It's been a while since my last post. And that has everything to do with the preparation and exhibition (with my lover Nono) I talked about in one of my previous blogs.
Enough material to make an interessting post, I thought. And I want to do it by means of the introduction text of our guest speaker Edwin Hantson (Lecturer, moralist, philosopher, writer and collector of erotic art), who is helping us to promote our art and contributes to the realization of and artbook.
In consultation and with the approval I give Edwin the word and let him speak now:
Text by our guestspeaker: Edwin Hantson
(Loosely translated)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome everyone.
I am honored that the artists asked me to open their exhibition with some reflections. I appreciate their hospitality, their openness and huge work force. Best attendees, I will talk about the work of Romaan's 'Partouze' and 'Hidden Faces' of Nono, and the cooperation of these two phenomena.
I am introduced as lecturer, philosopher and moralist and will show you a few, hopefully not 'too schoolmaster style', philosophical and moral considerations. I can tell you that I am in my element here and don't have to hide that I have associations with some erotic or sexual every 11 seconds, some will find over determinated. I assume that I don't need to worry about that the next half an hour. Incidentally, the artist has that too and has not affected. On the contrary, he will enjoy. So do i. and we invite you to enjoy with us...
As a teacher motivation education I have encountered and discovered that people have a range of motives and strive to satisfy that. What's strange, in many motivation theories, is that they forget or ignore the erotic and sexual need or sole and let every ultimate motive behind. In the art the erotic, the forplay stands more central than the act itself. Art is suggestive and is rather a reason to leave
GOLDEN BROWN
In his paintings, such as the 'Partouze' serie, we recognize the galzing technic, in which the images are build layer upon layer and shows us pornographic portraits of people, picked from the internet. It shows us all facets of human sexual inclinations and fascinations.
If the difference between eroticism and pornography is just a matter of exposure, then the images of Romaan are nice examples of how to take away the cold and impersonal veil, that's so typical in the contemporary pornography, by using another medium and color.
Photo by Mario D'hont
The golden brown shades, multiple layers, contrasts with the painted white, to take away the hardness, although the work remains plain hardcore pornography-and fetischistische scenes. The Brown refers to the classical painting of Rembrandt and Van Eyck. Or to the underpaintings of great Italian masters. Furthermore, associating, it calls on a vintage like atmosphere reminiscent of the hit golden brown of the Stangler. Golden brown could be about heroin or a girl. Risk of addiction so. 'L'Amour est un tyrant qui n'épargne personne' (Love is a tyrant who spares no one). So it is with heroin. And the internet has also that potential.
PORNOGRAPHY AS A GENRE
Romaan pleas for the theme pornography and demands his right-full place in the art, next to the still life, landscape or religious art, which often overlaps. The erotic art uses symbols such as candles, eggs, keys, cages, pipes, rings, shoes, guns, revolvers. Religious clothing and attributes are used and shows us the overlap between with passion, love and passion overloaded the dialogical self. The fabrics, the leather, the heel, the veil, the jewel, the collar being affectively loaded carriers of lust.
In the goody- goody erotic art, the organic and spherical forms are means for erotic associations. Crevices, totems and towers, light and movement are used to activate and steer our erotic associations. Also contrasting textures and phallic shapes, plants, felt, leather and rubber are .
The work of Namoor brings erotic passion and play with emotions of power, where blindfolds, BDSM, toys and accessories, clothing, hoods and masks, attributes and tools, role play in a place where we rarely see it in this brutal form. The theme of the alignment and clothing as powerful aphrodisiac repeatedly steps in the foreground.
NONO'S HIDDEN FACES AND THE COOPERATION
Nono has the property to tell you everything she can't, while she's doing it. The typical structure of her sentences is: I'm not an ... . But fill in: jewelry-maker, dressmaker, dancer, photographer, painter, intellectual. She can be quite witty and has the gift to surrender and a great ability to fall in love. Nono is non conventional, with no holds barred, and a person who has little or no taboos. Rongé sets her imagination into action. The passions of Nono solidify again and again to unique cooperation projects with a strong existential character in the form of original artworks or exhibitions that snatch us out of the rut and rises above all the casual, vain and small. As a sexy witch she makes her own jewellery, settings and pictures in mixed media for years, which emerged on the basis of a spontaneous idea. Nono works with her own image and experience material. A database of 4000 photos with erotic scenes from the love life of the couple serves as basis for her creations. These snaps shows moments of different moods. Nono edit images and I invite you to pay close attention to the kinky details in addition to the tenderness. Rather she creates an atmosphere of strip-tease and sex while Romaan is more explicit and leaves less space for interpretation. For Nono it's all about the literal and figurative representation of close friendship through interaction. The work exhibits processed images of scenes of erotic play of the artist couple.
No moderated passions and no moderated people at work here, but passion and velvet tenderness which sometimes expressed very cute in the miniatures of Nono or in the poems of Namoor:
Sexy
I find the finest
Soft, soft, caressing,
licking,
tickling, pulling, teasing,
sliding
Something
makes
you
tremble
I love
I love to fondle
A LITTLE HISTORY
Prudery and intolerance seems to come and go in waves. A source of inspiration by Romaan Namoor was Egon Schiele, who drew masturbating women (around 1900) and wherefore he has to go to court. Schiele called it murder to his budding art.
Many BDSM literature and art was until at least the end of the sixties for sale under the counter only or in sex cinemas. The sixties and what followed were the years of the emancipation of sexuality, of women and of lust. And, like everything else, sexuamlity and eroticism was commercially exploited.
1968 was a turning point and a rebellion against the prudery and control by Church and State. In that year, "je t'aime moi non plus" still on the banned list by the Vatican, and could "get no satisfaction."
The contrast between the maltreated as of people in photo report in 20 years vssm (1990) and what we present on the internet get to see is large. Magazines such as BDSM life be set up and be in the form of des magazines qu'on ne lit que d'une main marketed from 1976 to 2001. In each number is cited in the preface the Harmony philosophy: What is most discouraging about this business are the prevailing social misconceptions concerning tie, at least the bene valance, romantic type or tie that we produce. The Penthouse Guide to cybersex from 1995 makes us realize that we, we live in a world of cyber sex in which any form of sexual and erotic pleasure that you can imagine – and some that you never thought it would-is readily available online. Today that is not only more available but it is almost impossible to Google it without having any other image Partouze. The lust is commercialized and since Good Vibrations (1913) we witness an unlikely blossoming of sex, fetischistische accessories and clothing.
HARMONY CONCEPTS
The art of Nono and Romaan shows us impressions of a close friendship in which they (s)experiment in security, mutual respect and trust. The game that this partners play is one of mutual gain in the spirit of the Haromony philosophy: It has never been nor will it ever be our purpose to depict women as mere subordinates to men. These pictures and articles are not about that. The materials we produce are carefully and, we think, obviously designed for men and women to whom is an important mutual diversion, a recreational and benevolent experience, a fantasy with a happy ending, a good-natured game in which everybody wins. The golden rule in the literature about reads: treat your submissive not like you want to be evaluated but as who wants to be treated. The power that the dominant has, is the one the submissive give out of free will. And thus we come to the curious dialectic of the slave and the master and the master who become addicted to the slave.
The work of Romaan is a window too the current world of masters and slaves with rewards and punishments, deprivation and humiliation, spanking and nipple clamps. It's a mirror of a tough world where gross exploitation of people and trafficking in human beings is the order of the day. A hard commercial world in which no freedom prevails and in which weak exploited and used as slaves for the cameras by cyber pimps and commerçanten who smell nothing but money. BDSM is an art in Japan. Experimenting with sex goes very far in this empire, where slaves are filled with everything in their vaginas, as an octopus, seafood or a tomato.
The greater sexual freedom for which occurred in recent generations and removing censorship makes that people can express themselves more freely. That's a good thing.
As long as the difference between fantasy and reality is preserved and is accompanied by consensus BDSM seems the game where the others do not have to interfere and where father State and religion best keep their hands off. Censorship is not a good thing and it's sad to note that it's difficult to find galleries that are willing to exhibit this kind of work. Yourself, dear visitor and viewer should not bother about that, just enjoy and feast your eyes.
The exhibition
Nono and I are very grateful for the large turnout. We were overwhelmed by the warmth, interest, personal stories, etc. of our visitors. With an intense atmosphere we could only hope for. So we cannot be happier with the response of our design!
Special thanks to Pieter and Julie (owners of 'Tuin van Heden") for their hospitality and the opportunity they give us to exhibit. It takes guts and courage to show this, without hesitation, and they have supported us from the beginning, full of conviction. Thanks!
Also big up shout out to the DJs: Wudub!? & Babylonbuster, Hecticcc and King & Sojo.
Massive thanks, love and Respect!
Nono and Romaan.
(Last picture, at the end of the opening. Completely broken... but satisfied.)