ARTIST'S STATEMENT: ARABELLA CLARKE

My art centres on attraction and repulsion, beauty and horror, preservation and decay and the Gothic. It is about vegetarianism and the unnecessary need for meat in our society through sex as a feminine object to be ridiculed or as a male object to be ridiculed by feminists. I also want people to think about the relationship between religion and sex and our society. I also want society to open up about certain themes or issues in a positive light.
  
My fetish art looks at the untactility of sexuality. It draws upon S & M and the violation of women. It is like a feminist horror movie, where women who are usually portrayed by the media and men as weak, sexual and tactile become the opposite: a gross reality and dominant fear and threat towards men: created by men's afflictions upon their societal stigmata. It draws upon a woman's point of view of how men view women. Sex and blood dominate the picture as a powerful theme, where usually blood and periods are silenced by society's taboos.

"Gazardiel Angel", is the angel of reawakening and new beginnings and encourages enlightenment. This angel is the guardian of the sunrise and sunset, hence the bright U.V. colours I have used in the picture, representing the sunrise. I see this angel as a key figure.

"Whoring Nails", is a reminder of a fight I had with a woman once who gouged my back with her nails, drawing blood in a vampire pub, so I decided to do a piece of artwork about it!

"Untitled Landscape", is left untitled for you to draw your own conclusions about this picture, by me prompting the viewer by suggesting a question about the relationship between sex and religion and society through this picture. I want people to think for themselves about this. I have also made this picture look beautiful in colour to confuse or question the viewer's immediate reaction about the subject matter of the picture as perhaps being a bad thing or bad when spoken about together in person or in society.

"The Dark Ages", looks back to the primitive, but still powerful flame and primitive times. I want society to think back to primitive times, when perhaps taboos were not built by society or civilisation and compare freedom and taboo with now and then. Has society lost its real soul by hiding under the carpet of civilisation?

"The Reign of the Mad Vampire Princess", looks at the relationship between women and society and of their portrayal in literature and culture as either mad whores or virgins and nothing inbetween. Also the relationship between women's behaviour during their monthly cycle and society's taboo about monthly's.

"Evil Nun", also looks at the portrayal of nuns within society: either as quiet and silenced or as naughty nuns within society's comedy. Why do so many Goth/ Metal C.D.s depict nuns? Has society discarded religion or has religion been made stronger by becoming a relevant source within subcultures or society? The nun represents a woman with a crucifix hushing her sexuality, though the sexuality still bleeds out of the woman between the crucifix and lips, like a stigmata.

"Burlesque Dancer", has no suggestion in the whole picture of her being a burlesque dancer and suggests that we society should not judge a book by its cover.

"Arachnophobia", represents a woman being suffocated by society with lack of freedom. I want people to think about women's positions in society and their relationship with it.  I want people to think about the feminist movement and ask that following the good of the feminist movement- are women now free enough within society? Can women today ever be fully free within society and its stigmatas or will the lack of freedom of some of the past for women keep creeping like a spider and crawling through society? Are women more free now or back in the past within certain civilisations and societies and cultures? I also want to challenge people's views of spiders as horrible creepy crawlies, by creating a beautiful contrasting colour in the picture.

"Horror", is about the horror that everyone and society experiences at least once in their lifetime. The colour is bright blue representing an electrical shock colour. It is vidid like a nightmare. The colour is also beautiful- behind the picture of horror is always a better day.

"Brave New Biology and Alien Sex: Meat Landscape Series",
"Skull Anonymous: Meat Landscape Series",
"Biomechanical Landscape",
 are from a series of landscapes of octopus', representing an alien landscape. They are Gothic, freaky, alien and abortive in nature through their abstract texture and black and white U.V. glow. They are horror film nightmare material and represent an age of industrial mechanical nihilism in a biomechanical landscape, where flesh is becoming redundant, as we become slaves to the machines of creative abortions and where sex is on longer the primary source of creating life, where the unnatural is becoming ever more prevalent in our society. Think about cloning and test tube babies, e.t.c. What does flesh mean to people in an age of post-modernism? Is science sometimes like Frankenstein?

"Sacrificed", was a commission I did for a horror film in Edinburgh using special effects make-up. The humour of the film took to me well. I liked the portrayal of this woman as a sex mad violent woman within a horror film with great humour.

"Zombie", and, "Zombie Neck", were special effects zombie make-up test shoots I did for a film, which I'm currently working on. It represents the scares and fears of society and infections of society.

"Coffin and Corpse at Dawn", was a study of light of U.V. light and natural light, representing natural life and unnatural death. It represents a peak view of looking into a coffin between this world and the next.

"Epidemic Feast", is U.V. in colour and represents U.V. nuclear reactive food and reminds people of the disasters of nuclear disposal and accidents. It reminds us to be careful with our original, natural food sources and to look after them and the world's resources and the world around us.

"Blood and Guts", represents flesh and blood and guts, like a gun shot wound or splattered brain. It is also shaped like an egg and has the guts to laugh at us as a dying end to a new beginning. I want people to think about cloning and the ethical uses of cloning for science's purposes only to be born to be used and destroyed in some cases- the horror of birth.

"Altar Ghost", is spooky and ghostly and misty in nature and represents the mist and loss of direction one can experience in their own life.

“Hiroshima”, represents nuclear warfare through its nuclear radiating colours but also reminds us of the basics of life, for example, food and reminds us of food that has been destructively radiated through nuclear waste or warfare and reminds us to be careful with our natural resources and care for them.

"Demon", represents the hells of depression and the fears and oppressions of society. She is staring up at us in the face with temptation and madness from the iron hot pits of hell.

"Spell", is a representation of transformations: the woman turns from solid into liquid. It reminds us that nothing is permanent and that we all disintegrate after death. It also represents women disappearing into the background of society.

Cabarazzi - An Exhibition of Photographs by Dominic Shannon
Blood Lust Exhibition - Goth Horror Photography Exhibition
stART- London Photography Exhibition on Street Art
Latin Music Photography Exhibition at the Greenote Restaurant by Sally Evans