Through a Veil Darkly: the Art of Bernd Preiml
Tags: bernd preiml, conceptual, fashion photography, gloomy color schemes, historically inspired, modern fairy tales, neo-victorian, otherworldly photography, photomanipulation, retro, surreal, victorian
Toads and Diamonds: The Art of S.Jin
S.Jin‘s gorgeous drawings and watercolors contrast the daintiness of porcelain-doll Victorian girls with macabre sexuality, bruising trauma, and sinister anatomical metaphors. Her delicate, exquisite linework is sometimes accompanied by magical little poems and pieces of writing that exudes her fairy-tale aesthetic.
Tags: anatomical-themed, animal skulls, animals, antlers, bones, branches, bruises, deer, flowers, innocence/menace, intricate line drawings, modern fairy tales, nature, rabbits, skeleton, teacups, twins/doppelgangers/doubles, victorian
CocoRosie – Gallows
This is the lovely video for the song “Gallows” by the band CocoRosie. Now one of my favorite music videos.
If you like this, also check out their video for “Lemonade.”
The sisters CocoRosieTags: animals, cocorosie, hauntingly beautiful, historically inspired, music videos, neo-victorian, twins/doppelgangers/doubles, victorian, victorian mourning attire
The Propriety of Women: Riikka Sormunen
Riika Sormunen is a Finnish artist and illustrator based in Canada. Reminiscent of both Edward Gorey and Gustav Klimt, her works have an oddball, morbid sense of playfulness, and loose, childlike, highly stylized and expressive figures in surreal, flattened landscapes. Her use of color is bold, sophisticated, and brilliant. Drawing from the Victorian era and the stuff of fairy tales, and sometimes depicting women from the middle of the 20th century, Riikka’s paintings constantly subvert conventions and sexual mores in a quirky, ironic, frank, and personal way. Her style has a wide range and has evolved over time; the constant is that it is refreshingly different and exudes individuality.
Riikka Sormunen’s Website
Riikka Sormunen on DeviantArt
Tags: colorful, femininity, illustrations, modern fairy tales, retro, riikka sormunen, sexuality, swan, victorian, whimsical
Victorian Prosthetic Arm
Speaking of Victorian prosthetics, here’s a picture of the hand on a prosthetic arm from the late 19th century, currently resting in the London Science Museum:
via GizmodoI don’t, however, think it’s “creepy” as many others seem to, it just looks very neat and elegant and amazingly detailed. Have they ever seen a modern-day prosthesis? And they think that looks creepy! Hey, if I lost an arm, I think I’d rather have something like that than one of the flesh-colored plastic/hook hand contraptions around now.
Tags: prosthetic, victorian
Little Framed Tragedies: The Art of Larissa Kulik
Each one of Larissa Kulik’s dark and whimsical photomanipulations is framed in a way that tells a story in that single, frozen image. Strings and ropes are a recurring motif, suggesting bondage and the threads of fate. These snapshots-of-dark-fairy-tales, filled with symbolic objects, are unique in the way they’re composed, and often the boundaries of the picture itself are pointed out and lovingly inscribed and decorated, so that each work is a lushly melancholy story-rich image framing itself. Her framed stories are instantly recognizable.
Tags: dolls, modern fairy tales, photomanipulation, victorian
Precious Creatures: The Art of Ray Caesar
Ray Caesar is one of those artists in the Pop Surreal Movement whose work I’ve seen around for years and years. His medium is quite unique: 3D modeling. And if I were to sum up his subject matter in a few words, I would say something like subverted Victorian morals. His works most often feature young, prepubescent girls, often sexualized, deformed, outfitted with sea-monster tentacles, and in other ways altered from reality. The fetish Batgirl-esque mask is ever present. Women peer from behind fans in Marie Antoinette-style costume, hold parasols in Victorian garb, and sport ’50s-style flip haircuts. His worlds are bright and colorful, the girls vaguely menacing. Macabre and eerie, the works are set in the midst of delicately colored, floral Victorian wallpaper and lush, feminine interiors; the girls are surrounded by objects of taming and domesticity, but they show their teeth and their sinister side.
From Jonathan Levine Gallery Online:
“Working for 17 years in the Art and Photography Department of The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto, Ray Caesar documented things such as child abuse, surgical reconstruction, psychology, and animal research.Using a 3D modeling software called Maya, he builds models and wraps them in painted and manipulated texture maps. The models are set up with an invisible skeleton that allows him to pose each figure in a 3D environment. Digital lights and cameras are added to simulate shadows and reflections, completing the effect of a mysterious and strange alternate world.”
Some of my favorites of his works:
Tags: fetish, historically inspired, innocence/menace, pop surrealism, ray caesar, victorian
Dolls by Lena and Katya Popova
Lena and Katya Popova are sisters who make the most amazing art dolls. These are from their “Fashion Moon” doll lamp series.
Tags: dolls, geisha-inspired, victorian
Alice: Madness Returns
American McGee’s Alice from 2000 is one of my favorite video games, because it’s just so stylish. A short teaser trailer for the sequel, titled Alice: Madness Returns, which is set to be released sometime in 2011, has surfaced.
Tags: alice in wonderland, american mcgee, horror video games, madness, victorian
Doll Parts – The Art of Lost Fish
“Doll Parts” is the aptly named latest exhibition of Elodie/Lost Fish. Lost Fish mixes innocence with sexuality and evil in her precious, delightful illustrations. Uber-cute, teary-eyed tiny girls with a melancholy expression, bud mouths, hyperrealistic porcelain-white faces and rouged cheeks are the subjects of her painstakingly rendered digital art. Baby faces and symbols of childhood abound. There are murderous-seeming aristocrats, darling deformities of children, lovelorn cyborgs, and all the accoutrements of such precious beings, including teacups, cakes, ribbons, flowers, and pet creatures. They seem yearning, hurt, vulnerable, and wicked by turns. There are Lolita, fetish, and cyberpunk overtones. The resultant imagery is almost too cute for words: the epitome of innocent and corrupted dollflesh.
Tags: animals, babies, cute little girls, dolls, fetish, lost fish, pop surrealism, sweet/melancholy, victorian
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