SITUATION #179

"The voyeur reconstructs the object of subliminated desire by editing the image – to create the idealized erotic icon, composed only of those elements that excite the individual’s unrealizable desires. The face of a film star, the windows of a supermarket, the ramps of a car park, the various body parts of anonymous models, athletes, politicians, entertainers. The composite image takes on a kind of artificial life. And is it possible that even the data that constitutes this image is imbued with a sexual charge?"

Quote from Jeremy Welsh, “Mechanical Reproduction to Endless Replication”, in Paul Wombell and Steven Bode (eds.), Photovideo: Photography in the Age of the Computer, London: Rivers Oram Press, 1991.