Japanese Shibari Rope Bondage with Skinny Redhead: Artfully Bound

Ever heard of Japanese bondage? What about rope self-suspension? Well, for those of you who perhaps aren’t a member of your local fetish club, chances are you’ve already seen it in one guise or another. If not, don’t worry, Edinburgh based artist Skinny Redhead is about to make sure you have.

Forget any preconceptions you may have about bondage – that it’s kinky or shocking or taboo. This is bondage in its purest, most beautiful form. And it’s utterly captivating. Take a look at 50 Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor Johnson’s photo exhibit from 2004, Self Portrait Suspended. Here she's tied up by a bondage expert, but as she digitally removes the ropes from the images, any immediate link to bondage is hidden. FKA Twigs’ Pendulum video, on the other hand, where she spends most of the song suspended in an intricate rig, gives a better idea of exactly what the art form entails.

The exact definitions and distinctions between the two Japanese forms of rope bondage, Kinbaku and Shibari, are constantly debated in the West, but in essence they involve being tied with ropes in complex and visually striking patterns. Kinbaku is performed by two people, a dominant (the rigger) and a submissive, while Shibari is one person doing their own rigging. Until recently, it’s been kept almost exclusively within the fetish community, but it’s long been a favourite subject for fine art photographers too.

But in an almost pioneering move, Skinny Redhead is bringing Shibari out of the fetish world, off the gallery walls and performing it live. Neither a redhead (currently blonde) nor skinny (more super fit gymnast), hers is not a stage name that’ll help you find her in a crowd. So when we meet for a chat in a bar in Leith, it’s lucky that I'd seen her perform a couple of weeks earlier; both myself and the audience held enraptured as she twirled and floated on the stage before us.

Skinny Redhead’s path to Shibari came via modelling. At the end of one particular shoot, the photographer asked if she'd be interested in being tied up. "There was no intimacy to that shoot," she explains, "but I remember seeing all the bits of rope in the air like dust. And I remember the smell of the rope." A couple more shoots and she was hooked.

Although she started out performing at fetish clubs and events, Skinny Redhead is determined to bring rope work to wider audiences. "Why should it be limited to the world of fetish? Why not let others see it? Why think that some people might think it's weird? It's like any art; people get different things from it.”

Exactly what I got from Shibari was curiously mystical. I mean, fetishists, sailors and Wonder Woman aside, the last time most people had anything to do with a bundle of rope was likely to be high school, when we were expected to shimmy up the length of one in sport class. I definitely didn’t get any sensual pleasure from the rope back then, but I do remember the wonder of something so slight being able to hold my weight. So it surprised me to see Skinny Redhead perform and realise the power of the rope again, not just in holding her, but in the hold it had over me and the audience.

The perfect illustration of Shibari’s almost hypnotic allure is a shot of the audience from that night, where every single person is staring at the stage in a kind of wonder. When I showed it to her, Skinny Redhead was amazed. "Oh wow, I've never seen the audience before." My assumption – that this was due to the immense concentration needed while performing – was way off. "No, I’m just spinning too fast,” she laughed. “But I hear the music. And I make up a little story in my head each night, just like I want the audience to. That’s why I don't have a title for my performances. I want to give them the freedom to choose what they want to feel. I don't want to manipulate their thoughts.”

Skinny Redhead will be performing throughout the Fringe. Proving both she and Shibari are indeed something to behold, she’ll then be appearing all over the UK and Europe. So get yourself along to a show during this year's Edinburgh Fringe and see for yourself where rope work takes your mind. If you can manage to pull your eyes away from the stage for a second, be sure to take a look at the audience for yourself.

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