Rader - “Beaten”
Brad Rader is an
interesting artist. This picture is probably one of his best known
images, a study in unrestrained anger and violence. The situation
seems to be consensual judging from the state of arousal of the
recipient but you wonder if boundaries are being crossed. The
equipment on display, an odd mixture of standard 'dungeon'
paraphenalia and potentially lethal household tools, does nothing to
dispell the sense of danger. It's a disconcerting image if you
reflect upon it, comparable with Greasetank's cruel sadism and makes
the average, real-life S&M encounter seem quite tame, but I
suspect this daring picture brutally portrays an unspoken temptation
that lurks in the soul of many fetishists.
Rader - “Burnt
Oranges”
“Burnt Oranges”
is equally challenging. Is it depicting a lovers' tiff between an
older and younger man - or something more sinister? A hapless cabin
boy trapped into extra duties on his rich employer's yacht? Power and
coercion fantasies are the foundations of S&M fetish but this
simple picture lays it bare, all the more disturbing because the
protagonists look so unequal. Rader uses a completely different
drawing style here, cleverly invoking a decadent 20's atmosphere
(like Prevot does). The figure drawing and composition also reminds me of
the work of 'Teddy of Paris' (who I have yet to review) but in fact
Rader uses a wide variety of styles and does sometimes mimic other
artists.
Rader - “Hot and
Hairy”
“Hot and hairy”
is vanilla in comparison but amazingly sexy. A muscular, hairy man
gets dressed, seemingly unaware of the young man in the doorway
casually lusting after his body. I particularly like Rader's sensuous
depiction of the T-shirted observer showing that he can draw
realistic figures and capture male traits. The relationship between
the two men is undefined but the flag on the wall suggests this might
be the younger one's fantasy. As for the bizarre portculis headboard
on the bed, this could signify an interest in dungeons, toy soldiers
- or maybe nothing at all!
Rader - “Love For
Sale”
In “Love for
Sale” Rader reverses the hot and hairy scenario with telling
effect. He exquisitely captures the immature awkwardness and innocent
pleasure of youth and contrasts it with the frustrations and
degeneracy of later life in the form of a drunken, dishevelled,
overweight adult leering in through the doorway. More illicit desires
are lurking here, we're back in Harry Bush temptation territory but
with the lust explicitly shown and a disturbing domestic setting. The
college paraphenalia, body hair and the subject of the song suggest
that the young man is old enough, but he doesn't particularly look
it. Fortunately (for my sensibilities at any rate) the desire goes
unfulfilled and that artistic restraint allows us to see a piquant
commentary on the reality of gay men growing old, 'Hot and Hairy'
seems a long time ago now.
Rader - “Prison
Scene”
Anger, Violence,
Coercion, Lust, Rader's work is a compendium of fetish essences with
their ambiguities and paradoxes explicitly revealed. Superficially,
this prison scene could be about shaving, ritual blood mingling or
outright mutilation. Rader's humourous slant takes the edge off,
suggesting a boyish prank is in progress, but the harsh, glinting
blade, the legs prised open, the contrasting states of arousal and
the inescapable bars, leave no doubt that the real subject of this
picture is fear, literally naked fear. I've rarely seen it so
graphically expressed although it's an emotion which is present by
implication in most S&M activity. Fear of course is linked with
sexual release by nature (survival of the species and all that) which
maybe tells you something about the sexual behaviour of oppressed
minorities. Rader shows us things about ourselves we didn't really
know.
Rader - “Barn
Flogging”
Out of fear comes
anger, which brings us full circle back to the beginning of this
article and another brutal punishment scene. But this time the
participants are not the aging adults of my opening example, playing
out their world-weary abuses. Here the victim is young and clean cut
while the whip is in the hands of a man who is ruggedly handsome and
muscular and who, were it not for the disfiguring, out-pouring of
anger, would be the epitome of attractive male virility in it's
prime, every young man's hero. Perhaps it's fanciful, I can see in
this picture a mirror held up to our own feelings - pain repaid in
kind, innocent love punished, suffering shared.
I don't drool over
Raider's men as I do with Tom of Finland's (for example). The
distorted anatomy and harsh shadowing isn't sensual but it brings out
the drama and emotion of his situations in a way that you can't
ignore. I regard most erotic art as simple entertainment, but looking
at these drawings I feel that the artist has reached deep into his
soul to draw out and force onto paper feelings that are not
comfortable and which are actually quite hard to communicate in a
tangible way.
It's quite an achievement.
Raider's web site
is called Flaming
Artist and has a selection of images showing other equally
interesting facets of his work.
For other articles in this series
click on the A-Z label below or use the search box to find a specific
artist
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