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| Anteros - Careful They're Sharp! |
At his best Anteros has produced dark, atmospheric pieces with sci-fi fantasy settings.
This one seems to be an unusual take on gay cruising but these woods are more like the hostile wilderness used to trap and protect beautiful captives in children's tales. The denizens resemble members of an American Football Team looking for dirty sex, but they don't look very inviting, Instead the caution they advise in the wording of the title, comes across like an unpleasant challenge, a dare with ambiguous meanings, rather than an expression of genuine concern. In fact there's something altogether other-worldly about them.
Not a place for beginners to start their cruising education I would suggest.
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| Anteros - In Space No-one Can Hear You Moan |
There's a similar irony in the humorous twist given to the title of this piece, inspired by 'Alien'. This Space Trooper is trapped on a grille and tormented by creatures emerging from the hell-like depths below. It seems likely that any sexual pleasure will prove to be a fleeting moment in a journey to an altogether more grisly fate.
Although his gun (or blaster or whatever) still lies by his side, suggesting an interrupted military manoeuvre, we can also see his wrists have been handcuffed behind his back and virtually all his clothes have been taken from him. It suggests this is no accident of fate, but a deliberate punishment inflicted on him by an unseen, malevolent captor.
I suppose you can't rule out a practical joke, a birthday treat,
but you sense these creatures play for keeps, so it's likely to backfire.
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| Anteros - Tentacles |
A similar sense of lurking danger pervades this piece, which I think is rather wonderful. The unusual viewpoint provides a very sexy view of the man's hairy body and also seems to highlight the pleasurable comfort of reclining in this deep luxurious bed of living tendrils.
But at the same time the close-up give us that classic horror feeling that there's something else,
something unseen here, something which ain't quite right.
The picture is entitled simply 'Tentacles' but I imagine it originally had a more interesting title. It conjures up the vision of a traveller in a distant world succumbing to the sensual delights of the local flora (or maybe it's fauna, who knows?). Unusually, for a tentacle encounter, there doesn't seem any attempt to restrain him and there's no evidence that his clothes have been ripped off his body by these creatures, that he simply got undressed for them. For once the being toying with him isn't just intent on prodding and poking him but seems to be indulging some sensual need of it's own, inducing him, seducing him, to recline into it's bed of living organisms for some sort of mutual intimacy.
Despite that, I can't help thinking that he's terribly vulnerable in this position.
Will this creature eventually call on him to satisfy it's carnivorous needs?
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Anteros - Lust At The Water's Edge
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This picture seems to supply a chilling answer to that question, having an alternative, blunt title of 'Earth Tentacles and Skulls', It suggests this rather attractive man being overwhelmed and seduced by a tentacled being is destined to remain here for ever.
Perhaps it's a misunderstood being, it's actually not intent on digesting him but enjoys human male charms so much that it's simply unwilling to let him go. Perhaps it's physiology allows it to experience it's own orgasmic pleasure differently to men, continuing as long as it wants instead of ending prematurely in an uncontrolled crescendo. Because of that our hapless wanderer is destined to perish in an eternal amorous, draining embrace.
Despite the reference to water's edge in the title there isn't any water to be seen, but I guess it's a reference to the primordial soup from which new creatures continue to emerge to take their place in nature's order. Is this to be mankind's first predator?
These picture feature various tentacle formats ranging from the smooth, translucent, jelly-like variety to the hard-ridged, duct-like ones just above. The bramble-like ones in picture 1, would have an embrace that doesn't bear thinking about.
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| Anteros - Arena |
This image is a much simpler concept, an expression of man-on-man domination, but Anteros' skill with earthy colours and dark, suggestive atmospheres elevates the interest. The setting of an empty Arena suggests a private argument being settled in a traditional, ritualistic, but apparently bloodless way. Both men are wearing slave collars but subtle scars and tattoos give the victor the intimidating, edge of an experienced man. The submissive kneeling stance of the loser seem to be acknowledging that much. The top appears to be wearing a chastity device which means that neither man will gain much satisfaction by normal standards, but it is human nature to make the most of what you've got.
The background setting here is not dissimilar to Oztangles' temples, with slightly more sophisticated constructs and use of colour and light perhaps. That characteristic points back to a common rendering heritage that is very obvious in Anteros' older work of which I show a sample below.
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| Anteros - Medical Lab 1 |
This might have been a Milking Factory in another life but instead seems to be a space age, laser hair removal clinic, with punters patiently waiting their turn, naked in luxurious armchairs.
It seems to be staffed by medics who don't bother with professional boundaries.
Well we can't all be 'Angels' can we?
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| Anteros - Breeder Aliens |
It would be wrong of me to omit from this brief survey the artist's preoccupation with devils and aliens of similar cast. The 'Breeder Aliens' series is one of the most impressive manifestations of this interest. It's a simple tale of Space Troopers who foolishly go on a mission dressed in space armour and very little else. They fall into the hands of highly developed aliens of the demonic, reptilian kind and suffer the inevitable homoerotic consequences. It's not really my cup of tea but vividly imagined and marvellously executed.
There's a whole crop of out and out devilry and temptation in many other pictures by him.
Links for more pictures
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