Sunday, December 14, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Photomanipulation, Matt Mahurin
L'Empire de la Mort!
Here are some vacation photos from my trip to Paris a few years ago. On one lucky day my family and I went to both the catacombs AND Pere lachaise cemetery (where everybody's buried). Here are some very fuzzy pictures from the catacombs. I've tried to understand what the wall plaque says (second to last picture), but my french is failing. From what I can gather, it's a philosophical/poetic musing on death. How French.
AND NOW... to the print shop!!!
Monday, December 8, 2008
MoMA grotesqueries

I was at MoMA on Saturday and saw a couple of things of interest (derive-yr-own-grotesque):
* Walid Raad, a Lebonese artist, has a piece in their sprawling He Is Every exhibition entitled Oh, God, He Said Talking to a Tree. The work is composed of a series of smoke shapes materially extracted from a larger image of catastrophe and isolated on individual white fields. It's a poetic visual, two rows of square(-ish) framed cloud figures, with some text in the final frame.

* Their highlight show now is the video work of Pippilotti Rist [Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)], presented in a large central gallery on the second floor as a series of wall-sized highly saturated projections that flood the space. In the center there's a tubular couch; people lounge in hordes; the effect is verging on psychedelia. The images melt into one another in off-putting (mostly fleshy/botanical) progressions: flower petals up nostrils and the like. It's spectacular; ~60-70 visitors, probably, were camped out in the room, mesmerized.
Check out clips here.
an interesting notion
Grotesk = German word for sanserif
"The sanserif look that [Jan] Tschichold and his contemporaries took to be a self-evident zeitgeist evocation of radical modernity had originally been revived, at the end of the eighteenth century, as the signifier of the classical, conservative past. For the romantic-era reader, the sanserif -- in marked and diametric contrast to a mechanized modernity -- possessed the unmistakable 'associations of rugged antiquity.'"
James Castle show -- a response
Castle's tendency towards manufacturing things with string and other materials lent itself to his obsession with the physical book form. The idea of what a book might mean to a deaf person, someone to whom language only has visual and semantic properties, is intriguing. The physical construction of the word is elevated, as evidenced in Castle's gridded calendars full of text and meticulous letter diagrams, where letterforms are drawn carefully over a field of continuous mechanical text, and sometimes warped, reversed or volumized. Castle even explored characters of languages beyond his own, which were no doubt to him foreign in both meaning and sound. This in itself reveals what a purely visual compulsion they held for him. In exploring language it is tremendously difficult to isolate one sensory or intellectual impact from another -- sound from sight, denotation from connotation -- but Castle was afforded an ironic rare view of language that was purely visual.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Bone Room

Like Jen, I'll end my post on a gift giving note. Yesterday, a friend told me that contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to buy human bones in the US. At the Bone Room in Berkeley, they have a whole array of articulated human skeletons and individual parts. The most expensive are human skulls, which are about 500, but some of the individual bones, priced at 4 dollars, make a very economical present. If you're buying for the holidays though, I recommend you start early, as there appears to be a "wait list for femurs."
Saturday, December 6, 2008
it sucks when people don't understand your feelings
Every time I think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue
It's no problem of mine but it's a problem I find
Living a life that I can't leave behind
There's no sense in telling me
The wisdom of a fool won't set you free
But that's the way that it goes
And it's what nobody knows
While every day my confusion grows
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
I feel fine and I feel good
I'm feeling like I never should
Whenever I get this way, I just don't know what to say
Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday
I'm not sure what this could mean
I don't think you're what you seem
I do admit to myself
That if I hurt someone else
Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
Every time I see you falling (Falling, falling, falling, falling...)
I'm waiting for that final moment (Moment, moment, moment, moment...)
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You'll say the words that I can't say
Grotesque Potpourri
~Did someone give you a Cosby sweater, hand carved manger scenes, or scented candles for Christmas this year? Don't feel bad; check out all the crappy gifts out there!
www.Badgiftemporium.com
~Wanna get someone a bad gift?
www.stupid.com
Here's a killer whale attack that was pretty gross:
Here's a sadder one. This poor guy had his entire face eaten off by a bear:
Finally, to end on a high note, here's a pug that can SAY "I love you" :
Friday, December 5, 2008
80s Hairstyles

Thursday, December 4, 2008
All About Gout

For my chemistry class, I'm writing a presentation about gout, possibly one of the most grotesque diseases related to crystals in the body. I'll explain how one gets gout. The body naturally contains a compound called uric acid, which is a waste product. People have a normal range of uric acid in their blood. If people have too high of a range of uric acid, the excess uric acid builds up on your joints and tendons in the form of crystal deposits. These bulging crystal deposits are called "tophi" and are the bumps pictured here. Many people have gout! Almost 5.1 million Americans suffer from "acute gouty attacks." Many famous people are also gout sufferers, including.....JARED LETO, who is grotesque in his singular way.
here's some gout:

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Etched Out Faces
dame darcy
i can't embed this one video from her old tv show but here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl6EANKgdP4
!!!
ok and also here is dame darcy trying her luck in the world of love on blind date!
o yes hooray!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Frat Boys
...and to cheer you up again
Black Friday
Merry f'ing Christmas.
Excess III: XLounge

Recent true-life definition: Walmart employee trampled to death on Black Friday: "The deals weren't even that good."

Here are some cat play houses that you can build out of cardboard. I'm going to buy one for my cat, Adam Sparkles. Here's what my cat (well, technically he is a kitten) looks like:
and here is his namesake:
and also here is his namesake with cats it's like everything together all at once!
gross news
Sunday, November 30, 2008
excess II

i also found myself thinking a great deal about the questions of resource distribution over the break. i've tended to do so at most large family gatherings of feasting for the past couple years (much to my family's dismay.) my younger sister and i brought up global warming at thanksgiving dinner, which wasn't appreciated ("but even WITH obama we're approaching the point of positive feedback cycles!" "girls, please")
my tendency to mistake celebration for gluttony was only exasperated by the fact that this year my grandparents decided to take the whole family to DISNEY WORLD!!! i brought my video camera, thinking it would be a gold mine for "candid" shooting... rudely filming people without asking their permission. however, i was overcome by a pervasive sense of something like fear of disney repercussions and only shot from the safety of the balconies of the hotel.
i think disney world is a perfect example of excess. i know this is obvious, but the emphasis is on "perfect." it's perfect because no one questions the system of control, and d-dubs manages to maintain a flawless simulacra of disney reality.
i found this on a disney world chat board:
Protein Spill?
Park: ALL Submitted by: Michelle
Submitted on: 11/14/2003
Confirmed by: BoobBunny
Did you know that vomit is called a protein spill in disney world!
BooboBunny:This is true. If a guest or cast member vomits, a cast member is supposed to call a custodian to clean up a Protien Spill. Just one of the ways Disney preserves the show!!!!
...note the quadruple exclamation points.
i will write more on disney world later. here's some homies enjoying dw's trademark turkey legs.

Excess
Before this, I have mentioned excess in reference to a youtube video, and a couple times in class as part of my silkscreen project. As I'm dealing with excess quite a bit in my book project, I've been thinking about what it means to be excessive, and was reminded this past weekend. This Thanksgiving I spent the weekend in Jersey in a house I do not usually spend time in. The dinner was quite delicious and I had a great time, but I was distracted by the large amount of "stuff" lying around. There were so many pillows on the couch that a person couldn't sit down. There were video games lying around unopened. And every couple hours or so, someone would make a mention of Christmas and the gifts stemming from the upcoming holiday season. I find it grotesque that people convince themselves that they need so many things, when millions of people actually need food and water (i.e. victims of the attacks in Nigeria this past weekend). I don't know when or how people will realize that this excessive reaction will end - when people will stop consuming at such a rate that the cost of the consumption is the health of the planet we're living on.
As a side note, a lot of these feelings are a result of me watching Wall E this weekend. You guys should watch it. It's really a good time. But maybe some people find the irony of me talking about excess and watching movies in the same breathe grotesque? Please comment, I'm very interested in the idea that all art may be naturally excessive.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Corset Piercings
Monday, November 24, 2008
Memorial Photography


Memorial photography, or the practice of photographing the recently deceased, is something that I think becomes increasingly grotesque as I am further removed from the subject of the image. The images portray death at what seems like the moment it has arrived, and without the emotional attachment or memory of the deceased that the original consumers of the photos may have had, I am put at extreme unease. This death feels far more real than death portrayed in modern news or entertainment media because the love of that person is reflected in not only preserving his/her memory by means of photography, but also the delicate handling of dress and pose.
Paul Frecker Collection
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation
Memento Mori
The Thanatos Archive
John Cage's 4'33"
A show created by the people who have gathered to experience 4 minutes, 33 seconds together. Silence, here, is art because of the background noise, shuffling, coughing, etc. Otherwise, it can be representative of hesitation, disconnection or disagreement. Small talk fills voids, but we all see through that superficiality. It is the source of today's ultimate discomfort.
skinless!
The New gmail Interface
What Happens When You Stick Your Head in a Hadron Collider...

In a weird technical malfunction, Anatoli Bugorski, 36,a science researcher, stuck his head in front of a particle accelerator, which emits radiation in the form of a proton beam moving at about the speed of light. Afterwards, he experienced "skin on the back of his head and on his face just next to his left nostril peeled away to reveal the path the beam had burned through the skin, the skull, and the brain tissue. The inside of his head continued to burn away: all the nerves on the left were gone in two years, paralyzing that side of his face." Yet he didn't die, and continued to work in science. In a grotesque twist of fate,the left side of his face, which was frozen in the accident has ceased aging and the right side continues to age as normal. WHen "he concentrates, he wrinkles only half his forehead."
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Printing
Printing—your life work series (1947) from ilovetypography.com on Vimeo.
This video isn't grotesque, but it's awesome, because it's about the glory days of the press. Maybe it is a little grotesque because it means that 40 years ago if I were graduating with a degree in printmaking I might actually have "opportunities for advancement" and "work conditions are generally satisfactory", but I don't think that's relevant.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
James Castle... or is he?


Tuesday, November 18, 2008
THE STRANGERS
I THINK SOMETIMES GIVING TOO MUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION IS GROTESQUE.
everyone keeps embedding videos so i will too. but if you watch this you just better not play it when i'm in the room cause this thing is heinously scary!
seriously, think about it, what if that happened to you? oh my god. i live by myself and my neighbors don't know me, how would they know if the STRANGERS came to get me? i think to myself, how can people be so mean as to just kill random people. it's just not right.
i will probably end up seeing this movie because i am attracted to things that scare me. isn't that grotesque?
Monday, November 17, 2008
Very Grotesque

Many films by the talented Pennsylvanian duo, The Brothers Quay, come to mind when I think of the grotesque. Their movies have been cited for their "sharp neo gothic edge" as well as their clever use of imagery, bones, and antiquated scenery. Known for animated shorts that have been known as evocative of a "surrealistic, stream of conscious" nightmare, their feature length film, The Institute Benjamenta," also posesses an air of victorian grotesque.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Luis Buñuel Friday
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, along the lines of Brittany's book, deals with the grotesqueness of the middle class lifestyle.
Un Chien Andalou, made in collaboration with Salvador Dali, is probably his most-referenced film. It has consistent characters, but otherwise seems composed of nightmarish non-sequiturs.
The Land Without Bread is grotesque in a completely non-surreal way -- it's a documentary about extreme poverty in an isolated region of France (Las Hurdes). The narrator's apparent disinterestedness (in the face of oh-the-humanity kind of images) adds another layer.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
he can break a coin with his eye
REDEMPTION
and then
Cosmetic surgery addict injected cooking oil into her own face

Orientalism, the grotesque of stereotype

Edward Said, in his 1978 book Orientalism, wrote about the stereotyped, paternalistic, and depreciatory ways in which Western culture interpreted, discussed and portrayed Eastern cultures, traditions, and peoples. The term can be used more broadly as a way of discussing how a dominate (or colonial, for Said) culture relates to a less dominate culture. See more on Wikipedia, or better yet, read the book.
Monday, November 10, 2008
when ugly goes commercial

The Ugly Dolls are big sellers. Why? Do parents etc. see them as an alternative to stereotypical "doll babies," or less gendered dolls? Are they just ugly enough to be cute, or charming? Do they just seem funny and "unique"? I admit, I kind of like them, but can't quite put my finger on why.
cherries
this is full of grotesque factors, although i've watched it so many times i'm sort of desensitized to it now. there's this other r kelly vid which is grotesque but not appropriate.
i think in a way this is a good representation of how real life is disgusting which just a slightly heightened sense of possibility.
Thursday, November 6, 2008

I found this guy who turns stuffed animals inside out. I really enjoyed them. On some he's attached wires and tubes making them look like subjects of some sort of cruel/demented/torturous child's experiment. This seems to be the main thing that he does, but some of his other work is just disgusting, and I can't really tell if he means it to be or not. I thought that Manya would really enjoy the piece under the link that says "neon" on the main page. Here's the link to the site:
http://www.kentrogowski.com
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Selfkiss

Wasting time on the internet, I found this series of photographs. They're all manipulated images of people kissing themselves.
http://www.pupsam.com/
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Grotesque Prom Dresses
book arts events
Editions/Artists' Book Fair in NYC: http://www.eabfair.com/
The Hybrid Book: Intersection and Intermedia international book arts conference and fair at UArts this summer: http://www.hybridbook.org/
Friday, October 31, 2008
Discrimination!
An article about how ugly people are discriminated against across the board, no matter what their occupation may be, and how "Ugly Betty" and "Shrek" haven't done a damn thing to change it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
dog eating a wolf


I googled "dog eating a wolf". these pictures came up. dogs are supposed to eat meat. they're even related to wolves, which eat animal meat! but these pictures are still gross.
edit: for some reason these pictures come out really small on the website of the blog. i think if you click on them they are the full size
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Blood!

is a big part of the book i am working on, and yesterday my friend invited me to the dracula spiral q parade. there is a dracula festival at the rosenbach library, for the holiday season. anyway, there is a gallery tour of maurice sendak's monsters, and a discussion of stoker's notes on wednesday. i guess sendak's drawings seem more cute than scary, but perhaps more grotesque for that very reason? (oooh!)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
$2000 Phone

This is an example of the grotesque things people do with money. The reason this phone is so expensive is because of what its made of and not what it does. Something about unscratchable crystals and LCD displays and oooooh the screen is round! Ugh. Personally I think the phone is ugly, and I'm pretty sure it has less features than most smart phones. Definitely less than the iPhone. But you just know that plenty of people will be running out to get one come December.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
NY book fair
"That's Gotta Hurt!"
They also rate the pain on a scale of 1-10, then flash it across the screen.
http://tlc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=2.14966.55628.31996.x
(the technophobe made a link!!!)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Anatomy Sculptures
Monday, October 20, 2008
good afternoon

:)!
perhaps not so grotesque? there is a pleasing classical symmetry to the line of vision connecting the stain on kiss' shirt and the bone popping out of julia allisons neck.
and here is a poem from googlisms
henry kissinger is on top of the list
henry kissinger is safe
henry kissinger is on their board and is also paid as a consultant
henry kissinger is "a war criminal" who should be arrested by the irish authorities when he arrives to deliver a
henry kissinger is on top of the list of world's most influential public figures american federal judge
henry kissinger is the also one of the most controversial
henry kissinger is almost
henry kissinger is a war criminal
henry kissinger is left to make logical inferences where the record is incomplete
henry kissinger is its portrait of a man who’s not even really that interested in politics
henry kissinger is so completely trusted by moscow that he negotiated in the middle east on behalf
henry kissinger is due to address the annual conference of the institute of
henry kissinger is an oft
henry kissinger is accused of having endorsed or committed violations of international law of the gravest
henry kissinger is not our chancellor
henry kissinger is revered as a statesman
henry kissinger is widely
henry kissinger is a large and easy target
henry kissinger is a great american success story
henry kissinger is a wanted man
henry kissinger is nothing less or more than an unindicted war criminal
henry kissinger is being accused of being a criminal who should be
henry kissinger is also reportedly wary about where he travels
henry kissinger is the one in need of a buck up
henry kissinger is so
henry kissinger is the wrong choice for chancellor of the college
henry kissinger is accused of scheming to prevent a breakthrough in the paris vietnam peace talks in 1968 to help richard nixon win the us presidential election
henry kissinger is meant to serve as a primer on and a "bill of indictment" for the former secretary of state's many alleged crimes and
henry kissinger is quick to rail against tyrants
henry kissinger is a frightened man
henry kissinger is determined to stop the tapes from reaching the public
henry kissinger is considered by many to be america's premier candidate for an international war
henry kissinger is shown in washington in a july 1995
henry kissinger is that while he was national security adviser to president
henry kissinger is particularly good on chile
henry kissinger is the biggest war criminal of the last half century
henry kissinger is a swipe from daumier's narcissus
henry kissinger is his doctoral dissertation
henry kissinger is a bad read
henry kissinger is one of the five world
henry kissinger is quietly doing some laps
henry kissinger is nothing more than a war criminal
henry kissinger is nursing a beer
henry kissinger is the dove leading the opposition against a war with iraq
henry kissinger is getting a certain amount of play
henry kissinger is a war
henry kissinger is a
henry kissinger is wanted for questioning by two european courts
henry kissinger is a statesman still in intellectual command of the complex world he inhabits
henry kissinger is the
henry kissinger is the result not only of declassified us documents but also global trends empowering judges to reach across frontiers
henry kissinger is wanted for questioning on human rights abuses by courts in france
henry kissinger is growing thin in a dank prison cell
henry kissinger is an expert on the middle east affairs
henry kissinger is one of the towering
henry kissinger is one evil son of a bitch
henry kissinger is now available in paperback with an
henry kissinger is unavailable
henry kissinger is
henry kissinger is one of the new directors of the minoterie
henry kissinger is obliged to expose some of the
henry kissinger is one of the previous winners
henry kissinger is the most notorious war criminal alive in the all the
henry kissinger is heralding war directions once again
henry kissinger is now and