February, 2012
“Black and Blue” by Emily Kaelin
Black and Blue is a sculpture piece by Emily Kaelin, resembling a disembodied clump of long black hair ethereally embedded with bright blue butterfly wings, also severed from their proper owners. It is made of synthetic hair, Morpho butterfly wings, and glitter.
Emily Kaelin is a young artist who constantly deals with repulsion vs. beauty, in installations, mixed-media art, and paintings, mimicking human organic materials that are generally thought to be disgusting, such as flesh, hair, blood, and bone, and creating pieces that are conflicting, visceral, and unlike anything else out there, pushing her art farther and into new territories.
She describes her own art in these words: “push and pull of appealing and repellent, comforting and upsetting, lovely and ugly; inability to look at or render self objectively; impulse and intuition and instinct; emotionality; flesh; hairiness”
Her art constantly intersects the descriptors of ugly, strangely beautiful, alluring, repulsive, bizarre, off-putting, interesting, intriguing, fleshy, raw, delicate, otherworldly, and original. It expresses agony incarnate in the body, in its materials of ink and parchment (blood and skin).
A few more examples of her work below:
Tags: anatomical-themed, bizarre, bodily art, emotive, experimental, expressive, fleshy, hair, installation art, sculptures, textured, visceral, weird sculptures
Poetry: “Disown” by saartha
And it broke my heart but I
killed every trembling thing. The yearning
spaces subsided, they were reddened, they
were convinced to stillness.And it broke my heart but God
became God-in-exile, became
yearning spaces. I buried my demons
with a knife, and left them to it. Exile
was the new love, it was a barren land,
it took no prisoners.And it broke my heart but the pieces
hardened, they were as clockworks,
they counted down the hours. I was
waiting, my body was a sharp plane,
a border, I was waiting, everythinghad already happened, I had killed it,
it drifted through the motionless diaspora,
the hours turned on me and they had teeth.– by saartha
Tags: beautiful, confessional poetry, emotive, expressive, poetry
Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless
These are promo images for makeup brand Illamasqua‘s new collection Theatre of the Nameless, which was inspired by the notoriously voluptuous 1920s Berlin nightlife. I’m a sucker for any modern, dark interpretation of ’20s makeup.
Related post >> John Galliano’s theatrical runway makeup
Tags: 1920s, flapper, flappers, historically inspired, makeup
Asylum: The Video Game
Asylum is an upcoming survival horror computer game from Senscape that will be released sometime in 2011 (so it can’t be too long now, unless the release is pushed back to 2012).
Almost nothing is known about the story except this: you explore the sprawling, intricate, nearly opulent-looking Hanwell Mental Institute, and the horrors that the inmates underwent. The main character is an ex-patient who has returned to the asylum “to understand why he is suffering from bizarre hallucinations.”
There’s a lot of focus on the actual exploration of the building – as creator Agustín Cordes claims, “Each single room matters and even the bathrooms are brimming with details,” and “The overall consensus is that exploring the Hanwell building feels eerily realistic and is filled with ‘touchably crisp textures.’” About the premise, “I will only say this: Asylum is supposed to feel surreal, like there’s something horribly wrong going on inside Hanwell as soon as you set foot inside the place. Don’t try to make any sense out of it, at least not until you’re halfway into the game.”
More words from the creator:
An aspect that has become very apparent during our testing is that Asylum, unlike most first-person adventures, is really fluid. There are virtually no loading times, control is quick and smooth, navigation is easy, you have an amazing deal of freedom of movement — all in all, everything feels just right. At times it feels like a first-person shooter actually, which is pretty cool if you ask me — after all, adventures should test your creativity and intuition, not your patience with the controls. In this regard I believe that we have definitely achieved our goal because Asylum feels, in one word, “modern.”I love anything to do with old insane asylums, especially in the context of horror, and if the teaser (showing the decayed and sinister corridors of the institute, and cells in which inmates are suffering in horrific, bloody ways) is anything to go by, this should be interesting and imagination-piquing.
A gameplay trailer was released last month, which is quite amazing.
Tags: decaying architecture, horror video games, insane asylum aesthetic, psychological horror, surreal, survival horror video games, trailers
Lost Fish’s Alice
These beautiful images are from the book Alice, à travers le miroir, a French edition of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There illustrated by Lost Fish (see my previous post on her).
Tags: (twists on) traditional art, alice in wonderland, children, cute little girls, dollflesh, fragility, historically inspired, illustrations, innocence/menace, lolita-esque, lost fish, neo-victorian, pop surrealism, porcelain, precious, queens, red and white, surreal, sweet/melancholy
Alternate Trailer for “Melancholia”
Following the first trailer I posted earlier, this is a second trailer for Lars von Trier’s upcoming movie Melancholia. I am so excited for this! It promises to be so, so big, and visually stunning.
Melancholia will be released in New York and LA on Nov. 11, and in other cities across the US starting Nov. 18, but it will be available On Demand on Oct. 7, so you can watch it at home a month before its theatrical release. I feel like this is something that should be seen in the theater, but I will probably be too tempted to resist; and of course it’s great for those who don’t live in one of the cities where it will be playing.
Tags: hauntingly beautiful, lars von trier, sci-fi, surreal, trailers
KuKula’s “Lonely Opulent Things”
Nataly Abramovitch AKA KuKula‘s new show, Lonely Opulent Things, opens today at the Corey Helford Gallery, with guest artist Natalie Shau. This Rococo-inspired new collection is bright with delicate, playful pastels redolent of Marie Antoinette’s exuberant era and features KuKula’s signature sweetness of style combined with melancholy and decadence, and themes of corrupted innocence. It is just so colorful!
Tags: 18th century, animals, art shows, cute, dreamscapes, historically inspired, innocence, kukula, lolitaism, natalie shau, pastel, pop surrealism, precious, sexuality, soft color, sweet/melancholy
“Inner Demons”
+ Photographer {Jerry Bennet}
+ Model/MUA {Manchester}
+ Wardrobe/styling {Alex London}Via Haute Macabre
Tags: avant-garde goth, black and white, bones, dark romantic, fashion editorial, feathers, headdresses, spooky animal-themed jewelry, textured
“About the Man Who Loved Fishing”: A Jewelry Collection by Kasia Piechocka
London-based jewelry designer Kasia Piechocka has come out with a sleek and modern collection named About the Man Who Loved Fishing. Revolving around the unusual, conventionally unglamorous theme of fishing and assorted equipment (fish-head rings, earrings inspired by fishing weights, fish-hook necklaces, a bracelet resembling a chain of delicate fish bones), this collection turns “unbeautiful” subject matter into a form of elegance and edgy yet spare chicness. Seamless and sharp, these sterling-silver pieces work well in a unisex capacity, and are perfect for those seeking something a bit different as a bold/subtle statement accessory. They are available for purchase from her Website.
Tags: animals, avant-garde, bones, conceptual fashion, hooks, jewelry, spooky animal-themed jewelry, unique rings
The Popovy Sisters’ “mod.” Collection
Tags: alien beauty, architectural fashion, avant-garde, bjds, collars, conceptual fashion, distorted bodies, dolls, edo-period japan, futuristic, hair, headdresses, historically inspired, hoopskirts, kabuki-inspired, otherworldly, red and white, samurai mask, white hair
