With her project Visual Orgasms, artist Faith Holland simultaneously deals in humor and gender dynamics. "I was interested in the desire of media to represent an invisible sensation," she explains in an exchange over email, referring, naturally, to an orgasm. There are obvious examples of how certain forms of film approach this challenge; chief among them, Holland explains, is the "money shot" in pornography."Men externally ejaculate to 'prove' the veracity of their pleasure," she says, adding that "there's an obvious imbalance" in this depiction of orgasms — one that Holland aims to challenge with her art. She accomplishes her goal deftly, using GIFs of objects, rather than people, to visualize how an orgasm may feel while poking fun at the commonality (and silliness) of these very images.
Bombs go off, fireworks explode, volcanoes erupt. The viewer may recall running into these climax-stand-ins before, perhaps in a very old film or cartoon. These depictions only became tropes thanks to past censorship around the subject of sex, as well as general squeamishness. Visual Orgasms is an exploration of how we think about orgasms, how they actually feel, and where those two things may or may not intersect.
Click ahead for more on Holland's inspiration for her eye-popping GIFs.
"The imagery is inspired by Hays Code-era Hollywood," Holland explains. "The Hays Code was a censorship act voluntarily adopted by Hollywood studios to make 'cleaner' movies from the 1930s into the 1960s."
"The Code was very strict; for example, two married people could not be seen lying down in the same bed. So when many films of this era have to communicate something sexual, they fall back on these metaphors since they can't depict anything remotely sexual."
"In my mind, right before you see any of these GIFs play, Rock Hudson has carried Doris Day over the threshold because she's finally succumbed to marriage."
"There's something childish about defaulting to these metaphors rather than directly addressing what sex looks and feels like."
"There's something naturally funny about the impossibility of the idea — orgasms are entirely out of the realm of the visual, and to try to map them onto everyday things creates a pretty amusing disjuncture."
"Since the imagery is abstracted from the feeling of an orgasm, different people identify with different GIFs in the series. I love when people detail to me which GIFs resonate with their orgasms."
"As evidenced by the 'money shot,' visualizing orgasm is often part of privileging male pleasure. In pornography, it's male pleasure that must be seen."
"By the time the man is ejaculating, the woman's pleasure is completely forgotten; she is transformed into a vessel. But of course, orgasms are for everyone, and I find men and women alike projecting themselves and their sensations onto this imagery."
"I think they're all funny!... [But] I think Rockets is one of the funniest, particularly because of the absurd landscape I put together for it."
"The Popcorn GIF is another favorite, partially because it was so intricate to make — but also because it's surprising."
"[The bells and the popcorn] are later GIFs in the series, and I was really trying to expand the vocabulary as much as possible. In reality, I think anything exuberant could probably stand in for an orgasm."
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