Robin van der Heijden Whenever The Eye Falls

On embodiment, eroticism, the uncanny, abjection, transgression and the perverse in the performative documentation and production of art.

I. The cruel practice of art

“Torture takes place for a variety of reasons. In principle its purpose differs little from that of a scarecrow: unlike art, it is offered to sight in order to repel us from the horror it puts on display. The painted torture, conversely, does not attempt to reform us. Art never takes on itself the work of the judge. It does not interest us in some horror for its own sake: that is not even imaginable. […] When horror is subject to the transfiguration of an authentic art, it becomes a pleasure, an intense pleasure, but a pleasure all the same.”1

II. Dennis Rader, Danny Devos, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven and AA Bronson

Dennis Rader, Untitled #1, #2, #3, 1991.

In the series of three untitled Polaroids by Dennis his hands in front of his body, while possibly holding the Rader, we see an act photographed in different stages. rope. His ankles are bound in all pictures and his legs The photos are taken during the day. We have a partial are bound with black rope in pictures 2 & 3. In the third view of the tree from which Rader is suspended. A high picture, we see his feet are spread and bound to a stick. level of vegetation can be seen. This specific location He is wearing something white on his head, a plastic bag seems well protected from the view of possible onlookers, perhaps, which also seems to be the case in the second suggesting privacy and intimacy, but also creates a ten- picture. He is wearing a mask. The mouth is taped. It sion; he might get noticed. We don’t know if he shot the looks like there is a lock of hair or other material draped series on his own or with assistance. Given the circum- across the forehead. These depictions are unpolished stances help would be useful, but the photos in the series even though we know they are staged. They are crude, are listed as self-portraits. Among the sparse writing visceral, raw, and in some aspects, akin to Art Brut. found on these Polaroids, a review by J. Douglas who is close to Rader’s work, confirms this by noting that Rader Due to the fact that there is no given date for these pho- “had snapped most of them himself”2 which implies some tos, the use of colour film can give us an estimation. Tak- contribution,but assistants remain unidentified. en with a Polaroid camera, the first colour films appeared in ’63. We know Rader was active from ’74. Besides The order in which the series should be laid out is un- the green, most elements in the photographs are flat in specified, for this reason they are numbered in this text. colour, the clothing is black and white and the mask and We see there is a sheet of plastic on the ground. In all skin are in the same tone. three photos, Rader can be seen suspended by a white rope from a tree. There is white rope around his neck In On Photography, Susan Sontag writes the following: in the first picture, but it is unclear in the other two. His hands are visibly bound by white rope in the sec- “…many photographers continue to prefer black-and- ond picture. The first picture suggests the same, but he white images, which are felt to be more tactful, more seems to be holding on to the white rope to keep himself decorous than color —nor less voyeuristic and less elevated. By estimation, it seems he is no further than a sentimental or crudely lifelike.”3 meter above ground. In the third picture, he is holding Tact and decency are generally lacking in Rader’s work. go outside and practice these acts of suspended bond- Elements of voyeurism are especially prominent in these age with the possibility to be seen might excite Rader; photographs; the content is heavily indecorous and is this might even be documentation or a representation of captured crudely. Its aesthetic reminds us of Camp, a autoerotic asphyxiation. By photographing these actions, sensibility that, as Sontag explains; “sees everything he can relive the act and the experience. in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman but a “woman.” To perceive camp in objects The mask however, suggests a need or wish to hide or and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a- transform, and thus embody a persona. We don’t see Role.” “It incarnates a victory of “style” over “content,” Rader; we know it is Rader. So, who is this incapacitated “aesthetics” over “morality” of irony over tragedy.” It is woman dangling bound and gagged from a tree some- in these terms that Rader’s body of work, which ranges where? Does this deprivation of strength and speech, this from considerably degenerate text, image, drawing, representation of powerlessness connect with his idea of photography and installation, embeds itself in aesthetic womanhood? It is perhaps, in regard to psychoanalytic over morality. “Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad theory, a metaphor of castration. A form of pre-abject, axis of ordinary aesthetic judgement.”4 It also refers to where, at a loss of identity, Rader’s portrayed image Baroque, which was, in the seventeenth century, a term embodies neither subject or object, under the risk of referring to deviant, impure and irrational art, not unlike becoming just that; not nothing, but a “something that Camp. In its etymology, Baroque is related to a ‘deformed is not recognised as a thing.”8 In his action lies the risk pearl’, and ‘a wart’. The style is known for its dynamic of disembodiment. By covering or masking parts of the composition, diagonals and sense of ascension. body, they disappear from our sight, which makes us assess what is still there. These parts are no longer his The choice of photography points to the importance of own, a fine line between becoming something else and stillness, “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, losing (a part) of himself: something unbecoming or understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand uncanny. Additionally, Rader runs the actual risk of losing still.”5 The suspension is continuously interrupted, as if his body, in death by hanging. An interesting dualism; in there is little time, importance or patience. Suspension embodiment, there is a sense of desire, whereas in dis- in itself deals with transcendence. It is a type of body embodiment, dissolution, disguise or destruction seems play known to be practised by (modern−) primitives and its motive. Both transcend the body. BDSM culture. Long sessions can lead to phenomena like an out of body experience, ecstasy, visions, and orgasms. In suspension, –or ascension– there is an element of control. The object or subject in suspension is hanging To continuously interrupt this action, to capture it, does down, lowered down, or kept suspended: unable to move imply the importance of still image: of documentation either way. In ascension there is a sense of elevation: the over duration. The series may have been taken in a small unnatural, a higher power, a reference to the religious or timeframe. The lighting seems to indicate passing of time sublime. Like Odin sacrificing himself upon the tree Ygg- between the first and last photo, assuming the colour drasil, or the Hanged Man in Tarot. balance is reliable. But if this were a representation of something as process of movement –or impairment−, it In The Hanged Man, AA Bronson is hanged by the feet. would have done so more effectively as a video work. The studio photo is balanced and clean, the title refers to the Tarot card that carries the same name. Derived “Photographs may be more memorable than moving im- from a form of punishment in the middle ages, a figure ages, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. […] is suspended from a tree, bound by one foot. He is to be Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into given food and water until death. In Tarot however, inter- a slim object that one can keep and look at again.”6 pretations vary between a symbol of martyrdom or life in suspension. Reference to liminality seems more appropri- Not only is the photograph a mobile object, it has the ate to the work of Bronson, who describes this “moment potential to become an icon. For the viewer, enclosing of stasis”9, where the Hanged Man represents stagnation a persona or embodiment into an object of worship can and the unknown in his practise. transcend into obsession: in other words, a fetish. This fixation might give away Rader’s intent.

“At one end of the spectrum, photographs are objective data; at the other end, they are items of psychological science fiction. [...] even the most banal photograph- document can mutate into an emblem of desire.” 7

Rader is wearing women’s clothes: a sheer black long- sleeved-shirt and a white bra, a white skirt or dress of some sort, and white stockings. He seems to be wear- ing white gloves. His clothing arrangement refers to cross-dressing, transgenderism and/or transsexuality. There is a clear element of (sexual) deviance. The urge to AA Bronson, The Hanged Man, 2002 As Odin stares fixated down into the abyss for wisdom to reveal itself, Bronson too seems to be looking for an answer, whereas Rader is twisting and turning, moving his body, seemingly trying to escape. Rader is facing different angles but it is unclear what he is looking at, or whether he can see through the mask at all. There is no serenity or focus and more importantly, his identity is suppressed. Its embodiment is one of insult, repression and shame, masked and cloaked in clothes of others. He is looking inward, and his portraits are that of a stranger, a distorted, liminal persona10 as he is, ambiguously, both aggressor and victim of his own doing. Both are rendered unable to speak of the act, and therefore let the action speak of itself. These elements of sadomasochism play throughout his practice.

Rader’s act of pulling himself up to keep elevated is rem- iniscent of a series of performances by Danny Devos. In L’Age D’or Variation Belgicus performed by Club Moral in Bruges, 1987,11 Devos is bound by the feet, legs spread, and gagged by a pilot microphone. As he pulls a noose around his head and starts to hoist himself off the floor by grabbing the other side of the rope, he repeats “I wanna be injured”. His vocals are amplified and de- formed by Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven. In the L’Age D’or series, this performance is presented in front of an audi- ence, while others consist of private and intimate short super 8 films, shot by Van Kerckhoven as an hommage to their courtship. In these video documents, we see Devos on the ground face down, naked, hands bound and legs spread by a stick. They catch the atmosphere of Rader’s photographs, which are, –in regard of Devos and Van Ker- ckhoven’s hommage− perhaps more amatory than they seem. With their act, both Rader and Devos touch upon Georges Bataille’s concept of eroticism.

Club Moral, L’Age D’or / I wanna be injured #084, #092, #094, 1987

In Eroticism, Bataille states:

“We use the word eroticism every time a human being behaves in a way strongly contrasted with everyday stan- dards and behaviour. Eroticism shows the other side of a façade of unimpeachable propriety. Behind the façade are revealed the feelings, parts of the body and habits we are normally ashamed of.”12

Bataille stresses the importance of despoilment of beauty as essential to his take on eroticism. He notes that “ug- liness cannot be spoiled.” But who is to determine this beauty, or the fall thereof? In Rader’s stance, his attempt to ‘beautify’ himself with mask and makeup, dressed in ill-fitting women’s clothes leaves us with a slight sense of the uncanny. He did not necessarily despoil himself but seemingly attempts to do so regarding his representation of a woman, by binding, gagging, muting and essentially hanging her. In contrast, Van Kerckhoven follows her lov- er, stripped naked, face down in the dirt and legs spread, leaving him vulnerable while filming the whole ordeal. Both Rader and Devos become something else, –object, subject– in the eye of the camera, and therefore the view-

Club Moral, L’Age D’or nr 2 Variation Belgicus. Top – #090, bottom – #087, 1987 er. Besides a form of degradation, these actions seem es attire and scene, but remains bound and masked, like a celebration of perseverance, which is an obstinate displaying a single persona in every photo. Both play out quality in both Rader’s and Devos’, and Van Kerckhovens’ a different aesthetic, while Rader’s photos are crude and work. emphasize on scene, Sherman’s are meticulous and tech- nically balanced with a focus on portraiture. In Regarding the Pain of Others Sontag writes: “All images These figures down in the dirt are in a sense, an abject that display the violation of an attractive body are to a image. Even though “essentially different from “uncanni- certain degree, pornographic”,13 and “Photographs Objec- ness,” more violent, too, abjection is elaborated through a tify: They turn an event or person into something that can failure to recognise its kin.”17 These discarded bodies, be possessed.”14 These feelings of entitlement or posses- obscure, uncanny, unequal in form and detail, both seem siveness are not unfamiliar to romance, as is abuse. To human and feasibly real. They capture the transition capture anyone on camera is a keepsake, something to from subject to object to abject, as Sherman lies supine, hold on to, since we can’t always do so physically. Sontag staring into the distance and Rader, dug into a ditch and states that the act of photographing does in fact not rape masked beyond animation, their lack of vitality suggests or possess, but rather violates: “it may presume, intrude, they are soon to be consumed by their setting. trespass, distort, exploit”15 from a distance and with de- tachment. There is no sense of liability.

When we think of self-portraits, like those of Cindy Sherman, there is the same sense of the uncanny, which is something still recognisable but has undergone some transformation: that which is eerie and makes us un- comfortable. This can be artificial, or a mash of makeup, dress and flesh. It’s a“familiar thing that has undergone repression and then emerged from it”16, like a body part, especially when it is still able to move.

Most of Sherman’s self-portraits are of women, repre- sented often equally constrained like Rader’s, but not physically. There is no ligature or other means to hold them, yet they are somehow restrained. Starting from 1975 with the black and white Untitled Film Stills series, and moving into her 80s Centerfolds series, her charac- ters grew from attractive to increasingly less desirable. In this transition, her characters lose a certain glam- our and forfeit into a colourful but bleak environment. Clothes and hair are in disarray, her body damp and mo- tionless, eyes even glassier. When looking at Sherman’s Untitled #153 she is on the ground, laying in gravel, moss and covered with dirt. Her body motionless, eyes staring. Rader’s Untitled Polaroid –like Sherman, Rader did not title his photographs– taken somewhere between ’74 and ’91 will, for clarity, be indicated as #5. We see a patch of dirt, with something or someone in a ditch or shallow grave. On the left we see some clutter, like plastic sheet, tape and a shovel; material used for installation. The figure is mostly covered in dirt. The head and partial arm are sticking out of the ground, while the arm is slightly draped with what appears to be a transparent plastic. Other parts, like the head and part of the arm are covered with a brownish material, such as brown tape or a stock- ing. There is a piece of black cloth or rope around the neck, which is tied to something unidentifiable, presum- ably a branch in the back. A black line runs diagonally from the figure’s arm down, either rope or cable, but it is hard to tell. Partially covered by dirt, it seems to disap- pear next to the arm, under the sand; a cable shutter perhaps.

Above – Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985 Rader and Sherman obsessively repeat key elements. Below – Dennis Rader, Untitled #5, 1974-1991 Sherman makes use of different masquerades but strong- ly focuses on a varied display of femininity; Rader chang- This creates a question of context, as Sontag noted in On the reproduction. She is dressed in a white blouse, black Photography, the photograph changes content if placed skirt, sturdy black leather belt, and stockings that are in a diff erent scenario. We see and review them diff erent- held up by suspenders and black pumps.18 This outfi t has ly in a gallery, fashion magazine, or police report. We see a stronger erotic stance than that worn in Glatman’s pho- more images juxtaposed without additional information tos, where Dull wears a buttoned-up cardigan over a knee or context on the internet, collaged all together, often re- long dress. This creates a diff erent narrative for each ducing them to an abstraction. This either renders them series: the fi rst by Glatman, where Judy Dull is caught off meaningless or excites our imagination, often leading guard by someone that binds and gags her in a domestic to false content. In its etymology, the image relates to environment, the other by Willie where she is dressed for an apparition, a phantom representation of an idea. The the occasion, suggesting a more consensual scenario. If camera captures a truth that is prone to manipulation. we take into consideration certain characteristics, such Not only does the camera lie, we are complicit. Images as the newspaper being carefully placed on the fl oor to imply something; they entangle our truths, wishes, and ensure that her clothes aren’t soiled, we are given the desires, of both taker and viewer. impression that this photo shoot is not intended to come across as a violation, for either model or viewer. A telling feature is the contact between the photographer and III. Harvey Glatman, John Willie and Cindy Sherman model; in Willie’s series, Dull looks straight at the camera, with relaxed facial features, whereas with Glatman, she Looking at these black and white photos, we see seems highly distressed and looks away. model Judy Dull on a sofa chair. Both pictures roughly capture the same image, which is almost set up like a game of ‘spot the diff erence’ and shows a process of a mise-en-scène, where Glatman is mostly playing with Dull’s clothing arrangement. Her clothes are casual, wearing a buttoned-up cardigan with her over knee dress. Quality, light and sharpness of the photos diff er, making it an unlikely diptych. Both photos are crudely framed, cutting a part of Dull’s toes on the left, and compressing the furniture on the right. She is gagged, fi rst by cloth, later by rope. Her arms are behind her back, giving us the impression that they are tied. Bindings on her ankles move up along with her skirt, which shows another layer of undergarment. Her eyes, tensely focused away from the camera, keep us guessing what she is looking at. Harvey Glatman was a photographer disorganised in his practice; his work remains generally untitled but infa- mous. He was active in L.A. during the fi fties, where he hired models to pose for his shoots. His work comes across strongly sadosexual, and can be described as ‘fe- tish art’. Other ‘fetish artists’ are Tom of Finland, Nobuy- oshi Araki, Allen Jones and John Willie among others.

Whether Glatman was aware of John Willie’s work is unknown, but their photography bares a striking resem- blance. John Willie, who started out with cult magazine Bizarre and a comic named Sweet Gwendoline in the late forties, depicted various fetishes like high heels, bond- age, sadomasochism, corsets and amputee fetishism. His drawings include men, women and transvestites, which is why his work is described as having an open and pro- gressive nature.

Another interesting element that connects John Willie and Glatman is that they both hired Judy Dull to model for their bondage photographs, which gives us a unique opportunity to compare the outcome. In one series of Willie’s numerous sessions with Dull –it is said that he had ‘an old man’s folly’ for her– we see her in two diff er- ent positions, seated on a chair and on the fl oor, most likely in the same unkept basement. Her hair and makeup Above – Harvey Glatman, Untitled #1, appear to have been done, but it is hard to see the detail Below – Harvey Glatman, Untitled # 2, 1957 on account of the technical quality of either the photos or John Willie, Best of Bizarre

An interesting detail, pointed out by a bondage enthu- John Willie, Untitled #1, #2, 1946-1961 siast, is the distinction in quality of ‘rope work’. High quality bindings are a prominent feature in John Willie’s IIV. Bob Berdella, Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose work, and these are less elaborate and ‘professional’ in Glatman’s take. Glatman’s focus is on women who –are made to– embody a ‘damsel in distress’. His style seems to be a mix between boudoir and fashion photography, mainly because he controls the model’s clothes, hair and makeup, which are arranged and stylized. The photos do have a sense of eroticism. Although Dull is fully clothed, it revolves around themes of domination and control (both series do) but it is the non-consensual component that triggers it. The repetition and subject –a woman, debilitated but glamorous– and accompanied mise-en- scène add to the likeness of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills. In The Phantasmagoria of the Female Body on Sherman, Laura Mulvey points out that:

“While the poses are soft and limp –polar opposites of a popular idea of fetishized femininity (high heeled and corseted, flamboyant and exhibitionist)– fetishism returns in the formal qualities of the photography.”19

It is this formal quality that, in addition to a lack of physical restraint, makes the distinction between their otherwise relatable content. Glatman’s work is process based, literal and repetitive, he seems to have little in- Bob Berdella, Stoops 1986. terest in framing, or the technical quality of the photos and even though he does put the subject into context, he only zooms in, whereas Sherman leaves space for a more Looking at Stoops 1986, a black and white repro- elaborate narrative. John Willie incorporates his narrative, duction, –date unknown, and the originals are unavail- by illustrating and writing its context on the page with it, able– we see a man on a bed which is made up of various and by making it a collection; a magazine. This doesn’t fabrics of different dessins. The space looks crammed mean however that Glatman doesn’t have one, but it and messy or the photo is framed that way. His hands are seems –due to its disarray and infamy–solely narrated bound; a rod is placed between his arms and back fixing and directed by anyone but him. his position on the bed, while making it impossible to relax. There are various strands of rope around the head Berdella’s portrait series, which remains obscure, re- area, some around the neck and one seems to be pro- mind us of a slightly more familiar sight: Bob Flanagan’s truding from a piece of cloth serving as a gag. Judging work. In the field of art, he is better known or has at least from other photos taken at the same location, the rope enjoyed more notoriety. Flanagan, who started as a writer is tied to the metal bars of the bed. There is a clamp, at- and poet, shared his life-threatening disease, cystic fibro- tached to a piece of wood and wiring, clasped to his arm. sis, and masochist adventures together with Sheree Rose, His eyes are wide, bulging. There is a sense of weight- his partner, in the form of text, music, photography, film, lessness, as though he is levitating. In this photo, Stoops performance and installation. Flanagan, having suffered reportedly receives a 7,700-volt20 electroshock from Bob terrible stomach aches as a child, directed his attention Berdella, which is why his body is cramped up and lifted to his penis; masturbation was the only thing that could from the bed. temporarily relieve him from pain. He later started to experiment with his body, in search of different When Berdella’s photography came into the eye of the sensations, which he described as “fighting sickness with public, viewers reacted with fascination, shock and hor- sickness”. ror. His themes, which are heavily rooted in BDSM sub- culture, are not easy to look at. His portraits, often of gay In the documentary filmSICK: the life and death of Bob prostitutes, summon pain by means of physical empathy. Flanagan, Supermasochist we follow Bob Flanagan and When in college, Berdella supposedly was expelled for Sheree Rose in their daily routine. We see Flanagan killing a dog in the name of art. Interestingly, his last deteriorating and eventually die from his terminal illness. model wore nothing but a dog collar. We are shown photographs from their extensive body of work, taken by Rose. Most of them are of Flanagan in various states; bound, gagged, suspended, cut, beat- en, pierced, pissed on, shat on, penetrated, clipped, in chains, etcetera. In the two film stills fromSICK , marked as #1 and #2, we see Flanagan on a chair, connected to some kind of self-fabricated harness; a metal ring with a bunch of clothing pegs attached to it by strings. He appears to be sitting on a blood stained hospital gown, which is a likely result from piercing the scrotum. His body presses back against the chair’s banister while his hands dig into the arm posts to set himself against the pull on the other end, his face in agony.

In the documentary Flanagan elaborates on masochism in relation to control:

“People don’t think of the masochist as being a strong person, the stereotype is that the masochist is snivelling and weak and it’s actually not true, the masochist has to know his or her body perfectly well and be in full control of their body. In order to either give the control to somebody else or to give control to pain, so the masochist is actually a really strong person.”22

This sense of relinquished control is an important stim- ulus. Despite this, as he goes on, masochists don’t like to admit that they are, essentially, always in control. On the second photo, where Bob is laying on the sofa and where he seems more relaxed, wearing a nasal cannula to supply him with extra oxygen, he looks vulnerable. Again, his genitals are clamped. (See next page)

In the prologue of Bad Girls and Sick Boys by Linda S. Kauffman, she starts by saying:

“Collectively, the work of the woman and men whom I dis- cuss is too literal for art, too visceral for porn. These artists approach the body as material in every sense of the word: as matter –tangible and tactile– it is what matters most. The body is the material base, a methodological field for investigations of politics, history, identity.”23 Bob Berdella, above – Ferris 1985, below – Pearson 1987. not those of others. Perhaps this deviance ties in with uncleanliness –of spirit and body–, which in that same Abrahamic tradition, is female.

Unlike Rader, Devos, Sherman and Flanagan, who work their own bodies, Berdella and Rose not only photograph but work their subject as a material, and through their method the subject seems to become –or behave like– just that: a person or thing that is being dealt with. As they internalise these actions upon them, their objective is to overcome this ordeal into becoming: to arrive some- where, obtain something and agree with the situation, a consensus. It’s a play of submission and devotion, a rite of passage.

In Modern Primitives, Rose describes it as that:

“There is some spirituality involved in this. It’s like transcending what the body can feel as pain and turning it into pleasure and then turning it into a spiritual experience.”26

But it might internalize, become domestic; and render submissive. What do they –the models, the portrayed, the performers– become when their body becomes the material base of research and investigation of the other, at loss of autonomy?

V. On a Plane Equal to Death

Within the essence of body play, the body as a SICK: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, material; regardless if it is one’s own body or somebody Film Still #1 & #2 else’s; lies control. Control can be kept or given away, but whatever happens is essentially consensual. Consent, In Flanagan’s work, there is a sense of de-constructed and intent, in regard to this text is important: you may or male sexuality, first as Bob being subordinate to Sheree’s may not know, not all auteurs mentioned in this text are wishes, and second, a direct physical attack on the phal- considered artists. The general question is why; of what lus. Kauffman questions these acts, asking“Is Flanagan’s importance is ethicality, regarding the process of making sexuality “feminine” because it is masochistic?”24 and fol- a work of art? This attempt to look at parallels between lows up with; “Rather than disavowing castration anxiety, work of serial killers and artists is obviously questionable, Flanagan acts it out − he performs it. Rather than fetishiz- but if the general context is unknown to us, as presented ing the female body, he pokes and pierces his own.”25 in a gallery, or written about in relation to art theory, the works discussed are, arguably, quite captivating. As we have seen with Dennis Rader in the first chapter, who quite literally tries to project this feminine masquer- In Berdella’s Ferris 1985 and Pearson 1987 we see, ade, we can ask if, or why these perceived notions of besides bondage and gag, experimentation with syring- castration are associated with femininity. Is femininity, es. He would inject the men with drain cleaner, animal aside from Freud’s theory of deducted sexuality, a syn- tranquilizers and antibiotics. These men are not only onym of subjection? Is it, in relation to masochism, to be models, but also victims, kept at times for weeks on end, controlled, or even, to tolerate abuse? tortured, raped and photographed by Berdella after which It seems a reasonable assumption to say Rader’s dress he would eventually murder them. He had a staggering is a literal semblance of a metaphor that deals with amount of photographic material and accompanying text transference, a ritual that can involve; a type of dress, to document his actions. He treated them as research physical pain and/or mental summon. It is a trail of material, finding different ways to work and experiment endurance; suffering and pain play an essential role in with their bodies. Berdella’s last victim, Chris Bryson, got rites of passage and transformation, as they become a away by untying himself and jumping out of the second representation of the reality of death. Interestingly, it is story window, wearing nothing but a dog collar. Police not necessarily Rader, but his female persona that goes found over two hundred Polaroids of his victims in vari- through this passage. Self-infliction of pain is seen as ous conditions, and fairly detailed notes he kept on the problematic, as we are not –in our Abrahamic religious bizarre assaults, using code for different actions, like FF tradition– supposed to ‘hurt’ our bodies, and especially for fist-fuck, or CF for carrot or cucumber fuck. Serial killers often target prostitutes because general- become public, we most likely see them reproduced: ly their families are either unaware of their activities or scanned or copied, sometimes altered; blurring out become disconnected because of them. Harvey Glatman, detail, rendered black and white or cropped. The the first so called ‘want-ad killer’, targeted models who originals, uncovered when the auteur got caught, will were willing to show a little more skin, which made it probably remain in evidence. Due to moral implications, likely that they were not on best terms with their families, they are unlikely to be exhibited. if they even knew at all, making them an easy target. The aura of the original object; the photograph, used as Glatman, who was active in the fifties, placed ads in the an artifact, is seen in a different context and by a wider newspapers asking for aspiring models; he wanted to audience. Ultimately, its aura, which refers to a subtle, build up their career and would offer them higher pay emanate extension of physicality, although reproduced than what was common. In July 1957 Glatman persuaded is still eminent, and transfers an imprint additionally Judy Dull to model for a cover shoot. After a few photos, dense and gloomy. It remains an artifact prone to being Glatman, forcing himself on Dull and losing his virginity, fetishized, which is elaborately saved and shared, on raped her several more times over the course of the day, numerous online galleries and fan sites as well as offline and would make her watch his favourite comedy series media. The originals, –which is what the reproductions with him in between ‘sessions’. During these actions, he have become– “here and now, in its unique existence in took various photographs of which the process is de- a particular place”28 have not lost their authenticity, they scribed in the book Signature Killers: simply migrated to a different context, where there is no need for a set place, maintaining, if not expending their “They were images of Glatman’s detailed methodology of aura. The ‘here and now’ is forever captured within the murder, which showed a sequence of terror by re-creating image: a testament, where Judy Dull is captured, locked the entire psychological arc of the crime. He first photo- into an artifact that embodies her last living moment, and graphed each victim with a look of innocence on her face will –now forever on the net– contain her afterlife. as if she were truly enjoying a modelling session. The next series represented a sadist’s view of a sexually terrorized The context of the internet is compelling regarding victim with the impending horror of a slow and painful images like these, whose authenticity and authorship is death etched across her face. The final frame depicted the questioned and speculated upon, for it deals with the victim’s position that Glatman himself had arranged after power of suggestion. As outlined above, the (formal) he strangled her.”27 similarities of the work by Glatman and John Willie are apparent; both auteurs were active in the fifties, working When we look at the published photographs of Judy in the City of Los Angeles, booking the same models and Dull, we could try to analyse at what point, of this work working with the same subject. It is likely that Glatman method described above, they were taken. There is a kept his photographs to himself, and was not socialising trace of innocence captured, but her posture and facial with the Bizarre cult of Willie. There is no known comment expression tells us Dull probably already sensed the or statement made by Willie on the murders, but in the interlude of the second stage, where he starts assaulting book Best of Bizarre, Eric Kroll writes the following: and eventually raping her. In other photos, we see her on the ground, at this point, her cardigan is unbuttoned “Conversely, it is rumoured that Willie was greatly dis- completely and she is still looking away from the camera, turbed by the death of one of his models, Judy Ann Dull. having the same anxious look on her face as we have She was the third victim of Harvey Glatman, the Los seen above. In the other, she is laying face down, hands Angeles “Bondage Murderer” […] It is said that Willie was and ankles tied, next to what appears to be the coffee very troubled that his photographs and art might have table. What makes these photographs so ambivalent, is contributed in some way to this hideous crime.”29 the partly consensual aspect of their meeting, since Dull accepted to model for a ‘detective magazine cover shoot’, In Modern Primitives, Fakir Musafar talks about his contri- thinking that the bindings were part of the scene, but bution to Bizarre, and his contact with Willie, wherein he soon realised they were not for show. states:

These photographs have an extended aura because “In 1958 [sic] one of his favourite models, 19-year-old Judy of the context we came to know. Drawing on Walter Dull, was Killed by Harvey Glatman, the “Bondage Mur- Benjamin’s concept of the aura, which he regards as derer.” Perhaps the shock prompted him to leave; he died lost in work that is reproduced, therefore rendering it august 6, 1962 at age 60 at Catel, Guernsey, near France.”30 unauthentic, is an interesting dualism if we relate it to this kind of snuff photography. Emulating snuff films, This implies that John Willie was aware of the potential these photographs capture the process of a murder, danger of publishing images that illustrate, and in a way, which are unlikely to be reproduced by the auteur as glorify harm to others. It remains a modern discourse they are incriminating evidence. Unlike snuff films, that sparked by violent representation, impelled by a fear that seem to thrive on the publishing possibilities, sharing viewers might act out these perhaps suggestive images, on the internet in anonymity, rendering authorship to exploited and condoned by the media. speculation and authenticity questionable, which is part of the excitement. When incriminating photographs Suggestion and interpretation –or speculation– opposed to the literal and real seem preferred, when approaching art. It is something that we can project onto, and as long as something stays in the context of art, –where we consider ourselves safe, because it is somehow not ‘real’– many things are possible. When we look at the work of Dennis Rader, who produced a vast amount of self-portraits by re-enacting the deaths of his victims, we could state his output is quite artistic.

Rader used his victims’ clothes and other artifacts, to photograph post mortem ‘installations’ where he would position the bodies, change their attire and place artifacts on or near them. Besides photographs, Rader worked on collages, drawings and stories, while working out concepts like, what he called “afterlife concept of victim”31, where the people he killed –and therefore becoming his– would in some way serve him in afterlife. The series of re-enactments often took place outside, where he had the privacy and opportunity to reminisce on past experiences and, to act out or capture those facets he had no time to assimilate during and after homicide. Based on his actions, and assisted with artifacts taken from his victims, he would relive the experience. What is interesting is that, perhaps because there was no accom- plice to pose for him, Rader used his own body to repre- sent his victims, turning the act full circle by simultane- ously disembodying; losing control and embodying them; regaining it. In this process of transference he shifts from one group, the murderer, to the other, the victim. In a sense, by re-enacting these acts, he continued the process of their deaths. Just as in ritual, re-enactments maintain their relevance and relationship to contempo- rary society. As noted before, it is a trail of endurance, a representation of the reality of death. Rader’s acts, and those of others, function as a modern rite, which may explain its unwavering enticement in historical and con- temporary culture.

If we look at the artists and murderers mentioned, and we disregard their intent, motive and homicides for the sake of argument, the remnant is something that can be reviewed within the context of art theory. What remains is: do we review the work in its ‘final state’, or is the process equally important? If an artist works within the realm of death, is her/his involvement relevant? It’s a question of integrity. The level of involvement gives us information on the work’s context: it blurs or enriches its final state. You can oppose to the ethical circumstances in which a work came about or question what it address- es. In reviewing it as art, there seems no other conse- quence than to simply conclude: this exists, and we can learn something from its existence, it does not have to be engaging or sensible. It is a result, reflection, interpreta- tion, objection –and abjection– of our society. In essence, our eyes are lied to, but our gaze is not innocent ■ Footnotes

1 Bataille, Georges. “The Cruel Practice of Art.” Editorial. Médicine De France 1946: n. pag. Georges Bataille – The Cruel Practice of Art. Supervert.com. Web. 11 Sept. 2016. 2 “Scattered among all the folders were Polaroid snapshots. Rader had snapped most of them himself while engaged in various activities…” Douglas, John E., and Johnny Dodd. “The Capture and Arrest of BTK.” Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story behind the Thirty-year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass, 2008. 128-39. Murders.ru. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. 3 Sontag, Susan. On Photography. London, England: Penguin Modern Classics, 2008. 128. Print. 4 Sontag, Susan. “Notes On “Camp”.” The Partisan Review (1964). Susan Sontag. The Partisan Review. Web. 20 Oct. 2016. 5 Sontag, Susan. On Photography. London, England: Penguin Modern Classics, 2008. 162. Print. 6 Idem, 17. 7 Idem, 162. 8 Kristeva, Julia, and Leon S. Roudiez. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia UP,1982. Print. 9 The Globe and Mail (CA) Sholem Krishtalka, Published; Oct. 08, 2013. "For Bronson, the notion of a group dynamic has been the driving force of his entire career’: “When Jorge [Zontal] and Felix [Partz, the other two members of General Idea] died, I found myself very solitary, I didn’t know how to work as an individual artist. I was in this funny, weird moment of stasis. And then the hanged man appears, that piece [a triptych of Bronson suspended upside- down from his heels], which is really not knowing what I’m doing or where I’m going, or how to make art.” 10 Turner, Victor. “Liminality and Communitas.” The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure. Chicago: Aldine, 1969. Victor Turner. Excerpt from The Ritual Process. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. “The attributed of liminality or of liminal personae (“threshold people”) are necessarily ambiguous, since this condition and these persons elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space. Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial. As such; their ambiguous and indeterminate attributes are expressed by a rich variety of symbols in the many societies that ritualize social and cultural transitions. Thus, liminality is frequently likened to death, to being in the womb, to invisibility, to darkness, to bisexuality, to the wilderness, and to an eclipse of the sun or moon.” 11 Club Moral – L’Age D’Or Nº2 (1987). Dir. Danny Devos and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven. Perf. Danny Devos and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven. YouTube. Club Moral/Performan, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. 12 Bataille, Georges. Eroticism. Trans. Mary Dalwood. London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2012. 109. Print. 13 Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. London: Penguin, 2004. 85. Print. 14 Idem, 72. 15 Sontag, Susan. On Photography. London, England: Penguin Modern Classics, 2008. 13. Print. 16 Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” The Uncanny (1919). 15. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. 17 Kristeva, Julia, and Leon S. Roudiez. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia UP, 1982. 5. Print. 18 The photos are in black and white, but in regard of Willie’s body of work we can assume thesewere the colours and material of Dulls attire. 19 Mulvey, Laura. “The Phanstasmagoria of the Female Body.” Cindy Sherman. Paris: Flammarion/Jeu De Palme, 2006. 284-303. Print. 20 Known under the terms electro play or ‘electrotorture’ in BDSM body play, –in this case– 7,700 volt is not deadly, in the right circumstances. This also depends on the amount of milliampere used. If received for a short time, 7,700 volts will only cause the muscles to cramp. 21 SICK: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. Dir. Kirby Dick. Perf. Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose. Watchfree. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. 22 Idem. 23 Kauffman, Linda S. Bad Girls and Sick Boys: Fantasies in Contemporary Art and Culture. Berkeley, CA: U of California, 1998. 1. Print. 24 Idem, 24. 25 Idem, 26. 26 Vale, V., and Andrea Juno. Modern Primitives: An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment & Ritual. San Francisco, CA: Re/Search Publications, 1989. 113. Print. 27 Keppel, Robert D., and William J. Birnes. “The ‘Lonely Hearts Killer’ and the Murder of Shirley Bridgeford.”Signature Killers. New York: Pocket, 1997. 30-38. Google Books. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. 28 Benjamin, Walter. “III.” ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. 21-22. Monoskop.org. Web. 29 Jan. 2017. 29 Willie, John, and Eric Kroll. “John Willie Is Bizarre.” John Willie’s Best of Bizarre. Köln: Taschen, 2001. 9.Print. 30 Vale, V., and Andrea Juno. Modern Primitives: An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment & Ritual. San Francisco, CA: Re/Search Publications, 1989. 22. Print. 31 Wenzl, Roy, Tim Potter, L. Kelly, and Hurst Laviana. Bind, Torture, Kill: The inside Story of the Serial Killer next Door. New York, NY: Harper, 2007. Print. “He told the cops he also fantasized about enslaving them in the afterlife. In his writings he called that AFLV, short for Afterlife Concept of Victim. Joseph Otero would be his bodyguard. Julie Otero would bathe him and serve him in the bedroom. Joey would be his servant and a sex toy. Josie would be his “young maiden.” He would instruct her in sex, bondage, and sadomasochism.”

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Robin van der Heijden, 2017

Supervised by Alexandra Landré

BA Thesis realised as a part of the Fine Arts department study programme at KABK (Royal Academy of Art the Hague)

Available online at http://www.cruelpractice.art/

Design by Karina Zavidova

Fonts used: Clear Sans by Daniel Rathinghan, Intel & Autopia by Antoine Gelgon

Thank you Anthony, Karina, Kevin, Sarah, Silva

Chapter titles I&V Derived from Georges Bataille’s The Cruel Practice of Art, 1949

The Hague, March 2017