" All of these themes represent the unintelligible; the totality of death, the break down and meaninglessness of the human body, primordial nature, primal violence, all of these challenge the established order of modern society." -Eden Kupermintz
Gore is an aesthetic that capitalizes on one of humanity's primal fears: pain and death, both of which are inherent aspects of the human experience. Instead of repressing repulsive motives, gore artists embrace the vileness of this natural state to create powerful imagery that force us to look at them- and to deal with a disconnected society, the underlying symbolic meaning as well as the very nature and purpose of art. I talked to one of the best gore (and tattoo) artists I know, Lev's Gore, to find out what gore art means to her and what we can learn from it about her and ourselves.
Thanks for taking the time to share your art with us! Would you like to introduce yourself? Tell us about your work and what inspires your art.
My name is Levi, also known as Lev's Gore, I am 27 years old and have been drawing gore/horror and vent art for many years. My art is mainly characterised by the visual depiction of people showing something that is not necessarily socially acceptable such as blood, guts, severed body parts and self-harm. The inappropriate and provocative can be found in every single drawing of mine. The background to this is that I wanted to show the world the side of mental illness as it is for many of those affected: cruel and full of suffering. Since these have been taboo topics for a long time and a lot of people tend to try to sweep them under the carpet, and since I suffered a lot from my mental illness, I started to put the cruelty on paper. There I could let it all out uncensored. As I never felt understood, I looked for my place in art. After I found my style, I started sharing my art online with the rest of the world in 2014. I wanted to reach people who felt the same way I did. People who didn't feel understood and were fighting against themselves on a daily basis. I just wanted to show that they weren't alone and at the same time vent my anger at society.
I deliberately provoked more and more with my drawings and got a lot of hate for it, even death threats. Even though it sometimes hurt me a lot, I didn't stop, because suddenly I got more and more positive feedback. People liked how openly and honestly I dealt with mental illness, that I didn't stop showing my art and that my drawings gave a voice to people who would otherwise never be heard. I refuted widespread clichés, stigmatization, pigeonholing and misinformation about mental illness in many discussions and made people think.
So I developed my art, practiced more and improved. I became fascinated by the human anatomy from the inside. From traditional paper to digital drawing, I now am a tattoo artist who even gets to put her art under the skin. My art is meant to provoke and show the "ugly" side of different diseases, but also in an elegant way. It is not only brutal and scary, but also beautiful and liberating. Whether I trigger negative or positive feelings, people feel something when they see my drawings and that's what art is all about.
I agree, I think if it's not done for the wrong reasons, any outcry also tells us something about the social norms that that person is subject to, and the fact that they react tells you you affected them in one way or another. I think it's very admirable that you're still standing for what you believe in despite these struggles, that's something a lot of people can look up to.
Since I can understand a certain irritation or confusion when first exposed to Gore Art, I think it's sensible to ask the question that, if we define gore as an aesthetic revolving around blood, guts, and physical violence, what do people actually find appealing in this portrayal that would otherwise be horrifying in reality? What draws them to it?
That's a good question. I think that many also find it beautiful to see the cruelty of life in an aesthetic way. Many are more drawn to the "dark" and find peace there. Just as others prefer the colorful, everyone has their own taste. Individualism also plays a major role. Many people get bored of seeing the same thing all the time, want to break free from system in their own way and live out their own style, the way they feel comfortable, and art is the best way to do that. Personally, I really like it when people show their true colours. Expressing yourself artistically and being true to yourself often has a positive effect on you. You feel liberated, even if the majority of society may reject you.
Do you make a distinction between gore and horror?
Horror can be many things, even just darkness. Horror is something different for everyone, but gore always remains the same. Guts, intestines, severed body parts, extensive wounds, extremely provocative, disgusting and disturbing, that's gore. I love the macabre art form, but I despise it when people live it out as a perversion to harm other people in real life.
I think it’s easy to reduce the appeal of gore to merely shock value, but how significant is this shock value in your work? Are there other motivations behind your choice of this art form?
Shock value of course plays an important role with this type of art, since you don't normally see something like this in everyday life. That of course catches people's attention. Anything that is somehow different is always an eye-catcher. Which can have a positive effect, but also a negative one. Especially if you don't understand the background or intention (or don't want to understand it), people tend to react in a deterred/aggressive way. They are completely overwhelmed, because the things I show with my drawings don't exist in their world. But the shock can also be a positive stimulus for reflection. "Why is the person drawing something like this, what do they want to say with it? Does it even have a deeper meaning?" And so the shock can also encourage people to try to understand and reflect upon it.
I get that, maybe people sometimes don't want to face certain realities which is why they look for simple answers. If they don't understand something, it becomes, at best, "weird" or "perverse". I see that not necessarily as a malicious thing, more so like a self-protection mechanism. It starts to become dangerous when they try to limit someone else's expression in my eyes. I think for that reason, generally speaking some people with a more conservative approach to art tend to limit it almost exclusively to what is traditionally considered pleasant or beautiful. For instance, the French term for fine arts is "beaux arts," translating to "beautiful arts," and is associated with a historically conservative and elitist viewpoint. However, if we view art primarily as a form of expression, shouldn't it encompass a wide spectrum of emotions, including terror and disgust?
Art is a huge term. In the end, you could call everything you create and do art. But as the saying goes: art is in the eye of the beholder. What one person finds beautiful, another finds ugly or, in this case, simply disturbing. Everyone has their own opinion, their own point of view and can also identify things as art that they find beautiful or that make them think. However, there is also a big difference. Many people often think that only what THEY find beautiful is the only true thing and that everything someone else likes is bad. Especially when they meet Gore Art, preferences tend to diverge a lot, which in itself is completely okay, but unfortunately very often can degenerate into hatred towards the artist. Even this enormously hate-filled manner only arises because the art has triggered something in the person and so this actually only confirms that the artist has done everything right. At least that's how I feel.
Exactly my point. On the other hand, are there limits to gore, where you risk to cross a certain line and step into dangerous territory? What subjects or themes are off-limits for you?
There's a huge limit for me when it comes to gore. Many people think that just because I draw something like that, I also like gore in real life and that's a big mistake. I've often had to justify myself for it. Some people have been attracted to me and my art through a completely wrong context. If there's one thing I really can't stand, it's real life gore/violence. Gore art ends for me when people get "excited" about it and accordingly misunderstand everything my art stands for and abuse it for their own perverse preferences.
If you already face such an amount of misunderstanding from an audience, it must be hard to put you art out online when our whole social media landscape is controlled by a quasi-intransparent algorithm that can autonomously decide what is worth showing and what's not. Have you encountered any issues with Instagram's terms of service? Have any of your posts been taken down?
I constantly run into problems by showing my art on social networks. That hasn't always been a problem, but now I've been banned a lot on Facebook, received a lot of warnings and had drawings deleted. I am now forced to censor my drawings on FB. This goes against all my principles of showing my art AS IT IS. Unfortunately, I had to bow to the algorithm. Instagram is not (yet) as bad. I can upload everything there uncensored. Sometimes the algorithm there misclassifies things, e.g. a spider tattoo as "too sexual" and pushes posts further down, which ruins my reach. As an artist, it's not easy to stay on social networks anyway. That's why the whole thing is just annoying. But I'm used to the fact that my art is just such an outsider thing and I have to constantly fight to be able to show it. Whether it's on the internet or in real life.
Talking about real life, besides your artworks, you're also an incredibly talented tattoo artist. I understand you create various designs, but do gory tattoos sell well? I could imagine some individuals might desire them but hesitate to get them due to their graphic nature.
I can honestly say that my tattoo studio is in the wrong place to be able to do great gore tattoos. I was aware of this from the start, but I still wanted to bring individuality to my area, as I live in a very conservative area and the younger generation or those who stand out from the crowd mostly feel lost here. In that sense, I actually did exactly the same thing as when I put my drawings online. I want to offer anyone a studio where they can feel comfortable the way they are and where they can get a multitude of different tattoo styles. That's why my main goal is not necessarily ONLY to do gore tattoos, for that I would have to go to America or at least live in a bigger city. I'm just super happy to be able to put my art under the skin at all. But who knows, maybe people here will like it one day.
Some of Lev's tattoos posted on Instagram.
I'm definitely planning on stepping by and getting a piece at some point in the future, that sounds really cool. Let's delve further into tattoos. Are there any tattoo designs that you dislike doing? Are there any that you refuse to do?
Exactly because I want to keep my studio rather individual, I don't fulfill every request of course. After all, I can't draw "everything" and I have my own style. For example, I don't do realism, symmetrical tattoos or portraits. Be it of people or animals. I only do animals if I can realize them in my style. I also only do cliché tattoos, which already exist 10000 times, if I can do them in my style. Of course, this makes it all the more difficult to build up a large customer base, especially in a difficult small area. I've had so many bad experiences myself with different tattoo artists who did everything for money and didn't care what the customer looked like afterwards. That's why I'm always honest with my clients when it comes to different styles.
Communication is key. Thank you so much for your time! Is there anything else you'd like to share? Any projects you'd like to promote?
Thank you for letting me take part in the interview! A big thanks to my community, who have always supported me! Now If I get the chance already, I'm going to do a bit of self-promotion here. Please comment more on my posts so that I don't get lost in the algorithm! (Seriously, do it. There's so many things you can do to support your favorite artists that don't take a lot of time and don't cost a cent. -MVSKI)
I still accept commissions, bookings at
Instagram:
WhatsApp 0177 8884077.
And most importantly, there is no room for hate and intolerance in my studio!
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