NYC Shibari
The studio of rope artists Zero-Gi and Sam Jay, offering private instruction and workshops from introductory to advanced suspension. The duo also performs live, ties for fashion and film productions, and creates rope installations and life-drawing poses.
NYC Shibari is the working name of the rope duo Zero-Gi and Sam Jay (also written Samjay), who teach, perform and create rope work for photography, film and art in the New York metro area. The site does not publish a studio address: private instruction takes place at a rope studio in the metro area, and workshops can be arranged locally or abroad.
According to the site, Sam Jay entered the fetish scene in Melbourne in early 2011 and was among the first five students of the Melbourne Rope Dojo, whose instructor the site describes as a licensed Osada-lineage teacher. Around 2014 the focus shifted from ryū-style patterns toward home-grown ties and partner empathy. Sam Jay began hosting life drawing sessions in 2012 and later moved to Boston and then New York. Zero-Gi started rope in late 2017 after about a year of research, learned first ties from a rigger on Long Island and practiced self-tying almost daily; the site describes Zero-Gi as mainly a rope bottom and self-suspender who sometimes tops. The partnership began in late 2018.
That autumn the photographer Dirty Archangel proposed NYC Street Shibari, a project that places rope in public settings such as Central Park and Lincoln Center. The site reports that the project won awards in Jade Rope’s tenth-anniversary photo competition in 2020 and was featured in ArtPlay Magazine, Fet-Erotica, Scene 360 and a two-part Rope Podcast interview.
The duo lists five services: custom ties for editorial fashion, film and runway; live performance; classes from introductory to specialized level, including demonstrations, intensives and workshops; rope installation art with or without a person; and immobilized poses for extended life drawing sessions. Credits named on the site include an episode of FX’s Dying for Sex and editorials for Numéro and Perfect magazines. The site adds a plain warning that its street work is done by trained professionals and should not be imitated.