The
project, we will present in this post, is quite controversial. While it is quite
innocent from the official guidelines – there is no nudity or an adult
language, it still reveals the most intimate moment in the women’s life – her orgasm.
The
standard plot of each video episode is this: Women enter into a room, sit down
at a table, and read an excerpt from a book of their choosing. As time
progresses, the pace of their reading begins to change, as does their breathing
and body positioning. Under the table, outside of the subject's control, an
unseen assistant distracts them with a vibrator. The subjects stop reading when
they're too distracted or fatigued to continue, at which point they restate
their name, and what they've just read. The pieces vary in length based on the
response time of the subjects.
The
viewers have the opportunity to see the women faces, postures, gestures, and
voice expressions in progression from the initial stimulation to the catharsis
and to the post-orgasmic relaxation. And that is amazing transformation, you
can see in the human body. That is a great secret every woman keeps – of how much
she can be radiant, shining, and beautiful after the orgasm.
In
the videos below, a series of women sit at a desk and read a book of their
choosing aloud. As their reading session continues, you may notice a quickness
of breath, some fumbling over easily legible words, light panting, shivering,
giggling and moaning.
Clayton
Cubitt, has titled his video artistic presentation as “Hysterical Literature”.
“I
sat the readers at a table,” Cubitt admitted, “and I showed what society wants
to see on top of the table, and I hid the sex under the table. I wanted to see
what people would react to more: what they could see, or what they imagined.”
“Bibliothecaphilia”
addresses the quiet, mystical allure of the library — a space of escape, of
solitude, of transcendence. With the rise of eBooks and library apps, these
strange sacred spaces sometimes teeter on becoming obsolete. The group show
features artists who unpack our appetites for libraries in all their physical
and mythical glory.
While
Cubitt’s video series certainly touches on the love of libraries, it
simultaneously explores themes of feminism, sexuality, hysteria and
authenticity. The moving portraits, shot in stark black-and-white, are part
fine art, part viral click-bait, part literary ode, part pornography.
“I’m
quite fascinated with the concepts of control and release when it comes to
portraiture, especially in this modern of era of social networking profile
self-portraits and Instagram, when everyone has a well-practiced notion of
personal branding,“ Cubitt explained. “What’s left for the portraitist to
capture? One can shock the sitter out of that plastic smile. I’m attempting to
lead them back to something real.”
Despite
the obvious erotic appeal of Cubitt’s project, the importance extends beyond
just sex. For many of the female participants, the session presented an
opportunity for women to proudly express their sexualities and retain their
power — a man is never pictured on screen. “This is my revolutionary act of
selfishness,” wrote one participant of her experience, “my virtual picket
sign... my one-woman rally... my rebel yell... my sedentary march... a call for
dialogue and understanding.”
Other
participants commented on the biased and frustrating response to the piece,
which unapologetically displayed the taboo image of female pleasure. “But
despite being a project I’m deeply proud of, it has been challenging to deal
with the intense scrutiny by the art world for my participation in this work, while
my male counterpart rarely dealt with any,” said photographer and artist Marne
Lucas, who appears in session nine.
Videos (all 12 episodes)
Where did the idea for Hysterical
Literature come from?
The
project is an extension and refinement of earlier Cubitt’s video works that
explored the concept of distraction and fatigue in the poses of portrait
sitters. Today, everyone has a well-practiced pose for "selfies" and
social media, and he was interested in how he might make a portrait that makes
it impossible for the sitter to maintain this pose. So he did a video series
called "Long Portraits" which filmed subjects just sitting making eye
contact with the lens for five minutes or longer.
“But
this series, as much as I liked it, and as popular it became, was in many ways
too anonymous for me. What did it really say about the sitter? It was
interesting, but it was mute. And it was conceptual ground already traveled by
Andy Warhol's "Screen Tests." I had also created an earlier video
piece called "Hitachi Magic Interview" where I interviewed a woman
while she was being distracted by a vibrator. It was also interesting, but it felt
too close to an interrogation, and I wanted to remove myself from the process
as much as possible. So I asked, what if the women could in some way have a
conversation with themselves, through the reading of a passage from their
favorite book? This would allow self-expression, without the pressure to pose
or sound a certain way in a formal portrait or an interview. It would also
remove me from the on-screen experience, make for a fascinating battle between
the mind and the body, and create a conceptual contrast by blending two areas
that society tends to want to view through different lenses: art, and sex. So I
put the art on the table and the sex under the table. That's how Hysterical
Literature was born”.
What are you trying to say with
Hysterical Literature?
Cubbit:
“The series examines the battle between the mind and the body. It also explores
the cultural contrast between art and sex, particularly how people react to the
mixture of the two, and the battle over female sexuality and society's concepts
of shame”.
Why
is it called "Hysterical Literature?"
Cubbit:
“The title references the ancient concept of "female hysteria,"
especially the Victorian-era medical treatments meant to "cure" it.
At the time it was a catch-all diagnosis for almost any "disruptive"
behavior in women, and a variety of treatments were used to cure it, from
isolation, to hydrotherapy, to early electric vibrators. The past's confusion
and shame attached to female behavior, especially female pleasure, was
something I wanted to explore in a modern context, so referencing it was
natural. That the word could also mean "funny" was lagniappe, since
the videos are quite funny, and many of the subjects laugh at some point in
their reading”.
Sources and Additional Information:
No comments:
Post a Comment