* (Halloween countdown post #2)
Laurence Demaison
Fábio Magalhães
Mariel Clayton
Shi Jinsong
Dawn Kasper
Marlene Haring
Stephen j Shanabrook
Louie Cordero
Gottfried Helnwein
Abigail Goldman
Grant Waud
Blake Neubert
Oleg Vdovenko
Naoki Sasayama
Carsten Güth
Jessica Harrison
Adeela Suleman
Xue Chuang Ying
Korehiko Hino
Arsen Savadov
Ho Tzu Nyen
Peter Caine
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Laurence Demaison Psychés (2009)
‘The photographic work of Laurence Demaison is exclusively constituted by self-portraits from 1993 to 2009. Since 2010 she occasionally uses mannequins or dolls. The used techniques – shot, development, print – are analogicals and realized by the author. No particular manipulation intervenes beyond the shot (except chemical inversion of films for some series).’
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Fábio Magalhães Various works (2010-2016)
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Mariel Clayton Various works (2011)
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Shi Jinsong Na Zha Baby Boutique (2013)
‘Bound to solicit horrified looks from fellow parents, Shi Jinsong’s Gun-shaped Baby Carriage is part of his series ‘Na Zha’. It is a ‘brand name’ for a line of outrageously unsafe baby products.’
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Dawn Kasper Untitled (2013)
‘Kasper is noted for immersing herself in live dioramas simulating her death “in disturbingly and sometimes absurdly gory ways” (to borrow one writer’s words)–as in this enactment of a fatal motorcycle accident.’
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Marlene Haring Letting My Hair Grow (2014)
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Stephen j Shanabrook Evisceration of Waited Moments (2008)
‘Remnants of an 18 year old suicide bomber cast in chocolate.’
Sleeping with Chocolate (1996)
‘autopsy table, a self-contained unit, where chocolate is pumped to the surface and returns through a middle drain.’
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Louie Cordero My We (2011)
‘The Louie Cordero exhibit showing at the 2011 Singapore Art Biennale features some over-the-top gruesome sculptures. The exhibit, titled My We, has multiple figures impaled with numerous objects that range from knives and saws to broomsticks and shovels. The work of Louie Cordero brings you to a level of morbid brutality that has never been seen before. Bones protrude out of the bodies as they are stabbed. The different Louie Cordero figures are seen in individual poses. One lies on the floor in agony, another seems to be pinned to the wall, while a third is on his knees with a hand raised as if reaching for help.’
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Gottfried Helnwein Los Capriccios (2006)
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Abigail Goldman Various works (2013-2017)
‘Goldman takes the fake grass, dirt and tiny plastic people used in model railroad layouts, and turns them into imaginary crime scenes. She’s been making the macabre and gory art for four years, and it’s become so popular there’s a waiting list for her work.’
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Grant Waud Death By Hollywood (2011)
‘Photographer Grant Waud chose celebrities and their deaths as the topic for his most recent series entitled “Death By Hollywood”. Waud settled on Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and John Dillinger as his subjects. The reenactments appear to be painstakingly accurate. Which may disturb fans of the five celebs portrayed.’
Elvis Presley
John Lennon
Marilyn Monroe
James Dean
John Dillinger
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Blake Neubert Various works (2015-2016)
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Oleg Vdovenko Various (2015 – 2021)
‘Oleg Vdovenko is a Russian-based artist and one of the brains behind the upcoming FPS horror-title ILL.’
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Naoki Sasayama The Scene of the Accident (2010)
‘These paintings by Naoki Sasayama recount, in stark realism (almost surrealism), gruesome destruction and deaths. Despite the subject matter, Sasayama’s work is dealing with the facets of life and includes allusions to social and cultural ideas. His technical ability and craving for the complex are also in the upper echelons making for a secure position of someone doing something no one else is doing.’
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Carsten Güth Private Bunker Series (2013)
‘In her “Private Bunker Series,” photographer Carsten Güth depicts suburban abodes that look completely shut off from the outside world. Though not specifically built to seal interior spaces from impending doom, the houses in Güth’s photos appear to have no windows or doors.’
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Jessica Harrison Various works (2014-2017)
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Adeela Suleman Various works (2014)
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Xue Chuang Ying Inflatable Corpse Dead Victim Scary Ornament (2021)
Inflatable Mannequin x1, Metallic Tape x1, Black Body Bag x1, Long Rope x1
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Korehiko Hino Various works (2014-2016)
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Arsen Savadov from Book of the Dead (2001)
‘Book of the Dead is a series of ten photographs of a group of mostly naked autopsied human bodies arranged around a central plinth. Some leaning against walls or each other, some slumped in chairs. There a number of sundry items of domestic furniture such as step ladders, heating radiators, lamps, a hat stand, mugs and children’s toys. A single bare and partially obstructed spotlight cast a harsh light on the scene. The composition of mainly black accented with vivid visceral red plays on the western funereal tradition, denotating mourning and grisly sanguinary nature of carnality. And of course the pallid whites and greys of the deads etiolated flesh.There are small sporadic green items hinting at growth and organic decay. But we don’t need symbolism with such explicit illustration of the several very dead elephants in the room. The expressions on the corpses faces are predominantly acerebral and zombie like. Somnambulist sleep walkers who have settled a moment in their dead domesticity, freezing, playing possum for the perception of the living. Some appear crazily blissful.There is a harmony to this family of carrion, a sense of mutual comfort in their post-mortem bond.’
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Ho Tzu Nyen The Cloud of Unknowing (2011)
single channel HD projection with 13 channel sound, synchronized smoke machines, floodlights and show control system
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Peter Caine Various (2014, 2015)
‘Peter Caine is a youtuber, dog-trainer, artist, comedian, and military veteran.’
When it dies
He was The Best
I Hate Grandpaw
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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thank you, Ben. ** Misanthrope, I will say I don’t think anywhere else can compete with Paris when they put up the Xmas lights. Lil D is adultifying. That’s not a word? Goofy’s okay. Heck, dude, you’re no small amount of goofy yourself. ‘Bad’ influence? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks, pal. The future yes or no is pretty preoccupying. ‘Talk to Me’ is probably on my free/illegal site. I’ll go check. I just remember watching that very clip I linked you to yesterday when I was a young teen and being horrified when that big guy started singing like that. I think that might have been when I figured out what ‘gay’ meant. I just gave Zac a booklet of dinosaur stickers not two weeks ago. He’s obsessed with dinosaurs. I have to keep telling him that making a film starring dinosaurs would be too expensive. Love installing an oven in my apartment — I only have a microwave — plus all the ingredients needed to make chocolate chip cookies and teaching me how to make them so they stay really soft because he’s such an expert, G. ** Bill, Score! I remember that movie ‘Twister’ that CG starred in being charmingly self-consciously weird. Bandcamp, yes, exactly. Give it serious consideration. I mean, there are so many books and films out there, but that doesn’t stop me, if you know what I’m saying. I read the Keenan book, and I think that filled me to the brim with Coil information. Oh, strange, yeah, that problem of not seeing the newest post used to happen here a lot, but then I thought it got fixed. Have you tried emptying your browser’s cache? I know in some cases that made a difference. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Interesting about the new Morris doc. Being quite the large fan of his, I’ll hope for the best. How was the Radu Jude? I just saw the Yves-Marie Mahé documentary ‘Jeune Cinema’ about an very important early adventurous French film festival that launched the work/careers of many great filmmakers, and it’s very, very good. I’m not sure if it’ll make it overseas or not. ** 2Moody, Hey. The thing is, I don’t do lectures. I’ve always refused to do them. But the Pinault Collection put some money into Zac’s and my new film, and the lecture was part of the deal for them giving funds. And now I’m regretting say ok because they didn’t give that much money. But now I’m whining. Thank you for your due diligence. I’ll owe you if that works. But not owe you lecture please. There is one just barely noticeable seagull that flies through the upper right corner of one shot in ‘PGL’ that we missed, damn, but no one seems to have noticed it, whew. No, I don’t think I do know the films of Marco Berger. I’ll look into his stuff post-haste. Thanks. ‘Ollie’ was always rapping on the ‘PGL’ set when he wasn’t shooting. His raps were extremely sweet and sincere, which is what made them beautiful. Very unique. The problem was his manager or Sony Records seem to have chickened out and and made him adopt this kind of ‘thug’ look and demeanor, etc. in his music/videos, and it just didn’t work at all. I’m hoping he reinvents himself and tries again because I think he could carve out a place for himself. Uh, I think my vomit was discrete enough to only splatter my shirt but it’s been a while. May I strongly suggest you do LA/SoCal for Halloween? Like … strongly? And if you do, it’s Knotts Scary Farm that you want to make a beeline to. Universal Horror Nights is an overpriced after thought compared to it. Not that I won’t hit it, of course, because I’m relentless. Plus you’ll see here next week the dozens and dozens of haunted reasons why LA is your target. ** Ollie 🐡, Ah, a bat! Much better! I think I told you my building has bats that fly in tight circles in our vestibule furiously for about three minutes as soon as the sun sets every day. I’ll figure out how to catch yours and introduce him/her/they to their new cohorts. Promise. No, no practical effects in our film. Fake blood, yes. A little. The haunted house in our film is supposed to be an earnest, disappointing failure, so we couldn’t make it too good. Being tall is overrated, but the running fast part is kind of alright. Your bat spoof was like the Halloween version of the Crown Jewels, no worries. Thank you, thank you! ** Matt N., Hi. I’m okay, yeah, I’m okay. Oh, weird, interesting about that script/post coincidence. Luck galore on the funding. We’re waiting to see if we get any of about 7 postproduction grants we’ve applied for, and … yeah. Up to, me? Um, I just scored tickets to go to the Halloween makeover version of the fairly great nearby amusement park Parc Asterix on Sunday, and they have a giant new roller coaster, so that’s in the offing. We go back to work on the film in a day or two to try to improve it further before the next festival deadline. I’ll try to work on this short fiction collection I’m tying to put together. Stuff like that there. You? No, I’m an early to bed (between 10-10:30 pm when possible), early to rise (6 am-ish) person. I only liked staying out all night when I used to do drugs, and I didn’t even like it all that much then. Are you partying down in the wee hours of late? What else? ** Okay. Halloween continues on the blog today with this carefully curated scare show of an exhibition. Wander about therein please. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
I just love this post! What a mood booster, haha! Thank you!
Yeah, the moment the guy started to sing in the video was pretty… surprising, let’s just say that. But hey. They seemingly aren’t ashamed of their production at all, so that’s admirable. Maybe.
Really? I used to be obsessed with dinosaurs as well. There’s some kind of interactive dinosaur exhibition opening here next month, and Anita and I are both so tempted to go, haha.
Love inspecting ovens for 1,5 hours before finally deciding to go home and bake you a huge batch of soft chocolate chip cookies himself, Od.
Dennis, I agree with you on Paris and Christmas, though I’ve never been there during that time but have seen pics.
Adultifying works for me.
I often say I’m the king of goofiness. It’s one reason I like Timothee Chalamet: he’s goofy as fuck. I find that more appealing than anything.
Oh, and so this is fucked up. I was proofreading with a coworker yesterday and suddenly she goes, “George! I gotta go. My sister’s stepson just killed himself.” What the fuck? We’re supposed to work together today, so I’ll probably find out more. But it’s just sad. Gave me chills.
Hey Dennis – We’re gearing up for the Tom of Finland Arts & Culture Festival Oct. 7-8. Mattazine Society will have our new zines and we have an interesting mix of locals and international zine artists. Jose and I are have lunch with Jack tomorrow at Stories. I’m reading the memoir of Kid Congo Powers – not fantastic writing but an interesting read. And we’re excited about the upcoming LA haunt season!!!
I used to have that exact T-shirt modelled by the Louie Cordero sculpture. “DARE to resist drugs and violence” it said, and it’s difficult to imagine anyone at art school not wearing that one ironically.
I just watched a DVD of The Living End by Gregg Araki and I enjoyed it quite a bit. A film that’s very much of its time and also one that goes beyond it to touch some universal themes.
Whoaaaa I adore the Mariel Clayton Barbies! If the movie was anything like that, perhaps I’d be more compelled to watch. Dawn Kasper’s was super fun as well, reminded me of Sandro Giordano’s ‘In Extremis’ project. And the miniatures too! My sister’s fiancé works with miniatures as a hobby and I’m always hoping he’ll make me something for Christmas, I just have no idea what to ask for — what do you ask for when the tiny possibilities are endless?! This post was a such a feast for the eyes, thank you!
Ah in that case I think if my magic falters and you do end up having to lecture, you ought to give not that good of a lecture. Like if they only gave you $20, you should give a $20 worth lecture. Maybe arrive in PJs and flip-flops and have an accompanying powerpoint all in comic-sans and have said powerpoint be 80% video clips so they do most of the talking anyway. Foolproof plan to, at the very least, guarantee they’ll never ask you to lecture again!
The fact that you remember exactly which corner of the shot the seagull invades makes me think it haunts you at night. Now I most certainly need to rewatch it most analytically and once I find the offender, I’ll print it out and send to you as confirmation. Our little secret, you have my word! Ugh, why try and twist up a sweet rapper to appear like the rest of them, don’t they know know a unique market when they see one? ‘Ollie’ as a sweet rapper makes much more sense to me, that’s a face that could convince me about peace love and understanding.
Discreet vomit seems like a difficult feat on a ride, kudos to your body’s discipline! I have heard Knotts Scary reigns supreme with how much more interactive it is and how talented the scare actors are, BUT! I’m really into fragrance and I’m so very envious of all the HHN stories I’ve heard of each house having its own specific smell, like rot and shit and vomit. I’ve read that they have a specific smell-seller who researches things like the smell-difference of decaying bodies over various amounts of time for accuracy and that is just so so wildly cool and special to me, I’m dying to catch a whiff. The way that you get in trouble by the guards for examining all the sets, I’m sure I’d get in trouble for sniffing around like a bloodhound. Are you into fragrance at all? Your writing often feels so viscerally sensual to me, I feel like if you ever collaborated with a perfumer you’d come up with something brilliant. But alright, I’ll take your very strong and highly credible Halloween suggestions to the board for examination. It is a Halloween dream of mine to be followed around by a clown or creature after all, so perhaps my friend will be swayed by the sheer necessity and passion. xoxo
Hello Dennis, I wonder what do you think about the book about you Enter at your own risk. I want to read because it seems very different from the Wrong biography. The cover picture of you is very good
I finally found the anthology film Germany in Autumn featuring Fassbinder segment I wanted to watch for very long time. After that I ended up on Red Army Faction binge on YouTube but I stopped because I want to learn about all that from book. I wonder what the best book about all that is, maybe the famous one they turned into film. One friend recommended me the book CONSUMING//TERROR: Images of the Baader-Meinhof by Rupert Goldsworthy and now dying to read
I go tomorrow to scan 10 of my drawings to prepare to submit a thing of drawings and writings somewhere good. After that I will write way more, and hopefully will hit gold
Is the seagull visible to the very last part of the film? You know this film gave me very sometimes warm weather sometimes cold weather which is both interesting to me as very cold and very warm weather used to give me psychosomatic reactions when I was younger
Nice to see so much progress for the film and wishing you the best
I cooked the iconic Greek food mousaka today
Good vibe from Crete
Love Fábio Magalhães’ meat pieces. They look a little familiar; maybe they’ve appeared in one of your older galleries? That chocolate suicide bomber, wow, has your name written all over him.
I also love Jessica Harrison’s work; pretty sure you’ve included some of her pieces here. Funny, I was just looking at my Gottfried Helnwein book and thinking I haven’t thought about him in awhile.
Just got back from some exhibits at Pier 24, a huge photography space in SF. Have you been there? You have to sign up for timed visits, and they’ve been doing this before COVID to ensure a decent viewing experience without overcrowding. I appreciate the space and arrangement, though I can’t say I got excited by the pieces I saw today. Pier 24 is closing next year, sadly.
Bill
Oh my gosh this post is great! So many good things in here. Thanks for setting the Halloween mood. I needed that!
Hope work is going in the right direction film wise. Stuff here is ok. Kinda stressful personal-wise but nothing that can’t be sorted. Writing wise I have a reading in Glasgow at the start of November which should be fun.
Love,
Thomas xoxo
Hello, Denis. Great selection, I love dark miniatures… I just saw the photos of the roller coaster and the park, it looks like a lot of fun. I’ll even check if there’s a nice park around here (if not, I’ll probably go swimming at the weekend). Well, you probably already have your post-production team, but if you need any _new_ help, I’m having a lot of free time because of a local strike and it would be great to do anything on a project of yours! New stories in the collection? That sounds good, I suppose the audio novel will come after this and the trip to Japan. By the way, have you ever been to Brazil? Are you still interested in true crime?
6am. My stomach hurts at this time of day, I like to work and study at night. And party, of course..
Hello!
It’s me Ryan..
I have some fantastic things to update you on!!
Firstly, the upcoming group exhibition I am apart of at the Turner has officially being announced! Entitled ‘In The Offing’, it runs from 7th Oct til like 10th Jan i think, theres some info here https://turnercontemporary.org/whats-on/in-the-offing/
This whole thing has very much being life changing, I went on thursday for a soundcheck for the exhibition and it was incredible, I also accidentally appeared an hour early, so they gave me a tour and introduced me to all the staff, I also met the boss of the gallery and she rly loved what I did and just me in general haha, I also met a painter called Alessandro Raho who is showing some painting in the exhibition, we talked about the new travis scott album and the new Harmony Korine film, they were all telling me how much of a massive platform for me this whole thing is, and that I’ve been perfect to work with and the poetry that i wrote for my film was ‘beautiful’ which made me emo hahahaha,
anyway another funny story is that I had a copy of ur book Try that Ive finally got around to reading , i had it in a paper bag from Boots with another book and my headphones and as I was talking to Mark Leckey the bottom of it just collapsed, so the woman who worked there got me a free tote bag and asked me about your book so I explained your work and how it’s inspired me and basically changed my life in a way, so thank u!!
Another thing too, i must have made a good impression coz theyve said mark put my name forward to do like either a workshop/conversation/talk at the turner when the exhibiton is going on, so I;ve asked them if I can do a conversation with Alessandro, primarily coz hes 50 and im 25 and i operate in one of the most immaterial art forms (music) and he operates in the world of portrait paintings which are one of the most classical and objective, the conversation will be about the differences in our practise and how we can bridge that gap, coz like when was the last time youve been to a group exhibition featuring a musician and a painter in the same room, probably hardly ever! so i wanted to honour that special moment.
Anyway yes!!! I will also be meeting actor Russell Tovey on the night, and I’ve been wanting to get into acting as i told u a while back when u started prepping ur film,, so we’ll see how that goes, i want to act in a ressurection of the play Wolf Boy (which ive been dying to get my hands on a screen play of that….)
If you can get over to margate when its on let me know, if now, ill be in paris soon im sure
lots of love dennis
RYAN!