Recently I’ve been delving in to the dark and exotic corners of folk art and I have really fallen in love with a genre known as “slash” which is part of a wider theme of “fan-art” or fandom.
Originally a US thing, fan art centres around fan tributes and spin-offs to mass media entertainment, most notably science fiction. Slash is where fans construct a romantic or sexual relationship between two characters. Kirk and Spock from Star Trek’s original series are generally known to be the original slash pairing, with fanzine stories existing around their relationship from as early as the late 60s.
Slash is overwhelmingly created and consumed by straight or bisexual women. Normally stories and artwork centre around gay activities between two men. It’s a delicious twist on the straight male fascination with girl-on-girl action.
Women, and a few guys too, get together in groups in real life, and online, to talk slash and crit each other’s work. Women’s Studies PhDs have been written on the subject.
Slash is intrinsically erotic, yet provides a release from formulaic sexual practices and interests hashed out by the mass media. It’s unashamedly odd (or cracky, as fans say), and fans encourage each other to express their minds’ juiciest and most soul baring scenarios.
Slash art runs the gamut from the well-executed to the distinctly amateur, and from the deliberately ironic kitsch to perfectly earnest tribute. I’m really charmed by all variances of it. There is little or no money to be made from the practice, as usually the characters are someone else’s intellectual property, which is especially so with Paramount/Star Trek.
Yet, slash artists and writers will put hours of their free time into their obsession, simply because, I believe, they love the wanton freedom of doing something so objectively odd yet deliciously compelling.
Below are a few of my favourite examples. Not all of it is slash, but its all fan art of a sort. All images link to their sources.
We’ll begin with what I can only describe as the rip-roaring erotic deliciousness of Londoner Teh Leezard’s work. She’s got a whole raft of excellent art on livejournal, so follow the links.
Sulu/Chekov by Teh Leezard – Illustration for Going Commando.
I’ll just provide partial versions of the next one , as I fear the full image may earn me a “mature content” rating from WordPress. Follow the link to see the full version.
Part of Illogical Response by Teh Leezard.
Let’s follow with a “deliberate kitsch” example from Los Angeles artist Beat Up Creations, on etsy.
Spock Saucer Plate:
And lastly for the images: a painting found in a Texas estate sale, for sale on etsy. By the way, estate sales are a thing they do in the US where they sell off someone’s stuff after they die. I’d be pretty over the moon if I had found this in an estate sale.
Vintage Star Trek Spock and Kirk folk art painting – artist unknown
And finally…..
Why Star Trek and the K/S relationship captures so many minds and inspires so many stories.
Literally tens of thousands of stories have been written by fans about K/S relationship, very many of them graphically erotic.
Personally I had always baulked at sci-fi until I randomly happened across this pairing, and could not stop reading, almost obsessively. I would fantasise about the pair as I went about my day, as if I were experiencing a love affair of my own.
Here is my own slightly wacky (or cracky), theory on why this pairing offers such an emotional charge.
Gene Rodenberry said that he created the two characters to complete each other. They are two halves of a whole. He said he created them to represent the two halves of himself and how they were conversely separated and resolved, and how they complemented each other.
In Hinduism, especially the ancient tantric tradition, all creation constantly springs from the endless dance of Shiva and Shakti, the male and the female, or yin and yang, infinitely push-pulling, separating and reconciling. Our own relationships, especially sexual ones, and our creative processes reflect this. Of course, actual sex may be seen as the ultimate physical manifestation of this creative dance.
So in K/S, we have two strongly contrasting figures who nevertheless fit together and work together perfectly, and their personalities are a dance of tension and resolution which creates and makes up a whole. Kirk, with his warmth may been seen to represent the female aspect, and Spock, with his cool logic, the male. However, each has an aspect of the other, as Kirk is also the brave explorer and Spock can be more insular and retiring. Hence this perfectly reflects the yin/yang duality.
Therefore I think that K/S speaks to us of a profound universal truth, and in their relationship and the tales dreamed up by fans, we recognize our own propensity for divine bliss and creation. The powerful reminder of our own sensual spirituality is what makes these fables so popular and powerfully addictive.
