France…
Acceptability of Fetish
In the 1980s and 1990s, fetish and S&M were still taboo and very underground – even dressing in rubber and going to a fetish club seemed a dangerous activity! As TG’s notoriety grew, so did the “shock and scandal” reports in the tabloids, resulting in the police frequently forcing venues to close or events being cancelled (especially from 1991 to 1993) and the aftermath of Operation Spanner hung over the scene during the early 1990s. However, as numbers attending grew at prestigious venues (such as Ministry of Sound), and fetish fashion and creativity infiltrated the mainstream, fetish became trendy and venues actively wanted to host TG events. As British society opened up to sexuality more generally in the late 1990s, the media also changed its attitude to fetish. From the tabloids to Channel 4, fetish was now more commonly depicted in a positive light and since the 2000s, it seems that everyone knows someone who’s been to Torture Garden. (Or been tortured )
Mistress. K: You do not have to go to the Torture Garden you can visit me I love to torture especially at Halloween and I love Role play!!
