Demi Kaia
The Heart Wants What it Wants
The black museum
In the story“Le sang de l’agneau”,included in his book Le Musée Noir (1946),André Pieyre de Μandiarguesdescribes the adventuresof young MarcelineCain, “a mixture ofash, sand and blood who, in her fourteen years had loved no one and nothing save a fat rabbit, orange-yellow, fluffy, with black ears and a white belly and feet”.[1]The emotional and physical attraction between Marceline and Souci—that’s what she called her pet— is so strong that it helps the girl discover some unknown aspects of herself. Under the influence of a “mutualmagnetism”, Marcelineenjoys rolling with him in the ground, taking him in her arms, often letting him walk on her bare breasts, as she would do with a lover. This very close relationship between human and animal in the story of Mandiarguesculminates when Marceline, out on a summer stroll to the harbour with her mother, sees three huge swordfish recently slaughtered and laid on handcarts. The young girls stops speechless before this spectacle: “Mrs Cain had to call her daughter and then walk back and take her by the arm, distracting her from her melancholy ecstasy”.[2]
Comparisons may often be superfluousandpointless, butin the case in hand they appear to be inevitable and illuminating. The protagonists in the new works of Demi Kaia exude a melancholic ecstasylike that of the heroes of Mandiargues.The subjects thattrigger Kaia’s interest so as to render them in painting are more or less familiar to fans of erotic literature: man’s association with animals, to the point of sexual attraction; the miracle of the nude body and its fetishism; nudity and its theological connotations; the common nature of eroticism and sanctity.Add to these the artist’s interest in the narcissism of self-photography —the notorious ‘selfies’ that inundate the social networks on the internet—and you get quite a clear picture of what her painting is about.
The heroes in many of Demi Kaia’s works seem to experience “something like a dark bliss”that comes from their consorting withanimals.[3]Two Little Angels Holding a Mouse (2015), for instance,shows a teenage couple in the company of a mouse. All three of them are turned towards us with their eyes absorbed, at once melancholic and ecstatic, as if they are watching some dreamy spectacle. The two little angels’ languor, in contrast with the animal’s alertness, suggests that their union is probably of a sexual nature — in other words, their reverie indicates a forbidden act that has just been committed. The bodies of the two angels are shown nude —denuded, more accurately— andincomplete: the lower part of theirbodies, that carries their sexual organs, lies outside our field of vision. Lying on the girl’s back in a posture suggestive of boredom and daydreaming, the boy has his head propped on his left hand, and his right hand is holding a string that ends around the mouse’s neck. The mouse is staring at us speechless, likethe silent witness to an illicitlove, unable to speak out and incapable of escaping the angels who are holding him hostage. As for the girl’s body, who is holding her head with her hands crossed and her fists tight, it appears amorphous: it is the boy’s pillow, and it lieson a light-green mattressthat seems suspended in air like a magic carpet. A passage written rather hastily along the left side of this mattress may be the key to decoding the image and its symbolisms: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
With this passage from the New Testament, namely fromPaul’sFirst Epistle to the Corinthians, Kaia sheds a little light on the meaning of the work.Whose thoughts could be reflected in this excerpt that exalts love?The artist’s, the two adolescents’ — or the mouse’s, perhaps?In any case, this hint would remain uncertain if it were not for another, equally important clue in the picture:the boy’s right arm bears the drawing of a crown above the wordsPhilippians 4:13 / I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If the first reference to St Paul’s epistle is about the power of love, the second one (Philippians 4:13) is about the power of God’s word. A quick search on the internet will reveal the current popularity of tattoos with Biblical passages, especially among the young celebrities of Hollywood and the music industry. The singer and actorSelena Gomez, for instance, has chosen to have a tattoo on her hip with the same verse, which means a lot to her.[4]In Kaia’s work, on the other hand, these textual references are read on many levels, above all allegorically, as a comment on the stars’ unbridled narcissism, their unnaturally abrupt coming of age and the provocative way they expose their sexuality to their fans.[5]If men are the angels’ machines, as claimed by the romantic German writerJean Paul, the two angelic creatures in Kaia’s work are the machines of arapacioussystem made by man.
Ultimately,Demi Kaiasketches the portrait of a deviation — sexual, emotional, psychological, social. Thedark blissthat permeates most of her works is just the dark side of success, of celebrity, of the public exposure of the self and the (photographed) body.Her influences, the sources that underlie her latest paintings, cover the span from photographic self-portraits to the side-effects of sexual paroxysm:the“honest”portraits inThe Nu Projectof Matt Blum and Katy Kessler, which attempt to undermine our preconceptions about the beauty of the nude female body;the“digital diaries”ofphotographer Natacha Merritt,published by Taschenin 2000 with great success;the pin-up photos of“alternative”female modelson theSuicideGirls website;theunique pornographic imaginationand thekinky scenes in the cult films of Andrew Blake; the letters of Lewis Carrollto his underagegirl friends;thechanceencounters and the hedonism of the passengers aboard the GreatEasternand the saucy“but very cute”photos of young girlsby surrealistAndreasEmbiricos;classic 19th-century erotic literature such asAlfred de Musset’sGamiani;the perversestories of Marquis de Sade, but also a forgotten scandal that shocked Italy in the ’70s, around the sex life of the voyeuristic MarquisCamillo Casati Stampa and hissubservient wife Anna Fallarino, whom he killed together with her lover before committing suicide.
Combining confession with a diary style, her works ultimately invite us to reflect on our relationship with nudity. As the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben claims in an essay inspired by a Vanessa Beecroft performance, nudity is not a state but an event; we experience it always asdenuding, never as a form. “As an event that never reaches its completed form, […] nudity is, literally, infinite: it never stops occurring”,he affirms. [6]In a country where the Church believes that “nudity is an offense” (metropolitanAnthimos), the art of Kaia and the selfies which form the basis of her inspiration go beyond Agamben’s view to take it further: indeed, nudity is not just infinite — it is contagious, too.
Christoforos Marinos
Translation: T.Moser
[1]André Pieyre de Μandiargues, Le sang de l’agneau, translation: Leda Pallantiou, Agra Publications, Athens 1985, p. 15
[2]The same, p. 28
[3]The same, p.57
[4]See the related article on the website:
[5]A characteristic example is the controversial photoshoot of Selena Gomez for fashion magazine, V, where she poses in front of the camera half-naked:
[6]Giorgio Agamben, “Nudity”, in Nudities, Stanford Univeristy Press, Standford 2011, p. 65.