Read Part 1 of this mitchmen article
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| Madeira DeSouza - Man on a Cross |
At the end of Part 1 I mentioned Madeira's darker side under an image of two loving buddies with threatening nooses behind them. This picture is a more explicit hint, an expression of a nightmare about suffering crucifixion. The glaring white background here has the surprising effect of making it seem unreal but at the same time suggesting it's hyper-reality and a shock to the dreaming man himself.
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| Madeira DeSouza - Lifted onto the Cross |
In this image the nightmare assumes more tangible proportions as a man is lifted onto a cross. This time a dreamlike state is suggested by slightly fuzzy, darker lighting and the relatively featureless men who are manipulating him. They have positioned him just above the projecting 'sedile', a support device regarded as a seat by classical scholars but sometimes described as a horn in contemporary writings. This one is pretty stubby as horns go and the victim is still to find out how these assailants intend to use it, but given that they're totally naked.... well....what do you think?
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| Madeira DeSouza - Cowboy On Cross |
Cowboys are often the dispensers and recipients of arbitrary justice in this artist's work but this crucifixion is an incongruous method of punishment for them. I suppose it would be simpler and cheaper than building a gallows which we assume to be the preferred technique 'Out West'. The height of the cross is supposed to put the victim on display for the assembled watchers but this upward looking viewpoint shows how it also confers an elevated, almost heroic status on him, particularly strikingly when set against ominous, grey clouds apparently conjured up by higher forces.
This victim may or not be seated on a sedile but he has been given support for his feet and hasn't been nailed to the cross but tied instead, so we may suppose it's not intended to be lethal. His nudity and arousal might suggest an exotic sexual game, the cross an elaborate platform for his masochistic pleasures. If so, it's one in which he is reliant on the trustworthiness of his fellow players. If that is misplaced he may yet have to face the other risks of this poorly understood punishment - asphyxiation and exposure to the elements, exacerbating any injuries he might have received in the 'game'.
Is that dismay we can see on his face? Do those clouds signify a darker turn of events?
"Hey guys, let me down!"
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| Madeira DeSouza - Spread On A Cross |
This unusual image hints at more direct violence and adapts the crucifixion concept to a bench restraint. This neutralises it's darker capabilities, essentially turning it into a spreader. The open, flexed legs clamped astride the bench seat also seem to be inspired by crucifixion practices. This image looks better in some ways if it is rotated. Notice the substantial restraints which recall medeival dungeons. I'm not overly keen on bruises and cuts or what they imply, but acknowledge that violence plays a significant role in Madeira's wide-ranging ideas.
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| MadeiraDesouza - Tormenting A Blue-Eyed Cowboy |
That background of simmering violence in Madeira's work influences how one views images like this which actually show only relatively innocuous groping. This spreader restraint is similar to the X-frames beloved of Amalaric but with the side posts closer together, recalling the design of the revolutionary guillotine. Again it's an unexpected predicament for a cowboy, but perhaps this is a modern, urban cowboy.
The downward looking view is quite effective in showing us what is happening and the captive's reaction to it. The simplicity of these images indicates an engagement with the characters and their feelings which are more important to the artist than the details of where they are located or how they came to be here. The reference to blue eyes in the title seems to imply a favoured person or a sort of hero brought low and you can imagine the same of the square-jawed hunk in the previous image. For now, it seems that nothing terrible is happening but loss of control is a fearsome thing.
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| Madeira Desouza - Totally 01 |
Like the previous image, the captors here only seem to have sensual self-indulgences in mind. Their jock-like captive is imaginatively suspended with legs spread between a rock and a high post (as it were). It's demanding bondage and that is what the title refers to, nothing darker! There are other pictures in the series. While he squirms, his admirers dance and drink their fill of him and, although their attentions seem to be causing alarm, he's unmistakeably aroused by it all. It's probably not an adventure he'll be able to tell the kids about in his old age though.
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| MadeiraDesouza - He Is Kicked (Power Over Men - 1) |
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| Madeira Desouza - On The Rack |
This image has a similar underlying subject, the punishment of a helpless captive. A sense of style has been brought to his restraint apparatus too. It's less grand than the one above but more modern and technological. The clinical setting here also bestows a degree of specialness on the captive but he's subjected to a most un-clinical torment at the hands of a 'bruiser' (One with a very impressive backside, I must say! It would make a sought-after target in it's own right in some quarters).
The arched posture imposed on the captive here occurs in another image later on and this viewpoint from directly behind the tormentor brings out it's inherent vulnerability. The helpless figure is coupled with a particularly well-posed attacker, who looks braced to put his all into his blows. The forward slant of his body gives a sense of momentum and attack. It matches the slope of the rack and the captive's body, so there's a suggestion of coming together and shared intimacy that you wouldn't expect.
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| Madeira Desouza - Katarsis 04 |
This image goes further, embracing futurism and alien capture in an unusually detailed (for Madeira) and atmospheric render. The spread arms and piercing(?) probes are not a million miles away from crucifixion but this predicament has more in common with the helpless captive in the last few pictures. However, this time there's hardly any sense of public display being part of his ordeal.
Instead the enormity of his lonely plight is skilfully conveyed by the brooding atmosphere, the distant aerial viewpoint (conjuring up the sense of him being held in a deep pit or a vast chamber) and the complete absence of any other human or alien life, friendly or otherwise. There's little sense of the clinical in this dark piece although the equipment is highly sophisticated. It is suggestive of great power behind the experimentation even if we cannot fathom it's nature or motivation.
We are not invited to study the captive's feelings close-up, but the scene nevertheless conveys total despair.
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| MadeiraDesouza - halloween 06 |
As is often the case in Madeira's art, the idea here is more compelling than the execution of the image. It's another nightmare scene in which a lithe, young, naked captive finds himself tied to the trunk of a tree in a dark wood. He's tied in an elevated position (that display thing again) and his arms and legs are pulled back right behind the tree, forcing him into that arched body shape that is both provocative and utterly vulnerable. On Halloween interference is not long in coming, lured by the malevolent, pumpkin lantern. We can just see 'it' scrambling up the tree to get to him.
The darkness of the image and the angling of the view denies us a clear sight of the visitor (predator?) It remains a creature of dark nightmares, ill-defined but undoubtedly horrible. The style of this piece, the victimology as it were, reminds me of Greasetank although as far as I know he never ventured into the realms of the supernatural.
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| MadeiraDesouza - Snakes in Bed |
While we are in the realms of fantasy, Madeira does not entirely neglect the tentacles genre but keeps his feet on the ground by turning to the more plausible variant which employs snakes. Another nightmare of course, but you sense his heart may not be in this image. The coiling predators don't seem very eager to immobilise their victim and the sense of deadly embrace which one would expect to be the substance of a tentacle dream is replaced by darting attacks on erotic areas including an unusually determined, straight-line penetration. This victim is not helplessly restrained for a leisurely feast but reduced to agitatedly fending off his unsubtle attackers.
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| Madeira Desouza - Prelude to Executions |
I suppose the nature of Madeira's snakes dream might be a premonition of a fate like this, in which two captives of the military are stripped naked and subjected to a brutal assault. One is forced to fondle his attacker although it's depicted in a subtle and slightly ambiguous way that's almost furtive. Looking repulsed and confused he averts his eyes and tries to comfort his buddy (a way of seeking comfort from him of course).
The true horror story (and this is a horrific piece) is revealed by the title. The artist has rendered the image in black and white tones as though it were a press photograph of the atrocity, taken secretly from a vantage point above the courtyard. This scene is all too real as a reflection of recent history and the eternal reality of war. The undisguised, premeditated cruelty makes a disturbing combination with the youthful beauty of the attackers and seems to take another leaf from Greasetank's book.
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| Madeira DeSouza - Savage Eyes - 6 |
Another understated image featuring an unusual restraint device I don't recall having seen before. It has a devastating simplicity, forcing the captive into a bent posture that creates erotic vulnerabilities at both ends of his body. Possibilities that don't seem to be lost on his captor.
More compelling for me though is the submissive nature of the pose imposed on him, forcing him to look upwards at his 'master'. Naturally, his credentials as a 'Savage' are not enhanced by this indignity and in this picture his anger at the humiliation is quite apparent although his exaggerated dick is putting an interesting slant on his anger that could scarcely pass unnoticed.
Once acquainted Madeira's dark mindset you soon realise that the threat of penetration may not be the worst of this man's problems, not with the captor prodding him with a naked sword in a most intimate and threatening manner (well-disguised for the faint-hearted and innocent). Nor is that the only threat to his integrity that the weapon represents. Personally I'm happy to take my leave at this point!
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| Madeira DeSouza - The Artist with a Cowboy Lynch Mob |
The threat to life is even more explicit here and interestingly the artist puts himself centre-stage as victim of a traditional, cowboy, lynch mob. That seems to correspond with his interest in the feelings and fear of victims which seems to stand out in other pictures. You can see in the quality of the detailing that the aggressors here are of secondary importance (indeed in some of the pictures above they are reduced to near-featureless manikins).
There's clearly an element of self exploration in Madeira's artwork and it includes sexuality, made plain here by the fondling hand of one of his tormentors. I'm not sure that this represents an interest in death itself, nor the thrill of flirting with it (which some seem to enjoy) but rather the exploration of fear and it's curious connection with sexual excitement. (Perhaps not so curious if you think about the comfort men derive from sexual excitement and it's biological purpose which becomes urgent when survival is threatened).
I'm no psychologist but my pet theory is that if fear figures prominently in your formative years, particularly adolescence, it's quite likely that, being a man, you would seek comfort in sexual stimulation as an escape. After that, I suspect it wouldn't take long for depictions of fear to become a source of stimulation in themselves and you wouldn't be human if you didn't then imagine the victim in the image to be a conceptual representative of your own tormentors. Which is why 'blue eyed' boys (see above) may seem inexplicably attractive in such predicaments. I suspect my final image below also embodies this pattern of thought.
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