Alex CF’s Mythical and Nightmare Specimens
Alex CF painstakingly creates these cryptozoological specimens encased in bell jars and elaborate, gorgeous display cabinets replete with the paraphernalia, notes, and mementos of the scientific ventures that captured these exquisite specimens. He almost creates complete miniature scenes around the specimens: there are reliquaries, study cases, vampire slaying kits, portable bio-aetheric animation laboratories, coffers, and sarcophagi. The specimens are drawn from literary works, including Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Dante’s Inferno, H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and Chthulhu Mythos, as well as folklore and legend. The array of allusions to classical eerie fiction is delightful.
He reimagines and renders these cryptic, bizarre, mythical creatures and beings, sirens, faeries, mutants, succubi, devilspawn, atrocities against nature, resulting in specimens that are disturbingly lifelike and real enough to touch. They are repulsive and yet alluringly detailed. The displays also come with beautifully drawn illustrations, which are as fascinating as the specimens themselves.
Tags: alice in wonderland, anatomical illustrations, anatomical-themed, artifacts of the past, autopsy, babies, bizarre, chthulhu, corpses, creature, creepy, cryptid, cryptozoology, eerie, exposed anatomy, fairies, fairy tales, fleshy, gory, grotesque, hunter/hunted, illustrations, macabre, monsteresque, mythos, natural history, religious imagery, sculptures, sideshows, sinister arts and crafts, taxidermy, vampires, vials, victorian, vintage, visceral, vivisected, weird science projects
Merve Morkoç
>>Merve Morkoç<<
Tags: anatomical-themed, dollflesh, hair, illustrations, macabre, pop surrealism, portraits, red and white, street art, victorian, vintage
Room Inspiration: Charmaine Olivia’s Studio
I am in love with the decor of the artist Charmaine Olivia’s studio. Simple, effective touches make for an atmosphere that is airy, delightfully antique, whimsical, a bit mystical/witchy, and beautiful.
All images are from Charmaine Olivia’s Flickr stream.
Tags: dark ethereal, dream houses, interior decoration, vintage
Una Burke’s META.MORPH
Úna Burke’s beautiful A/W 2011 collection of armor/medical-inspired sculptural fashion, META.MORPH, is complemented by stunning wet-plate collodion photography from Andreas Waldschütz and Stefan Sappert. Witness below:
Further delight yourself by viewing this video, inspired by “the cinepoems of Man Ray and jarring aspects of psychological horror”:
via Haute Macabre
Tags: alien beauty, architectural fashion, avant-garde, black and white, conceptual fashion, corsets, fashion films, fashion photography, fashiontech, haute couture, high fashion, man ray, medical braces, medical-themed, military/warrior chic, prosthetic, psychological horror, short films, trauma, una burke, vintage, wet-plate photography
Liliroze’s Colorful Dream Photography
Tags: art nudes, colorful, experimental, fashion photography, flowers in hair, hazy, masks, red, sepia, soft color, surreal, vintage
Portrait of a Criminal
Check out this amazing series of “photographs of commitment” from the archive of the Sydney Justice & Police Museum, posted over on the art blog La boite verte. Beautiful, timeless, and peculiarly expressive, these vintage “mug shots” are just brimming with the individuality and personalities of a motley array of people who passed through Australia’s criminal justice system back in the early part of the 20th century – creating unintentional art – offering up to these fringe subjects a sliver of immortality. I am in love with these.
{via the ever-brilliant Coilhouse blog}
Tags: 1920s, artifacts of the past, expressive, hauntingly beautiful, portraits, quizzical, retro, sepia, vintage
Vintage Dream Photography by Ellen Rogers
Ellen Rogers‘ gorgeous, experimental film photography, reminiscent of 19th-century hand-colored pictures, always makes me feel like I’ve entered an ethereal dreamland that combines the past and the present seamlessly, where beautiful princesses come out of the shadows and mists and lure you. Rogers does everything with analog cameras, film, and darkroom techniques only, with the resulting images being sometimes blurred, overlaid, and having other interesting and charmingly individual effects. Sometimes black-and-white, sometimes with the unreal, super-saturated color of vintage photos, her work is delightful and dreamy and piquant.
Tags: art nudes, black and white, colorful, ellen rogers, flowers in hair, headdresses, high fashion, otherworldly photography, twins/doppelgangers/doubles, vintage
Irina Ionesco
Irina Ionesco is a French-Romanian photographer who began exhibiting her work in the mid-1970s. Her photography is dark, dramatic, erotic, and strongly evocative of a vintage aesthetic. I see lots and lots of influence from the 1920s – from the lavishly ornamental tendency in portraits from that period, where female subjects are arranged in feathers, furs, headdresses, high heels, and assorted paraphernalia, along with the era’s makeup, and the overall “sexy/macabre” vibe and vampish aesthetic of the ’20s.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding Ionesco’s nudes with her young daughter as the model. More on that below.
Tags: 1920s, 1970s, black-and-white portraits, controversy, erotic, fetish, lolitaism, vintage, vintage undergarments
“Lacrimosa” by Kevin Llewellyn
This is a painting I love from Kevin Llewellyn‘s exhibition at Kat Von D’s recently launched Wonderland Gallery:
Mmm…Galliano
I love, love, love John Galliano’s runway makeup. Often 1920s-inspired, it is dominated by bow lips, rosy contoured cheeks, just the thinnest of brows whimsically penciled in, and heavy shading in eccentric and interesting colors around the eyes that literally creates shadows, hollows, and a “bleeding,” “bruised” look. The effect is simultaneously macabre and playful, a pastiche of makeup for young widows in the silent era. I love the interesting mix of colors, the heaviness, the drama of it. No matter whether you find yourself really liking Galliano’s couture or not, the makeup is always innovative, elaborate, and striking, and that is part of the couture, creating a magic and mystery about it.
Tags: 1920s, amazing makeup, haute couture, john galliano, pierrot, runway fashion, vintage
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