I watched Casino Royale (James Bond) last night and while like most men I was wincing through the torture scene, it suddenly occurred to me that this torture was like my work.
Little bit of background for those who haven’t watched, le Chiffre is an investment banker for the world’s criminals. He loses all of their money on a stock fix that goes wrong. To recoup this he stages a poker match at Casino Royale in Montenegro. The winner of the match has to put his password into a suitcase that then transfers the winnings to their account. Bond wins this despite various sabotages. Le Chiffre steals bonds women, causes him to crash his car, and takes him from the wreckage to a warehouse.
The bottom of a chair is cut out and bond is strapped to it and systematically beaten in the testicles with a knotted rope by the villain Le Chiffre. During this torture scene Le Chiffre says – “And of course, it’s not only the immediate agony, but the knowledge… that if you do not yield soon enough… there will be little left to identify you as a man.”
I thought this was interesting it seems that the emasculation of bond is important. Bond being the epitome of masculinity with a string of women this seems to be how Le Chiffre is trying to get him to give up the password.
With regards to my work Le Chiffre has taken the place of the vice. However the same basic principle is there he is taking away bonds masculinity and the film through Le Chiffre suggests heavily that without the means to reproduce man isn’t a man.
In my work taking the whole phallus emasculates you. Is it just the reproductive organs that define you as a man? Does taking these make you some kind of non-man? What about those that loose there’s to cancer? Are they less of a man than a man with his intact?
Lastly, the feeling that many get watching this scene is the feeling I hope my sculptures will stir.
Casino Royale torture scene.
