Short Bio

I was born in Udine, Italy but moved to London, England when I was five. I am and always have been a humanist, respecting the living beings in the world and standing enthralled at the amazing geological formations of our planet. I expand the space in which I dwell to reach out to welcome others.

Statement

I express how aspects of psychoanalytical object relations demythologise societal constructs of race, religion, social class, gender and sexuality. Impersonal symbols of the power of ‘human society’ forcibly impose and inscribe human society's will upon nature and humanity—superficially at best—but are ultimately ineffective in altering its substance. Human society only realises its power when its ability to enforce is impaired, when desire shifts from its stop-gap and passes straight to the act as drive. Only at this stage can it be an ontological agent of change. 

My compositions illustrate the traversal of the fundamental fantasy that sparks desire in each human being. Surrounding this is the discourse between Power vs Force. Force is fleeting and propulsive, whilst power is constant. Power is equivalent to drive whilst force directly relates to desire. Desire swallows drive, but drive cannot be digested. The phallus is a symbol of power, embodied by a number of surrogates: an erect penis, a finger, a cigar, a tall building, a tree, a ferocious animal, a person in an authoritative position or any thing or being which encourages/curbs/regulates the desire/enjoyment of the O/other. The O/other might be God, the monarch, the media, the headmistress, the neighbours—any placeholder that regulates our enjoyment that links us to power, embodied in the phallus. 

The phallus is the signifier of power while a penis is a signifier for the male gender; the former sometimes encapsulates the latter. The phallus is akin to drive while a penis is akin to desire. When they are brought together, the union is sublime, and what results is absolute but finite power and force. When they are separate, it becomes clear that anyone—women in particular—can have the phallus even though we do not have penises, or that a man can have a penis, but no phallus or power. I consistently depict the split between the two; the locus around which the phallus reaches its apogee in orgasm and when it finally looses its power to become (again) a mere object. 

The universal matrix of desire is reflected in the multi-ethnic group of models that I recruit. I cast the models in uncanny Kafka-esque scenes, portraits or tableaux whose surroundings are surreal and morally ambiguous. Each photograph is staged so that the models' poses emphasise particular bodily shapes and contours, contrasting skin tones and beautiful facial features and unique expressions. The subject(s) look into the camera in a friendly and performative way, welcoming the viewer to watch. All photos were posed by professional models 18 years of age or older. Neither said photos nor the words used to describe them are meant to represent the models’ actual conduct, statements, identities or personalities. Any similarity between the characters portrayed by the models and actual individuals—living or dead—is purely coincidental. 

Alongside portraiture and erotic photography, I have tended to embrace architecture and nature to articulate the subject matter of object relations. I  follow my intuition as to how a picture of a person, place or object will turn out. For a thing, it will be a Space if I get a sense of welcoming, creativity and change; it will be an Edge if I get a sense of restriction, resistance or limitation. This is Power vs. Force again, but I asserts that they exist in dialectic and it is possible for there to be flow from one to the other. It is possible to create a space where none previously existed: a creatio ex nihilo perhaps.

Biography

Nora Geist is the youngest child of a British legate who grew used to moving house frequently at an early age. She graduated from the H-Farm International school in Treviso, Italy where she defiantly came out as lesbian at the age of 16. She received her first camera as a gift at the age of 17, and she began taking snapshots of friends and family, who sat for creative portraits and tableaux. After earning her first degree in psychology from the University of Paris 8, Nora enrolled in the Associazione Italiana di Psicoanalisi qualify as a psychoanalyst. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychoanalysis from the New School for Social Research in New York City, where she subsequently practiced for ten years before returning to Europe. Nora's psychoanalytical career has taken her to work in New York, Edinburgh, London and Dublin. She is married with two grown children.

Resume / CV

OK Harris Gallery 1997

The Alternative Museum 1999

Exit Art  2001

Piccadilly Gallery 2004

Seattle Erotic Art Show  2010 

ARTundressed 2017 

Rochester (New York, USA) Erotic Art Festival  2018

Erotic & Bizarre Art Film Festival  2018

Tag! Queer Shorts Festival  2019

The Lift-Off Sessions  2019

BIDEODROMO  2019

Planet 9 Film & Art Festival

Kino London Film Festival  2020

Triple SSS (Sensual, Sexual, Smut Erotic Art Exhibit)  2020 

Motion for Pictures  2020

New Dreams International Film Festival  2020

Gorst Underground!  2020

6ix Screams International Film Festival 2020 (Best Experimental)

AltFF Alternative Film Festival 2020

Couch Film Festival 2020

Roxie Roz Burlesque  2021

OGA (S)EXHIBITIONS 2020/2021 

New York Nil Gallery 2021

Strandlines LGBTQ+ History Month—February 2021 (www.strandlines.london)

Filmoptico International Art Visual and Film Festival 2021

Gravedigger Dave's Anthology Festival 2021

Caligari. Festival Internacional de Cine de Terror 2021

Horror Lust Film Festival 2021

Hallucinea Film Festival 2021

Guttercast Film Festival 2021

Fear in the Fens Film Festival 2021

Serbest International Film Festival 2021

Indie Movies Spark Film Festival 2021

Pure Magic International Film Festival 2021

Horror Unleashed Film Festival 2021

Bleedingham Horror Film Festival 2021

Bad Film Fest 2021

Horror Unleashed Film Festival 2021

Hyperlink to "The Blessed Sacrilege: White Funeral" (NSFW):
https://filmfreeway.com/White-Funeral