Saturday 11 October 2014

Story of the Eye

I read a book called 'Story of the Eye' by Georges Bataille over ten years ago now but this book made a big impression on me. I was studying at Art College at this time and I made quite a few artworks which incorporated the themes from the book. The story is baffling and obsence and really shocks you even from the first page.

This book demonstrates the links between death, conception, love, lust, violence, death and sadness by using an image of a white spherical object as the common denominator. This object may be a plate, an eyeball, milk, an egg, a testicle, etc.

I would not necessarily recommend that everyone rush out and reaf this book because it deals with highly controversial material and there is a lot of explicit sexual content but the book raises philosopical questions about the connection between sex and death and the idea of pornography. This book is definitely gorey and perverse but it is also extremely interesting and opens up a bizarre and strange world - one which the reader may never have experienced and may not experience again. Whatever you think about this book, because it is an real opinion divider, you will certainly never forget it.

The book reminds me of such films as Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist' and 'Nympomaniac' and also a little of 'Jamon Jamon' by Bigas Luna. 'Story of the Eye' has influenced artists like Bjork and the band Of Montreal in their song 'The Past is a Grotesque Animal'.

Bjork - Venus as a Boy