December 2013 Review

I have fallen behind my planned schedule in November, December. this is probably because I am preparing for Christmas and getting presents for my 26 nieces, nephews and God children.Also because my son has had a psychotic episode and is back in hospital.

I have to allow myself some time off and get back to work when things settle.
I didn't do much in November, but have been able to do some research in December.

I  have been researching snakes and their 'disgust factor' (post 'Sinful snakes')
I have looked at the idea that deformity and signs of disease in the human body are elicitors of disgust.
(Posts: 'Grotesque Goddess' 16.12.13 and 'Inside Out' 16.12.13)

sinful snake

I know that snakes are a common stimulant of  the emotion of disgust. This could be because of the Biblical reference of the serpent; the evil tempter in the garden of Eden. It could also be the result of a more ancient and primal training to keep us away from things that could hurt us.  The way snakes move on their bellies in a sideways slither can be very unsettling and cause a shudder.

I set up a shoot with a small black snake, some fur and feathers. I was trying to create the idea of the snake being a predator, silently stalking its prey.

As I was going to cut and rotate sections from the image several times to compose my image, the original composition was not important.

From these originals I mage  repetitive and kaleidoscopic patterns. I am hiding the source of fear and disgust.

The snake has been reduced to a shiny, textured, arching curved bar within the pattern.

My manipulation has created a deco-style design. It is interesting how the eye is led around the image and new forms jump out from it. There seem to be moths and other insects lurking there.

However, these images do not cause jolt of recognition as the subject matter is too well hidden. Also the image is too regular in its form and quite seductive and calming. There is a gothic feel, similar to the vine images, created by the strands and fibres of fur, but I do not think it feels sinister. I will have to ask  for feedback.

Hurst's A Thousand Years

The piece consists of a large glass-sided, sectioned box containing a rotting cow's head, flies, maggots, sugar water and a fly ‘zapper’.  It is a life-cycle enactment that has continued to function in this enclosed environment since 1990 when it was made. According to Jerry Saltz (1995) writing in Art in America: ‘Given that the average life span of a fly is three to four weeks, there have been upwards of 60 generations of flies within the piece since 1990’ In the image below, the cow's head is 'new' but now all the skin and ears have been stripped off and it is pink and softer in shape.

www.artinamericamagazine.com/newsfeatures/magazine/more-life-the-work-of-damien-hirst

 In an interview with Tate director, Nicholas Serota, Hurst said that this was the most exciting piece he felt he had ever made. (Searle, 2012) In the same Guardian review, Searle describes the piece as ‘Clean and dirty, full of life and death, formally shocking and rich, it has an air of maturity and finality’http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/damien-hirst-tate-review

These contradictions and binary opposites are what I am trying to incorporate in my installation.

I have been considering adding maggots to my curiosity cabinet to allow them to feed on sugar sprinkled onto a photographic kaleidoscope of rotten meat, but that all seems a bit  too obvious and clichéd having realised that Hurst’s A Thousand Years was created almost 24 years ago!!

 I know that the use of creative plagiarism is O.K in the art world and that every artist has been inspired by previous work, but Hurst is so well known and 24 years is almost too recent, but I am not sure if I can move forward with this idea. I was going to use maggots, flies and possible spiders and other insects like cockroaches  not to represent the life/ death cycle as in A Thousand Years but to comment on the inevitability of decay and chaos not matter what we do to control and forestall it. But I do not want people to look at my piece and say ‘Oh yes, Damian Hurst’...

Grotesque Goddess

Linking with the idea of human disgust at appearance that is considered ‘Ugly’ the opposite of our notion of ‘Beautiful’, is ORLAN’s plastic surgery project, The Reincarnation of Saint-Orlan. This is a series of 9 procedures which are filmed and photographed at every stage.IMAGE
She describes it as “re-creating the self through deliberate acts of alienation.” The way she has reconstructed her face is both discomforting and horrifying. She is very brave to have become something that is visually not ‘feminine’ and also hardly recognizable as human. ORLAN wants to expose how the nature of female beauty has been falsely constructed using templates from Western Masters like The Mona Lisa and Boticelli's Venus and the facial features of Greek Goddesses such as Diana. She has ‘horns’ on her temples and various implants under her skin on her cheeks and chin. The contradiction in ORLAN’s work is that by using a combination of various features that are considered ‘Beautiful’ she has created something Grotesque. The images are from the website below prepared for a series of lectures by Professor E. Heckendorn Cook (2003)

http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/carnal.htm

  

  

Inside Out

 Landreth,(2004)

Continuing with the sense of disgust that humans feel when confronted with damage or deformity in others, the animated film ‘Ryan’(2004) By Chris Landreth presents an  interesting form of this damage. It tells the life story of Ryan Larkin in the form of an animated documentary built on the actual interview with Ryan.

Landreth shows his own and Ryan’s psychological damage and scars ‘on the outside’ in the form of gaps and holes in the body or brain of the main characters. The ravages of alcohol and drug addiction were represented by thin arms stripped of flesh with twisted bones showing; or a face that had dissolved, taking one eye with it.

Some physical abuse is usually visible on the outside of the body, but psychological damage and trauma are often kept hidden, locked in our memories or even expunged from our conscious minds and pushed below the surface. This is perhaps because the experiences are too painful or distressing to face or because they cause shame. They may think that others will be disgusted by what is presented to them. It is a fascinating idea to almost turn the body inside-out and show on the outside that which is normally hidden.