As you settle in for the night, dear reader, why not instead be whisked away into the FUTURE! Watch, as visionary artists from the 1930s predict what fashion might have been like seven years ago.
I could do with that first number, actually. Zip-off sleeves? Yes. Not entirely sure about the skirt elimination, but I know I’ve got the big hair and questionable footwear well covered. Ooh, swish!
Whether he’s making a girl, an octopus or an old sailor, Scott’s dolls and marionettes have a look of prematurely aged children. Muted colors, shadowed wide-set eyes and ruddy little noses on sullen heads have become his signature. These creatures seem perfect for stop-motion animation – it would be great to someday see a full length feature starring them. I’ll avoid using terms like “whimsical” or “grotesque”- suffice to say I love Scott’s angry delicate characters and am always anticipating the next one.
Scott Radke is an artist in Cleveland, Ohio. Visit him on the interwub at scottradke.com and click beyond the jump for some of my favorite pieces.
Tokyo’s theme restaurants have been attracting tourists and locals for quite some time. There’s a selection suitable for every mood, kink and outfit – just take a look at this partial list!
Naturally, on our Japan-o-dventure our curiosity and appetites were piqued so we paid some of these fantasy eateries a visit.
The Vampire Cafe is a maze of red velvet and layers of candle wax. Waitresses in tarted up maid uniforms solemnly lead patrons trough crimson corridors across a blood red floor, literally. This floor, likely my favorite part of the decor, is composed of glowing backlit tiles depicting enlarged photographs of blood cells. Customers can choose a banquet table or private curtained booths, maid bells provided. I tried to wish myself back there yesterday – it would be stupendous for a Halloween dinner; appetizers arranged into the shape of crucifixes, rose petals sprinkled across plates, the main course served in, yes, a tiny black casket. And all this triumphantly crowned with a chocolate skull inside my parfait, no less.
Halloween is very nearly upon us. While it’s most often misrepresented by items such as this, I refuse to let commercial culture rob me of this treasured holiday’s mystery. ???? ? T??a?? (Hedgehog in the Fog), the eerie masterpiece of Russian animation featured in this post, could have easily been part of the “what made me weird” article – it affected me greatly as a kid, feeding my hungry chimera and igniting within my fevered brain the very spirit of adventure. I like to think this was the exact intended effect.
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The story is simple: Hedgehog is on his way to pay his friend, the Bear Cub, a visit. They often meet for tea and count stars together. This time Hedgehog’s prepared a special raspberry jam for the occasion. Oh his walk he sees a strange white horse in the evening fog. The fog is so thick that Hedgehog wonders whether the horse would suffocate if it were to lie down in it. The beautiful animation drips with symbolism as the Hedgehog, driven by his curiosity, steps inside the fog and into another world. He’s lost and faced with fear, loneliness, hostility and eventual redemption.
Ever-present in my subconscious, Hedgehog In The Fog is a living dream, an embodiment of fascination with the great Unknown.
“In The Garden” by Madeline von Foerster
I believe there is still time to make a new myth. There is still a chance for imagination to rise to power.
~Madeline von Foerster
The mystical paintings of Madeline von Foerster invoke names like Van Eyck, Brueghel, Bosch, Remedios Varo, Ernst Fuchs. It’s vibrant, multi-layered work, filled with Occult and Medieval symbolism and rendered in the painstaking egg tempera oil tradition of the Flemish Old Masters. Ageless, yet thematically timely, scholarly but always deeply personal, hers is simply some of the most moving work in the medium that I’ve seen from anyone of my generation.
I remember the first time I viewed the following self-portrait at a gallery showing in midtown NYC:
“Self Portrait (Trepanation)” 2005 by Madeline von Foerster
It’s a fairly large piece, 34″ x 42″ (not including the lavish frame, which she constructed and painted as well). If you’re familiar with the technique of egg tempera, closely examining a painting like this can be mind-boggling… all of those smoothly-placed, minuscule brush strokes, patiently layered, culminating in subjects that can only be described as having an unearthly inner glow. The enigmatic subject matter of trepanation thrilled me as well.
It was your typical overcrowded NYC gallery opening. Plenty of cheap wine and fabulously dressed people, all talking a little too loudly over one another. Then there was Madeline, standing off to one side, as gracious, elegant and mysterious as one of her paintings. Since that time, I’ve come to know her as one of those exceedingly rare examples of a person whose life reflects purely in their art.
Some of her recent work is currently up in a group show at the Strychnin Gallery in London. Take a peek at it and some other pieces behind the cut.
Wakey wakey, troche dear readers.
This vengeful cult classic starring our beloved Vincent Price has got it all. Art Deco by way of the 70s. Clockwork orchestras. A creepy, yet relentlessly stylish assistant named Vulnavia. (Yes, I said Vulnavia.) Bats. Bees. Deadly frog masks. A killer musical score by Basil Kirchin. Rat-induced plane crashes. Unicorn impalement. (Yes, I said unicorn impalement.) And the list goes on.
Perfect Day of the Dead fare. Watch at your peril.
By the way, if anyone wants me to name my secondborn after them (my firstborn shall be called Vulnavia, natch), all they have to do is give me an original mint condition copy of this poster:
Anastasia by Inez van lamsweerde.
It’s Mask Day at Coilhouse! A personal favorite topic, and research at the moment. As always, you’re welcome to submit your own additions to the theme.
Kissmask, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.
From artist Jill Magid’s site: The Kissmask is designed to be worn by two women. The connecting tube isolates the womens’ mouth and nose creating a heated space between them. A microphone sewn into the connecting tube records the conversation, breathing, and kissing that occurs inside. A CD of these recordings is exhibited with the mask.
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Is the idea of this object to satisfy heterosexual curiosity about the lesbian experience by essentially bottling its essence, or is it there to protect the moment while preserving its memory, perhaps without getting too close? I love the photos themselves – fragile and wistful. And the obstruction is, well, hot.
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More on this and Jill’s other work here.
All this talk of sartorial darqueness is making me want to tar and feather myself.
Wait! I mean that in the best possible way…
Footage of beautiful, comedic madman Frank Tovey, aka Fad Gadget, attacking auxiliary bandmates – borrowed from Einsturzende Neubauten – on German television.
The brilliant songwriter was fond of slathering himself in various forms of goop and leaping into his audiences, as well as “playing instruments with his head”, but apparently the world just wasn’t ready for that sort of thing back in 1982. Despite being a huge influence on later luminaries of the gothic/industrial movement, Fad Gadget remains relatively obscure.
Whether you’re already a devoted fan or want to become one, I can’t recommend Mute’s posthumous collection, Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey: A Retrospective in Sound and Vision highly enough.
On the morning of Sunday 7th May the little girl giant woke up at Horseguards Parade in London, took a shower from the time-traveling elephant and wandered off to play in the park…
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Watching this immense puppet filled me with all the awe that watching the awkward rubbery Japanese androids never could. She is absolutely alive, curious and..hungry. What’s interesting is that both the Little Girl Giant and the skinjobs are essentially human-operated, though the robots are programmed beforehand. Wearing pseudo futuristic outfits, some of them even eerily emulate human expressions with facial “muscles”, while the little girl can only blink and open her huge accordion mouth. To me it’s almost disappointing – I want amazing robots! I want technology sophisticated enough to impress me with its humanoids! I know the day this happens can’t be too far off [right?], but until then this Little Girl Giant PWNS.
