I just saw the most disturbing movie for my horror film class. "Splice." It came out last year. I just need to vent real quick, but after I'm done I will continue suppressing the bad memories and thus forgetting about it entirely. Anyway, the whole point of the film was to show that we still have animal instincts built into us. I know that's vague, buuut if I say anymore I may withdraw into shock.
I've decided to create a vampire character (essentially a stock character, useful for roleplay or any future ideas I may have) since I don't already have one. I'm very much-so in love with this band called Aural Vampire and I've decided to model her after the lead singer of the Japanese band. I wouldn't exactly call them a band, though; there are two members, a singer and a DJ. If you'd like to watch a couple of their music videos, here they are, though I'm not sure you'll like them. Cannibal Coast, and Freeeeze!! So, I've decided to turn a notebook into a place where I keep all of my characters, and references of them. I'll have more images up later after I've worked on it for awhile.
Instead of leaving everything about it entirely cryptic and up to you to interpret, I'm going to give a brief explanation on it.
The concept behind this was to do a picture based on sex and death, and Freudian psychology that I actually believe in. It soon developed into a description of what every woman goes through in life, especially those things that are based around fear.
One of these fears is being objectified by men, seen as nothing but a woman or a sex object. That is why there are no women's eyes in this picture, except for the woman that is in bondage and is the focus of the entire piece.
Images in the background of the picture (as well as the articles) are about death, depression, and fear.
Images in the foreground are the women in different situations.
The dead little girl with the yellow bow represents lost innocence. The breasts and the swimsuit model represent what women are led to believe (by the media) about what men really want from them. The floating head in the very center is half man, half woman, representing how everyone has an "anima" and an "animus," a male and female side--however, as you can see, the woman's eyes are scratched out here. The legs with the handcuffs as well as the only woman with her eyes still showing represent bondage, rape, objectification, and abuse. The teeth have multiple meanings, but overall show how painful it is to be a woman at times.
Again, this image just depicts the fears that women may run into in their lifetime. This is not a "ALL MEN ARE EVIL CREATURES RAWRRR" sort of feminist message. This is simply showing some of the feelings that I have experienced already in my life.
Here's another photo I took; some of the things may be easier to see in it.
Here is my short article on Katy Perry's music video "E.T." Please read the article and look at the screenshots I've taken from the video before you watch the actual video itself. Thank you, and enjoy.
Introduction.
I first heard Katy Perry's single "E.T" on the radio, and was fascinated by it. At first I was drawn into the song because of its heavy beat and interesting lyrics, but then I started to notice a theme.
Less than a week later, I viewed the music video on Youtube. At first I was very interested in all of the different interpretations of what an alien is, but as the video continued, I started to get a strange feeling welling up inside of me. At the end, I was flashed with a lot of subliminal imagery while Kanye West talked about "abducting her, probing her, and telling her what to do." I was shaken, disturbed, mortified. I left a post on Youtube commenting on how creepy I found the video.
The song never left me. It festered in the back of my head. There was something about it, something very dark... I started researching the music video a bit and saw that many, many people felt the same way as me.
Here is my anaylysis of the video. Keep in mind that I love music, I am not paranoid, and I do not try to find "deep, inner-meaning" in EVERY music video I see. Take another video from Katy Perry--Fireworks, which to me is just a song to boost your self esteem and make you happy/want to dance. Nothing less, nothing more. I'm observant, so if there's meaning behind a video, I see it. If there isn't, I don't. I look at Fireworks and all I see if a happy video for teenagers, but when I look at E.T there's something more to it--something sinister.
ALSO, I do not intend to mean that Kanye is LITERALLY going to rape Katy! I am using their names to fill the place of the nameless characters that they are portraying! Later in the article I will do this a lot, but again, I am referring to THE ALIEN and THE LAST HUMAN, not Kanye and Katy themselves!
The Video.
The video is set in year 2030 or later, in a post-apocalyptic world. Kanye West, who is the last human (I think), sheltered within a robot, is trapped on earth, and the alien character portrayed by Katy descends to planet earth to rescue him then mate with him and create new life on earth, repeating what Adam and Eve had done before.
It is clear and unarguable that the video is telling us that the world has ended, and that all of the human and animal life (or at least most of it) has been destroyed. There is a lot of imagery shown to support this--animals decaying, glaciers falling apart due to global warming (or otherwise), the humans twitching before they die, and explosions representing that the earth has, in fact, been destroyed. Now an alien shows up to mate with the last human, and thus populate Earth with new life, starting the cycle all over again.
However, looking closer at the lyrics and subliminal messages, some darker trends begin to appear. This isn't just new life on earth. This is an invasion. The world as we know it will be gone, and demonic aliens will fill our place. Here are the full lyrics--feel free to skim, as I will bold the phrases that I want to focus on.
[Kanye West]
I got a dirty mind
I got filthy ways
I’m tryna Bath my Ape in your Milky Way
I’m a legend, I’m irreverent
I be reverand
I be so fa-a-ar up, we don’t give a f-f-f-f-ck
Welcome to the danger zone
Step into the fantasy
You are not invited to the otherside of sanity
They calling me an alien
A big headed astronaut
Maybe it’s because your boy Yeezy get ass a lot [Katy Perry] You’re so hypnotizing Could you be the devil
Could you be an angel Your touch magnetizing
Feels like I am floating
Leaves my body glowing They say be afraid
You’re not like the others
Futuristic lover
Different DNA
They don’t understand you You're from a whole other world
A different dimension
You open my eyes
And I’m ready to go
Lead me into the light Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me Infect me with your love and
Fill me with your poison Take me, ta-ta-take me Wanna be a victim
Ready for abduction Boy, you’re an alien
Your touch so foreign
It’s supernatural
Extraterrestrial You're so supersonic
Wanna feel your powers
Stun me with your lasers
Your kiss is cosmic
Every move is magic Your from a whole other world
A different dimension
You open my eyes
And I’m ready to go
Lead me into the light Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me
Infect me with your love and
Fill me with your poison Take me, ta-ta-take me
Wanna be a victim
Ready for abduction Boy, you’re an alien
Your touch so foreign
It’s supernatural
Extraterrestrial [Kanye West]
I know a bar out in Mars
Where they driving spaceships instead of cars
Cop a Prada spacesuit about the stars
Getting stupid ass straight out the jar
Pockets on Shrek, Rockets on deck Tell me what’s next, alien sex I’ma disrobe you, than I’mma probe you See I abducted you, so I tell ya what to do
I tell ya what to do, what to do, what to do [Katy Perry]
Kiss me, ki-ki-kiss me
Infect me with your love and
Fill me with your poison Take me, ta-ta-take me
Wanna be a victim
Ready for abduction Boy, you’re an alien
Your touch so foreign
It’s supernatural
Extraterrestrial Extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial Boy, you’re an alien
Your touch so foreign
It’s supernatural
Extraterrestrial
These lyrics clearly have a lot of sexual as well as religious implications. The music video accentuates these trends with a lot of symbolism.
Sexual Interpretation.
The lyrics imply that Katy Perry is willingly letting Kanye West dominate her, control her, and use her. "You're so hypnotizing" can imply that he is brainwashing her or controlling her mind, manipulating her like a puppet so that he can copulate with her (the alien) and continue the human race. In turn, this suggest that this could be rape, not sex. He is interbreeding with an alien female (who shiftshapes from a grey to a more human form for him) and filling the world with crossbred, interracial creatures that had never existed before on Earth.
In the video, the image of a sweet, innocent little antelope (injured and perhaps dying) is shown with large blue eyes. The large blue eyes are then repeated in Katy Perry's. There are also multiple uses of felines attacking and killing antelopes, which suggest that Kanye is the predator and that Perry is the prey. As the lyrics confirm, "wanna be your victim," Perry is a victim of Kanye's sexual pursuits. Without doubt, he is dominating her, controlling her, "telling her what to do."
Not only that, but just as Kanye says, "I abducted you," the image of a baby is shown. I see this as that he might as well have abducted a sweet, innocent baby, waited for it to sexually mature, then taken advantage of it just so that he can reproduce. Perry, under his mind-control, is no longer conscious of what he is doing to her. She is a weak, helpless victim, just like an innocent baby or a mindless animal.
This video, for the public, repeats the classic trends of the female being dominated by the male. It does not only that but take it all a step further--domination becomes rape, willingness becomes mind-control, and love becomes "infection" or "poison." The lyrics "Infect me with your lovin, fill me with your poison," sung by Katy, have very negative connotations. It can either accentuate the fact that this is rape, not sex, or it can stress the idea that crossbreeding is wrong.
So, again, the sexual themes in this video are very obvious, very out and in the open. Since many Americans are fairly desensitized to all of the sex in moden pop music, it almost seems like this video wants to make the sexual aspect of the song even stronger so that it doesn't fly over the audience's heads.
However, for me, all of this just severely creeps me out, and it makes me fear for all of the young Americans out there. We are in the danger zone. Will sex ever be seen as a loving, emotional, and wonderful thing? Will we just never see it that way--instead, is it just a means to satisfy us? Is it nothing but physical pleasure? What I'm saying is that there is a very clear and obvious difference between love and lust, and very, very few citizens seem to know what that difference is. It seems that Christian morals just aren't reaching out to us anymore. I do not say that you must worship God. I DO say that there are very valuable teachings and morals in the Bible that are designed to help guide us in life, and that we are beginning to lose ourselves without those scriptures.
This video even seems to hint at bestiality, as shown in the image above. This is one of the most subliminal images in the entire video, and it seems to take a great deal of luck to land on it. It's very blurry, and I cannot completely confirm that that is actually a human kissing an anthropomorphic dog. However, if that really is what I think it is, a hint at bestiality, than my point has been proven. Is it a woman in a mask, maybe? Interpret it as you see it.
Religious Intrepretation.
Many are sick and tired of all of the "this is a symbol of the devil" theorists out there. I do admit that at first, the religious themes in this video were not entirely obvious to me until I began to look for them. Once I began to see one after another after another popping up, it seemed so clear to me. It is impossible for this to be nothing but pure coincidence. Katy Perry herself said that the end of the video was like the story of Adam of Eve, so the religious themes certainly exist.
If you view this video from a religious standpoint, certain points can be made and certain trends can be noticed.
First Katy descends from the heavens, just as Lucifer did as a fallen angel, and at first she appears as a typical grey alien.
She shiftshapes into a creature wearing scarlet and purple, the colors of the Babylon Whore.
After that she shifts into blue and white, the colors of the virgin Mary, which grows more reptilian as the music video continues. She also makes the symbol of the devil with her hand, as shown above. When I first watched the video, I did not notice this at first as my attention was focused on her long nails and the fact that she was licking her finger. However, once I noticed that she was actually forming the symbol, I was shocked
Her final form is the most human, but she has the legs of an antelope, deer, or goat, which conjurs up the idea of a Satanic figure.
She kisses the last human, Kanye, and then they turn and walk towards the light. This is a sort of Adam and Eve moment, where they walk towards enlightenment, otherwise known as The Tree of Knowledge. The difference here is that they are not humans created by God, but instead crossbred, unnatural works of the devil. In fact, it can be said that the character that Katy Perry plays is actually the devil itself.
In fact, the way that she removes the cloak to show her goat-like legs, it is as though she is revealing herself to be Satan.
Other.
There is another image I screencapped, but I'm not sure if it has any actual meaning. It's just a bunch of cherries.
However, it made me think of "her cherry being popped." I tend to see fruit as sexual symbolism. There were also clips of flowers, which can also be seen as sexual symbolism. Fruit, flowers, and cut-open fish are common vaginal symbols, especially in art.
Or perhaps the cherries can be the fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Although these fruits and flowers can be a part of the loss of Earth's life, they can also be sexual or religious. There are many double-meanings throughout the entire video, but, essentially, things can be interpreted as the viewer sees fit.
Since the meaning of the video relies on your interpretation, please view it in its entirety. However, keep an eye out for some of the things I mentioned, then make your conclusion as you see fit.
I hope you enjoyed this article. I decided to put it up on my art blog because I can do more than paint a pretty picture. Mom tells me I'm a pretty good writer, so that's that.
For my art club field trip, we went to St. Louis and toured three places: Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis Art Museum, and the St. Louis Zoo. Here are the photographs from sculpture park. (I don't have any photos from the art museum, as I don't feel the need to take pictures since I've been there so many times already.)
My submission for the art club T-Shirt design. We decided by a voting process, and I didn't win even though mine was the best. I'm not trying to sound pretentious. Mine was the best, and it wasn't chosen because guys were there and apparently thought it was too girly or something.
For front of the shirt.
For back of the shirt. Supposed to be printed on smaller.
Yes, I'm a little sore that it didn't win. If I heard my teacher correctly, part of the design will still be incorporated into the shirt, so at least I have that to look forward to.
The art show last Friday was nice, but I was a little confused as to how I was supposed to act. Was I supposed to chat to strangers? Was I supposed to just admire the art? I guess both of those things. I just felt a little confused in my situation--simple as that. I felt uncomfortable, too. Hopefully I'll get more used to that type of socialization as I age.
Here's a neat clock sculpture that was at the show. It's not mine.
Hello, everyone. New post finally. Sorry that I didn't upload much last month, but this month should be better. I'm working on something (comic-related) that I should be able to post very soon. Tonight I have an Art Gallery Showing. Just today they sent out an email saying that I won, and that my art will be displayed, so a few professors at the college congratulated me. I wasn't sure what they were talking about--apparently the prize of the contest is just getting your art displayed. I thought I was competing against other pieces, but not the case.
