A pretty good starting point, if you are to avoid the pitfalls of a general history lesson, is the formal beginnings of English drama, and that, for my money, begins with William Shakespeare – or, rather, the ancient Greeks, as we still regularly turn to their plays if primal subjects are in favour.
In "Supernatural Wife," "The subject matter is primal: matters of birth, death, grief, mourning and the gods," she said.
Photographed in timeless boxing pose, the portrait is atmospherically lit, casting Ali in light and shade, and inviting us to reconcile the essential beauty of the image with the primal nature of the subject.
Melding Butoh technique and West African dance — at times successfully, at others, less so — it bores through its subject to the primal forces underneath.
Soccer's power lies in its poetic narrative the indeterminacy of each second of the game presents us with something primal: that our lives are subject to the limitations of human perception.
Like an ancient cave drawing, Mendieta's art gets as close as possible to her subject matter allowing no excess, using primal and visceral means to navigate her themes.
Nancy Eisenfeld creates the sensation of a waterfall in large amorphous paper collages painted in a drippy and splattered manner, but, in the tradition of Abstract Expressionism, the real subject is the artist's primal energy.
Despite the disturbing subject matter (which included flashbacks to Dexter's primal traumas and scenes of his victims Saran-wrapped into submission), the show's tone was droll.
Again, form and subject matter merge completely in the veiled divulgence of a ferocious primal scene: the paint becomes the lion, devouring figuration in a frenzy of power and movement.
Another number, a condensed history of jazz, approaches the subject blandly until Armstrong takes over and restores its primal scream.
