396

Drawing (396) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Pornography (I), 1955: at the top centre of the image, the international children’s sign for 'ass', with the tip of a penis held by two thumbs being aimed at it. Four pornographic images mounted on demonstration signs. At the top left, Siegfried’s linden leaf, although there can be no exception, Western pornography is both informative and supports the state. Its origins lie in the politically pragmatic fantasies of unconditional availability, with the military victim its first practice. Pornography was examined in theoretical terms by de Sade, who made a mockery of the bourgeois coming of age novel, turning it into a repeated cycle which excludes its fantasizing enforcer’s personal end. Dying is always done by someone else. An ostrich buries its head in the sand on the strip of coast in northern Spain on whose cliffs the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz was smashed to pieces. It is more than appropriate to bow in such a way before the exclusion mechanisms of our economic dictatorships. One final utopia applies in the face of scorched earth: do not tolerate any witnesses!" (Aus: arsenal, november 14).

(1983)

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