Art by Remi

Remi - Vice & Groans

Remi is an artist who has wide-ranging interests including occult and fem-dom imagery but his pictures featuring bondage and threat will be of most interest to readers of the mitchmen blog. This striking and rather stylish, fake magazine cover image showing a young man suspended upside down in a web of chains is a powerful expression of the Mystery that is S&M. 

The man we see is young enough to be a novice. The ritualistic leather briefs he was given to wear were sexy to put on and provided a temporary illusion of protection and modesty. A symbol of his initiation. The binding with cold chains and handling thrilled him. Now, blindfolded, gagged and totally disoriented, he can only wonder what is going to happen to him next. How much will they hurt him? Will he have to beg them to stop - and will they stop if he does? Will his darkest and most intimate feelings and longings be exposed and fulfilled when they come to open that symbolic zip? Will he beg them for more?

 

Remi - Chained

There's a similar sense of brooding mystery in this image as two chained prisoners reflect tearfully on their predicament. They might be buddies or they might be strangers who had never met before they were thrown into this cell together. Now they are simply captives, stored together without clothes or obvious identities, not even differentiated by the colour of their hair.

The winding chains, seemingly loose and almost random, allow them a degree of movement, but that only seems to underline the sense of their entrapment, by showing a residual glimpse of the freedom they used to have. 

The stylised and nicely toned technique is slightly misty and suggestive of a dark, damp and murky dungeon. I am much reminded here of Amalaric's story of the kidnapping of the entire Raytown Softball Team who are snatched from a carefree, sight-seeing ride and incarcerated in a matter of minutes, left to prepare themselves for a lifetime of captivity and naked slavery (see image 8 and description in Art of Amalaic-1).

 

Remi - The Mansion

In this image the same two characters are joined by a third whose despair seems even deeper. The waiting group are set against the satirical image of champagne-guzzling, rich man who presumably is the master of their fates from now on. His flamboyant taste in clothes and lifestyle suggests these boys may have a lively time in his hands. In the background we glimpse a man in pain under a spotlight.

Remi - Sketch

I'm not usually a fan of face-masks because they hide too much of the face, but I love this picture which does not simply depict captivity but total subjugation and control. Far from submitting despairingly, this muscular man strains angrily at his restraints. It's an adaption of the hackneyed, beefcake, biceps flexing  pose but now, rather than showing the usual, casual exhibitionism, it oozes testosterone, struggle and resistance. 

The mask he has been forced to wear has echoes of Hannibal Lector of course and suggests that even if he is not an animal by nature, he's going to be treated like one, like it or not. A glimpse of ropes overhead gives a further clue as to what lies in store for him.

I don't know if the window-like diamond shape behind him has any particular narrative meaning or is simply a design device. You could see it as expressive of boxed-in anger and fractured frustration. The design has echoes in the wallpaper below, where it's symbolism seems overtly erotic to me, reflecting what has happened in the picture. I'm sure mitchmen readers can work that bit out!

Remy - Submit

'Submit' explores a very different emotional palette. It actually seems to depict the consequences of not submitting gracefully (two words which seem utterly inappropriate in an S&M context and yet are the essence of real life 'plays'). I don't have to spell out what has happened to this man. His face registers shock and humiliation, verging on tears. Perhaps too, the growing realisation that he may be facing more of the same. With his arms tightly bound in a shibari-style rope body-harness and body clothed only in a jockstrap designed to promote lust, he has no way of preventing it and is literally wide open. In Remi's world captivity is not a glamorous, self-indulgence.

Remi - Saul and Nathaniel (Play Nice)

Whilst this appears to be a conventional, leather-play image given a stylish design treatment, there also seems to be an attempt to bring out something of the anguished nature of such desires. That's epitomised by the unusual, arm restraint position which imitates a traditional, melodramatic expression of woe and despair and also of simply not wanting to look at what is happening. The captive's body is bathed in a harsh, uncompromising light with a pink tinge that's suggestive of danger, pain or some other extreme sensation. The plug which is the immediate source of his discomfort is highlighted in steely blue, implying a hard, inorganic nature but with an inner light that hints at properties that are significant - challenging, transforming or perhaps altogether other-worldly. 

 

The captive's lover crouches submissively at his crotch, pulling him closer and tentatively leaning forward to lick his bulbous pouch in a most respectful, worshipful manner whilst simultaneously stoking it with the dildo/plug. The pink light casts diabolical highlights onto his eyes and turns his hair into fire as though he's concealing (or temporarily controlling) a raging passion capable of devilish extremes. The draped chains around them seem to express their entrapment in this dangerous and unpredictable coming together of deep, dark desires that are different in each of them, but need and yearn for each others.

Remi - Seat of Anguish 3 (detail)

Remi's 'Seat of Anguish' is a more substantial work, a short narrative in the form of a rather stylish comic. It shows an unconscious captive being brought from his place of captivity and seated on an anal plug by strangely-garbed minions. The place of punishment is a raised dais, bathed in light by a downward-pointing, overhead beam reminiscent of sci-fi transporter technology. It creates an ominous mood of vast power directed with malign, sexual intent at this man who is being put on display and presented it seems like some bizarre, unpleasant entertainment. 

Remi's palette and block colouring, shading style in these images is rather like Picked-A-Peck , although the content couldn't be more different.

Remi - Seat Of Anguish 6 (detail, censored)

Once secured, the captive is tormented by an unseen sadist. The detail of this image is more extreme than I like to show at mitchmen so I've obscured it, but that doesn't detract from the impact of the image. The simple restraint arrangement focusses attention on the plug even though it cannot be seen. The tension in the captive's body as he is punished via a remote controller is remarkably concentrated and graphic.

 

These two extracts  don't do justice to the gently-paced story-telling. The punishment scenario is intense and satisfyingly structured but ultimately perplexing which is an appropriate reflection of the underlying, forbidden feelings it seeks to express.  On a technical level there's a tasteful economy of style.

Read the whole thing: Seat of Anguish

Remi - To Steal A Soul (detail)

This is a detail of a much larger and very ambitious picture dealing with an occult ceremony and a swathe of associated supernatural activity. The mitchmen blog interest lies in the rather more prosaic sight of a captive tied to chair with his hands behind his back. It's almost as if he's been abducted and then transported here from a seedy place of captivity to become the unwilling centrepiece of tonight's 'happening'. The illumination of his body from below is rather interesting, a slightly show-bizzy touch that seems to point up his helplessness and vulnerability as the star of the show in a situation that is beyond his imagining. 

You can see the full image at Deviant art

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Remi's exploration of bondage and S&M scenarios goes beyond the simple illustration of processes and manly 'fun'. His characters express emotions too as they grapple with desires that are not necessarily pleasant experiences and with situations they have not sought out and cannot control or understand. There's a rawness about his scenarios that doesn't pull punches or paper over consequences to fit in with modern notions of acceptability and that will strike a chord with many mitchmen readers.

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More galleries - Remi @Telemachus12

plus Remi @Deviant Art has a wider-ranging collection