No. 307 MURDERERS AND VICTIMS
18 " W x 24 " H, 47 cm W x 60 cm H
Material Acrylic on Wood
Artist A.H. Clemens
Painted September 2002,
Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
The majority of us are sufficiently fortunate to have no direct experience of murder and are unable to fathom its depths of depravity. We can only deal with the thought of it in an indirect manner. Here are two examples. A very casual Judith dangles the head of Holofernes as if it were a rubber mask or play thing. In the top right section the same scene is presented in a superimposed circle and grid format – it has the effect of even further trivializing and dehumanising the horrific event.
A lady is about to enter her shower. She is framed between a towel and a wall both the colour of congealing blood. She casts an apprehensive look back across her shoulder. Through the steam, she makes out the indistinct but nonetheless menacing outline of an approaching figure. It brings to mind the famous shower scene from the 1960 movie Psycho – a truly macabre movie which, for all its horror, was supposedly regarded as the blackest of black comedies by director Hitchcock.
If so, he was undoubtedly correct in his assessment. The fact that he was, says something very disturbing about the human condition and its complexities.
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Last updated 03 November, 2004
