July, 2010
The Fleshly Mirror
Down the Primrose by Victoria ReynoldsA few more of Victoria Reynolds’ meat-depicting oil paintings can be here.
Related posts:
Fine China Autopsy ArtTags: bizarre, meat, surreal, victoria reynolds
The Magic Bottle
The Magic Bottle by Camille Rose Garcia is a wonderful children’s book (for weird kids, maybe) that demonstrates her writing skills as well as her visual artistry. This book is dark, whimsical, and delightfully imaginative. It expresses in a very complete way her concept of “The Tragic Kingdom,” of strange animals and inanimate things (even the ocean is alive and conscious) on a human level living and struggling under the black cloud of industrialism; creating a whole roiling breathing world that has never been seen before. Her cutesy, yet melancholy and acid trip-like style features constantly weeping, lugubrious-looking cartoony characters, in a world entirely of her own creation, populated by bizarre, menacing, and threatened creatures. Growing up in the sinister shadow of Disneyland, Camille was intensely disillusioned with the artificial, sterilized promise of heaven that it offered.
Tags: animated inanimate things, camille rose garcia, cartoony, cute n creepy little creatures, dark side of disneyland, environmentalism, pop surrealism
The Invisible People
Jin Young Yu makes these totally unique, incredible full-size (though they look miniature in pictures) sculptures out of transparent PVC. They represent his concept of the “invisible people”: “It was too simple to define them as ‘the alienated people’ or ‘the depressed people.’ Instead, I thought that I, or we, could easily be one of them. My works are about people who…choose to keep a distance from [others], and be invisible, or left alone, unconcerned. Instead of trying to fit into the world, they climb into a space of their own and reject other people’s intrusions. [They] feign expressionless faces. They are holding their tears back and swallowing them, or they try to put on a cool face…”
A few other of his pieces that I love:
Rain girls
Mother and childTags: installation art, jin young yu, sculptures, urban alienation
Beautiful imaginary portraits by Travis Louie
Charlotte of the Woods
The Ghost of Laura from the Reeds
Sarah and Emmett
The StranglerThese are paintings, though they may look like hyperrealistic, gorgeously detailed drawings. Travis Louie makes imaginary formal vintage portraits of odd and surreal beings, monsters, and demure ladies from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Duality/morphing is a dominant theme; many of his creatures are ungodly hybrids with human, animal, and monster parts or features. They are quirky rather than menacing. Their deformity is more humorous than grotesque. But the pieces that I like best are just depictions of women with a surreal atmosphere and a haunting, deep beauty, such as the above.
See more of his work here.
Tags: sepia, surreal, travis louie, victorian, vintage
Emerald City ComiCon + Roq La Rue
I went to the Emerald City ComiCon yesterday, as I vowed I would, to see Jhonen Vasquez this time around. It was incredibly packed, in contrast to the last time I went, which was, admittedly, a full 4 years ago. There weren’t that many people around then, certainly no sardines-like effect – there were just a few people sort of meandering around, as I remember. This time the crowds were kind of crazy. Geeks and cosplayers galore, people willing to pay $60 for an autograph or picture of Leonard Nimoy – go figure.
My makeup/outfit:
I did finally get to see Jhonen at his book-signing booth (there was a huge line which I had to wait in for a long time; he is ever the popular young man). I’ll never forget the way he said, “Hi,” and I said “Hi” back, and then “Thanks” after he signed my copy of Squee. LOL.
One of the highlights was finding Camilla d’Errico, though I hadn’t known she would be there. I got a beautiful journal and print of hers. I will have to do a post on her art sometime.
Around 2 PM I took a break from the ComiCon and went down to Roq La Rue Gallery, where Camille Rose Garcia was doing a book signing. I got a copy of the new edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with her illustrations.
I also checked out the gallery while we were waiting for Camille to make her appearance. My favorite pieces from their current exhibition, “Lush Life 2,” were these:
I absolutely loved this one, but you can’t see it that well with the glare.I also liked this one, but didn’t get a good picture of it.
I ♥ Roq La Rue.
Tags: camilla d'errico, camille rose garcia, conventions, emerald city comicon, fangirling, jhonen vasquez, pop surrealism, roq la rue, travis louie
The Wolf in Me
This amazing image is by Caitlin Hackett.The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?
- Katherine HamnettTags: aristocrat, caitlin hackett, fur, illustrations, wolf
Alexander McQueen
I like a lot of the pieces from Alexander McQueen’s last, Pre-Fall 2010 collection. Check them out below (pictures via Haute Macabre):
Tags: black and white, haute couture, mcqueen is dead, runway fashion
Poetry Corner: Angel of Flight
Angel of flight and sleigh bells, do you know paralysis,
that ether house where your arms and legs are cement?
You are as still as a yardstick. You have a doll’s kiss.
The brain whirls in a fit. The brain is not evident.
I have gone to that same place without a germ or a stroke.
A little solo act—the lady with the brain that broke.In this fashion I have become a tree.
I have become a vase you can pick up or drop at will,
inanimate at last. What unusual luck! My body
passively resisting. Part of the leftovers. Part of the kill.
Angel of flight, you soarer, you flapper, you floater,
you gull that grows out of my back in the dreams I prefer,stay near. But give me the totem. Give me the shut eye
where I stand in stone shoes as the world’s bicycle goes by.
- Anne SextonTags: angel, anne sexton, poetry, stream of consciousness
Edo-Period Japanese Pregnancy Dolls
How cool are these obstetrical dolls from 19th-century Japan? They are so realistic, highly detailed with articulated limbs, and even little models of the fetus in various stages of development.
It’s like creepy modern-day installation art.
Via Pink Tentacle
Tags: dolls, edo-period japan, sideshows
Takashi Miike’s "Imprint"
An hour-long surreal horror film called “Imprint” is Takashi Miike’s contribution to the Masters of Horror series. It takes place (vaguely) in 19th-century Japan, but everything is spoken in English, and it’s very sort of ahistorical; it’s much more about a modern aesthetic interpretation of the times that the story takes place in rather than any real historical basis. Based on a traditional Japanese ghost story, an older American man travels to an island, where a brothel is kept, in search of his long-lost love, Komomo, who he promised he would take away one day long ago. Once there, he meets a disfigured/beautiful prostitute who tells him the story of (and many lies about) her life and Komomo’s. The girl’s appearance/disfigurement reminds me a bit of Yotsuya Kaidan, one of my favorite ghost stories.
Tags: asian horror, bizarre, colorful, film reviews, surreal, takashi miike, torture
