Hell

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Dennis Oppenheim Attempt to Raise Hell, 1974
‘Dennis Oppenheim moved away from performance and body artworks in the mid-1970s toward contraptions, machines, and installations. In Attempt to Raise Hell, he replaces the performing persona of earlier body and action pieces with a puppet figure clothed in a dark suit. Its silvery head with closed eyes and upturned palms protrude from the limply hung clothing, but otherwise its body seems to have withered and disappeared. With a spasmodic jerk the motorized marionette lurches forward, ringing a bell suspended in front of its forehead. The resultant peal is sharper and fuller than we might expect from a mechanism initially so innocuous and toy-like.’

 

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Dash Snow Untitled (Hell), 2005
Digital C-print, 50.8 × 50.8 cm (20 × 20 in)

 

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Wat Rong Khun Pit of Hell, 1997
‘When you first find yourself standing in front of the temple, you are confronted with a cluster of desperate hands. This is hell – the endless pit of desires and human cravings, according to Buddhism. Once you cross the bridge above the “hell”, you are greeted by the statues of the heaven guardians. There’s no turning back by this point, the way is only forward. In fact, the guard employed at the temple would actually shout at you if you tried to go backward. The symbolism of crossing the bridge from “hell” to “heaven” signifies the Buddhist path to enlightenment.’

 

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Annette Lemieux Hell Text, 1991
‘A large-scale red canvas, Hell Text, which is seared with a text of memories of the Holocaust by survivors.’

 

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Makoto Aida Blender, 2001
‘From afar, the blender appears to be mixing up a concoction of grainy peach, black and cranberry objects. As the viewer moves closer to the painting, the subject matter shifts from the large blender to the individual human bodies. Thousands of naked young women with expressionless faces being cut up in the machine, it draws attention to a pressing, but tabooed problem stemming from Japan’s sex industry resulting in the fatality of Japanese women through consumerism in their own society in an unconventional, shocking, and disturbing way.’

 

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Arnulf Rainer Hell, 1973
‘All my photo revisions are self-portrayals, reproductions of the self that is not yet known to me. The method: First, the perpetual attempt to grasp a point of pure identity. Second, the attempt to transform oneself completely, to alienate oneself in the infinite multiplicity of the possible. There is not only one person within me, but all this should become only one. So I investigated my limits and my centre point, but I only found that I could expand anywhere and everywhere. Since then, my wish has been to unfold myself infinitely, but at the same time to occupy a fixed spot like granite.’

 

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Liga Spunde When Hell Is full, the Dead Will Walk the Earth (The Mirror), 2020
‘“The Mirror” is an animated projection on a screen made out of polyester resin. The inspiration for the object, is the magic mirror from the Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. In the movie the mirror played the role of a passive spy – it retold and replayed the murder of Snow White to the queen. This is similar to what the computer screen does nowadays. The role of the character and its purpose in the famous fairytale made me think about the world of Dark Net today.’

 

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Paul Gerrard Concept Art From Alex Proyas’ Never-Made Paradise Lost, 2010
‘In February of 2012, Legendary Pictures pulled the plug on Paradise Lost. It was to be a loose adaptation of John Milton’s 17th century poem of the same name. Director Alex Proyas, who is best known for directing The Crow, planned to use the most advanced motion capture technology to bring the biblical saga to life. Budget concerns proved to be too much to overcome. Legendary, tried numerous times to rework the numbers to get the budget below $120 million, but it was too difficult a task. Most of the budget would’ve went to the enormous celestial battles that involved massive aerial warfare between the angels and the demons. The cast included: Bradley Cooper as Lucifer, Benjamin Walker as the archangel Michael, Casey Affleck as Gabriel, Diego Boneta as Adam, Camilla Belle as Eve and Dijmon Hounsou as Abdiel the Angel of Death.’

 

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Andy Warhol Heaven and Hell Are Just One Breath Away, 1985
synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, in two parts

 

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Seth Price Hell Has Everything, 2018
‘​My Country tis of thee, the Human Beat Box/sound soup with Mj demos/ bilitis…) earthbeat Herbie Hancock, time n space Pink Siifu, lady on the train Irene Xero, work the flow RP Boo/Cathedral van halen, threat misses juke ya girl, Kenji Yamamoto metroid main, Zulu P see you when i get there, crying (Kode 9 remix) roots manuva Sandrose underground session chorea, hear my heart Antoinette Marie Pugh+jeff phelps Jon Appleton Georganna’s Farewell Detroit Summer DJ Assault The Formula The D.O.C./Eric B Just a Beat/Jay’s Game JMJ/Megamix I&II D.ST., Nights Over Egypt The Jones Girls/Live Pistoia+Bariazioni Su ‘Angeli Di Solitudine’ Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale/Decoder Pt 1: Muzak for Frogs psychic t.v. nada sagrado Angel rada, germfree adolescents X-ray spex, A Little Soulful Tune taj mahal/massa confusa Archaïa, otis g johnson Come Back’

 

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Le Gentil Garçon Where Da Hell Are We Going?, 2004
Polystyrène, fils électriques, néons, patins à glace, mousse expansive

 

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Erin M. Riley Pure Hell, 2005 – 2016
‘At age 13, Erin M. Riley started plucking her hair as a way to relieve stress caused by her family’s substance abuse problems. Throughout her childhood on Cape Cod, her dad used drugs and her mom drank. When she reached college, her urge to pluck, known as trichotillomania, became debilitating. At that point, her older sister and her younger sister were both addicted to heroin. “During college, I was waiting for the call that they were dead,” says Riley. “Anytime my mom called, I wouldn’t answer. I wouldn’t listen to voicemails.” Her sisters’ addictions consumed the entire family. “But I never felt allowed to be upset. Because I wasn’t the addict; I wasn’t homeless. I was in college, you know?” Curious about tapestries, she enrolled in a weaving class as a freshman at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Riley, who had never seen a loom before, was immediately hooked. Inside the beautiful old room, eighteen wooden looms sat on a hardwood floor. Light spilled in from tall windows, and hefty spools of color-coordinated yarn filled the shelves of one wall. She loved the feel of the yarn in her fingers and the music of the looms. “When the full class was weaving, it sounded like an odd orchestra,” she says.’

 

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Tim Noble and Sue Webster Puny Undernourished Kid & Girlfriend From Hell, 2004
‘Noble and Webster have created a series of light sculptures that reference iconic pop culture symbols represented in the form of shop-front-type signage and carnival shows inherent of British seaside towns, Las Vegas and Times Square. With the aid of complex light sequencing these signs perpetually flash and spiral out messages of everlasting love, and hate.’

Watch him work

Watch her work

 

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Jim Shaw Donald and Melania Trump descending the escalator into the 9th circle of hell reserved for traitors frozen in a sea of ice, 2020
‘The central figures in the painting are Trump and Melania. And they’re on an escalator descending. But here you have them descending into an icy or frozen lake. It’s quite an apocalyptic landscape. The background is from a theatre backdrop, printed in white on top of the theatre backdrop, so you see a certain amount of the backdrop content, but most of what you’re seeing is this sort of fake Gustave Doré etching of hell inspired by Doré’s etching of Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell. The set and figures are essentially based on Doré’s, but instead of having a head, the devil is a vanity with three mirrors, because he’s typically seen to have had three heads in hell. Instead of a cavern, the hellscape is a defunct, flooded mall in Thailand.’

 

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Paul Fryer Heaven And Hell, 2009
‘Symbolism, the occult, a blasphemous surrealism and the clash of religion and science dominate this selection of Paul Fryer’s (b.1963) visual work. The Leeds born and reared artist is not confined to any particular genre, shifting effortlessly from a detailed scenes from the Passions of Christ, to a huge engineered tuning fork, uncannily resonating through the viewer’s thoracic cavity as a future religion’s symbol. Electricity, the role of science and natural phenomena underline Paul Fryer’s designs.’

 

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Alex Cecchetti Nuovo Mondo: Tour Guide of Heaven and Hell, 2016
‘’Nuovo Mondo: Tour Guide of Heaven and Hell‘ is the third episode in Alex Cecchetti‘s ongoing artist‘s novel, Tamam Shud. It is also is a performative walk through the concentric circles that descend and ascend through the building of the Królikarnia Palace in Warsaw. What is hell for many can be heaven for some.’

 

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Barbara Kruger Untitled (What Is Hell Like?), 1994
engraved magnesium, 12⅛ by 11⅞ in. (30.8 by 30.1 cm.)

 

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Nobuyoshi Araki Alluring Hell, 2015
‘Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (*1940) got his first camera at the age of twelve. After studying photography and film he first worked in commercial photography. In 1970 he self-published his first xeroxed photo books. To date, Araki he shot tens of thousands of photos and has published over 400 books of his work. He is notorious for his alleged emotionally detached photos of nude models bound with rope in Kinbaku style. Araki plays with paradigms of submission and emancipation, death and desire. He steadily moves between serenity and shock. The ambivalence of his photos earned him the blame of being pornographic and misogynist, on the other hand they move between the poles of creation and destruction, life and death, fact and fiction, reason and passion.’

 

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Patrick Hall Mad as Hell, 2018-19
spirit bottle, LED lighting, electrical cable, glass, plywood 120 x 60 x 11 cm

 

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Lu Yang Welcome to LuYang Hell, 2017
‘Lu Yang’s multimedia installations combine video, sculptural elements, lighting, and soundtracks made in collaboration with different musicians. The videos themselves are fast-paced, delivering various types of information at once: highly detailed and sometimes intense digital imagery layered with moving graphics, voiceovers also available as subtitles in translation, and high-energy soundtracks ranging from techno to opera to death metal. The installations can be immersive and overwhelming. Viewers are left with strong impressions, but to grasp the videos in all their detail, viewers would probably have to watch them multiple times. Or you can let them wash over you – colorful and keyed-up, like a music video or a futuristic educational film.’

 

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T. V. Santosh Howndingdown, 2007
‘In Santosh’s installation, a group of thirty chrome dogs are arranged in a grid, sentries guarding words which slowly scroll in three digitised displays at their feet. The dogs conflate various beliefs and mythologies associating the animal with death. In the Hinduism of Santosh’s native India, the dog is seen as a messenger of Yama, the god of death, and guard the doors to Heaven. The ancient Egyptians depicted Anubis, guide and protector of the dead, with a jackal or dog’s head, while the great dog Amt stood sentry at the gate to the lower world. Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Greek myth, guarded the entrance to hell. On the back of each of Santosh’s dogs an electronic clock performs a silent, never-ending countdown, the flickering red digits reeling perpetually towards unspecified calamity.’

 

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Ewan Creed Untitled, 2019 – 2021
‘Recent drawings on paper. The work is the residue of a process. Some may find this kind of work to be what’s wrong with contemporary art. I say to hell with those people.’

 

 

 

 

 

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Hrafnhildur Arnardottir Vanity Beast from Hell, 2009
‘Immediately upon entering, one is confronted by Vanity Beast from Hell which, on first glance, appears to be a bearskin rug. Upon closer inspection this object reveals itself to be a bear’s head rendered with intricately plaited human and synthetic hair, like that used to produce cheap cornrows. Combined with glaring glass eyes, the effect is quite disconcerting. Shoplifter has defamiliarised this ‘bearskin’ from viewers’ accepted notions by sharply juxtaposing references to urban and rural identities.’

 

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Unknown Ánimas del purgatorio, 1840 – 1880
‘The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the existence of Purgatory is a ‘truth of faith’ revealed by the Holy Spirit and sustained in Sacred Scripture, which, as Catholics, we cannot doubt. Many saints have been allowed to see Purgatory in vision, and they say that although there the souls enjoy knowing that they will go to heaven (they passed, as the students say ‘in the belly’), they suffer a lot because they already wanted to see God . The souls in Purgatory cannot leave by themselves, but we can help them, praying for them and offering Masses, indulgences, Rosaries. In fact, the Church dedicates the entire month of November to praying for the souls in Purgatory. Its purification is similar to what happens when a craftsman polishes a precious metal on fire. You keep an eye out, and you know you’re ready when you can see yourself reflected in it. So it is with the souls in Purgatory . He who has created them in His image and likeness, purifies them there, until they recover their purity and can be seen reflected in them.’

 

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Joe Coleman Victory of Hell, 1995
‘In “The Victory of Hell,” a six-armed Lucifer in the form of a hermaphrodite presides over a scene of utter depravity.’

 

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Markus Copper Kursk, 2004
‘Markus Copper’s Kursk tells about the tragic destiny of the submarine Kursk, which raised strong feelings all over. The divers who came to rescue the Kursk crew must face the impossible. The artist has noted to aim at causing real rumbles to sensitize people every now and then. Characteristic for his art is mechanical motion, motorized constructions and noises torturing one’s eardrums.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** __Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. What is the NHS WiFi blocking standards, can you tell? Is it just sexual content, or does it block sites and places because of politics or something? Strange. My magical vibes if any are oriented towards propelling you in the direction of the day room. ** Misanthrope, That document sounds like seriously no fun, but god love the income it triggers. No doubt: Kayla having sun. Bridge of sighs. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yeah, I increasingly think the hacking thing is random and probably part of some assault on a bunch of WordPress blogs and sites, looking for sites that the bot can get into easily. The problem, in that case, is that when it can’t get in, it doesn’t give up. I feel like this could keep going for months or years. I’m trying to ignore it, but it’s not easy, and the blog is functioning noticeably more slowly on my end — it can take minutes to upload a jpeg now that used to take 10 tops seconds, for instance — apparently as a result, which is a massive drag. But … blah blah. Oh, your love is scary in a cool way. We have lots of pigeons living around my window, so it’s easy to imagine too. Love de-aging Iggy Pop 40 years and serving him a big bowl of split pea soup, G. ** David Ehrenstein, I’m so sorry about your friend. That’s terrible. I watched him sing in your video, and it was lovely. Hugs. ** Tosh Berman, Ha ha, I just read this exact comment on your Facebook page not 1 minute ago. It’s like your yesterday’s press release. I like it: trippy. Most of my friends in LA have been hardly going out if at all for, like, a year, whereas here in Paris everyone has been going out, riding the metro, looking at art, seeing friends, etc. pretty much since the first lockdown was lifted last May. Completely different attitudes towards pretty much the same situation/ restrictions. Very interesting. ** T, Hi, T. Really nice to see you! Other than the hacking thing and its stressfulness, things are pretty okay considering all the you-know-what. Very nice about the rent thing. Wow, not bad. And you have brand new surroundings, which I hope is as refreshing to the senses as it seems. I’m happy those books jumped out at you. ‘Crime and Punishment’ … I read that so long ago I don’t remember almost anything about it. I’ve been in Moscow three times, but not for quite a while. I found it oppressive and depressing for the most part, but it seems to have transformed a lot recently. I … can’t think of any Russian authors I’ve read in recent times, which is an absence I should rectify now that you mention it. So, no on the current front. Historically, I’ve liked, well, Nabokov obviously, Bulgakov, Gogol (I think), … I remember really liking M. Ageyev’s ‘Novel With Cocaine’. Take care, my friend, and enjoy the windfall and the re-contextualisation. ** schlix, Hi, Uli! Awesome! You good? Warmest and healthiest wishes and vibes from here to you. ** Steve Erickson, Interesting. Are people doing DMT a lot nowadays? I can’t remember the last time anyone I know (of) said they did it. Everyone, Steve has reviewed the … and I quote … ‘lame Netflix thriller…satire?…whatever’ ‘I Care A Lot’. Sounds like his review is a lot more highly recommended than the thing. ** Jack Skelley, Ah, a Skelley reverie thanks to Mr. Glove! I hope he knows. I’ve been thinking about re-listening to ‘Get Up With It’, and your mention puts that in the fated category, so … You were at Napili recently, wow! I don’t think I’d recognise it much, or at least the surroundings. Like on the other side of the road were nothing but pineapple fields forever, and I looked at photos at some recent-ish point, and they’re all gone and replaced by MacMansions and shit. We can talk trips on Zoom and bore all those lightweights to death! Sure, my Franciosa story is yours, all yours, yours alone even. ** Mark Gluth, Hey, Mark. Very happy he made his goal! I seem to still be far from the vaccine. They’re very picky over here. Spring has kind of sprung here too, and, yeah, it’s pretty welcome. I read a new novel by Jim a while back — he and I email sporadically. I liked it a lot. I wonder if it’s the same novel. I don’t remember images but I could be spacing. How is your work going and what is it? ** Brian O’Connell, Brian, hello! The ‘Class Action Park’ doc is fun, but, you know I’m a huge amusement park guy, so I’m easy, but, yes, I think I can say it’s fun. I saw ‘All About Eve’, but, really, so long ago that I don’t remember such about it other that it being good. Yeah, I have all kinds of problems with Facebook like any sane person does, but the connectivity there, such as it is, is pretty valuable and keeps me. My Tuesday wasn’t much as the planned things got delayed, but it was, you know, not unpleasant. Anything dazzle you today? Or even twinkle you? ** John Newton, Hi. I only took LSD back in the days when it was pretty much high grade and pure-ish and not cut with much other than a little strychnine. I can’t imagine that the LSD today is in the same realm, but I don’t know. That bad trip lasted about 8 hours, and I don’t remember much about it, and I didn’t remember much about it at the time. A friend, also on acid, stayed with me to try to steer me through it, and I vaguely remember being aware of him sometimes. I was seriously wiped for a couple of months afterwards, could hardly talk for weeks, but then I got real again. My obsessions? Too many to list, really. I have lots. Between the blog and my books, I think they get pretty much laid out. Yours? Mm, since I was a young teen my mantra has been ‘Confusion is the truth’, and I think that was what I learned from LSD. And I got a lifelong distrust and lack of belief in generalisations. Both of those were hugely helpful. But I didn’t have any big revelations on LSD mostly due to the LSD revelation that generalisations are bullshit. ** Right. I’m sending you to a kind of hell today. You’re welcome. See you tomorrow.