I said this previously and elsewhere

Similarly had to comment on this reading citation, David. As a student of art history, Bellmer has been known to me for years - as an often disregarded figure, a problematic adjunct to Surrealism, with some kind of whiff of scandal about him. File with Balthus. I have seen his doll images a 1000 times, I'm sure; art historians generally directing me as reader toward the thought of them as his corporate slice of art history, if they are present at all. More latterly, he might be included in order to explain some of Cindy Sherman's moves into the use of body parts, say. None of this was giving Bellmer his due, to my mind. Happily, I've been able to get to the Bellmer exhibition at The Whitechapel, in London, twice. This is a fantastic show, in my opinion, and is recommended to anyone at all interested in the fuzzy, problematic edges of things, concepts, and issues; that is the difficulty and unclarity of things. As an anecdote, but also as a contemporary illustration, Bellmer's imperatives surely helped to begat Chris Morris, begat Morris' Jam: that mixed-up morality, that wicked satire, that challenge to polarity, to the apparent exactness of things. Despite well-rehearsed and well-established debates discounting the simplicity of things, unreflexive, received ideas are everywhere. As you say yourself, by way of example, the human body is not a discreet, occluded vessel; even if it is often presented as such. It leaks. It morphs. It absorbs, drinking in its surroundings, including other human bodies. Disease tells us this, of course; but other physical leakages are entirely invisible, and there are conceptual and social leakages, just as viral, but harder to understand and explain, which nonetheless shape us, alter us. All, it seems, is interpenetrating, interrelating. Bellmer depicts this; and in so doing he rubs up against our wish to have things straight, declared, and grounded in black and white concepts. I felt suitably awkward when viewing some of his work. It felt odd to be soberly gazing at such extremities. Here also are Pasolini, Polanski, Nin, Reage, Bataille, etc.; and De Sade, of course. Music does not escape this mire. I have had the same kinds of feelings during improvised performances - as both performer and viewer. One needs a strong constitution for both roles.
Posted by murmurists on Friday, November 03, 2006 at 13:14