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| Viste - 2 Palle (2 balls) |
1
Viste styles his work as bear art but in his fetish work his
men are not typical members of that clan. They tend to be middle-aged, Latin, slightly
podgy and not particularly hairy. They are usually shown as the inmates of a
grim, military-style fortress or prison. Within these walls they are subjected
to a variety of sado-masochistic tests, trials or punishments with a distinctly
sexual flavour. This example has a prison setting but there’s more of a sense
of military training going on, intended to develop endurance, team work and
loyalty to one’s colleagues.
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| Viste - Cerro Bastone (Oak stick) |
2
This is clearly a punishment
scenario and there’s a very formal set up with the subject placed on a raised
platform in the middle of an (empty) fortress courtyard. At the same time there’s
an improvised quality to the set up with a roughly hewn post held in place by
crude wedges, suggesting that a special example is being made of this man. The
victim’s arms and limbs are pulled back allowing full access to his naked body
by his tormentor. In fact what seems to be in progress is taunting and humiliation
rather than brutality but it’s somewhat obscure.
Viste often shows the
Italian Tricolore flying in the background but here, intriguingly, it appears
to be the Union Jack.
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| Viste - Bear 04 |
3
This arrangement is
even more complex and sophisticated, incorporating plumbed-in shower heads to
periodically drench the victim with cold water and built-in lighting allowing
punishment to continue through the night and also ensure that every man passing
through the square will witness his degradation. Viste’s occasional interest in
lighting effects shows a genuine artistic curiosity and ambition. Here the
guard is angrily brandishing a whip, but although he’s stripped for his exertions
it doesn’t seem to have left its mark yet, despite the sagging pose of the
victim.
I had some difficulty
picking examples for this article because there’s an even consistency about
Viste’s work that makes differentiation quite hard. A good deal of it features
relatively static tableaux like this seen by us quite distantly as though in a
theatre. The drawing of the detail is very precise but you can see from the
width of the lines that the artist is working on a relatively small size of
paper for the breadth and complexity of the scene he is portraying. This limits
the detail achievable particularly here the subtleties of facial expressions
which are so important to us in establishing connections and empathy.
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| Viste - Tirarre |
4
This picture is very different. The victim seems relatively
young, soft-skinned and hairless. We see him close up and this creates for us a
much greater sense of him as an individual, uncomfortably restrained and
bracing himself for the lash of the whip. The sweep of his back and partial
view of his bottom is much more erotic than the full length nudity of the last
picture and draws us to him. Our erotic response becomes part of his
humiliation.
The torturer has stripped down to his underwear underlining the
severity of the punishment and his own erotic interest in despoiling this succulent
cub. As before, we don’t see the whip in action, it’s a threat still to come which
seems to evidence the artist’s interest in the psychology of threat, torment
and fear rather than the drama and brutality of pain.
Tirarre (tirare) by
the way has a variety of meanings sexual and colloquial (to throw, to have a
stiffie, to go strongly) which will add much colour to the intensity of this
situation for an italian speaker but do little to clarify the events
surrounding it.
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| Viste - Adunata Fustigazione (gathering for a flogging) |
5
In this example Viste
uses the same close-up device but it serves to place us amongst the inmates who
are not here to take pleasure in this man’s misfortune but to learn the wisdom
of not doing the same. They are all stripped to their underwear as though to
suggest to them it might be the turn of any one of them next. The relative
maturity of the whipper makes an interesting contrast.
There’s no doubt
about the whip making itself felt here and we can only speculate about
consequences of the prisoner’s arousal in response to his pain. Our own
response allows us to visualise the effects it might be producing within the
underwear of the other men around us.
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| Viste - Laid Out (?) |
6
This scenario is
completely different, for once it’s completely private and intimate and the
sexual targeting much more overt, although the stony faced guards seem to be disinterested
or in denial but very determined. The prisoner can only squirm as the torment
is applied. Notice again the difference in ages. The victim is no boy, but the
maturity of his antagonists casts him into that role. Viste’s treatment of the
lighting here is more polished and the soft clouded effect something of a
triumph. It highlights the planks leaning against the wall, a mysterious,
threatening presence.
Whilst Viste shows
great ingenuity in varying these ordeals, his repeated invocations of similar
situations seems to indicate a deep personal involvement with the subject
matter whose causes we can only guess at. The militaristic, relentlessly cruel
guards are readily recognisable stereotypes but Viste gives few clues to the
character of the victims – they just seem to grit their teeth and suffer - if
we can see their faces at all. One gets the sense of men caught up in the game,
having their masculinity tested and exposed by an uncaring, unchallengable
authority.
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| Viste - Scaricatori (loader?) |
7
The punishment frame
here is highly elaborate, purposefully designed, technological even, in tune
with the modern surroundings. It all suggests a degree of permanence and therefore
level of usage that would intimidate the toughest prisoner. The unfortunate captive
quails before an exceptionally massive torturer whose handiwork is already in
evidence in various places on his body. But it’s still the fear of what is to
come that drives this piece.
This victim with his
bushy (almost comic) moustache is a more common character type in Viste’s art
than my selection might suggest. He seems a most unlikely person to end up in
this position and his nudity seems to underline how ordinary he is. That might
explain his “I can’t believe this” expression (and the wry smile of the left
hand guard awaiting his turn).
I have two variants
of this picture and in the other one the victim’s cock is uncovered. The white shroud
seen here, secured with gold cord seems hugely erotic and symbolic, suggesting
a mystical, ritualistic purpose, unknown but disturbing.
Viste’s work is quite
impenetrable in some ways, often suggesting a deeper significance which he
chooses not to share with us or clarify for us. Like a Kafka novel you wonder
‘Yes, I like it, but what’s it all about? What’s going on?”
His work is quite
easy to find, he has a blog at
Vistebear
~
For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (top right)
