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Convulsive Viewing
Emil Holmer's work always packs an unexpected punch; it is direct, immediate and affects us on a physical level.
His recent paintings propose images that enter our bodies through unexpected orifices, using unexpected devices. Gaping assholes, mouths -screaming or choking-, wide-eyed stares and flaring nostrils enrapture the viewer's gaze and aided by a daggered piece of iron, an axe or a whetted knife, prise her open, leaving her gutted and convulsed.
Each work forces us into a position of defence, yet denies us any chance to define an enemy. Troops of sharpened implements are pointed forebodingly at us from all sides like bayonets. Nearly every element functions as punctum, puncturing our visual field and scaring our mind with unavoidable afterimages.
Reminiscent of a Surrealist canvas, his work is an image-symphony of dangerous elements in uncanny poses. Our gaze is dazzled by the plethora of different objects. The too-muchness, inherent in every depicted scene almost creates a blur that, straining the viewer's eyes evokes pupil-dilation: a sexualisation of the gaze.
Like Freud's primal scene -the act of copulation performed by our parents that we have all (supposedly) witnessed- the viscerality of what is seen breeches our defence mechanism and forces us into a libidinally undischarged state. The image holds us in its sway. In a moment of astonishment, wonderment and awe, we are thrown back upon ourselves and double over.
Generally, we recover from such moving encounters by seeking refuge; we try to find security in 'the known'. Already the expression -without achieving any results- of our drive to understand, to figure out and to know makes us feel safe.
It is a trajectory initiated by our unavoidable erotic drive, the drive that incessantly 'yearns for', 'ascends to' and which governs our striving towards understanding.
While the faculty of understanding necessitates representation, a re-presentation of the images Holmer proposes is incommensurable with their visceral content. We do not want to re-call them, but we feel an almost voyeuristic compulsion to look and ultimately we become attracted by the unmediated rawness.
Fittingly, Holmer's most recent work is inspired by the palpable unease that constitutes the atmosphere of porn video stores. These spaces, often seedy backrooms or badly ventilated cellar units, function as displaced and repressed areas in our society's collective consciousness. Here the atmosphere smells of the sweat evoked by the stress of an inner conflict where our 'lowbrow' voyeuristic tendency is at stake; the same sweat that lingers at newsstands, where our gaze is almost automatically drawn to the top shelf.
Similarly, our eyes are riveted to these canvases, which, without overtly paying lip service substantiate André Breton's dictum that beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all.
David Ulrichs (art critic)
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