Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Jame

A fascinating artist with a well educated technique. His compositions show a central striking erotic image accompanied by (almost floating on top of) a collage-like assembly of characters, body fragments and objects which give clues to the situation we are watching. The backgrounds consist of busy, graphic patterns. Jame - The Painter (Detail)

The S&M story in his pictures is interesting and erotic, the spread eagled figure below would grace any dungeon scene and in other pictures he shows men suspended from cranes or being painted on their bodies by an unseen artist.

Jame - Firecracker

Although there is some use of shading the figures musculature is largely defined by simple, inked, spidery lines, sometimes completely surrounding the muscle group. like a contour on a map or a boundary, rather than showing a shadow which would highlight it's 3-Dimensional shape. The detail also extends to showing veins and bones in hands etc.

The overall effect is reminiscent of 1980's magazine cartoons (Bill Ward, 'King'). The faces and poses of his supporting characters in Firecracker, however, seem to hark back to the1960's when young men were often presented in slightly feminine terms with juicy, smiling lips, lush eyelashes and exaggerated cheeks. This portrayal doesn't quite gel with the central S&M image which is not caricatured in the same way. Perhaps it's simply showing how times have changed. For me the combination of this odd collection of characters with the dubious firecracker joke is a bit spooky.

I'm not sure that the self-consciously arty style enhances the immediate erotic impact, but these pictures do repay study and fuel the imagination, which perhaps is a greater achievement.

Sorry no link info, but his pictures turn up at GMBA from time to time (link in sidebar)

For earlier articles in this series click on the label A-Z below.