SHOCK TACTICS: AND THE PLEASURE OF FLINCHING

by Lex Palmer Bull

 

“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 on this lovely sight.”

 In humans there is an innate desire and attraction towards the gruesome, there is a love of the ‘shock’. The art world has always had a courtship with controversy and is continuously embracing the shocking. From Goya to Jake and Dinos Chapman, Egon Schiele to Damien Hirst, Hermannn Nitsch to Rick Gibson art has never failed to erupt into the media and cause controversy and debate. It is clear that people are inherently drawn to the more macabre and consistently embrace the thrill of the shock; this is obvious when eight million people have been to see the ‘Body Worlds’ (Körperwelten) exhibition by Gunther Von Hagens which contains twenty five corpses with one hundred and seventy five body parts arranged in various positions with their internal organs and tissues displayed in an anatomical exhibit of real human bodies. And Tate Modern, a gallery that houses some of the worlds most avant-garde and scandalous pieces, attracts over four million visitors a year. The critics of contemporary art state that the art is only designed to shock and cause a reaction, however, modern art lovers contend that it is exactly these traits that give contemporary art its allure. Director of the Bowes museum in England, Adrian Jenkins states that, “it is the duty of modern art to provoke… Contemporary art knows it’s going to get knocked, but if it causes debate it’s doing its job.” Since the 1800’s avant-garde art has set about undermining, challenging and testing the typical customary ways of viewing life and that has often resulted in art works of a ‘shock horror’ nature. It is often declared that it is becoming harder and harder to shock the public. But that doesn’t detain the growing number of visitors to Tate Modern who are evidently drawn to, and enjoy seeing this art that is so often put to trial by the media, the public and politicians for its ability to incite and horrify. In 1976, a show called ‘Prostitution’ at the ‘Institute of Contemporary Arts’ included a rock music performance by ‘Throbbing Gristle’ accompanied by photographs of Cosey Fanni Tutti working as a stripper and porn model. Some of the other exhibits included used syringes and tampons. This exhibition caused a great stir among British Tory MPs who attacked it and called for its removal.  And there have been many other art works that have made it to court for all sorts of reason. One example of an artists being take to court is Rick Gibson who was tried at the Old Bailey in London and found guilty of ‘outraging public decency” when he created a pair of earrings from freeze-dried human fetuses. Gibson was fined five hundred pounds.  People love the thrill of the shock and are irresistibly pulled to any show with sensationalist hype. It is human nature to be dissatisfied with being content. To be pushed and shoved into an uncomfortable, horrifying and shocking arena is what human’s crave. As a result of dramatic, surreal films people crave the excitement of Hollywood, they are shown false realities that are so exciting and fast paced that they become discontent with their lives and jump at the opportunity to be thrown from comfort. Art that shocks satisfies, it evokes emotions that aren’t often utilized and becomes addictive and exciting.