Blue Billie 2003, Lyle Ashton Harris-Portrait of the artist as Billie Holiday channeling the state of bliss between life and death. Pigment on paperh: 28 x w: 24 in / h: 71.1 x w: 61 cm Image courtesy of Adamson Gallery/ Adamson Editions

I have always enjoyed demonstrations of the perverse, tragic, sad and explicitly graphic visuals in all forms of art. European culture by way of ancient mythological allegory exemplify these concepts in classical works and are at the core of this modern heritage.

Abstracting terror and the ensuing emotion to the highest level can have  rapturous  value. The tragedy and despair in the love story between Romeo and Juliet just  about  says  it  all.

Queer warped objects and creatures are buried and littered in the work of Salvador Dali. His visions destabilize what we assume about “reality.” The physics of gravity do not limit  the possibilities of new landscapes and cities in his dream world. Narratives referring to the trials of martyrs within religious text can compete with the gore in any of Wes Craven’s horror flicks.

Dali’s gruesomely surreal imagery is also reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s visual requiem in Passion of the Christ. The film was so shocking to me because the brutal destruction of the Jesus character remains a vivid memory from my childhood. Growing up with a mother who quoted many a Shango-Baptist rhetoric, I believed that I had an intimate relationship with Him. Read more…