Category: Uncategorized

Malerie Marder – Untitled from Carnal Knowledge series (1998)

When I first stumbled onto Marder’s work a little more than a year ago, I had mixed feelings about it.

As I’ve subsequently encountered the work and reengaged with it, my estimation has shifted dramatically. The work has grown and I’ve discovered nuance and sensitivities I had previously overlooked.

Yes, I would still very much like to see her make something that is simultaneously capital-A Art and pornography. However, I’m not much less inclined to believe that not making that sort of thing the focus of her work is any sort of detriment or side-step of intrinsic potential and more I suspect if she did make art porn it would immediately clarify a number of stubborn questions I have about how to approach such an endeavor.

Really though, what I’ve learned by spending more time with the work is there’s actually less in the work that relates to pornography or Art. As the title of the series from which these images emanate suggests, these are more documentations of sexual arousal. They are less concerned with any sort of fantasy or sensuality; all but completely disregard any pretense of eroticism and focus simply on the space between tension and distension in physical desire.

The images are about sex. But in being about sex they aren’t intentionally arousing or explicit, that’s merely a natural outcropping of their laser-like focus on presenting the material with honesty, immediacy and intensity of feeling.

Another way to put it might be like this: how do you describe the taste of coffee to someone who has never tasted it? It’s a trick question: you don’t/can’t. You pass them a mug and say here this is hot and strong, try it.

The corollary here is that in a similar fashion, you cannot explain to someone who hasn’t had sex with another person, what it’s like. You can say it’s different than masturbating; but as to how it’s different… yeah, good luck with that. Because there’s the way the sensation is fundamentally different.

To be crass: being so horny you need to get yourself off to alleviate the tension is not unlike hunger but desire to share a connection with someone is much closer to thirst.

I believe Marder’s work is seeking to address something of the mechanism of such thirst. And the extraordinariness of that cannot be overstated.

Source: maleriemarder.com

Mario Zanaria –  [←] Frances (2015); [→] Lynsey (2015)

I’m not really on board with the way Zanaria contextualizes his work but that’s not to say I dislike it.

Quite the opposite, in fact–for as many people who toss around the notion of ‘fine art nudes’ as a genre within lens-based media practice, I actually quite like his work.

I can’t help but thinking of the above images as an implied critique of Duane Michals’ Naked Nude.

In addition to that critique there’s an impressive synergy of structure, form, content and style. I love the novel poses–Frances’ dynamic confidence, Lynsey’s seeming reservations coming so close to passing as casual nonchalance.

There’s a sense of interplay with the photography that shines through but also a sense of personal agency in engaging in considerations of the politics of visual representation and identity.

Source: Flickr / zamario

Peng Yun – I also have a pair of wings (2013)

Typically, I’m not fond of excessive pitch dark negative space for the same reason I’m skeptical of close-ups–both tend to diminish context. And, if you haven’t already figured it out: I’m all about that context, ‘bout that context, ‘bout that context. No vagaries.

This though, this I like.

I think what renders it especially resonate for me is that I rarely dream anymore; or, if I do, I do not remember my dreams upon awakening. It’s probably partly that I don’t ever sleep especially well–which is almost certainly exacerbated by my dependence on self-medicated with a variety of substances.

That’s not really the point. One of two dreams I’ve remembered in the last six months or so, involved these gargoyle like creatures. They appeared more or less human–except on a slightly larger scale; like a short one would be about 7 feet tall.

What made them resemble gargoyles was they had tree branches grafted to their backs. Walking around and interacting normally, they looked like two Groot arms trailing down their backs. But when expanded, they revealed green leaved branches that could be flapped like wings and allowed for limited flight.

I wanted to do something with the idea since I had the dream but I’ve been struggling to figure out what fits. Thus, it’s unnerving to see someone a world away with a stunningly similar notion.

One other note: while I hardly dig all Yun’s work–a lot of it is a little two reminiscent of lazy liberal arts students who easily invent compelling concepts and then execute them in a half-assed, haphazard fashion to a Radiohead track. But, I do absolutely love the way there’s also an explicitly erotic tinge to her work. For example: this is an image of which I am murderously jealous I can’t claim ownership.)

Source: vivipiuomeno1

Christine Godden – [↑] Light Touch #009 (197X); [←] Light Touch #008 (1970); [→] Light Touch #019 (197X); [↓] Light Touch #016 (1970)

In an interview with LENS Escuela de Artes Visuales in Madrid, Mark Steinmetz comments on the difference between B&W and color photography by saying something to the effect of if you’re shooting B&W you want to be on the blindingly bright side of the street; whereas if you’re shooting color you want to walk to the other side of the street and work in the shade.

Therefore–given the time when these images were created and given their ostensible fixation with capturing the interaction between bodies and light–it’s understandable that these were shot B&W.

Given the premise, these images were not necessarily destined for greatness. After all, ‘photography’ literally means ‘drawing with light’. And no one needs to look further than the parade of images on Instagram that serve no other purpose than to document the fall or angle of a certain precocious shaft of light.

To my mind what makes these images exquisite is their intimacy. However, instead of making that observation and then leaving it at that as I normally do–usually because I struggle so much with the unruly beast that is language and don’t know how to convey my thoughts clearly; I think it’s worthwhile to dig a bit deeper here.

Godden’s eye is unusually disciplined. The one thing that I believe holds true across her body of work is that through it’s revealings, it actually manages to conceal far more than it presents–the hiked up skirt hem, one erect nipple/the other concealed, a shift lifted to reveal allow a bare tummy to luxuriate in light and a nude body stretched out beside a pool.

Nothing is explicit; yet the photos are organized to point–seemingly incidentally–towards what remains unseen.

All of the above images are what I would term close-ups. I typically don’t like the close-up because I feel it tends to highlight a part of the whole instead of the part within the context of a whole. These images have a context–albeit a purposefully limited one.

What’s interesting is these images remind me quite a lot of glossy ads for luxury items from the late 80s/early 90s that I see beginning to bleed in around the edges in emerging ads that go over the top to commodify sexuality by aggressively conflating it with whaat ever the fuck is being sold–the pairing of several discrete elements that read as surreal juxtapositions.

In the case of such ads, it’s the product that unifies the disparate elements. But with Godden’s work, these carefully constructed images allow for the viewer to experience a sort of mirrored relationship between the photographer and her subjects. There’s very much something of seeing the world through someone elses eyes.

Source: christinegodden.com.au

Source unknown – Title Unknown (19XX)

Narrative this image is not. In fact it’s pretty goddamn contrived–a cishet male photographer appropriating lesbianism for erotic effect.

But that realization serves as a narrative spark and I can’t help but think that as these two women were leaving post-session and one of them–probably the one on top (the woman on the bottom with the protruding tongue is a little too lipstick lesbian for me to believe she has any personal experience with cunnilingus) works as a prostitute but is a lesbian. She accepts these photo gigs because they pay the same as sex work and she doesn’t have to deal with men.

Yet the sessions themselves are the closest she gets to tracing the outline of her true desire and as such she frequently jokes with other woman with whom she is photographed about how ridiculous the way heterosexual men think about lesbian sex is and hoping that the other model will just once nod a little too knowingly and one thing will lead to another.