Pain and Pleasure

Pain and Pleasure

“The mind undergoes many changes, and can pass sometimes to a state of greater perfection, sometimes to a state of lesser perfection. These passive states of transition explain to us the emotions of pleasure and pain. By pleasure the mind passes to a greater perfection. By pain the mind passes to a lesser perfection.
Further, the emotion of pleasure in reference to the body and the mind together I shall call stimulation( titillato), the emotion of pain in the same relation I shall call suffering.” Spinoza

Review by Natalie Bookham
This image represents the barriers in sexual behavior: pain and pleasure. The pain of being raped or attacked is quite evident in the harsh slices of red in the soft smoothness of the open hole. The hole should be somewhere safe and warm, and yet it is interrupted by this violent and debilitating thing.

Perhaps there are also hints of the virgin and her pain from very first experience, but the pleasure that should be gifted when in the arms of her lover, or we may look at this another way - the 'pleasure and pain' here may be that of self harm. The open cut, blood spilling, the pleasure of that first cut into the skin and the pain of the open wound as it releases inner anxiety. Whatever explanation you choose, it is a wonderfully open and compelling piece.

Review by Nick Garrett
The terrific feeling of being alone yet not lonely that this picture triggers, is quite breathtaking. This vicious shape at times seems as benign as a feather, at others the viewer feels far away, like an astronaut or a diver watching humanity or something move away, far above, stately yet horrific. This is the vision of a poet