Galerie Dennis Cooper presents … The Guro Artists #2: Cannibals and Edibles *

* (Halloween countdown post #16)

 

‘Guro, also sometimes called Ero guro (エログロ), is an artistic genre that puts its focus on eroticism, sexual corruption, and decadence. As a term, it is used to denote something that is both erotic and grotesque. The term itself is an example of wasei-eigo, a Japanese combination of English words or abbreviated words: ero from “ero(tic)”, guro from “gro(tesque)”, and nansensu from “nonsense”. In actuality the “grotesqueness” implied in the term refers to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific. While items that are pornographic and bloody are not necessarily ero guro, and vice versa, the term is often used to mean “gore”—depictions of horror, blood, and guts.

‘Ero guro nansensu, characterized as a “prewar, bourgeois cultural phenomenon that devoted itself to explorations of the deviant, the bizarre, and the ridiculous,” manifested in the popular culture of Taishō Tokyo during the 1920s. Writer Ian Buruma describes the social atmosphere of the time as “a skittish, sometimes nihilistic hedonism that brings Weimar Berlin to mind.” Its roots go back to artists such as Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, who, besides erotic shunga, also produced woodblock prints showing decapitations and acts of violence from Japanese history. Ukiyo-e artists such as Utagawa Kuniyoshi presented similar themes with bondage, rape and erotic crucifixion.

‘Ero guro nansensu’s first distinct appearance began in 1920s and 1930s Japanese literature. The Sada Abe Incident of 1936, where a woman strangled her lover to death and castrated his corpse, struck a chord with the ero guro movement and came to represent that genre for years to come. Other like activities and movements were generally suppressed in Japan during World War II, but re-emerged in the postwar period, especially in manga and music.

‘There are modern guro artists, some of whom cite Erotic Grotesque Nonsense as an influence on their work. These artists explore the macabre intermingled with sexual overtones. Often the erotic element, even when not explicit, is merged with grotesque themes and features similar to the works of H. R. Giger. Others produce ero guro as a genre of Japanese pornography and hentai involving blood, gore, disfiguration, violence, mutilation, urine, enemas, or feces.’ — collaged

 

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Q & A

Posted byu/albert_ara
I do not understand how people can be into gore/guro Pornography.

If you do not know what that is, please don’t google it.

Guro is a category of porn (I hope always drawn, usually in an anime style) where for example someone is having sex with another person they just cut open their stomach and their intestines are gushing out while that person is in agonising pain. Just explaining this makes my stomach turn.

I just want to understand why someone would like that without being completely crazy (I knew a girl that was alright but liked guro, she wasn’t willing to explain why). I just want to understand why.

Posted by Crayshack
Most porn contains an idealized exaggeration of something that the consumer is attracted to in real life. For most people, this is only slightly exaggerated, but for others it is exaggerated past the point of the fantasy being something that is realistically attainable. For example, someone who is attracted to fit women might look at porn like this. At the same time, some people might look at a version exaggerated past the point they are likely to ever encounter such as this. It is the same concept, but taken to the extreme. When you enter the realm of drawn images rather than simple porn photos, you can take the extreme even further past the point of what is even physically possible such as this.

Unrelated to that, sadomasochism exists. It is completely understandable why some people might have difficulty grasping why someone might be a sadist or a masochist, but for me the reason is quite simple. When you experience pain, your body releases adrenaline. The purpose of this is so that you can feel the pain and know something might be damaged, but then have the pain dulled enough to continue whatever task you are doing. However, under the right conditions for some people they can trigger an adrenal release that is more powerful than the pain they experience. For these situations, it turns experiencing pain into a literal high. Once you have enough experiencing pain as way of accessing an adrenaline high, you build a Pavlovian relationship in your mind and start to enjoy the pain itself. Sadism is simply being the one on the outside.

When you combine the concepts, there is a very clear pattern. There is porn of realistic depictions of pain play that do closely resemble how most people do it in real life. Then there are depictions that go beyond what most might try in real life but are still physically doable such as this. Then you have the ones that are physically impossible (at least without killing your partner) such as this.

For both examples of the gradient, some people will realize that they are getting into weirder and weirder shit as they make their way down it. However, sometimes they won’t notice until they are pretty far along because there will not be many sudden jumps. Instead, they are one day asking themselves “What the fuck did I just fap to?” and find that even once they acknowledge it is fucked up it still turns them on because sexual attraction is not something decided by the conscious part of the brain.

Most people if you ask them, would not be able to articulate this process of how they got into what they are into. At best, they can give you some of the details they fixate on and what little things turn a gore pic from general gore to porn for them. However, that does not mean that they have not gone through this sort of development. Everyone goes through a similar kind of association when it comes to sexual attraction. They start by being attracted to something simple and common, but then they start seeking something similar to that initial influence and start building associative relationships. However, most people simply find themselves spinning back around to something else that is common (for example, someone instinctively attracted to breasts might have known a large breasted redhead when they were younger and they are now also attracted to redheads). There are just a few fringe groups that have managed to developed a sexual association with something more bizarre. Guro is not the only strange fetish you can find on the internet, it just might be the one that is the most disturbing to anyone who has not found there way to it naturally.

 

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Except where identified in the image the artists are unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Marcus Whale, Marcus! It’s so great to see you! It’s been ages and ages. How are you? What’s going on? Me too re: doing my annual Halloween in LA, except my plan was extremely tight. I’m still hoping for 2021. Take care, man, and Happy Halloween whatever Australia causes that to mean. xo. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, indeed. Actually quite a number of the home haunts and haunted house attractions offer ‘lights on’ visits for nerds and people with small children. I love them. One of my big dreams is riding all the rides at Disneyland with the lights on. Minus one week and counting! ** Quinn R, Hi, Quinn. That’s definitely healthier, I think. It’s logical, and I’m kind of a very logical person. For me, the heavy or haunting effect of their deaths didn’t really hit me for while. I think this says more about me than about death, but one thing that really weirds me out is that, I mean, they were two people who, for better or worse, were really significant to me. I knew them thoroughly for most of my life, and they made me, obviously. They were pretty old when they died (mother in her 80s, dad in his 90s), and now basically all of their friends and colleagues are dead, and apart from their kids who had mixed feelings about them and some scattered younger people they interacted with casually, they’re gone, forgotten. They weren’t artists or inventors or anything who left something concrete in the world that has a chance of retaining value without them being present. There’s something about that erasure that really haunts me sometimes. I don’t know if that’s a weird thing to say or makes sense. I think almost every book and movie I really like is about death, ha ha. Strange. So it would be hard to know where to start. I think what with COVID and the election and so on, everyone I know, including me, is feeling a weird combination of slow and kind of frantic. What a strange, strange time. I’ll look for the review today. I think writers need to have challenging reviews. I think writers having to question their work via an objective opinion is kind of invaluable. I will do a Stephen Wright post. I’m on it. Thank you for your thoughtful comments too, sir. And please send my hello back to Ed. I hope one of these days I’ll get to see him again. ** _Black_Acrylic, Loveable is a very good word. Loveable is how I feel about them too. Cash their check! Or cheque in your country’s terms. Have you heard back from them? ** Bill, Hi, Bill. What is it, 6 days to go until the big day? It’s going to be a long, long week. Thanks for the link. That gig looks delicious. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Even way over here, the stress is constant. I keep trying not to pay attention, but I just can’t seem to make an escape. Sounds like an antibiotics situation to me, yeah. They cancelled the Halloween parade in NYC, right? Understandably, rightfully. ** Brian O’Connell, Hi, Brian. Oh, thanks, I’m really happy they impressed you. Haunted house attractions are like cockroaches. They’ll survive the plague. Their makers are hardcore believers. The SCOTUS confirmation thing is so horrifying that I am blocking it out as much as possible to preserve what little peace of mind is currently available. I think if you direct your interest in films away from Ozon’s oeuvre, you’ll be just fine. Gisele’s work hasn’t been performed in the States very much. It’s weird/sucks because the work plays all over the world constantly, but the US is a toughie. A couple of pieces (‘Jerk’, ‘Kindertotenlieder’) made it to NYC and ‘Jerk’ played in LA, and I think one piece (‘The Ventriloquists Convention’) played in Chicago. Importing European theater is something few US venues have the dough to do. Our most recent piece, ‘Crowd’, will play in NYC and maybe do a small US tour sometime next year. ‘Hausu’, right? One of a kind. Yes, may our weeks be very pleasant bosom buddies at minimum. ** Right. I decided to use the happy occasion of Halloween to foist another galerie show of guro on you today. Sorry and/or you’re welcome. And bon appétit! And see you tomorrow.