AN UNEARTHLY FILTER – AngelDoll77

AN UNEARTHLY FILTER.

I remember creating this around the time that I had read the essay Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco.

I was very much impacted by the presentation of fascism as a set of symptoms more so than a defined line of thought. The word “fascist” has over time become a bit sensationalized. Even when someone has identified a fascist regime or movement, I’ve often seen them struggle when asked to define what fascism exactly is.

That struggle comes down to an inherent incoherence often found within not only the ideologies that tend to fit the fascist label but a further incoherence brought on from trying to group these ideologies together.

Ur-Fascism presents the idea of Fascism being a set of 14 features. Features that cannot be coherently organized into a system of their own but features that will be present within what systems the word applies.

Similar to symptoms.

Before I hone in on the particular features/symptoms that inspired this work. I highly recommend that people read the original essay, as it is quite short and exceedingly helpful in spotting corrosive, anti-intellectual thought.

The piece depicts a distressed girl ripping a living gas mask off of her face. There are points of bleeding located on the left and right of her eye, indicating some sort of puncture. As if the mask had embedded itself.

As if it had been controlling her.

This detail came from feelings of expressing opposition to symptom 3 of Ur-Fascism.

The Cult of action for action’s sake.

“Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

This grotesque, living mask embedding itself could be seen as parasitic. Latching itself into the host and encouraging irrational, though celebrated action. Action that in some way benefits the mask but not the wearer.

Thus she tears it off.

From the desperate struggle seen in the girl, you’d have to question how deep does the mask’s embedded influence go?

Is it merely her motor functions being puppeted? Or has it been whispering ideas to her? Eroding her thoughts. Symptom 7 comes to mind.

The Obsession with a plot.

“The followers must feel besieged.”

Fascism always has a plot. Its solution tends to be based in some form of xenophobia, though other types of discrimination are often present too. Perhaps tearing out the mask is not only a feat of the body but one of the mind.

The mask was referenced off of the GM30 gas mask used by Nazi Germany in World War 2. What I remember being at the core of this expression was not only a nod to a recognized piece of fascist associated iconography but a feeling I had felt was embedded within myself. A cynical feeling that I felt had been taught quite thoughtlessly by the various media around me, a feeling articulated by symptom 9.

Life is lived purely for the struggle.

“For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for the struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex.”

An Armageddon complex indeed. Growing up through the 2000s and 2010s, I was bombarded with positive depictions in film, video games and TV of armies committing the same atrocities as their opposition with notions of necessary evils. Crossing lines to make sure others don’t. Conflict is always around the corner and therefore combat should not be questioned. Looping back to symptom 3, thinking gets in the way of action, so let whatever authority there is in your life do the thinking for you.

The terror within the girl’s face combined with the uncanniness of the mask’s ravenous and salivating mouth came from me thinking about the potentially horrifying senses of disillusionment that many who have fought for fascist causes within war must’ve felt.

The sickening devastation that the erosion of symptom 11 would bring.

Heroism as (not) the norm.

“Everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

The idea of this gas mask having a grotesque mouth forming out of it’s unearthly filter, suggesting that its alive. As well as the theme of control over a host’s body and mind was loosely inspired by a children’s book I grew up with called Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask. A story in which a haunted mask possesses its wearer.

As for the more technical inspirations.

This piece was created with a backwards approach to what I did in prior personal work.

Inspired by a live demonstration by Yoji Shinkawa of Metal Gear fame. I was floored by his very chaos to order approach.

So I decided to start this piece with random paint strokes and let the structure flow gradually from there.

Putting pure faith in the process.

Typically I would’ve done the opposite, I would’ve sketched over and over, refining the last sketch with a new one until I felt it was strong enough to paint over.

Defying the comfort I had felt in that original process would strike one of the biggest foundational notes in finding my voice within art.