ASGER CARLSEN: HESTER
Posted by Collective
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
12 Comments Leave A Comment
Follower says:
January 9, 2013 at 1:27 pmDisturbing, doesn’t feel like an ISO50 post.
JW says:
January 9, 2013 at 1:40 pmtrue. it reminds me of the movie “I Come with the Rain”
Chigliak says:
January 9, 2013 at 3:07 pmAlso reminds me a bit of this Klaxon’s video (NSFW)
http://goo.gl/qkUG7
Fraga says:
January 9, 2013 at 3:58 pmChris cunningham did a similar exercise for rubber johnny.
Sean says:
January 9, 2013 at 8:50 pmThis reminds me of H.R. Giger’s work, but in the flesh. I’m not really into the grotesque, however.
Lucas says:
January 9, 2013 at 9:22 pmProvocative isn’t the word I’d choose. Yes, it is intriguing, but its more disturbing than anything.
BRAD says:
January 10, 2013 at 1:44 amAs 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
Patrick says:
January 10, 2013 at 6:35 amdefinitely 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.
KYLE says:
January 10, 2013 at 10:08 ami 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.
Jarson says:
January 10, 2013 at 1:43 pmI 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.
kalifa dong says:
January 15, 2013 at 8:09 amstartling at first – with a second look as mentioned above, it’s interesting and worth appreciating.
just had another look – gag!
jazzy says:
January 28, 2013 at 11:53 amutterly disgusting