Serial Killer Art
GMSpider
memorabilia such as art. Here's an article about it, some interesting pictures
on the site.
http://www.courttv.com/national/2000/1026/killerart_ctv.html
NEW YORK — The painting depicts two sunflowers, each with a human-looking
blue eye staring past a barbed wire fence.
As paintings go, it's pretty run-of-the-mill. So why is it taking up valuable
wall space in a downtown Manhattan gallery? For the sole reason that it created
by the same hands that tortured and murdered almost three dozen people.
The painting by serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley is part of an exhibit that
opened this week to coincide with the October 27 release of "Collectors," a
documentary that chronicles the weird world of the serial killer art circuit.
"Looking at people's fascination with serial killers as a kind of '90s icon of
the outlaw is interesting," the director, Julian Hobbs, said of his motivation
for making he film. "People seem to be drawn to this kind of image of normality
gone awry."
Perhaps surprisingly, most of the art work shown at the gallery and in the film
does not directly portray criminal, or even abnormal, activity. "In general
they paint bad kitschy art," says Hobbs. His explanation is that because the
mania of serial killers tends to lie beneath a veneer of normalcy, they produce
"stuff you would see for sale at the local painting club."
Of course, there are some serial killers whose works reveal their more troubled
and violent tendencies. Hobbs says that these men—Charles Manson, John Wayne
Gacy, and Richard Ramirez are examples—tend to revel in their image as
"makers of mayhem."
Many serial killers seem to want to produce work that will stand on its own
merits rather than simply appeal to a fascination with all things morbid. In
fact, much serial killer art treats decidedly mundane topics: landscapes,
sketches of the human figure, etc. One of the interesting consequences of this,
Hobbs says, is a tendency on the buyer's part to over analyze.
"You can look at one of these landscapes and think that it's awful but if I
told you it was painted by somebody that had killed 27 people, you would read
far more symbolism into it," he notes.
So who are the buyer's of this kind of art? "Collectors" centers upon two of
them, Rick Staton and Tobias Allen. The men aren't grim obsess ives clad in
black. As they catalogue their private troves of so-called
murderabilia—serial killer art and soil samples from old crime scenes—they
seem more like giddy children swept away by comic books or baseball cards.
The film is at its best, and most unsettling, when it juxtaposes the
collectors' sheer excitement with sharp reminders of the violence at the core
of their obsession. At one point, an elderly man explains in detail how serial
killer Henley and two associates tortured and raped his son before murdering
him. The still grieving father produces a map showing the burial sites of many
of Henley's 27 victims and in so doing reveals a different type of obsession,
one born from devastating loss.
These graphic moments punctuate the film in places but are generally few and
far between. This is partly because the documentary focuses so much attention
on the serial killers' art — a somewhat discontinuous narrative follows
Staton and Allen to a show in Houston of Henley's work.
Even if most of the artists themselves are not trading on shock value, many
people believe that letting them display their works is tantamount to allowing
them to capitalize upon their crimes.
The art world is no stranger to controversy. Just recently a painting of the
Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung provoked condemnation from Catholics,
while works by Damien Hirst displaying dismembered cows suspended in
formaldehyde have raised the ire of animal rights activists.
But an audience's response to this depiction of sinister sunflowers, and to
other works commonly exhibited with it, has very little to do with the works
themselves and everything to do with their creators — serial killers
convicted of heinous crimes.
So called "Son of Sam" laws, named after serial killer David Berkowitz, bar
criminals from profiting from their stories by writing books, doing interviews,
or selling film rights.
But current legislation does not restrict the sale of art. California state
senator Adam Schiff has pushed legislation to expand his state's "Son of Sam"
provisions. The irate official told the Associated Press, "It doesn't have any
art value whatsoever except that it came from a murderer."
These sentiments were shared by many in the Houston area when Henley's work was
displayed there. One man protesting the Houston art show in the film with a
very personal involvement — his brother was killed by Henley — says, "Those
boys died in agony. This guy up here gets an art show. That's not right. My
brother's in the cold, cold ground. So no I don't think this is right. This is
an abortion of justice and it shouldn't happen, now or in the future."
Other opponents of serial killer art blame dealers and collectors. Andy Kahan,
director of Houston's Crime Victims Assistance Center, told The Dallas Morning
News that people trafficking in murderabilia were "the lowest of the low" in
his estimation.
The market for serial killer art and paraphernalia has naturally expanded into
cyberspace. A quick search on eBay under "serial killer" yielded 262 hits,
including a self-portrait by Gacy, an autographed hand print by Henry Lee Lucas
associate Ottis Toole, and a silk necktie worn at trial by mass murderer Donald
Leroy Evans.
The proliferation of these items over the Internet, and their widespread
availability, has prompted special outrage. But eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove
commented to The Morning News, "Our bottom line is that as long as our users
are following the laws within the city and state in which they reside, they may
list the merchandise that's in question."
"Collectors" does a nice job of remaining neutral while probing these various
issues. "What the film does is let some of these contradictions play out," says
the film maker. "Is there validity to the idea that criminals should not profit
from their crimes? Yes. But I'm less interested in the politics than the
psychology of it."
"This year will go down in history. For the first time,a civilized nation has
full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient,
and the world will
follow our lead into the future!" - Adolph Hitler, 1935