Angelfish Decay

The grotesque through proximity?

A clip from A Zed and Two Noughts with score by Michael Nyman.

The film’s director, Peter Greenaway, has said many times that there are only two themes worthy of artistic exploration: sex and death. While I won’t take the time here to examine the statement, it seemed particularly relevant to our discussion of the grotesque.

In many ways I find the grotesque only in the intersection or proximity of two or more mundane forms. Sex alone is not grotesque, but couple sex with an abundance of flesh, or sex with death, and something entirely new and potentially grotesque emerges. Greenaway is not alone in this exploration of uncomfortable meeting spaces but he is certainly masterful in it.