A box of fruity pebbles sits on the floor in the center of the space. A glory hole is cut through the box allowing the pebbles to spill out. And here’s where I begin my short glory hole tangent. A glory hole which etymologically speaking is a term used in glassblowing to refer to the “opening through which the interior of a furnace may be seen or reached.” It got the name glory hole because of its similarity to the glowing halos painted around religious figures in art. It wasn’t until the 1940s that glory hole became adopted by the gay community as an underground sex act. I’ve been interested in glory holes for some while now due to their ties to identity. Glory holes have the ability to function as either places of identity loss or identity construction. They operate as a loss of identity through the glory hole as sex act. The anonymity of the act itself allows the participant to not have to come to terms with the sexual act as linked to their identity. It’s not gay if a straight dude gets blown by another dude, as long as he doesn’t know it. Right? But, Glory holes can also be places for an identity to be become constructed. Take Jesus for example. He was a cool guy with some pretty rad magic tricks. But it wasn’t until he was nailed to the cross that solidified his identity in history. The 3 glory holes that pierced his skin and were filled with thick metal nails became the identity that he took on. Glorified. Savior. So yeah. A glory hole is cut through the box allowing the pebbles to spill out. But the hole is not filled. It’s left empty. An in-between space of identity loss and construction. A place with a multitude of possibilities.