S&M (saints & martyrs)
2017-ongoing
1.
Saints & Martyrs is a series of photographs of painting/sculptures (which are destroyed after shot. They existed for the lens). The work is genre fluid, queer in content and form (‘purity is a myth,’ proclaimed Hélio Oiticica).
2.
Photography is a drawer of dead-loved leftovers. But we throw away the keys. that is the deal. Here photography is an arena. The presentness of sculpture added to the past tense of photography creates a suspended time.
3.
Those are languid men. They are odalisques and nymphs and goddesses, ready for the taking. They are saints who give their body and life to the beloved, big brother and father. Those men are in control in erotic abandon. Here is my body, it is yours, take it, do with it what you will - please (me).
4.
All Art History survey books are books of photographs. Photographs engaged as transparent windows and also as placeholders for the ‘real experience.’ Like porn to sex. Photos that are anonymous artworks, invisible in their profusion, blamed for the degradation of the aura of the originals. And yet, it is often through them that we fall in love with works of art in painting and sculpture. We fell in love with photographs pretending to be paintings.
5.
Informed by Brazilian bodies of trance. Saints from Candomblé who mount, penetrate the body, who possess the lover. Saints in Christian churches, which readily give their bodies to the unseen male just outside the frame (Him), with lustmord. Becoming for love.
S&M (saints & martyrs) at satchel projects, nyc, 2022.
he noticed a group of young men, handsome in form and features
two handsome youths, dressed in white tunics
a very beautiful young man appeared
he was angelic in appearance, polished in speech, shapely in body
the sun and the moon wonder at his beauty
his perfume brings the dead to life
saw an angel whispering in his ear
ran after the angel to kiss his feet
I turn my body over to you completely!
to enjoy that love was life, the world, the kingdom, it was the promise
10 Sentences from The Golden Legend (1260)
A Family for Saints & Martyrs
‘the voyage of captain fracassa’ (artificiality) / neyrotica, hélio oiticica / saint john in the desert, domenico veneziano, national gallery d.c. / Antonello di massina (the gaze-the implied space) / guercino / cyparissus, vignali’s, strasbourg / museo antropológico, méxico, eyes and jade in packal / power and pathos exhibit / bellini (cloth behind saints + landscape) / giorgione in castlefranco / matisse (color-odalisques) / aleijadinho, congonhas / Ifê / paula rego / marie cosindas / luisa roldan / tânagra figurines / gertrude abercrombie (color) / rohmer - the lady and the duke + celadon / jack smith (particularly photographs) / bartlet / casebere / michael borremans / paolo ventura / kerry james marshal (history- tradition - mystery) / severe style in olympia / that lekythos at the met / bonnard pinks (and the one at the met) / baroque curtains / max beckmann - the shallow-deep space / francis uprichard / daniel gordon / bhupen khakhar / daniel silver / cate giordano / sepuya / louis fratino / leonardo’s st. john / munch: puberty + space in late work and around 1920s / salviati’s lute player - olive green + browns / saló - bride / douglas sirk & fassbinder - almodóvar and wong kar way –melodrama-expressionism-brecht / giuseppe crespi - painterly, expressive / the lamentation, ludovico carracci / salviatti / kiki smith / thiago martins de mello / pierre & giles / reveron’s dolls + belmer’s dolls + paula rego’s dolls + dorothea tanning’s dolls + pierre molinier dolls + greer lankton’s dolls + kokoschka’s alma mahler doll + Ida Applebroog’s photogenetics + Marie Vassilieff’s dolls / francesco mola - beautiful guys - introspective, dreamy subject is s sharing a space - allegory of the senses / bruno dumont- religious ecstasy- supremely earnest and artificial / forrest bess - materiality, mystery / carlo bonino- sexy guys in murals at santa maria vado / charles hippolyte aubry - plastered nature / mayan figurines / reza aramesh / jordan maclachlan / florian raiss / caravaggio - lázaro in messina - between states - not ‘or’ but ‘and’ / francesco cairo - ecstasies / sarah l peters / lúcio fontana late ceramics / charles ray and ancient sculpture / all annunciations / the martyr, rodin / fassbinder’s artificiality / ‘tropical malady’ - feverishly erotic, spiritual ecstasies / degas sculptures - wiping / the color in djanira! / the ensembles in cindy sherman, particularly old masters and the ones with slides as backdrops / tod haines’ poison: spitting / nancy spero: expressionism + classicism (+literature) / querini stampalia’s kiki smith, 2005 / barbara karsten / palmira funerary portraits / etant donne / saint clair cemin / pablo suarez / greta stern / niccolo dell'arca / the photographs of brancusi / hernan bass / poussin’s narcissus / thomas lanigan-Schmidt / simone fattal’s ‘ancient’ ceramics / fried’s ‘after caravaggio’: absorption & address 8 - density of presence - absorptive motifs 79 / brassai’s pics of picasso’s sculptures / nicole eisenman (queer + history) / glenway wescott’s a calendar of saints for unbelievers with illustrations by tchelitchew / young and evil at zwiner / lustmord / ancient painting (akrotiri, pompeii) / mary carlson / claudette schreuders / paloma varga weisz / dorothea tanning / yannis tsarouchis / robert taplin / canova’s endymion / bruno leydet / patrick angus / giacometti’s the palace at 4 am / feliciano centurion / michelangelo’s crucifix / lady hamilton’s ‘attitudes’ / rachel harrison drawings ‘the classics’ / bernard faucon’s summer camp / caterina de julianis / pierre klossowski / luigi ontani / bob thompson / luxe, calme et volupté / pink narcissus / reclining river gods / pontormo / umbanda’s saints / watteau / folkert de jong / opera / the achilles painter / San juan de la cruz