Losing what you do not have: Innocence and Alice in Geczy’s S/M Wonderland

This article attempts to explore the theme of subverted innocence in Adam Geczy’s recent installation work S/M Wonderland. Geczy’s work suggests that loss of innocence is fiction. As with Nietzsche, however, once one discards the notion of sin and guilt, one returns to a type of innocence, but an innocence radically different from the pure, virginal innocence before the fall. Geczy’s installation explores this theme with reference to fashion, queer theory and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Geczy challenges us to think about innocence, leaving us in a difficult situation, forced to mediate between our reactions of excitement and revulsion. Geczy’s installation leaves us with a coldness that prevents us from being innocent spectators.