Ex Occidente Press

Given that I am still waiting for a few books that I've ordered from this obscure publisher to arrive from Romania, I feel somewhat leary of spreading the word of them, since all their publications are of very limited stock, and there is much more of it that I would like to own. Nevertheless, if you're curious take some time to explore the catalogue of Ex Occidente Press. Not all of their books are viewable on the main page so it may take some time exploring, especially since what little of the plotline is revealed of each book on their respective pages, hints at something almost too weird to be true. What else could be expected from a publisher that has released contemporary tribute anthologies to both Gustav Meyrink, the man who wrote The Golem and many other hallucinatory stories, as well as one dedicated to Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of The Master and Margarita, one of the most intense, surreal, and multi-layered black comedies ever written?

http://www.exoccidente.com/

Oh, did I mention the artwork to their books kicks ass. A bit on the pricy side sure, yet this is nothing unusual for small cult presses, and it all but assures that these books would only be purchased by those they are best suited for.


Charles Schneider



John Coulthart


Stephen J. Clark

DINGUS: THE SLAUGHTERER

My show in Nancy, France

Until the 23rd of April 2011 will my show continue at the MJC Lillebonne, 14 Rue du Cheval Blanc in the centre of Nancy, France. This is one of the poster-size digital prints I have done with the support of the BKVB Art Fund in Amsterdam. They work really well as the eye-catching element as most of my original artwork tends to be small, not larger than A3 size.

The opening went nicely, in a friendly atmosphere and with lots of good snacks and drinks - yes, the French live up to their reputation, I must say, when it comes to that.

More snapshots can be found on the blog of Matthias Lehmann, who organised the show. http://www.blocmatthias.blogspot.com/

My shopping list

I've kept shopping lists on paper since I was about 13 and I really dont understand how any fan of books, comics, music, games and films can do without them, there is just so much great stuff I never would have remembered if I didnt keep lists. Earlier we have had photos of our workspaces, our collections of stuff, but I'd like to see your shopping lists.
I recently added a huge amount to my lists, I read several books about books over the winter and I'm going to talk about them sometime. I dont think I'm being too freaky for scanning these lists and saving them to emails and websites because I taken a very long time to accumulate all this info and I always hear stories of people losing their possessions in fires and floods, so I feel I'm being sane about it. If it didnt matter to me, I probably wouldnt be interested in all this stuff anyway.

The lists might be a page shorter if I didnt have the habit of writing some things twice because I couldnt remember if I'd noted them before...
MY HUGE SHOPPING LISTS

MEGA MALL III

MEGA MALL III, originally uploaded by SEAN ÄABERG.

Having finally figured out how to incorporate the various aspects of my mission here on earth, I have identified myself as a conceptual artist, who does not believe in the self-imposed safe space that art intentionally limits itself in. Thus, my art expands into reality, not unlike the Constructivist slogan "Art into Life". I have several stages of my conceptual project. Stage one is magazines & printed material. Stage two is radio & TV. Stage three is a boutique. Stage four is an entire mall. Stage five is a city. Stage six is a country. Stage seven is outer space. I imagine that these stages will not necessarily follow each other linearly, but may bounce back & forth. Some may be more or less important than others. My Mega Mall concept is going to be the central focus, the central organizational unit of humanity, which will begin as a small model in a boutique, then expand into an actual mall & then a city as a mall & then a space ship as a mall. I am interested in a total societal makeover, but not as a revolution, instead, as a buy-in to my corporate state.

New Work

VOODOO DOUGHNUTS BATHROOM

So I got roped into working with Voodoo Doughnuts, I did a mural in their bathroom, I was going to draw some ads for them, get my vending machine in their Eugene store & have my new PORK magazine distributed in their locations. Voodoo took an ad out in the first issue of PORK as well. Then PORK came out. Voodoo Doughnuts #2 threw a fit about the swastika on the cover (amongst dozens of other symbols) & the Charles Krafft interview, their official line is "Some of the contraversal (sic) content/nature in your zine is something that we do not wish to put our customers through." This is coming from the donut store that built its legacy on risque donuts & ads, their company slogans being "The magic is in the hole" & "good things come in pink boxes". Anyhow, suddenly the line is, "Sean, we don't have the money to have you do our ads." Ahem, right. Then, they painted over my mural! Before I could get photos of it! Anyhow, anyone who knows me knows that my use of the swastika & other taboo objects is a "trap" for totalitarians & stupid people. I can't not use them, it's burned into my head. So this time, my trap caught my client, who seemed "so down", but in the end has proven to be more overtly cowardly than almost anyone i've deal with so far.

Masquerade - Japan

Alright, how about this- a recurring series of posts regarding strange masks and even full on costumes worn in different countries throughout the world. Japan, with all of their Noh, Oni, Hannya, and the like, seems as good a place to start as any. I'll brainstorm for more obvious ones. Italy, Venice in particular, seems the most logical next step. If anyone knows of any country or region with its own strange, unique mask tradition, or digs some odd style of mask they think no one else will think of, by all means add your own post to what may become a small series.








Eerie looking figure, wish there was a bigger shot.

TAROT GOBLINKO

So i finished the Major Arcana & get into thinking about the Tarot in a way that i've been unable to in the past. Now onto the hard part, which is doing 14 of each face. I'm changing the representations of the swords, wands, cups & pentacles to hot dogs, bananas, coconuts & coins. There's alot of outdated imagery in the tarot as well, & the modern variations on things like "kings" & "queens" are people in formal wear so i need to mess with that more. Elvis & Michael Jackson are probably going to make appearances...

BRAINSTORM

Poison

Poison, première mise en ligne par Gaspard Pitiot.

Hellshire I

Hellshire Label Final, originally uploaded by SEAN ÄABERG.

I've been working with the Oakshire Brewery on their side project of barrel-aged ales called Hellshire. They hired me to develop a whole visual mythology for the beers & i'm going to do all the labels as time progresses. This is the first of them, they're talking about doing four or so a year. I'm quite stoked on this project.

SHIT BEAST!

Album cover for Czech gore-grinders Gutalax! DROWN IN BROWN!!

Old Sins State 1

Still needs detailing work done...

Weird album covers

I've been doing loads of music searching lately and found quite a lot of great covers. I cant remember what all of them were from...

I'm sure this was a jazz singer called Gal


This looks like a cd i would buy, but I'm sure the music didnt suit me when I listened.




i'm sure this music wasnt as cool as the cover either...


This would appear to me as a great dreampop album but it is actually hard rock.


Yamashita Yosuke Trio- Arashi. This is supposed to be a really scary free jazz record, legendary but obscure and rare too somehow.




Jneiro Jarel. I think this is a hiphop record.


Klavido- Vidov


Kuroyurishimai- Fukasa. One of the legions of bands that sounds like Dead Can Dance, but I listen to a lot of that, it sounds nice enough.


Locrian- Crystal World


Mahojin- Babylonia Suite. I adore this cover by Remedios Varo, I hoped this would sound as weird as the cover, but it is supposed to be a modestly pleasant mellotron driven album, but I like to pretend dream that this album is one one of the weirdest and greatest things ever made. I often like to look at album covers and be inspired/get ideas for what I think it "should" have sounded like and then do art based on that, just like any other type of cover, poster, advert/trailer/screenshot or name/title that inspires me, it is good to take the expectations and base art on it( however pleasing or different the actual artwork ends up being when you experience it for real).


No Mercy. I hope it sounds as exciting as it looks.


Has anyone heard this? Great cover.


I like covers like this despite some people might find it cheesy and artificial, it still gets my imagination going.




I hope this is good as the cover.


I really want this Aghast album, I'm not sure this is really a cover. But this is some of my preferred type of Black Metal imagery, although I could give countless more types of BM imagery I like, there is a lot of stuff I dont connect with.






Thees Oh Sees. Ayone heard it?


Yoshiko Sai- Taiji No Yume. I think this is one of the best covers ever, she sings slightly moody ballads but nothing as odd and spooky as I would have liked.
You can hear it here


Premiata Forneria Marconi- Storia. I listened to this recently, one of the more famous italian prog albums and I liked it fine, but I wished it sounded more like the cover, some people think it is ugly but I love it.


Don Bradshaw Leather- Distance Between Us. This is a crazy dark prog album with one of the best album covers of all time. It suggests a new level of outsiderness which most proggers and punks never get near. There are a lot of rumors about this band. I can only find half of this, so if anyone can find the whole album please call me.