Ssunes

Two very visual films I loved recently

 

PANNA A NETVOR/ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

 After seeing Morgiana I wanted more Juraj Herz films in a similar style (a few of his newer films look very different), there aren’t many of his films on English dvd but I found that there was a dvd with no English title on the box but did have English subtitles in the disc: Panna A Netvor (in this disc’s subtitles for the film this is translated as “Virgin And The Beast”, not “Beauty”).

 This is a really beautiful film, the actress is very cute but most of the pleasure is from the amazing scenery. The surreal paintings that start the film, a short scene of the woods of bare falling trees but mostly the amazing home of The Beast which is just a messy ruins of a mansion. The lovely gothic mess becomes like a maze in some places and it made me wonder if this was a real derelict place or if it was meticulously designed for the film. There are quite a few nice features in the house which are definitely designed by the filmmakers.
 Like Morgiana there is pipe organ music but far more of it here, taking up most of the soundtrack; I can never get enough pipe organ in my life.

 My complaints are that the costume is a tad goofy looking (but it isn’t a lion faced beast this time, which is interesting) but the expressive eyes of the beast compensate for that a little. The choices and evolution of the characters’ feelings are not very convincing.
 There is a scene in which the beast while riding a horse chases a baby deer and repeatedly nearly tramples it, the deer keeps falling and it looks like this wouldn’t have happened that way with today’s animal protection helpers (but I have been surprised before by films that were completely approved by the animals’ protectors, I can’t judge what is too harsh on the animals). 

 The soundtrack repeats the main theme far too often.

 

 I’ve seen clips of other Juraj Herz films with a similar sense of design but I need to find out what they are and if I can get them.

 I’m excited by the idea of there being more hidden gems to find of eastern European fantasy and fairy tale films.

THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS

 I’m generally not fond of the idea of nostalgic retro pieces but I’ve found that the majority of my favourite horror films of recent years have been heavily inspired by or are emulating older films. To me Amer and Berberian Sound Studio were just as good as the best Italian horror films. I liked Black Swan too. A Field In England was a less obvious mixture of influences and it converted me to Ben Wheatley after being a bit lukewarm on Kill List.

 I’ve heard there are even Jean Rollin and Jess Franco imitators coming out and I’d be interested to see that too.

 As well as Amer I loved Cattet/Forzani’s short films, including their contribution to ABCs Of Death (the obvious highlight of the whole film). I was surprised to find this dvd in the shops so early, I thought it would be another 5 months or so before I saw it.

  This film has more direct references to previous Italian horror films but thankfully without the sort of winking at the audience that usually includes; lots of parts from old soundtracks too. There is a strong Art Nouveau direction and it takes more from the purely supernatural Argento films like Suspiria and Inferno.

 I liked this even more than Amer, it’s totally packed with great shots and more good imagery than a lot of horror directors manage in their entire careers. From looking at reviews by less satisfied people, I see they felt bored by the endless stream of images without clear plot threads but this incoherent nightmare is what I very often hope for in films but too rarely get. The suspense was spread very wide and some of the sequences are really fantastic. My attention was totally eager.

 I could see the giallo trend getting a bit old in the future and I have trouble envisioning Cattet/Forzani making a whole career of it, but please keep films with this more visual approach coming.

The knife

The surgeon and his trusty, somewhat rusty bloodletting knife. A panel from my Jheronimus Bosch comic.

I AM the computer!

Recent fun with watercolours in a machine based future desert set.

I'm working on some new stuff that's hard to get good images of so I'll have to post work in progress shots from my phone. 

Hello Again!

Hello Everyone, I'm glad to see EBD is still alive and kicking after all of these years! First, my deepest apologies for such an extended absence, it's been a hectic life for me lately. Here is a photo of some in progress sculptures that I've been building on commission for a diorama interpretation of part of my Thomas Ligotti "Songs Of A Dead Dreamer" book cover. It is constructed from various wires, paper, tape, fabric, glue, paint, etc. These are the basic shapes that have since been painted to resemble strange monstrous creatures positioned in a 16 x 20 inch half box that reflects the bizarre street scene of the artwork. The wires sticking out of the bottom of the creatures are anchors that will be woven into the floor of the diorama and keep the creatures in place.

God does not play dice but maybe Satan does

A quick sketch of medieval gamblers. A common theme in art as the church, its main commissioner at the time, warned against gambling, because, well, you shouldn't.

Dwarsligger

Na een stille dood is het fanzine Dwarsligger! weer herrezen om een papieren tijger te zijn. Het eerste nummer na 17 jaar verhaalt, verdicht en verbeeldt hersenspinsels en gevoelens rondom verzet.

Bijdrages van GX Jupitter Larsen (USA), Al Conroy (CAN) , Art69Brut (DE/NL), Marcel Herms, PJ Roggeband, Joke Kaviaar, Harry Zevenbergen, Timo de la Mar, Boris Mamedova en Jan Kees Helms.

Het blad is te koop voor kostprijs. Maak drie euro over via PayPal naar deeez@antenna.nl

After a quiet deaththe fanzine Dwarsligger! is resurrected to be a paper tiger again.
The first issue after 17 years with contributions by GX Jupitter Larsen (USA), Al Conroy (CAN), Art69Brut (DE / EN), Marcel Herms, PJ Roggeband, Joke Caviar, Harry Zevenbergen, Timo de la Mar, Boris Mamedova and Jan Kees Helms.


The magazine is on sale for cost. Send three euros via PayPal to deeez@antenna.nl
 

 

 

maybeee a teeeshirt

City of love

hello freaks

haven't post for a while... i'm in a "not finishing that shit" + "too much delayed work" period so nothing good came out
i did this linocut on A2 plate, voilà

preparing for Crack! fest in Roma, once again, wish this will give me some energy! ciao

PS : City of love is reference to Ljubljana, goes for any central europe cities

INSIDE artzine #17 - International Artscum Magazine

For your information. I have nothing to do with it (at least not with this issue) but I think some of you might be interested.

 

INSIDE artzine #17 - International Artscum Magazine

Paintings, Digital Collages, Sculptures, Photos, Stories, Reviews.
This time with scum from Europe, USA, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Taiwan, Indonesia, Outer Space.
Paper-Magazine, Format: A4, Pages: 48, Language: English

Karl-Johan Utte Thole (Sweden) · Bahrull Marta (Indonesia) · Stéphane Roy (France) · Yukaman (Japan) · Jenz Dieckmann (Germany)
Viron v2.0 (Italy) · autoreversegraphikart (France) · Marcelo Vasco (Brazil) · Richard Kirk (USA) · Joseph D. Myers (USA) · Shichigoro Shingo (Japan) · Urs Böke (Germany) · Ezo Renier (Russia) · Ricardo Sleiman (United Kingdom) · Sven-André Dreyer (Germany) · Michael Hutter (Germany) · Marcin Owczarek (Poland) · Patrick Amarillas (USA) · Saskia Prüss (Germany) · Matt Lombard (USA) · Olexa Mann (Ukraine) · Leon Wong (Taiwan) · Kai Kraus (Germany) · Victor Slepushkin (Russia) · Seth Siro Anton (Greece) · Patrice Hubert (France), "Don't mess around with Satan" - Gonzo-Interview with Marcelo Vasco, "Art After Death" - Report Part 2, Reviews & Revolution, Links & Lies.

Previews: http://www.inside-artzine.de/

More: http://www.facebook.com/insideartzine
Buy online: http://artscum.org/category/shop/shop-inside-artzine/
More stuff like this: http://www.artscum.org/ Artblog of the Grotesque

 

 

FRIENDS 4EVER

FRIENDS 4EVER. Shaltmira. 2014

BAD ARTWORKS

 THE MAN WHO IS GIVING A BIRTH. 2014. Acrylic paint on canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

I CAN'T SEE. 2014. Acrylic paint on canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

HANGED. 2014. Acrylic paint on canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

www.shaltmira.com

Atlantids

An oldie from 1999. Black & white ink on photocopied zip-a-tone, reworked in Photoshop. This was never published, but these were supposed to be the Troglodytes' former masters from my Troglodytes series (1999-2007).

The moire effects are carefully doctored. I used to do that a lot, until all copymachines became digital, which ruined the results. Later, the same thing happened when my books were printed digitally. Thank you, digital revolution. 

Adrien Fregosi : are we going to the hole ?

http://lajunglenue.tumblr.com/
 http://rip-myspace.tumblr.com/

Cut-throat society

Some sketches after Bosch's Haywain, Visions of the Afterlife and Judgement Day plus one hellish scene by one of his followers. Not just stonecutting but also a lot of throat-cutting going on in his work! Not regarding the floating giant knives.

Hospital

Sketchbook.

BREED

Here's a muturus design and logo for Kris Wadsworth's new label, 'BREED', you can here samples of the tunes here: BREED