Joel-Peter Witkin
‘Figure 1’ Poussin in Hell, 1999
‘Figure 2’ Story from a Book, 1999
Photographer Joel-Peter Witkin uses strong graphic imagery to convey a sense of discomfort. He often uses dismembered bodies from morgues to manifest imaginings. Bestiality, death, decay, sexual gratification, dismembered and sexual indifference are commonplace in his work, he creates a transgressive, degradative domain.
I like the expression of death in his work, as I’m fascinated with the process of the human body, internally and externally, ‘Degradation here means coming down to earth, and contract with the earth and an element that swallows up and gives birth at the same time. To degrade is to bury, to sow, and to kill simultaneously, in order to bring forth something more and better. To degrade also means to concern oneself with the lower stratum of the body, the life of the belly and the reproductive organs; it therefore relates to acts of defecation and copulation, conception, pregnancy, and birth. Degradation digs a bodily grave for a new birth; it has not only a destructive, negative aspect, but also a regenerating one’ (Bakhtin 1984: 19-21).
AC
‘Figure 1’ Amanda Lepore photographed by David La Chapelle (original source: lord-satan)
‘Figure 2’ Amanda Lepore (photographer unknown)
Pushing body to the extremes in surreal fantastical way
These two images embody the ‘Carnivalesque’, firstly with the nightclub as the ‘Marketplace’ for misbehaviour and extremities, drinking, nudity and sexual abuse. The latter examples self-inflicted modification, I see this punishing transformation of the body as modification rather than mutilation as its purpose is to look like your ideal, our bodies are what we own, our prima materia, the raw basis of material. I feel as though surgical enhancements are not far from curious acts like body suspension, which is different in being a temporary evolvement of the skin.
AC
Transgender Amanda Lepore in all her ‘glory’
(via vomitinggreed)
Bruce Nauman, Body Pressure 1974
‘Concentrate on the tension in the muscles, pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider body hair, perspiration’, (Body Pressure 1974).
Pushing and manipulating the body is a humanly and exotic experience, using the body and flesh as a tool to interact with another material.
The glass acts as material that ‘isn’t there’, clear and public. In Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3, we see amputee Aimee Mullins adorn a pair of bizarre prosthetic legs formed from clear polyethylene, the clear glass like material acts as a subtle connection between Aimee Mullin’s and the ground. I love the idea of materials acting humanly or earthy, ‘A sculptor like Serra relies upon the epic solidity of the industrial materials like lead and steel, Barney’s sculptures, on the other hand, are at their best when they are in an unstable equilibrium, as though they might melt or crumble at any moment. Like human bodies in a way, Barney’s sculptures exist only under special, rarefied conditions’ (Baird D, 2003).
AC
‘No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.’
Aristotle
I am naturally draw to the human body and it’s a huge part of why I wanted to study jewellery design, I have been drawing parts of human anatomy to gain information towards designing in my third year I have been drawing parts of the human anatomy and studying the works of Andreas Vesalius in particular. I am attracted to the antiquated feel to his work and also the quite explicit quality of it, the violated flesh and folds of skin pealed back to reveal the muscle, bone and organs.
I started by drawing from the eyes, mouth and teeth. When thinking about ‘the eye’ in particular the ideas of exhibitionism arise and the act of prying upon another for sexual gratification, a voyeur.
I also like the squeamish discomfort that coincides with the visuals of people touching there eyeballs or furthermore the use of surgical tools within the eye. There is something quite horrific about the incision or injecting of this particular organ.
AC
