Sacrifice for Pleasure

Exquiste Corpse-Man Ray, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy & Max Morise

There always comes the moment
When you receive the confirmation
Of what you half intuited all along
No more evasions or denials
The truth is written on the wall
Writ large and quite plain to see
You are entangled within the trap
Held fast now there is no escape
It was all a set up a complete illusion
A vast conspiracy centred on you
Always and forever you alone
How can you ever begin to fathom
The depths you are plunging into
You never even knew it was a game
Until I showed you the aces in the hole
And demanded payment or satisfaction
So many questions you wanted to ask
But crumpling beneath the realisation
Of all I had in store you remained silent
Submitted docilely to my desires
However perversely strange or subtle
All your striving had come to naught
Think of this as a complete education
Now maybe you will understand
What I would sacrifice for pleasure.

The Passages of H.R Giger

H.R. Giger-Passage XXVII

The Swiss artist H.R Giger stated that the initial impetus behind his early paintings (I to IX) in his Passagen (Passages) series was a recurring nightmare in which he found himself in a large room without windows or doors, the only opening being a dark metal hole obstructed by a large safety pin. After getting stuck while passing through this opening he would see a tiny point of light at the end of a long chimney, however he was blocked by an invisible power and he would be unable to move backward or forward with his arms pressed against his body, unable to breath, his only thought being, ‘Oh my God, why am I here?’.

In addition to the dream inspiration the later paintings in the series would feature re-workings of a photograph he had taken of a garbage truck in Cologne, Germany in 1971. Giger was fascinated by its representation of a ‘mechanical-erotic act’, which sounds reminiscent of J.G Ballard’s Crash.

Giger always considered himself a Surrealist and the Passages series. created from the dredging of the unconscious and chance encounter richly deserves to belong in the Surrealist canon. Minimal, obsessive and claustrophobic, it is a truly unsettling experience by a master of the macabre.

H.R Giger-Passage II-1970

H.R Giger Passage IV

H.R Giger-Passages VI-1970

H.R Giger-Passage VII-1970

H.R Giger-Passage X 1971

H.R Giger-Passage XII-1971

H.R Giger-Passage XXV-1972

H.R Giger-Passage XXVIII-1973

H.R.Giger-Passage XXIX-1973

 

Forever 3:33AM Eternal

Eugena Loli

It’s that time of the night
Forever 3:33AM eternal
The hour when the wolf howls
At the big bitch in the sky
The untouchable mistress, unloving
Moon, mother of archaic memories
Baying for blood to nourish the brood
Of nocturnal predators, night creatures,
Witches familiars, demons spawn,
Furious hordes, insatiable cubi,
All the swarming hosts of darkness.

I think that….
We really need…
We got to have us some…
But we can’t get no….
Sleep…

So sleepless
We cackle and fizz:
For a split second
The view is expansive
We can see everything
Future past far
Wide near narrowing
Until it contracts to a vanishing
Still point that finally disappears
Into the oh-so sleazy
Right here-now nowhere
The forever 3:33AM eternal.

The clocks have stopped,
The rest of the world
Is no longer in motion;
Yet you slowly approach,
Rosy red glowing pale-bright
Translucent, tinged with the electric blue
Of raw sex, resonating with the sadness
Of a stone cold seductress
Towards my slouched figure:
You will make a heathen of me
Worshipping in the dead of night
Raised ravished razed by the mystery
Of your magic as I rip through
Your diaphanous veils one by one
All the while praying to you
That it remains
Forever 3:33AM eternal.

Too Many Voices

White Rabbit-Jan Svankmajer-Neco Z Alenky 1988

-I’m going to be late
-You’re always late
-Have we met before?
-You have always known me
Since the end anyway
-Quick hurry hurry quick
Underhill overvalley
Up up and away
This is a bird
This is a train
This is a bullet
-I would like to propose
A dialectic of chance
-Rather a toast
To the innumerable charms of women
Jade eyed goddess spare ribs
Heavenly portraits exquisite sculptures
-Hang on that is rather rich
Coming from you that gives
A whole new world of meaning
To every derogatory term I can think off
-Blue blue neon blue
Flashes and blinks the colour
Of my mid-morning dreams
-Too many voices
Subject to a savage distortion
Sending the cats and dogs
Of the neighbourhood into
A barking yowling frenzied cacophony
-Of course this is utterly without consequence
-But it may in fact be highly significant
-I will give you sixty seconds of pleasure
A moment outside time
A concentration of experience
The naked truth the bare essentials of existence
I’ll open your eyes when you spread those legs
-Droning on vocals fried
Ante post meta
Morpheus alpha omega
-The legends of a life
-Monsters behind the myths
-Cutting scratched breaking
A chorus echo of amens
-Immobile face and as heavy featured
As an Easter Island stature
Watching waiting before turning away
-Now I’ll never make it intime

Collage by Toyen

Double Sided Collage Recto-Toyen 1970

Double Sided Collage Verso-Toyen 1970

During the 1960’s and 70’s the Czech Surrealist Toyen gradually abandoned painting and concentrated on producing exquisitely dreamy drypoints and double-sided collages notable for their visual wit, conciseness and razor sharp composition.

As I have noted in a previous post Toyen lived in Andre Breton‘s studio after his death in 1966. Located slap bang in the middle of the red-light district I always fondly imagine that the elderly but still subversive and transgressive creator of these collages and the illustrator of Edition 69 would have been quite content in such a spot.

 

Double sided Collage Verso-Toyen circa 1960

Double Sided Collage Recto-Toyen circa 1960

 

Double Sided Collage Verso-Toyen Circa 1971

Double Sided Collage Recto-Toyen circa 1971

 

Double Sided Collage Verso Toyen circa 1970

Double-Sided Collage Recto-Toyen circa 1970