HR Giger dies at 74

The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74, a spokesperson at Giger's museum in Gruyere has confirmed. He died in hospital on Monday after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home. Born in 1940, Giger was best known for his 'Xenomorph' alien in Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980. He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27390345

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2626959/Alien-artist-H-R-Giger-dies-74.html

http://fischerisdead.blogspot.nl/2014/05/hr-giger-february-5-1940-may-12-2014.html

http://dennisdread.blogspot.nl/2014/05/hr-giger-rip.html

Wikipedia

Giger.com

SERPENT D'OCÉAN

Stuck in a perpetual state of decay on the French shore at Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, the massive metal sculpture entitled, Serpent D'Océan is a terrifying vision with an environmental message. The skeletal serpent was unveiled in 2012 as part of the Estuaire art exhibition which invites international artists to create large-scale works using the environment surrounding the Loire River between Nantes to Saint-Nazaire. The work was created by Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping, who used the rough iconography of China's mythological dragons to design the over 400 foot long art monster. The beast is posed in slithering movement despite being nothing more than bones, giving the dull metal frame an unsettlingly life-like quality.

The message behind the piece seems to be one of environmental nostalgia, as though man's mistreatment of the oceans is killing not only its life, but its very wonder and fantasy. The serpent's curves roughly mirror the twists and turns of the nearby Saint-Nazaire bridge linking the piece to the very modern progress it seems to be speaking on. However, the work is read, the aspect that is without debate is the menace projected by the fearfully undead snake. Given its location on the shore, the Serpent D'Océan can be seen as a strangely living creature rising from the ocean waters or a purposefully preserved skeleton held above the shallow waves depending on the level of the tide upon a given visit. But despite the changing tides, fantasy, art, and horror have rarely been so steadfastly intertwined.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/serpent-d-ocean

Long Black Hair by Anthony Ventura

http://www.evolve-r.com/88984/home

The War by Otto Dix

(central panel), 1929-1932

Art film showing a naked man rubbing himself against Christ on the crucifix prompts priest to take legal action against Polish culture ministry

A Polish priest has filed charges against the culture ministry after it backed a controversial art film showing a naked man rubbing his genitals against an image of Christ. The shocking film - exhibited at the Warsaw Centre for Contemporary Art in Poland - shows a naked man writhing on and licking the statue of Jesus. It has provoked a furious backlash from religious leaders and politicians. Father Tadeusz Rydzyk said that he had referred the artist, gallery and the Ministry that sponsored the event to prosecutors. He said: 'We are filing a complaint against this pseudo-artist for insulting our God and against the Ministry of Culture for wasting public money on this obscenity.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2483341/Art-film-showing-naked-man-rubbing-Christ-crucifix-prompts-priest-legal-action-Polish-culture-ministry.html

Rage by Shelby Ryan Ulibarri

http://sruart.com/

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) Short Film

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) is a short silent horror film adaptation of the short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of a brother and sister who live under a family curse. The actors are Herbert Stern, Hildegarde Watson, and Melville Webber.

The movie was directed by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber. A music score was written in 1959 for the film by Watson and Webber's friend, composer Alec Wilder.

IMDb

Wikipedia

 

El Buen Pastor by Marcelo Bordese

Website

ARGENTINE VINTAGE FUNERAL CADILLACS

Humankind has long speculated about the mystery that follows death. Regardless of conclusions, we have always devised ways to leave this world in style. Ancient Egyptians traveled to the afterlife in elaborate funerary boats. Major companies now offer the option of space burials. Fernando Aguerre came face-to-face with an elegant form of post-mortem transportation when he discovered a pair of magnificent wood-carved funeral Cadillacs while exploring an antique barn in Argentina.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/argentine-wood-carved-vintage-funeral-cadillacs

Antithesis “The Devil’s Arch"

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Mind Crawler

Art by Christian Lemmerz

http://contemporaryartworld.tumblr.com/post/52699185518/christian-lemmerz

Penas del infierno, siglo XVII

Andrea Locatelli - Magic Scene

Andrea Locatelli was an Italian painter of landscapes. Born in Rome, he was the son and pupil of the painter Piero Locatelli, who had studied with the Florentine Ciro Ferri.

The painting affords a view into the ruins of a sacred-looking building whose vault is borne by ruinous columns. The tooth of time has gnawed at these structures with their antique spoils, and the force of nature has likewise left its mark: Stony remains such as the stump of a column on an elevated base are overgrown with mossy vegetation.

These details unite to present us with the creepy, rotting locus of an evil spirit, where reason sleeps. The witch-like figure of Ananke, the messenger of death, evokes associations of Cronos-Saturn’s dark realm of the dead.

The spectator inadvertently becomes a witness to occult acts, a magical ritual, a necromantic operation. The painting is evidently a very personal statement by the painter who, in 1741, at the end of his life, has come into circumstances of dire privation. At the same time, with its fantastical theme – occurring only this once throughout the artist’s oeuvre – the work also describes the mood of an ambivalent epoch in which, alongside enlightened ideas such as those of Voltaire, occult traditions, for example the dark arts of Cagliostro, have managed to survive.

Aleister Crowley - Leah Sublime

http://archive.org/stream/LeahSublime/sublime#page/n0/mode/2up

Salvation at Stake by Brad S. Gregory

Woodcut illustration from “Salvation at Stake” by Brad S. Gregory, Harvard University Press.

German Werewolf, woodcut, 1722

Der Teufel, woodcut by A.R. Penck

Mors Omnia Vincit (Death Conquers All/Death Always Wins)

Mors Omnia Vincit by Lada Novak ca 1897

PAT SEMATARY

Pat kills his pet cat and a Stephen King plot comes into play