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Artworks
Alexis HUNTER 1948-2014
Lust in pursuit of Desire, 1989Etching, hand coloured
Edition of 1476 x 59 cm'A cat and a rat, pictured thirteen years apart: which is lust and which desire? Which the succubus – the sexually voracious female demon that preyed on sleeping men –...'A cat and a rat, pictured thirteen years apart: which is lust and which desire? Which the succubus – the sexually voracious female demon that preyed on sleeping men – and which the incubus, its male counterpart? A number of Hunter’s paintings carry elements from Henri Fuseli’s painting The Nightmare (1781) which showed a sleeping young woman arched across a bed with a dog-faced incubus squatting on her lower belly (that work was so celebrated in its day that it inspired a similar scene in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.) Lucy Lippard has written about Hunter deliberately playing with legibility in her photo series, denying us a clear view into the action. She also describes their “about to happen-ness.” Not only can we not quite make out what it is we’re seeing, we’re made aware that we’re only party to a glimpsed fragment within a sequence of events that extend before and after. A cat and a rat move around a woman’s naked lap. Her hand seems to coerce and manipulate their actions, though who is tormenting – or pursuing – who remains unclear' - Hettie Judah1of 2
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