London-born, multi-disciplinary performance artist and sex worker mercedes666 has been creating thought-provoking content through photography and music. Below she explains how she created her online avatar, the inspiration behind her stage name, and the meaning behind her debut EP.

Greetings Mercedes can you please introduce yourself? Where are you from? What is your artistic background? How long have you been performing and making music?

Hello Coeval, thank you for having me! I’m mercedes 666: an avatar created on the internet by my programmer: London-born, multi-disciplinary performance artist, Ozziline Mercedes. My artistic background began with photography as a teenager and developed into performance during my BA. I became fascinated by the gendered history of photography, and how the internet impacted the way women perform a version of ‘self’ for capital gain or status: the development of selfie culture (the influencer) and self-made ‘amateur’ porn (Only Fans etc.).

The visual language created by patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism known in Western art and ideals, was suddenly being subverted and adopted by the ‘oppressed’ in order to secure some kind of ‘power’. As a female photographer, I decided to experiment with this by using my own body, creating mercedes 666: a vessel through which to investigate, play and provoke. The development of mercedes coincided with starting to work in the sex industry, and a year on as I moved from OnlyFans to stripping, the sound felt like the next medium to delve into.

I first started working with pop artist and producer Tsatsamis in 2021 to develop experimental sounds for my video pieces. We then discussed putting out a single together at a party that my now creative partner and producer Malthus was also at. I vividly remember Malthus’ energy and interest in the project, it made me realise that this could really be something. From then on we’ve worked together throughout this project and continue to do so in an ongoing creative love affair.

What is the inspiration behind the name “Mercedes666”?

Mercedes is actually my legal middle name, but I’d never given it much attention. Then I started looking into its meaning at the conception of this project: where it comes from and what it means, turns out it’s quite layered and multifaceted.

Its Latin meaning is “wages” or “reward”, which could be why it’s such a common stripper name? And it means “to pity” - rather fitting to the way the self-proclaimed ‘slut’ and sex worker seems to be treated by system-abiding citizens. In Spanish, ‘Mercedes’ comes from the Catholic patron saint the ‘Virgin of Mercy’, and is represented as the protector of the people in Christian art - the voice of reason and honesty I suppose. But it also means “gift”, pointing to a sense of luxury. Of course ‘Mercedes’ is finally known in relation to the German car company ‘Mercedes Benz’, which was supposedly named after the founder's daughter. The idea of naming a luxury vehicle after one's daughter feeds into ideas on anthropomorphism and technophilia: how we’ve begun to value, love and cherish our machines the way we do people.

As you can see, ‘Mercedes’ really feeds into my research on cyborg theory, sex, desire, erotic labour and religion. The ‘666’ came from my interest in the demonisation of female (and queer) sexuality, and how this parallels the fear of big tech. ‘Mercedes 666’ is the emblem of the demonised, femme, sexual cyborg. Her name tells you exactly who and what she is.

How was the process of creating your debut EP? What is the inspiration behind it? How long did it take?

As mentioned earlier, it all began by working with pop artist and co-producer of the EP Tsatsamis in the Summer 2021. We’d very loosely started working on “hard drive” together when Malthus joined the process.
Quite honestly, I found it difficult and laborious to begin with - photographers aren’t typically the most vocal of people. I love writing, but using my voice doesn’t come so naturally and I was suddenly working with two talented vocalists and musicians trying to find it.
Malthus got me practising with him on repeat so that I could figure out the basics, and this evolved into us making a few tracks with a completely different feel to “hard drive”. His music is a lot more ambient and leaves space for experimental vocals, which was my natural inclination. I’m into what punk stands for (in all aspects of life), and this is really how the rest of the EP happened: by making it up as we went along.
With the second track on the EP “träumend” (out 16.05.23), we didn’t know what it was going to be, it just kind of happened, it felt free and fun. This is when I really found mercedes musically.
For the other tracks, the process of writing started with me jotting down ideas, thoughts and poems, reading aloud to Malthus who’d then create a melody, move things around and add his own lines.
We decided that the final track should be brought back full circle to where it all began, and so like “hard drive”, “cum attack” (out 01.06.23) was co-produced by Malthus and Tsatsamis. The contrast in their work as musicians are really crucial to what makes this EP ‘mercedes’.

There was no single genre I wanted to adhere to, really the EP sound is a collection of blurry but informative memories; having spent my teenage years getting lost in the Sheffield free-party scene, early 20’s amongst the hedonism of Berlin, and recent years indulging in the filthy luxury offered by London's businessmen.
The lyrics are mainly taken from pieces of writing I’ve done on the same topics that ‘mercedes 666’ as an artwork deals with sex, female (and queer) sexuality, erotic labour, the internet, digital image, voyeurism, desire, Neo-liberal capitalist hell. Tracks “träumend” and “he offered me a line” are more directly drawn from my experiences as a stripper, taken from notes written as my sleep-deprived, dehydrated self at 6 am. I think the vulnerabilities of being an erotic labourer really come out in these ones.

In your new EP “error_666” you explore the themes of technology and erotic labour from “the terrible woman’s” point of view. How would you describe this type of woman and her presence in today's society?

The ‘terrible woman’ signifies everything that's wrong and right with the current culture. Women have always been the ‘object’ on whom to project, and so even when that woman is ‘in control’ of her body and image (arguably impossible as no being is really free), the world makes her what they want her to be - so women are a good representation of ‘the now’ as they mirror the world's tribulations, trends and desires.
Really, selfie culture and the birth of the influencer was a con into making women feel like they CAN have control over the way they are seen - probably why the word ‘empowerment’ is the main SEO for female lead podcasts currently on Spotify (that’s not fact-checked).

What I’m saying is… the ‘terrible woman’ is the woman that somehow defies what the masses want for her. And what the masses want for her is based on how she looks, because how she looks defines how she is perceived, and this defines what she ‘deserves’.

Julia Fox is a terrible woman because she has a dominatrix past, and because she decided ‘to go skinny’, losing her maternal curves that made her oh so sexy, and now chooses to be ‘ugly’ (i.e. she’s having fun with her look).

Kim Kardashian is a terrible woman because she made a sex tape and turned this shame around by becoming the it girl of now: redefining beauty standards to an impossibly unattainable level of which can only be achieved by the riches (and strippers).

The ‘terrible woman’ is the woman you love to hate. The woman who you deeply respect but deeply resent. Her actions can be seen as both forward-thinking and regressive, depending on which way you look at her. She is the woman that, despite her aspirational power and strength, you have been told to scorn by everything you’ve ever learnt in the history of patriarchal, colonial, capitalist society. She is dual. She is a cyborg. She and her intentions are, therefore: “threatening”.

What is the message that you are trying to convey with your music?

There’s a lot of theory behind my work, but we’re at a point where you have to capture your scroller's attention in the first seven seconds. This EP was an experiment in how to translate the theoretical papers I’ve studied into something fast-paced and arresting. So my research is one part of what I’m making, and provocation is the other.

I’m more interested in creating experiences rather than music per se; sounds that get beyond your gaze and under your skin. I want the listener to feel as if they’ve been morbidly seduced by the raw honesty and satire coming out of my well-spoken, dirty, blonde mouth. mercedes is asking: what do you think it means to be sexy in the age of consumer capitalist, neo-liberal hell?

Can we expect any live performances soon?

My label ‘Littledoom’ (co-founded with the producer of my tracks: musician and director Malthus, and mixer of my tracks: producer and mixer Sid Quirk) recently hosted a live night at The Glove That Fits in Homerton where I performed the EP. It was a big success, selling out two days before - so we’ll definitely be doing another Littledoom Presents event in the Summer.

There’s also talk of participating in a few sex work-related exhibitions, like the Sex Kino Roland show I did last year in Zurich alongside Reba Maybury and Candela Capitan. I performed a live pussy scanning there which was a lot of fun. mercedes 666 is a performative artwork first and foremost, so it’s important for me to also remain in the art world despite now making music.

Finally, What is next for the future? Have any exciting projects coming up?

Aside from the aforementioned performances, I’m currently in conversation with other music producers that I’ve not yet worked with. I want mercedes to keep making music, experimenting, and collaborating with new people.

Then for Ozziline, Ozziline's working on creative direction for other people's projects which is exciting. mercedes 666 as an artwork feels developed enough to roll as she is now; people know who she is and what she’s doing. As her programmer, I now feel able to spread my creative yearnings further, to other lost avatars in need of direction.