* (restored)
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Jory L. Bertram Lines Upon Lines (2016)
Extreme anxiety can lead to hallucinations. In the case of 16 year-old French artist Jory L. Bertram, the hallucinations took the form of thousands of lacerations all over her body. This piece is an attempt to convey those experiences.
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Agata Jarosławiec I never touched my father like that (2020)
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Fábio Magalhães various (2011 – 2014)
Salvadorian artist Fábio Magalhães paints inconceivable acts and positions in a truly gruesome yet astonishing manner. In which, he creates contours of a very disturbing reality. His hyper-realistic rendering and conditions, metaphorically connects images of his own body, feelings and banal situations.
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Hal Flesh Love (Vacuum sealed Couples) (2007)
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Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells (2004)
A smiling face made from living human skin could one day be attached to a humanoid robot, allowing machines to emote and communicate in a more life-like way, say researchers.
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Shen Shaomin Summit (2010)
Summit comprised life-sized hyperrealistic sculptures of deceased communist leaders on their deathbeds (or in Fidel Castro’s case, clinging to life).
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Adriana Varejão various (2007 – 2015)
Adriana Varejão, (born in Río de Janeiro in 1964) has -for more than two decades- engaged in an aesthetic discourse that has delved fearlessly into controversial topics such as European Colonialism in Brazil, human slavery, and the body as a mediator for history’s untold violence. Varejão’s work evidences material as well as historical concerns; her paintings, drawings, and sculptures are physical and often, confrontational objects.
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Andra Ursuta Crush (2011)
Cast Urethane, wax, sneakers, wig, silicone, 152 x 102 x 23 cm
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Gina Pane various (1974 – 1983)
Gina Pane (1939 – 1990), a French artist of an Italian origin, was one of the main representatives of what is widely recognised as Body Art, the artistic trend characterised by the practise of self-mutilation and sadomasochism. Working with/on her own flesh and blood as an artistic media, Pane laid bare the human body’s fragilities; undressing, hitting, hurting, dirtying her own body, she was able to show the sense of danger and pain. Gina Pane, with a distinctive composure and a rational attitude, used the sufferance as a way of representing spirituality, carrying a deep emotional and symbolic charge. In Sentimental action (1973), the proto feminist artist, dressed totally in white, takes a bunch of roses in her hand and hurts herself with their spines. The blood dripping on the bouquet turns the roses from white to red. At that point, the artist cuts herself with a razor blade. An even higher pathos is represented by Action Psyché (Essai), a performance from 1974 – documented by sketches, photographs, notes – where Gina Pane injures her eyelashes to simulate tears of blood, and then engraves her belly. Some prim viewers could be disarmed and shocked by the narcissism, aggressiveness and exhibitionism displayed in such a rough and direct way.
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Choi Xoo Ang Islets of Aspergers Type XIV (2009)
Xooang Choi’s Islets of Aspergers series, each with a serial number, shows the characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome by exaggerating and distorting a body part. These images constantly give doubtful stares to the outer world or act indifferent to everything else besides themselves.
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Regina José Galindo Goose Flesh (2012)
Regina José Galindo began her artistic evolution as a poet. It was in 1999 that she started to use her body as part of her work in a more direct manner by adopting performance as her chief medium of expression. Her work leads us into the problems of current society, into a stark reality, through the discourse of her own body and by means of a series of actions that are equally stark, unrestrained and full of symbolism and which lead the artist to place herself in extreme situations that are also intense points of reflection for spectators.
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Santiago Sierra 250 cm line tattooed on six paid people (1999)
In 1999, Spanish artist Santiago Sierra paid six unemployed young men in Cuba to take part in one of his installation pieces. The men were offered $30 each to participate, and stripped to their shorts to become a part of its human experiments, this time in the Espacia Aglutinador, Havana’s oldest art space. Santiago Sierra had the men tattooed – one straight, horizontal line reaching across each of their backs. “Having a tattoo is normally a personal choice. But when you do it under ’remunerated’ conditions, this gesture becomes something that seems awful, degrading—it perfectly illustrates the tragedy of our social hierarchies. The tattoo is not the problem. The problem is the existence of social conditions that allow me to make this work. You could make this tattooed line a kilometer long, using thousands and thousands of willing people.”
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Daniel J. Martinez redemption of the flesh, its just a little bruise; the politics of the future as urgent as the blue sky (2008)
The hypnotic mechanical nihilism of a masterful Daniel J. Martinez installation, “redemption of the flesh, its just a little bruise; the politics of the future as urgent as the blue sky”, a 2008 animatronic sculpture that squirts what appears to be blood onto the walls of the museum. Behind this carnage are hand-scrawled recounts of the known plagues of history that have taken a million or more victims each.
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Cao Hui various (2011 – 2015)
Beijing-based artist Cao Hui insists that people used to be given the title of “artist” based on their “degree of mastery in imitating nature” though now, he says, “It seems artists are no longer happy just being artists, but are driven by their inborn love of performance to try out new roles, such as philosopher, scientist, doctor or perhaps even engineer. I think artists really want to play god more than anything else, and will stop at nothing to construct a truth that validates the self.”
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Karen Paddington Taxidermy (2011)
A woman dressed in white clinician’s overalls methodically flays the skin off a mannequin.
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Michael Zajkov various (2013)
Artist Michael Zajkov worked making puppets for a theater since 2010, after graduation from Kuban State University of Russia, who made his debut at the “Art Dolls” expo in Moscow, 2013, where he presented a few creations and attracted the attention worldwide. By using French mohair as hair and hand painted glass from Germany as eyes, Zajkov makes these extremely realistic Russian dolls dressed in exquisite costumes.
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Elmgreen & Dragset Death of a Collector (2009)
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Yang Shaobin Body (2009)
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Berlinde De Bruyckere various (2004 – 2015)
An unsettling, reconfigured concept of the body, helpless yet contorted, takes centre stage in Berlinde de Bruyckere’s faceless sculptures. Abject deformation is turned into beauty as if the artist is trying to wrestle a shape from abstract form. That each body, whether human or equine, stands on a plinth or inside a cabinet, as if posing for the viewer, emphasises their monumentalised objecthood and the tension between what these objects represent and what they actually are. De Bruyckere began making work around ideas of the human figure in the early 1990s, first through its absence, stacking and draping woollen blankets on furniture, symbolising shelter and vulnerability. Then she added bodies made of wax, almost completely covered in wool; imperfect, sexless and headless.
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Alex Katz Boy with Branch 2 (1975)
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Andrei Molodkin various (2012 – 2015)
Russian contemporary artist Andrei Molodkin is taking body art to a whole new level with a machine that boils corpses down to oil, which can then be poured into molds to become sculptures. Paris-based Molodkin says that he has tested his high-pressure invention, which in three to six months turns a corpse into “yellowish, sweet crude”. BBC reporter Sasha Gankin has already signed up, saying he wants to be turned into a sculpture of a brain, and French porn star Chloé des Lysses has asked to be made into a model of praying hands. According to Molodkin, who will represent Russia at this year’s Venice Biennale, a few HIV-positive New Yorkers who are expected to die in a year or two have agreed to the project as well.
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Tony Matelli Double Meat Head (2008)
Tony Matelli’s sculpture “Double Meat Head,” a self-portrait diptych, represents the two stages of Matelli’s existence — the first stage signified with live, fresh meat, the second stage signified with decay, in which the flesh decomposes, consumed by maggots.
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Isidro López-Aparicio Learning How to relate (2012)
Two hundred people hanging head-down in random group sizes, as human relation close groups.
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Andrew Krasnow various (2001 – 2013)
The Nazis at Buchenwald concentration camp did it. And so did serial killer Ed Gein. Now, Andrew Krasnow is making sculptures and lampshades out of human skin, all in the name of art: His works include human skin lampshades – a direct response to the belief that similar items made from the skin of Holocaust victims were found at Buchenwald concentration camp. Using skins from white men who donated their bodies to medical science, he has created freak versions of mundane items including flags, boots and maps of America – in effect using skin like leather. His work, he says, is a commentary on human cruelty and America’s ethics and morality.
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Marilyn Minter Green Pink Caviar (2009)
It is difficult to tell if Marilyn Minter’s subjects are meant to make viewers uncomfortable—or turn them on. A self-proclaimed “still life art photographer,” Minter’s pornography-inspired portraits of women seemingly possessed by the voyeuristic lens all appear to be objects of her wildest hallucinations. Yet, upon closer inspection, the images reveal the simplest reality that exists in beauty: imperfection. Her camera catches, with peephole discretion, tongues and fingers intermingling with precious stones, body hair and birthday cake, rendering her subjects in a miserable yet erotic state of disarray.
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He Yunchang One Meter of Democracy (2014)
He Yunchang performance One Meter of Democracy, he had a 0.5 to 1 centimeter deep incision cut into the right side of his body, stretching one meter from his collarbone to his knee. A doctor assisted in this procedure, though no anesthesia was used during the entire process. Before the surgery, he held a satirical “Chinese democracy-style” vote, using the farcical methods of Chinese elections to ask the roughly twenty people present whether or not he should carry out the procedure. The final tally was 12 votes for, 10 against and 3 abstaining, passing by two votes. The process was shocking to watch. He used a self-abusive, self-mutilating method to push himself to the edge, near the brink of death, and attained a self-redemption of both spirit and flesh. Perhaps this is the price of democracy, and perhaps He Yunchang is using his own suffering to awaken and probe the languishing soul.
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Folkert de Jong The Dance (2008)
Styrofoam, pigmented polyurethane foam, artificial gemstones.
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Lucy Glendinning Skins 1 (2010)
Rubber
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p.s. Hey. ** Lucas, Hey. No big, I know how busyness goes. Good luck getting through the torture days, yikes. Yes, you can message me through WhatsApp. Morning/midday should be good for me. Zac would like to meet you, if that sounds interesting. He’s very nice. I remember ‘The Gift of Death’ being tough and great. My weekend was mostly playing a video game. Yesterday too, and seeing a pal. And I’m smack dab in then middle of ideally solving a huge problem for our film, but it may not work. Snow! Gosh, maybe it’ll snow here too, but don’t count on it. Survive and even transcend your week. xo. ** jay, Hi, jay! Yes, the last section of ‘Sodom’ is what it’s all about for me too. It seems possible that I could get in the mood for something like Nora Ephron’s thing, but it may take some concentration. I played a couple of ‘Metal Gear Solid’ games during a short stint when a friend lent me his Xbox, I can’t remember their titles. And ‘Policenauts’. ‘LM3’ is very goofy in the Nintendo style, but I’m a bit of a Nintendo Head, so I enjoy it. Also, it’s a pretty basic game, which is good because it’s my first game in a couple of years and I need to rebuild my thumb callouses. ‘Resident Evil 5′ is great. Did you play RE8’ aka ‘Resident Evil Village’? I loved that one. I thought it was one of the series’ best. Enjoy the role play, sounds fun. And thanks for filling in James. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Has that book appeared here before? Hm, yes, that’s possible. Dude, that hat so works on you, as expected, but even more so. And its jaunty tilt is a lovely touch. ** James, Hi. Wow, that’s an essay if I’ve ever heard of one. Speaking of, my standard tea of choice is Russian Earl Gray. Nintendo is the only system I’ve ever owned from the beginning, so you could say I’m a Nintendo guy, yeah. The trick with Sade is to skim his books until the intense stuff pops up, then dwell there until he starts pontificating fancily again. Thanks about my voice. I think growing up in LA gets all whatever credit. I sort of love ambiguity. ‘Confusion is the truth’ is my motto. Mont-mart-ruh is close, and is the best I can do, but there are all these tiny missing sound inferences in there that are the hard part. No worries about Sade dissing, he’s fully dissable. And no worries about length, I do the p.s. because I obviously like to. Big day! ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Yeah, the Steely Dan thing is funny, right? I guess she and the SD guys went to university together. The ‘Frisk’ film … long story short: A film producer bought the rights, and I liked the work of the director who was supposed to direct it, so I said okay. Then he dropped out. Then two other directors I was okay with came in and then dropped out. Then they brought in the guy who ended up directing it. And he refused to talk to or consult with me, which made me very suspicious. And they made all these excuses to not let me see the film until the day before the premiere when they had to. I hated it and was very angry, but I told them if they read a statement from me at the premiere, which basically said ‘I wish the film well, but it’s not an accurate representation of my book’, I’d be chill about everything. They didn’t read my statement at the premiere, so that started a war between the film and me. Then the director did an interview where he said the novel was horribly written and a piece of shit that he’d rescued it with his film, and it’s been ugly ever since. There you go. Oops, hole bag + dog poop = Urgh. Love in mourning because he just found out the Paris Hard Rock Cafe closed for good last night, and he always went there on his birthday to eat nachos, and now he’s sad, G. ** Bill, Howdy. I think with that descriptor of your gig you’d better get those extensions, otherwise there might be a riot. ** Dom Lyne, Hi. The cast crew screening went really well. Everyone seemed very happy with the film, and it seemed like they were being totally sincere. Zac still hasn’t read the new script. Long story. But he promises he will any second now, and he’d better. Oh, okay, I’m so bad with email. I’ll go find your email with the attachment. Sorry. I’m hopeless on the email front sometimes. Thank you! The story of ‘Haunt’ is enough to get it under my belt. I’ll search. And thanks for that tip too. ** Måns BT, Bonnest jour, Måns. Don’t translate it just on my account, but if that seems like a generally good idea at any point, I would be a pleased recipient. I haven’t seen any new films recently for some reason. A friend and I were going to see ‘Terrifier 3’, but it’s already out of the theaters. I’ve only seen older stuff. A couple of Lucrecia Martel films because her retrospective is happening. I’ve been going to these programs of experimental films from 60s/70s @ the Pompidou. I’m behind. ‘Places That Were Anime to Me’ has a really title and premise, so noted on that one. Lucky you re: pot. It just makes me totally paranoid so I have to avoid it. I liked watching films on MDMA. We definitely will hit you up about showing ‘RT’ in that circumstance as soon as we’re through this rough patch. We’re excited about that idea a lot. So, yeah, and thank you, thank you. Stockholm has deep dish pizza? Damn, what is wrong with Paris. If I trusted the French mail service, which I don’t, I would, yes, ask you to pop a slice in the post, but just eat and enjoy it for me. ** Justin D, ‘Guffman’ is big fun. All the early Guest films are great. Up though ‘A Mighty Wind’. The game I’m playing is ‘Luigi’s Mansion 3’. Favorite documentary … hm, maybe either Chantal Akerman’s ‘No Home Movie’ or Thom Anderson’s ‘Los Angeles Plays Itself’ or Frederick Weissman’s ‘Monrovia, Indiana’? Maybe? Yes, the cast & crew have seen ‘Room Temperature’, or the ones that were in LA at the time, and it seemed to go really, really well. And it was so great to get all those people together again. I hadn’t seen any of them in the flesh since we finishing shooting in early May of last year. Thanks for asking sir. ** Uday, I know, I know, the blog is relentless. Pierre Clementi is a big hero of mine, and also kind of the star of my novel ‘The Marbled Swarm’, so yeah. Anyone who gets the genius of ABBA is royalty in my book. Here’s to you guys’ friendship! I’ll look for Peggy Gou’s ‘Lobster Telephone’. I don’t know it. Tell him thanks. Yes, there’s a film producer also named Dennis Cooper. He produced some big TV series: ‘Miami Vice’, ‘Chicago Hope’, others. Every once in a while, some interviewer will say to me, ‘It’s so strange that you wrote those books and also produced ‘Miami Vice’ at the same time, please explain.’ ** Okay. I thought the old post that I’ve restored up there was maybe a good one to resurrect, but perhaps I’m wrong? See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Oh man, that Magalhaes piece is incredible! I’m a huge, huge fan of really abstract meaty stuff, it’s one thing I thought the Substance did really well – near the end, a supermodel ends up sort of metasticising very quickly, and she turns into this huge organ-filled thing, it’s weirdly poignant – I do agree with everyone else though, not really your kind of film. Wow, and that De Bruyckere, that’s incredibly powerful art, particularly “Into One Another”, that’s profoundly beautiful.
Yeah, Metal Gear is really interesting. I do think they’re about as close as an encylopedic work of fiction has come to being palatable to mainstream audiences, in terms of how much of it you have to engage with – I don’t know how well you remember it, but there are some phone calls that explain (at great length) context for dialogue or situations you’re in. He sort of went overboard with Death Stranding, it ended up being this (in a very good way) bloated 200-hour mess, and pretty much none of the phone calls or interactions in that have any meaning – it’ll just be, say, someone writing a paragraph of text about a motorcycle they enjoy, or a Nicholas Roeg film – it’s really personal in this incredibly shallow way that I find incredibly charming.
Yeah, RE5 is very good, it’s got a kind of scare attraction feel to it that’s very enjoyable, particularly when replaying it – it’s always amusing to know where exactly a zombie is going to leap out from, and stuff like that. Did you ever play Dead Space? I’ve always thought that was about as good as a Resident Evil-like can get, they really go in for some weirdly subtle violence that most horror pieces avoid (there’s a particularly memorable segment involving eye surgery). No, I never played RE8, I loved the fairytale aesthetic it was going for – I did watch someone play it though, and it looked incredibly entertaining. I’ll see if I can find a second-hand copy somewhere!
Yeah, other than that, I’ve had this really awkward sort of interaction recently – I’m still doing some work to try and get money for my friend to move out of the US, and I had a bizarre interaction with a client that was sort of (in the moment) really normal, if a bit awkward, but he ended up messaging me a ton afterwards, with very sentimental poetry he’d written about me, it was all really awkward. I think I sort of put him down quite easily, but yeah, really bizarre.
Oh yeah, the Frisk movie is totally fascinating in a rubbernecking kind of way. I remember at one point in the film, someone says something like “Skin is stingy”, but he pronounces it stingy, like a bee? It’s yeah, I don’t know, generic horror movie fare, but I’m sorry that ended up happening the way it did. Anyways, lovely post today, see ya!
Must… not… be… garrulous…
Morning Dennis – we’ve got snow! White Christmas here we come!
Disturbing post. Jesus, Bruyckere is morbid. My favs are Katz, Martinez, Hal, and Magalhães. The dead Commies I don’t mind. That smiling robot has just fucked me up, man. Nightmarish. I sent it to my friends!
Essay sounds more impressive than it was – only 4 and a bit sides of A4. Botched question, don’t think it was a great answer. Plus I’ve got my ~4k word history essay to edit. UGH reading my own work is so painful ToT
I love the way milk blooms when it’s poured into tea. You are the second person this month to sing Earl Grey’s praises to me. What makes the Earl Grey *Russian*? Is vodka involved? Teehee.
I grew up with Nintendo, too. It’s a little sad to see what it’s like these days, but I refuse to strap on those nostalgia goggles. I have a Pikachu hat, somewhere, and a Mew plushie, somewhere. Various Zelda paraphernalia.
I think the most amusing bit of Sodom was one of those bullet points from the later parts involving gunpowder up some poor lady’s muff. Plus, the whole tone of the work, how it sounds like some young teen boy trying to gross people out. ‘And then he SHAT in her MOUTH and FARTED and they PUKED IN EACH OTHER’S MOUTH and then they did it UP THE BUM and they ATE POO and it was SO GROSS!’
But mostly, Sade was just boring to me. I’m crazy glad he inspired you so much, though. Going through adolescence w/o Dennis Cooper books would suck ;-;
No problem. I’m a little weird when it comes to how much I like/am interested by voices. I’m super big into podcasts/audio dramas (there’s this sci-fi one called Wolf 359, and the AI character has this super addicting voice glitch filter, thing), and used to fall asleep with the radio on low. You know what’s a cool word? Acousmatic. Auralism is a fun concept, too.
My views on ambiguity were neatly summed up in a line from A Tale for The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki – which I can heartily recommend – ‘not knowing hurts.’ Like. Yeah. Accurate. It’s started snowing again! :]
Confusion is the truth is similarly painfully accurate. Damn it!
Love the French way they say the ‘on’ sound. ‘Ohn,’ with like a really tight, low mouth, tongue down, I’m not a phonemicist, it’s just fun.
I imagine Sade is the kind of guy I’d rather read writing about rather than him himself. Ever read ‘The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography’ by Angela Carter? I haven’t. But I like Carter’s fiction.
In which case, I hope you enjoy reading this and responding! *GOD* I love snow. Makes me so happy!!!
Listening to Animal Collective, this morning :]
Fingers crossed Cloudflare continues to submit and be my bitch >:p see you!
Time for my own small P.S. block :]
P.S., jay, wahey, got’em. The show seems meh to me but I’ll concede Adrien is cute. When I got to the part where Sade just resorted to bullet points, I was relieved. ‘Thank fuck,’ I thought, ‘I can finish this faster.’ Sex/shock stuff can get real dull real quick. I know *nothing* about MTG apart from the meme card ‘8 Fucking Bears.’ I just guessed it was Magic by its complexity.
BUT THERE’S SO MUCH STUFF TO READ, jay! I read something from the UK, then America, then in translation. I was thinking the American would be Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, and now here you are telling me to read Pale Fire, which I’ve had for longer… argh! Nabokov is *such* an awesome name. Am I wrong in thinking you’re in the UK, too? Have a good one!
Hey James! Yeah, I think that’s the general consensus on that TV show, even the most die-hard fans are mostly there for Adrien. Mmm, I know what you mean about Sade, I’m definitely interested in him, but his writing does start to get a bit samey. There is a limit to the amount of sex/shock stuff I can read before I feel like going a little deeper, and I maybe don’t think Sade has that.
Yeah, I’m the same about MtG, all I know is from my boyfriend explaining what made him win or lose. Ooh, I’m jealous, I really liked both those books! I can’t judge, my bedside table has four or five library books I’ve still yet to read because of uni exams – one of them’s Infinite Jest, and you’re a fan of that, I think? And yeah, I’m UK-based – but no snow on my end, unfortunately :(.
Hi jay! I’ve seen some, uh, ~fanart~ of Adrien I’ve found most agreeable, before. I don’t care non-2D animation, much.
What other writers *do* match your wish for deeper probings of sexuality? I’ve read Burroughs, and Llosa and Fuentes have their fair share of shagging.
You have a boyfriend AND you’re at uni? HOW I ENVY you. I’ve just under a year till uni, and no boyfriend, boohoo. What course do you take?
I’ve a copy of IJ, but haven’t read it (shocker). Only Wallace I’ve read are all the short stories in Oblivion – The Soul Is Not A Smithy is my fav, it’s perfect weather for it.
UK-based – but not born? Just curious, sorry if I’m nosy! Hoping you get some snow on your end.
Hope you smash those exams!!!
Hmmm, that’s actually a good question, RE: deeper probings of sexuality. I guess I’d say (obviously) Dennis Cooper, but also Nagata Kobi (although her stuff is a lot less edgy), and maybe Kobo Abe? I thought Simenon’s “Blue Room” was excellent too.
Haha, well, best of luck if you’re doing A-levels, I remember those being really grim. I’m studying Programming! UK-based, I was born in Hungary but I moved ages and ages ago. And thank you, I hope you also smash your exams (in several months time)!
Hi Dennis!
I love your showcases of other artists, it’s always great to find new art or find out the names of artists I have seen the art of.
I saw you said you were playing Luigi’s Mansion 3 in one of your replies. I need to play that series, it’s one I’ve always wanted to play. It’s such a silly thing to say, but I remember having an experience as a teen that gave me a bit of ‘trauma’ (in the literal term, not in a deep, tragic way) towards playing video games. I spent an entire Christmas break playing Minecraft with my friends, and when I came back to school I realized I did nothing with my time, and made me associate gaming with wasting time for years, to the point it would make me anxious to play games. I’ve been working against that though the past year, and I’ve started playing games again. At the moment I’ve been playing a lot of survival horror at the moment. Just finished Resident Evil 4, going to start 7. I’ve been playing the first Silent Hill too, I’m loving it.
I’ve been doing a creative writing class for college, and I mainly did it to push myself towards writing fiction as the past year or so I have been writing solely non-fiction, whether academic, diary entries, or articles. I wrote some simple stream of consciousness story about a teen girl riding a bus home from a psychiatrist appointment after fighting with her mother, and how she went from her extreme nasty hatred of her mother to her freaking out, worried that her mother got into a car crash because of their fight. The class actually really loved it, and made me feel more competent as a writer. I’ve been starting to work on a project that I might try and turn into a novel; it’s about a upper middle class teen, who obsesses over another teen he meets that is a child of father-daughter incest, and the dark path of their relationship . I hope I can turn it into something of merit; I want it to be horrific and upsetting, yet deeply empathetic. Part of it is definitely inspired by my own experiences (not the incest), and some of it is inspired by some of your novels, like the dynamics in Closer or Try. Not that I’m trying to copy you!! I was fascinated by the word “inbred”, it’s a word that relates to a child who bears the stigma of incest, without any of the decision or act of incest. I was listening to Ethel Cain a fair bit (the title of her EP ‘Inbred’ is what got me thinking), specifically her song ‘Hard Times’ which is about her character lamenting on her father assaulting her. If I ever start writing it, and you would be interested in reading some of it, I’d be happy to share, although I doubt I’ll start drafting it for another few months.
I’m intending on visiting Paris in January too, gonna visit my friend over there and experience the city in the winter. When I’m around I’ll let you know, would love to chat with you, not just about your work but in general. You seem like such a fascinating person, with such a distinct voice.
Hope your week will be great, and I hope I can get some essays and articles due this week done!!
Stephen (Steeqhen’s not my real name, but also a name that’s become my name to people, pronounced Stee-kwen)
Agata Jarosławiec’s “I never touched my father like that”certainly makes for an eerie, interesting watch. Incest porn seems to be among that industry’s big growth areas nowadays, with websites such as Pornhub etc seemingly full of the stuff. Not for me, but I get that being transgressive has its appeal.
Snow is on the ground and winter has most definitely arrived around here. Cuteness abounds! Out for a coffee with Mum this morning I see there’s a definite preponderance of hats among the locals. My own CDG effort will parade its jauntiness soon enough.
How did MDMA alter movie watching?
Here’s my November music roundup for Gay City News, covering Linkin Park and Alice Longyu Gao: https://gaycitynews.com/november-lgbtq-music-linkin-park-alice-longyu-gao/
Did you find a solution for the film?
Hi!!
I’m in love with this post.
Shiiiiiit, I thought you had little to do with the final “Frisk” film, but this is even worse than I imagined. The interview is the absolute cherry on top. What the hell.
Oh, no! I’m really sorry love lost his go-to place for birthday nachos! Love asking the person who came up with the brand name “Fleshlight” whether it was the result of way too much alcohol or a long and hard thinking process, Od.
Hi. This is such an amazing post!! Saving it for when I have energy to look into everything featured. I’m sort of feeling terrible and really drained today but it’ll be okay. How are you? I hope stuff with the film isn’t taking a turn for the worse again. And that sounds like a really nice weekend you had; I think I played the 3DS version of ‘Luigi’s Haunted Mansion’ but, like I think I’ve mentioned, I’m terrible at video games. Or any video game that isn’t Mario Kart. Thanks for wishing that I survive this week, I hope I do too, haha.
Hey Dennis,
There’s something about nails through fingertips that really freaks me out. Part is imagining the pain, and the rest is just the look of it. The fingernail just adds that extra, I dunno…. Plus I’m sure there’s a dystopian story in the human corpses into crude oil. I’m sure Shell or BP will capitalise on that at some point.
That’s good to hear about the screening. I’m sure it makes all the trouble that you guys went through to get there feel worth it in a way… a satisfactory closure. Can’t wait to see it!!
That’s cool re: the email. I know what you mean. I recently discovered that I thought i’d set up my website’s email settings right, but nope… lol… found a whole web-based inbox of unanswered mail/offers covering the last two years…. Oops.
Hugs
Dom
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The human arm/rabbit chimera in the Martinez sculpture is the thing that draws my eye the most here, I think.
Re: ballet and sadism in yesterday(?)’s post, there is someone I know who has undergone extensive stuff regarding pointe training: the diet and exercise regime, etc. as well as feminizing hormones as an elaborate masochism and chastity thing. Oddly, though, they work as a sadist in a male role and only service female clients. So I guess it’s some elaborate exercise in inflicting their services upon themselves?
I went to buy some sweatpants today and went to this store, Scheels, that’s a sporting goods chain only in middle America. These stores are enormous and have Ferris wheels inside. Anyways, these stores all have animatronics in them and the one in Colorado has Thomas Jefferson (I believe they all have him) and John Elway. They look really odd and uncanny; they’re going for a wax museum look without a Disney budget and that they’re really out on the store floor with just a thin panel of plexiglass guarding them means you can really get up close and realize how bizarre they look.
Hey, Dennis! Great curation today. Those dolls by Michael Zajkov are really something. Thanks for the list of documentaries—I haven’t seen any of those, so I will check them out. I’ve never played ‘Luigi’s Mansion 3’, but based off of screenshots, the haunted house vibe looks really intriguing. I’m so glad the screening went well! We’re under a ‘bomb cyclone’ weather warning here in the Pacific Northwest. Fun! Hopefully my trek into Portland tomorrow won’t be too bad.
Hi again Dennis,
Honestly I’ve barely done anything since we last spoke because med school is now in full swing so I’m extremely busy. I have one more exam Friday and then we get a full week off for Thanksgiving, so soon I’ll finally be able to breathe for a bit. I’m planning to do some more exploring of New Orleans over the break. I guess one thing that does stand out is that my partner and I had dinner at Emeril’s in October. I wasn’t very familiar but my partner used to watch Emeril’s cooking show as a kid, so it was special to him, and the food was incredible. By far the most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten. I also visited a bookstore in Faulkner’s old house in the French Quarter, which makes me wonder, do you have any opinions on Faulkner? Hope I haven’t already asked you that. I lived in Oxford, MS for ten years so I’ve been pretty steeped in Faulkner worship, lol. But I do love him. People in Oxford used to pour whiskey on his grave. I regret not getting around to doing that. Apologies if my writing is all over the place; I’ve had a couple beers this time, ha.
Wicked post. Really digging it; went through it three different times. I wonder what an episode of Miami Vice directed by you would look like. I have vague memories of a character on the Golden Girls being super obsessed with Miami Vice. I have a spot on the bridge of my nose from pushing my glasses up too many times and it’s fairly annoying. Anyway, cannot wait for Thanksgiving break because everybody else leaves campus and it gives me time to do some much put-off work. Not much here. How was Luigi’s Mansion 3?
Hey Dennis! I’ve sent you an e-mail (Sorry to bother you again, man)
Yes, luckily doing a little better now. First day on a new mood stabilizer so fingers crossed that works out. And wow, did not know what a Welsh rarebit was but just looked it up and i’m intrigued. your mashed potatoes/peas ritual reminds me of my favorite dish growing up that we called volcanoes. iis essentially just a deconstructed shepherds pie: a heap of mashed potatoes with a crater scooped into the middle and filled with gravy, topped with peas. its very comforting. not sure how enthusiastic of a cook you are, but if you can find a decent looking meatless gravy alternative its worth a try. when my mom visited the other week we made it for my roommates and they all loved it.
That Bruyckere is awesome. what’s your take on the recent uptick in body horror films? appears to be the big trend these days, especially with female directors, re: The Substance obviously, but also (much more successfully imo) Julia Ducournau’s work. The French in general seem to love it. I wrote a paper about the cinéma du corps/New French Extremity last semester, specifically Denis’ Trouble Every Day. Wild film… have you seen it?