THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF GREG STONESIn many of
Greg Stones’ drawings, the same scene keeps appearing — one that is both
simple and
disconcerting: a woman, standing calmly,
showing her breasts… in front of penguins, raccoons, rabbits, aliens, or animals that seem
more surprised than aroused. There is no
explicit sexual tension, no
classic narrative, no
explanation. Just the gesture. And
the gaze of the other.
These are
simple drawings, almost
childlike in form, yet
loaded with intention. Or rather, loaded with
questions. Why show her breasts? Why to them? Why in the middle of snow, open fields, or an
empty landscape? Stones doesn’t seem interested in answering. He prefers to
set the scene and walk away, leaving the viewer alone with
what they feel.
There is something
deeply animal in these images. Something
primitive. As if the human body,
naked and without drama, were presented to creatures that
do not judge, do not moralize, and do not interpret the gesture as
provocation. They simply observe. The way an animal looks at something new without loading it with
guilt,
rules, or
learned meanings.
That may be why they work so well. Because they reduce the body to
what it is: a body.
No discourse.
No excuses.
No need for justification. Faced with gazes that don’t know what to do with it — but also
do not condemn it.
Greg Stones doesn’t seem to want to
eroticize so much as to
dislocate. To take nudity out of its
sexual context and place it in a more
absurd, more
innocent, more
instinctive space. As if reminding us that, before everything else,
we are still animals looking at other animals…
without really knowing why we do what we do.
And that’s where
the charm is.
And also
the substance.
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The slow motion of the day.