The fantastical black-and-white nudes of Asger Carlsen‘s Hester series are nothing if not provocative. The NY-based artist works in limbs and lumps, torsos and bulges, constructing figures that are human and yet not quite, and “shooting” them in gritty greytones. The resulting images are alternately grotesque, graceful, and thought-provoking. If you can suppress your gag reflex long enough, Carlsen’s deformed forms possess a strange beauty, and an unblinking skepticism about photography’s capacity for realism.
Posted by: Todd Goldstein | Twitter: @armsongs
Disturbing, doesn’t feel like an ISO50 post.
true. it reminds me of the movie “I Come with the Rain”
Also reminds me a bit of this Klaxon’s video (NSFW)
http://goo.gl/qkUG7
Chris cunningham did a similar exercise for rubber johnny.
This reminds me of H.R. Giger’s work, but in the flesh. I’m not really into the grotesque, however.
Provocative isn’t the word I’d choose. Yes, it is intriguing, but its more disturbing than anything.
As Fraga mentioned, this just a copy of Chris Cunningham’s work for Rubber Johnny. The booklet that comes with the film has a load of stills that, personally, I find much more disturbing than these. Something about teeth, hair and various orifices that stimulates your gag reflex 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oQCmu6-thQ
definitely gag reflex worthy. Still interesting. I always find taking a second look at art like this allows me to appreciate what the artist is really trying to do. At first glance its hard to swallow.
i knew it reminded me of something, and, yea, it was rubber johnny.
i at first thought this was a vulgar post, being at work and nervous of passerbys seeing what i’m seeing, but came to see it as a rather nice set of photos. as mentioned, hair, teeth and orifices usually gross me out, but this artist has tastefully left all that out.
I feel like these are very different from the Chris Cunningham images, the prints are honestly really beautiful. The 5th down from the top is incredible.
startling at first – with a second look as mentioned above, it’s interesting and worth appreciating.
just had another look – gag!
utterly disgusting