IconoclastDaily

  An out of the league designer and artist, Sruli Recht, born in Jerusalem, Israel, studied in Australia, moved to London and finally based himself in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the northern Europe. Getting into the mind of Recht, I intepret, that one cannot categorize his work, for a simple reason that he has always done things that are not close to normality.

He is the only designer who has actually used his own skin for one of his art pieces. He removed a 4 by 0.4 inch skin from his abdomen while he was awake, got it tanned, with hair intact and mounted it to a gold ring. As some of the writers have rightly put it “he donated a piece of himself for art.” But not everyone has the same appreciation for his work, as many people feel such products are repugnant and the price he is selling them at is extravagant.

Not to mention, he captured the entire process live, below you can watch the video:

As bizarre the idea of human flesh on a ring may seem, what surpasses the human imagination, is the concept of sharkskin gloves lined with thousands of thorns slanted inwards.

You can put on the gloves once , only once because if you want to remove them, you have to cut them off or else you rip your hands. With such a line of products to his name, I am not appalled if bloggers infamously quote him as: “Fashion’s Maddest Man.”

His urge to do different things in the most different possible ways has always landed him in trouble. The concept of making an umbrella with a knuckle duster handle, as he called it The Umbuster, got him charged of importation, manufacturing and selling of prohibited weapons. Though, at the end he managed to win the case, with court declaring that the Umbuster is not a weapon.

No matter how quirky his work  may appear to anyone, it has always earned him recognition. No wonder his store “Vopnaburio” has been selected by the Wallpaper magazine, among the ten most interesting shops in the world in 2010 with the likes of Hermes in New York and Stella McCartney store in Milan.

An in-depth research on this man leaves you wondering, what to refer him as because his work has always been swinging like a pendulum between art, design and fashion. Before writing this article I didn’t have the slightest of the clue of who Sruli Recht is, so much so that didn’t even know how to spell his name.

But now without any hesitation I would say that despite all the unconventional things he does, I have developed a liking for him when in one of his interviews he unperturbed says “screw those steps; I don’t have the time for them.” The intellect he portrays, leaves you spell bound.

His work is truly a piece of art, for art is not only to provoke pleasant emotions: art in its every form is a medium of expression and Sruli Recht uses this medium quite well, literally.

Having sex these days is like a daily dose of vitamin for the body, without which it seems almost impossible to survive. Nevertheless there’s a new breed emerging to the surface proving a new direction. They are the asexuals, infamously classed as the fourth sexual orientation, people without any sexual desire or feeling. Is asexuality the new NORM?…

Let’s not confuse asexuals with homosexuals or bisexuals. For a matter of fact, the latter two do have a sexual desire (strong enough) for either the same sex or the opposite sex. Furthermore asexuality is not celibacy, which means not having sex for whatever reason, though having the orientation. And you dare not categorize them as impotent, if they desire, they can give birth to any number of babies you want.

Asexuality is simply a sexual orientation where the person does not experience sexual desires of any kind: however startling it may sound, it is a reality. Breasts. Vaginas. Penises. These so called sexual organs don’t generate any erotic fetishism in asexuals. Isn’t it an anomaly in a world that is otherwise over obsessed with sex?

However, research reports that asexuality is around as long as sexuality itself. Notable people such as scientist Issac Newton, Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, English art critic John Ruskin were considered to be asexuals. They never showed any interest in women or men per se, indeed they seemed to lack physical attraction or desire for sex. Surprisingly enough, John Ruskin was initially married but later got divorced; rumoured to have refused any physical contact with his wife.

Perhaps that’s the reason behind their success: they devoted all the time in the world to their passions.

Rumors have always been ripe about Karl Lagerfeld, the legend himself, being an asexual. However, for the man who has never revealed his exact birth date, revealing his actual sexuality is beyond our imagination. Furthermore the social media is always abuzz about the alleged asexuality of Tim Gunn, the man who has multiple credits to his name. Not to mention, he served as an associate dean at Parsons from 1989-2000, only to become a chair later, at the famous design school.

Anthony Bogaert, associate professor at Brock University and author of Understanding Asexuality, has been researching on asexuality since many years now. Interesting facts came forth: 1% of Britain’s population is asexual. As he remarks in his book:

“There are two forms – those who have some level of sex drive, but don’t direct this toward others (they may masturbate) and some who have no sex drive.”

He believes that asexuality is a reaction to the oversexualization of our culture.

In 2006 american asexual activist David Jay felt the need of founding the website AVEN – Asexual Visibility & Education Network to find like minded people and start a discussion.

“Sometimes I believe its difficult to be asexual in this world that is so focused on sexuality. I have known that I was an asexual since I was about 14-15. Kind of when all my friends started to realize that they were interested in sex but I couldn’t relate to what they were going through.”

He said of his [a]sexual orientation.

After its foundation the website really took off and today they have over 12,000 members across the world. Below you can watch David coming out publicly in an interview on the NBC network.

Rare sexual orientation? Dysfunction? Sexual aversion disorder? Whatever asexuality is, there is no denying that though having zero sexual attraction, these people can still be involved in pure romantic relationship with someone. They lead sexless lives and they love it.

Holding hands is as far as I would ever take anything. For me sex is just revulsion, it really is. Just ugh!! Cuddling, that’s OK, not kissing.

Anwen Hayward, a 20 years old student at Aberystwyth University told The Telegraph in an interview.

Not the entire world is going crazy over screwing itself. There are many out there (hidden or just hesitant) who lack the libido. Maybe for them sex is just a brouhaha and they feel happy and content irrespective of the so called physical need phenomenon.

Maybe that’s how a genius is born!