Stacked Stacks: Nude Bookshelves

Although these aren’t banned books, Spanish photographer David Blazquez exhibited a collection of photographs that help to discuss individual perceptions of offensive material. 

The photos are of the human form as furniture and happen to be “self-portraits.” Blazquez is the subject of each photograph he took and reworked with photoshop.  Various blogs feature a blurb or photo about the work with the image showcased here, a human bookshelf. 

Art, no matter the form, is subject to interpretation.  It is subjective with  meaning imbued based on the experiences and beliefs of the viewer.  Rarely is there a “right” or “wrong” interpretation.  Even if an artist has a message for the piece, once the work is presented to other people, it takes on multiple guises.

There were some who found the human shelves to be cool and were intrigued by the concept as art and the various messages it conveyed: 

I think it’s actually quite brilliant–it’s a MALE figure in the domestic environment, a departure from the typical female representation.  Additionally, he is nude, another departure. Demeaning and demoralising shouldn’t be part of the judgment, since the photographer is the model. It is a bit creepy, but I am glad we don’t live in a world where all art is sanitized and safe, and I like that some people get icked out by it.  That means we all have different tastes.

But there was also a denunciation of the work which is a common cry amongst those who wish to ban that which bothers them; they find it offensive and/or disturbing.  The human furniture was likened on Apartment Therapy to photos of torture at Abu Gharib and porn, labeled as demeaning and elitist. 

AT editors, do you realize that this is a sexual fetish called “fornophilia”?  It’s a subcategory of Sado-Masochistic practices.  I know this because I’m a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance and I’ve studied radical sub-cultures, especially in performance.  The entire point of this kind of practice is to completely humiliation, dehumanize, and inflict suffering on the “sub” (subordinate partner) for the pleasure and entertainment of the “dom” (dominant partner).  I think this artist is laughing up his sleeve at all the “normal people” who are taking this seriously as art.  This guy did this because he has a fetish, and part of the fetish is being seen by others in these humiliating poses.  I’m surprised that AT posted this.  Frankly, it’s porn.

Rather than accepting the disturbing conclusions and learning from them, some people would rather shut all offensive material, regardless of its educational value, away.  This is how statues and biblical characters ended up with fig leaves.

Balzquez may have been attempting to “explore the concept of objects, nudity and the self-portrait” as stated on Design Boom, but public perception involves personal morals and taste, so what the artist intended is not always the reaction.

The same holds for books.  Whereas one reader may look at the material in TinTin Au Congo and see  an opportunity to teach children about past-held interpretations of different cultures, someone else sees children continuing on and adopting racist beliefs.  Neither viewpoint is wrong or right–just different. 

Sometimes they are sicking and disturbing, derogatory and offensive.  Not all art or books are happy little bunnies. But no one person or group is any more authoritative in deciding what should and should not be allowed into the public sphere.  But once you say that no one is allowed to see certain things the problem arises that an avenue of self-learning and discovery is removed; we are told that we are incapable of thinking for ourselves.

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Tagged as: ART, banned books, censorship, perspective