This is a truly fascinating image. It plays on so many different levels at once and is such a complicated piece of work.
Very violent and very sexual, as it seems as though he is to throttle or silence her, or snap her neck… She floats strangely, as though she is flying (it is ambiguous what is happening – maybe she is sailing off into the skies with him there clasping to her – the pink may signify the rosy fingers of dawn – or maybe, here, the kind of subversion of innocence (pink is a ‘girly’ colour, subverting the idea of seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses, etc…))
It actually reminds me of the opening of Jed Rubenfeld’s ‘Interpretation of Murder’, for various reasons. The bondage strangulation scene at the window in hotel…
The lady is like a magician’s assistant, a butterfly with wings, (Daphne transforming into the tree?) Her eyelessness, her direct stare achieves a sinister effect – dragons twist in her hair (Medusa…)
It is also very interesting how you have shaped her right breast, to go with the angular and angry style of the piece (also the shared imagery between the man’s necklace/sleeve and her pubis).
I also like the Fin de Siecle vibe and the general air of depravation – very Aubrey Beardsley.
This is a truly fascinating image. It plays on so many different levels at once and is such a complicated piece of work.
ReplyDeleteVery violent and very sexual, as it seems as though he is to throttle or silence her, or snap her neck… She floats strangely, as though she is flying (it is ambiguous what is happening – maybe she is sailing off into the skies with him there clasping to her – the pink may signify the rosy fingers of dawn – or maybe, here, the kind of subversion of innocence (pink is a ‘girly’ colour, subverting the idea of seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses, etc…))
It actually reminds me of the opening of Jed Rubenfeld’s ‘Interpretation of Murder’, for various reasons. The bondage strangulation scene at the window in hotel…
The lady is like a magician’s assistant, a butterfly with wings, (Daphne transforming into the tree?) Her eyelessness, her direct stare achieves a sinister effect – dragons twist in her hair (Medusa…)
It is also very interesting how you have shaped her right breast, to go with the angular and angry style of the piece (also the shared imagery between the man’s necklace/sleeve and her pubis).
I also like the Fin de Siecle vibe and the general air of depravation – very Aubrey Beardsley.