"Leonardo (da Vinci) is suggesting that the artist gaze be, literally, pityless the image should appal, and in that terrabilitá lies a challenging kind of beauty." *
"On his way up from the Piraeus outside the north wall, he noticed the bodies of some criminals lying on the ground, with the executioner standing by them. He wanted to go and look at them, but at the same time he was disgusted and tried to turn away. He struggled for some time and covered his eyes, but at last the desire was too much for him. Opening his eyes wide, he ran up to the bodies and cried, 'There you are, curse you, feast yourselves upon this lovely sight'."**
These collages are made out of freeze frames from many different films ranging from the 70s to the films made in the new millenium. They have been arranged into patterns that suggest decoration and beauty and have had their colours adjusted to make them into one uniform aesthetic image. Yet they are still the same images of horror that they were in the films that they came from. The films have been specifically chosen on being the most controversial and considered to be the most gory and horrible of their time. Other than changing the colour no effort has been made to hide the horror that they show. I wanted to make an image that attracts us even if it shouldn't. They are taken from the moments in films that many of us would usually be revolted by. I wanted to show there can be attraction and seduction in abjection.
"The passions which concern self-preservation, turn mostly on pain or danger. The ideas of pain, sickness, and death, fill the mind with strong emotions of horror; but life and health, though they put us in a capacity of being affected with pleasure, they make no such impression by the simple enjoyment. The passions therefore which are conversant about the preservation of the individual, turn chiefly on pain and danger, and they are the most powerful of all the passions."***
*From Susan Sontag's 'Regarding the Pain of Others' (2003)
**From Plato' 'The Republic: Book IV'
***From Edmund Burke's 'A Philosphical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful' (1958)