Through the mind and hands of an artist life is breathed into a obtainable image or sculpture. It is organic and pure; created without agenda other than self expression. And with one single encounter a chemical reaction will occur; a quickening pulse, heavy breathing, overwhelming emotion and even the inability to speak. Art is a radical exchange of energy from one mind to another and that intense feeling has the power to become an obsession.
Sometimes the artist vision may seem vile and perverse; it may be hard to look deeper into the meaning when the artist ultimate agenda is to make you look away. It is not rejection of the work but an idea. I love this feeling! Uncomfortable, disgusted, violated maybe even slightly filthy after; a piece powerful to evoke such emotions that haunt you through relapsing images burned into the crevices of a fragile mind. When they are before you there is no turning away; now you are the pervert because you stared just a little too long and hard. How do you understand what is beyond that sickening crust in the depths of this evil soul if you don't allow your self to look, to study and then visualize its brilliance.
Hans Bellmer's life size and all too obviously adolescent like ball joint dolls grip the viewer by the throat and force Bellmer's hatred for the fascism of the Nazi political party down their throats. German born Bellmer used his art to protest the evil ideals of the Nazi's perfect and superior being. Images of the dolls in bondage, obscure positions and simply staring into his lens are haunting portrayals of the unobtainable perfection that simply does not exist. His photographs are like a quest through the darkest and most sadistic of minds.
Pain, despair, hatred or even disgust for a artists work may seem negative in theory but to have been enthrall into these emotions is what is truly is overwhelming. To be overcome by dark emotions and releasing them through artistic expression, only so that it may be absorbed by another is beautiful, actually. That intensity that is conveyed in a piece and that deep emotional response is the beauty of art .