objects of my anxiety

Anxiety, that peculiar byproduct of modernity.

[objectsofmyanxiety-blog]

Sainte Sebastienne, Louise Bourgeois, 1992

"To be a woman is a defenseless thing."

— Louise Bourgeois [Source [PDF]]

"To be addressed carries with it a trauma, resonates with the traumatic, and yet this trauma can be experienced only belatedly through a second occurrence. Another word comes our way, a blow, an address or naming that suddenly, inexplicably slaughters, even as one lives on, strangely, as this slaughtered being, speaking away."

— Judith Butler, Giving an Account of Oneself

[objectsofmyanxiety-blog]

Yukio Mishima, photographed as St. Sebastian, 1970

"That day, the instant I looked upon the picture, my entire being trembled with some pagan joy. My blood soared up; my loins swelled as though in wrath. The monstrous part of me that was on the point of bursting awaited my use of it with unprecedented ardour, upbraiding me for my ignorance, panting indignantly. My hands, completely unconsciously, began a motion they had never been taught. I felt a secret, radiant something rise swift-footed to the attack from inside me. Suddenly it burst forth, bringing with it a blinding intoxication."

— Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

[objectsofmyanxiety-blog]

"By obliterating one’s individual self, one returns to the infinite universe."

- Yayoi Kusama

[objectsofmyanxiety-blog]

"My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings."

- Yayoi Kusama

[objectsofmyanxiety-blog]

"If it were not for art I would have killed myself a long time ago."

 - Yayoi Kusama