I first became aware of Leontine Greenberg when I saw her fantastic Dark Crystal piece for Gallery1988’s recent “Crazy 4 Cult” show. Working in watercolors and gouache, her work is fairly sparse, normally a figure or two perched atop a strip of earth. The characters in these little vignettes are animals all, just a few steps outside of their real-world norms. There are tiny, unidentifiable songbirds and gangly, heron-like waterfowl. And there are, of course, the rabbits or, perhaps, The Rabbit; a spindly, hunched creature (or creatures) with a peculiar phonograph obsession — an other-dimensional Nipper.

What I like most about her work (besides the wonderfully rendered figures) is how they seem to hint at but never reveal their world. All these strange scenes appear to take place in some children’s storybook gone sideways — the Hundred Acre Wood and Kenneth Grahame’s pastoral England transposed onto Sam Kieth’s Outback — a world I would very much like to know more about but which is, perhaps, best left up to the imagination.

Photo by Fred Kroh

Numen / For Use are an art and design collective who create organic, web-like structures from adhesive tape. Their temporary installations are large and stable enough for several adults to crawl through, and the effect is not unlike being trapped in a giant spider’s web.

After climbing up a step ladder, you find yourself suspended in a series of glistening caverns, the frosted plastic obscuring your view of the outside world.

Photo by Fred Kroh.

Their latest project, Tape Melbourne, took eight days to complete, with three artists and fifteen volunteers working nine hours every day. The exhibit used thirty kilometers of tape to build, with more tape to repair and fix the structure on a nightly basis.

The Numen / For Use website contains more examples of their work, including images and videos of the construction process. You can explore their newest installation at Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia for a few more days; from now through September 24th, 2011.

Photo courtesy of Federation Square

More photos of the installation after the jump. (Editor’s note: This is our cherished intern Connie Chen’s first blog post for Coilhouse. Thank you, Connie!)

Bride I

MizEnScen’s elegant digital collages, laced with melancholia like mournful mezzotints, are a surrealist fusion of gleaned vintage engravings, illustrations, and photography in which she expresses her love of the macabre and whimsy through her work while “exploring the juxtapositions between what some consider beautiful and horrific”.
“To me,” she notes, ” they are one of the same.”

“The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature”. -Gustave Flaubert,

Referencing this provocative quote,  she postulates that this sentiment “… pertains to my works’ visual theme and aesthetic.  I create images that draw on my morbid sensibilities and because of that, the images exhibit dark or morose elements.  In essence, I’m inclined to the things outside of nature because that is precisely what I find beautiful.”

Those unfamiliar with her artwork may also know her as MizEnScen on tumblr in which she curates, among other things, a striking collection of film stills from early black and white cinema and cites an unapologetic love of the breathtaking, enigmatic Greta Garbo. It is unsurprising then, that she lists among her artistic inspirations: “silent film, melancholia, carnivals (sideshows), The Weimar Republic, Dia De Los Muertos, Edwardian/Victorian photography and illustrations, Surrealism, Pop Surrealism, engravings (particularly medical illustrations), German Expressionism, oddities/curios, graphic art, collage, and Dada.”

Her process involves both digital and traditional methods, about which she shares the following: “When I create a digital collage, I may or may not begin with an idea, but I simply rummage through illustrations to gather inspiration and play around with them in Photoshop.  Other times I create elements that I want to incorporate either as part of a altered-digital collage or my own illustration by sketching in graphite and ink, then scanning the artwork to alter in Photoshop.  Some of my other artwork is done in traditional paint and brush, my new favorite method being dry brush.  Essentially the tools I use are graphite, ink, acrylic, watercolor, oil, paper, canvas, engravings/illustrations, and Photoshop.”

Though not currently an artist by trade, she is working  toward making her artwork a full-time venture.  More of MizEnScen’s sketches, collages, etc. can be see on her flickr page and art prints are available through society6.  See below the cut for a small selection of her wistful, whimsical collages, compositions which resonate with both “traces of sadness and fleeting gladness”.

In 2005, Banana Park produced this Oscar nominated short, based on George Herriman’s seminal comic strip, Krazy Kat. It is the perfect primer for the strip, should you ever consider diving into the collected series, giving a brief and concise look at the bizarre love triangle at its center. Banana Park did a fantastic job of capturing the look of both the characters — Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and Offissa Pupp — the strange, otherworldly version of Coconino County, Arizona.

(It should be noted that, even though Krazy is referred to as “he” here — as, indeed, was the case in the comic — it is gender neutral, Herriman refusing to ever give a definitive answer as to Krazy’s gender.)

Via Drawn

via Whittles

You can thank David Lewandowski (lead animator on TRON: Legacy) for the nightmare juice. The Jean Jacques Perrey music makes it extra disturbing, capsule somehow.

Monty Python era Terry Gilliam gives a lesson in the cut out animation he was so well known for. Watching this, site I was struck by how inventive Gilliam was in playing with perspective and appropriating images as well as how maddeningly fiddly the entire process seems. Even with the help of tape I would be terrified that a stray gust of air or a sneeze would take everything away with it. Stop motion animators have nerves of steel and more patience than I shall ever possess.

Via Drawn

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, by London-based art collective This Is It, at first seems like a bizarro children’s television from an alternate dimension. Looking at the modern, television landscape, however, it would seem that much of the programming for neonates is comprised of educational material wrapped in visuals that would make the Surrealists weep with joy. If anything, this is just taking the concept to its logical, if unsettling, conclusion.

When the internet was created, those involved most likely imagined a vast network where ideas could be shared across great expanses. Where great minds could come together to work on the most fundamental questions of human existence. Instead, here’s a video of Shelley Duvall, star of The Shining, introducing herself in almost the exact same way twenty four times. It is both maddening and hypnotic. Gaze upon its banal majesty and weep for what might have been.

(Also, let me just say, that this is, perhaps, the most terrifying thing one could hear upon entering a graveyard.)

Courtesy of the wonderful, search talented tykylevits, producer of fine Finnish nonsense for four years and counting.

Via Al Ridenour, the fine ‘n’ twisted mind behind Art of Bleeding, we are introduced to this vintage promotional film for tranquilizers:

Youtube documentarian Miquel writes: “This is quite odd; laboratory bottles with faces, a strange crystalline drug that turns red water blue, disembodied arms and a very “Bob” looking salesman. Take your pills & relax! ‘Of all the states across this nation, the happiest by far is the state of relaxation.'”