When performance artist Mary Coble wants to make a statement about injustices toward the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community, she uses her body.

Coble, an artist from Washington D.C., will give a presentation about her work tonight in Bromley as the keynote speaker for OUT Week.

Coble is best known for her intense performance art, including her 2005 piece Note to Self, when she had the names of 438 LGBT victims of hate crimes tattooed on her body with an inkless tattoo needle. In her 2007 piece Aversion, Coble put herself through an electroshock therapy session similar to those given to LGBT’s before the 1970s.

The Post’s Anna Sudar spoke with Coble about her research, dealing with pain and coming out.

The Post: Could you talk a little bit about how you came up with the ideas for your pieces?

Mary Coble: …(Note to Self) was based on research dealing with hate crimes against the queer community. … I wanted to find out how many queer folks have been murdered due to hate crimes. ... I found a list of 438 names. … Many times the words “dyke” or “faggot” were carved into the victim’s body. … I decided in reference to that I would have the names tattooed on my body with no ink. … The Aversion piece ... it’s based on the research I was doing on electroshock therapy that was really commonly used against the LGBT community before the early 70s. … Obviously, it did not work; they basically tried to shock the gay out of people.

Post: How did you deal with the pain of these performances?

Coble:  It could definitely be intense, but I think the main way I dealt with it is knowing the concept behind the piece. These issues are really important to me personally as well as I feel like they’re important to being to the forefront of a lot of viewers minds.

Post: How does your work tie into identity politics?

Coble:  (In my earlier work) I’ve dealt a lot with issues of female and male and not necessarily fitting into a clear-cut category. ... So a lot of my earlier work talked about crossing those boundaries.

Post: As the keynote speaker for OUT Week, will you be addressing coming out?

Coble: Absolutely, ‘cause a lot of my own story and a lot of my own artwork comes from my experiences … coming to a realization that it’s OK to be who I am. It’s important to be who I am. And in a lot of my work there’s issues that are important to the queer community, issues that we’ve all dealt with and that’s something we all need to be concerned about.