words and pictures by Larry Defelippi


In Céline’s ‘Voyage au bout de la nuit’, the main protagonist doubts there exists any genuine realizations of our deepest character except war and illness. I submit a third. Sexual desire. We all have an appetite for seeing-- the Lacanian ‘Appétit de l´oeil’.
I’m struck by the darker side of desire, gazing and craving and it’s consequences. This is what I’m currently engaged in. These images come from two works.

The first, ‘Heterotopia By The Hour’ investigates the Foucauldian space and sexual behaviour. Spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye. Spaces both real and imagined, some of which seem to possess pure and simple openings, but generally hide curious exclusions. This can be evidenced in the proliferate ‘love hotels’ of Japan. A place where sex is kept isolated, sheltered and hidden. The subject of a young woman wearing a ‘seifuku’, or sailor uniform in one of these indeterminate spaces is representative of ‘The girl fetish’ that predominates Japanese culture.

The second, an exploration of the gaze and the female body in Pink Eiga. A fusion of sex, revenge and violence. Not the willing female body of the stereotypical Western adult movie, but a more intellectual, sinister and sadomasochistic representation of the female body. The repressed and the violated. A respite from the cult of ‘kawaii’. Note the absence of flirtatious fourth looks constituting an imagined participation from the viewer. In it’s place lies a cool gaze; vengeance embraced and all inclinations towards submissiveness discarded like a blood soaked rag...