Violence, Horror and the Threat of the Supernatural

In our logical, safe and generic lives we have a desire for intensity: to be disgusted by horrific torture and senseless violence, and to yield to rich and erotic pleasures. Seduction and death work side by side during this exhibition, which embraces the love of mystery, magic and darkness ingrained in us all.

This exhibition contains over 120 pieces from the Gothic period in art- 1770 to 1830, this was part of the larger turbulent rebellion against science, reasoning and rational thinking known as the Romantic Movement.

As Tate Britain curator Martin Myrone comments, `as society became more logical there was a sudden desire to explore the dark forces we were supposed to have banished for good.' This exhibition explores the supernatural, myths and horror focussing particularly on the work Fuseli as well as Blake, Gillray and other artists of this era.

Lavishly decorated spaces with spooky lighting and an occasional blood curdling shriek from the Phantasmagoria room create the charged, tense atmosphere of a horror movie and make the experience even more enjoyable.

In this series of haunting paintings these artists strive to make the monsters real - to solidify nightmares as well as dreams. The central piece to this exhibition is Fuseli's famous `The Nightmare' a beautiful woman is strewn across a lavish bed with a foul imp astride her chest and a demonic horse glaring from the background. This piece is an icon of horror and has been an inspiration for Marry Shelley's Frankenstein as well as Klaus Kinski's Nosferatu.

Another important piece is `Satan Staring from the Touch of Ithureil's spear' also by Fuseli. The angels in this piece have a comic book quality with their rippling muscles and tight costumes. In some paintings these artists depict a world of muscular heroes and beautiful women drawing a lot from Greek myths, in the Superheroes room I felt like a child at story time, fascinated by the detailed illustrations and running commentary accompanying them.

In Scary Movie style this exhibition also shows some satire towards death for example by the mock horror skeleton in `Death on a pale horse' by Haynes. The famous Blake painting `Ghost of a Flea' shows a scaly, muscular monster with long talons and a blood pot, it makes sense for the spirit of a blood sucking creature to look so horrific, however there is humour in the idea of a ghost of a mere flea looking so menacing.

Being an exhibition dedicated to the gothic it is ironic that it opened the day after Valentines day, one painting `Brunhild watching Gunther Suspended from the Celing' by Fuseli- depicts how on what was meant to be a passionate wedding night Queen Brunhild instead wrestled King Gunther to the ground and then hung him from the ceiling so that she could sleep in peace- get some inspiration girls!

From Frankenstein to Buffy the Vampire Slayer our interest in gothic is still running strong. In just eight rooms of horror get a chance to grasp the origins of our deep rooted obsession. This exhibition was very intriguing and quite out the ordinary-as long as you are not looking for a romantic post-valentine rendezvous I would recommend it.

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