giko

U.: Giko, your images glow with intensity. Female domination must be an important part of your life.

G.: Yes. Life, partners, art, sexuality, all that belongs together. Fantasies are influenced by reality and vice versa. I see fetishes and roleplay as an exciting detour to reality.

Have you actually experienced female domination with real-life partners? Do you play in the scene?

I  have attended fetish parties, erotic festivals and sex fairs etc. Such events stimulate my appetite. But I only satisfy that appetite in my own private relationships, not through the services of professional providers. I think eroticism is the chemical that keeps the world together, if you just let it. Erotic art serves mental and spiritual freedom. Censorship does the opposite.

Erotic art as a prerequisite for fulfillment?

It’s art in general, not just erotic art. Free art simply means exercising your inner needs and is directly connected to a person’s mental and spiritual development.

The opposite of suppression which is unhealthy...

Yes, to allow fantasy means to expand one’s self. Fantasies are an integral part of it. If you suppress them, you suppress your very self. Just look at countries that are governed by dictatorships. Art serves only the interest of a few there.  No wonder that many artists stand with one foot in jail at all times. Many of them with both, of course.

The same goes for smut peddlers and pornographers. They, too, ultimately live from freedom and perpetuate it in your sense.

Sure. I didn’t mean only people who create memorials, write critical pamphlets and sing songs of protest. However, and just by the way, I see one important difference between real artists and pornographers. For artists their own mission and obsessions are the driving force, for pornographers it's quantity and distribution. 

Going back to that key word, suppression. Both you and I grew up in a catholic environment that had little appreciation for erotica of any kind. I have the impression that such a climate can produce very strong and deviant fantasies. My own childhood fantasies were feverishly intense and I imagine that they wouldn’t have been so had I grown up in an areligious and libertarian society... Or witness Leopold von Sacher-Masoch who grew up in an even more suppressive climate. His work, despite a lack of explicity, is incredibly intense. 

I am not sure if a suppressive climate produces more intense fantasies. I think it’s rather like a dam that forces a build-up of emotions which  at some point discharge all the more violently. Do you see a connection between your own tendencies, your education and the crucified one?

  
giko is currently working on an extensive  cartoon

I'm not sure. To give yourself up is a pervasive theme in christianity and that surely has influenced me. My relationship with the “ideal woman” does have something religious. That’s possibly the reason why I find your “First Femdom” extremely appealing, other pictures that show exaggerated genitals, not.

 Yes, every viewer has his own affinities. By the way, women have told me more than once that they like those of my images best in which the guys are really well-hung. One said she is particularly aroused by a submissive’s raging erection, and that she’d  much rather dominate a real guy  than one of those scrawny wimps you can see in, for example, Namio Harukawa’s work. I get all kinds of reactions concerning my femdom art from women. Some are disturbed, some perceive them as a compliment to their femininity. Some women who pay for my art hope for more than just that.

 Aha! I believe there also was a particular incident in which your own mother had an opportunity to savour some of it.

That’s right. I was sixteen at the time. Mom came into my room and found me painting red roses and vaginas in oil. She was utterly disturbed and asked me what I was painting. I said: you can see what. But she wanted me to explicitly state it. Her question had something inquisitorial about it. I didn’t do her the favour.

What are your earliest erotic memories?

 I  noticed my tendencies and my longing for female guidance at kindergarten age.

 Any memorable childhood occurences in this direction?

 At that time, I had a cheeky girl friend who enjoyed having the upper hand in wrestling bouts and rubbing her crotch on my chest and face. I always arranged to end up under her. We played this exciting game whenever we were unobserved, and for as long as we lived in the same area.

at ulysses's request: giko tries his hand at a fight scene

I find it remarkable then that none of your images deal with physical confrontation between man and woman. Fantasies of mixed wrestling have created an entire industry of videos, cartoons and stories…  

I certainly see the charms of power and submission in wrestling. But it lacks the erotic component of the forbidden, the secret, the sacrament. I find a fantasy of bondage in bed more erotic than a bout on the mat. Maybe I should  try moving the bout into a bed scene. Maybe that would produce the kick for me.

Yes. I also feel that that is a huge hypocrisy. It has helped me a lot to express my feelings in my paintings early on. Actually, that is probably the reason why I started painting in the first place. Art was one of the few areas where I could be autonomous as a child. Of course, children shouldn’t be forced or even enticed to view erotic material. But when erotic material arouses their interest, then it’s time to answer the questions they might have about them, and not suppress the interest instead.

attentive viewers will recognize this pencil draft of a digitally completed image in the gallery

These days, most of your images have a photo-realistic quality. How do you achieve this effect?

There is a variety of techniques I use, and I apply them according to my own moods or the requests of the buyer. The photo-realistic effect is reached with the help of a computer. The basis for those images are my own paintings, pencil drawings or collages. And of course, using the computer to produce the desired outcome is a special skill, and the artist’s secret.

Is it possible to commission work from you?

Absolutely. Anyone interested should feel free to contact me.

How about those pictures on the website? Are they available for purchase from you?

Not at this time. I am hoping to find a publisher/distributor for them soon. Again, anyone interested and equipped for that, should feel free to contact me.