In her work The Gods’ Sorrow (2002) Dana Darvish devises a nightmare vision of vicious matriarchial rule, with women warriors, harem concubines and showgirls alongside eunuchs and dogs — all loyal servants of a carnal and ruthless female monster. In The Gods’ Sorrow, much like Bataille’s Story of the Eye there is an excess of cruelty, sex and death, a visual deluge aimed at provoking a response from the viewer. The theatre crowd in the film, like the spectators in the exhibition, dictate the horror show about to unfold, one that we are forcibly made to watch, but then continue to watch of our own volition, secretly thrilled at the sight of dismembered body parts flying through the air and fighting arenas where one opponent lets loose an arrow and kills her foe to the roar of approval from the crowd. Through this grotesque and vulgar display, depicted with paper cutouts, this barbarous theatre determines the role of the viewer as an observer merely standing on the sidelines- and the illusory role of animation. The work reflects the sharp transition from the allegorical nature of animation to the loathsome reality of the viewer.
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