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confusing whatever rational position we may attempt to hold before it. Is this auto-copulation or auto-fellatio? Whatever the case may be, we are simultaneously mesmerized and disgusted, attracted and repulsed, by the spectacle before us. As André Breton was to note in this regard, 'Beauty should be convulsive, or not at all.'
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Continuing along this dark path, we have the works of H.R. Giger. This Swiss fantasy artist is no stranger to the erotic, as many of his major works pursue esoteric themes, combining the sexual and occult. But in this particular drawing, his darker imagination is given free reign. The dreaming aspect of Visionary Pornography transforms into the maddening and nightmarish.
In this particular work, certain erotic aspects provoke our desire, our urge to go to something and possess it. Simultaneously, our loathing urges us to go from this horrid thing, and abandon it. Perverse as the image may be, we are simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by the situation it presents: the powerlessness of the figure, caught in a malicious fantasy, who nevertheless becomes a participant. As in a nightmare, we find ourselves caught in an inescapable situation that, through our own morbid curiosity, draws us further into its darkness. But this entire scenerio, it must be remembered, is only imaginary - taking place in the darker recesses of our own mind. It is in this sense that Giger's work becomes an unusually striking example of Visionary Pornography.
It may be added, as an aside, that the image also goes so far as to provoke humor. In fact, this is Black Humor. We defend ourselves against the image by laughing at the monstrosities it presents. But such laughter, it must be admitted, betrays the presence of a much greater fear.
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H.R. GIGER:
AUF 700 JAHRE
WARTEN AUF CH-91
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