Elle Peril (2012-2017)
Elle Peril was a five-year experiment on trauma and persona. In 2008, an ex-boyfriend posted nude photos of me on the Internet. Shortly thereafter, an anonymous Internet stalker began harassing me, my family, friends, and associates using tactics such as “Google-bombing” and doxxing. As a publicly known women’s rights activist, I became one of the earliest cases of revenge porn and cyberstalking, with my story being referenced by academic researchers and journalists. Following years of post-traumatic stress symptoms (including depression, panic attacks, hypervigilance, paranoia, and psychosis), I left the United States in 2012 to move to Berlin, where I adopted an alternate persona as “Elle Peril”.
I began working as a nude model for artists in an attempt to reclaim agency over my body and personal narrative while investigating whether women’s emancipation is possible through embracing our sexual power. Elle Peril was exercise in exhibitionistic vulnerability that explored the thin line between victimhood and survival when living in full view of the male gaze. I wanted to discover what it meant to embody all the contradictions of womanhood – to be revered and vilified, desired and rejected, empowered and objectified. Through acts of undressing and posing for (mostly male) strangers, Elle Peril functioned as a coping mechanism, survival tactic, and ad hoc therapy. Over five years, I posed for over 100 artists, made 1,000 friends on Facebook (and real life), fell in love, and had images of myself published and exhibited under the name Elle Peril.
The project culminated in “The Life & Death of Elle Peril”, a solo exhibition which included documentation, video, and performative readings. The show was part of S0MA Gallery’s Yellow Matters series curated by Nabi Nara and supported by Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe Berlin (Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa Berlin).
Selected Press
VICE: After Years of Online Abuse, Sex Blogger Lena Chen Reclaims Her Identity
i-ref: Lena vs. Elle: Das Leben mit zwei Identitäten
Rue89: Harcelée en ligne, Lena Chen revient en posant nue
Sex Out Loud with Tristan Taormino: Lena Chen on Identity, Sexuality, Trauma, and Revenge Porn
Unscrewed with Jaclyn Friedman
(Click on links below for documentation)
