The Art of Jerzy Janisch

Sisters   Jerzy Janisch (1901 - 1962) was a Polish artist of the fantastic and surrealistic who worked in painting and photomontage. Around the early fifties, he worked in a social realist vein, but it is his surrealist pieces which survive the waves of Time. They are rather good.   Fairy    Composition    Man …

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Spectral Realms

Cover art by Harry Clarke.  I have been informed that the sales of the excellent Hippocampus Press poetry journal, Spectral Realms, have, regrettably, been rather poor. Poetry of a fantastical and macabre nature has undergone something of a renaissance over the past decade, almost all of it drawing upon the poetic lineage of Poe and Clark …

Mark E. Smith (1957-2018)

  It was unfortunate to hear of the passing of singer, songwriter, and musician, Mark E. Smith, the frontman for the post-punk band, The Fall. Admittedly, I am still something of a novice to The Fall when it comes to their music, but I had always known that Smith was an admirer of the likes …

The Grotesque Art of Eric Lacombe

Crow-Man.     Eric Lacombe is a contemporary French artist whose artwork, like many of the artists I love, explores the dark and strange side of the human condition, with figures with rotted, flaking skin and others in the process of changing into decaying animals. The highly detailed, mottled splendour reminds me of some of …

The Art of Prophet Royal Robertson

  The artist outside his home.  It is always a delight to come across such singular and, inevitably, semi-obscure individuals who do not neatly fit into society's boxes. However, the outsider art category, by its very nature, often risks pigeonholing such figures, but this is not the place to discuss this. Instead, I wish to …

The Art of Jeanie Laub and Claire McGee

  The Writer, by Jeanie Laub.   I recently discovered Edinburgh-based artist, Jeanie Laub, via the Folk Horror Revival anthology, Corpse Roads, (which contains two poems by yours truly). Her pallid artwork is primarily inspired by childhood, found objects, and the rusting charm of vintage toys. Among her drawings and paintings are installation boxes inspired by Joseph Cornell. Some of …

Hallowe’en

The high priest of the Samhain sacrifice bides his time. Wishing everyone out there a safe and splendid Hallowe'en, that time of the year when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are blurred, and our ancestors create great bonfires to ward off evil and wore masks to avoid detection by marauding …

Artaud in the Black Lodge

ARTAUD IN THE BLACK LODGE is a contemporary work of music-theatre exploring the imagined psychic connections among French poet and director Antonin Artaud, Beat-generation and post- modernist author William S. Burroughs; and filmmaker David Lynch. -- Beth Morrison Projects website.   Something I discovered in March or February of this year. A collaboration between Beat poetess, …

My (narrow?) Opinion of Dario Argento

It is that time of year when all the youths dress up in ghoulish costumes and ambulate from door to door expecting tricks or treats; when sheeted ghosts and jointed skeletons adorn the walls, and gossamer cobwebs festoon the corners and ceilings. It is also the time when, according to the ancient Celts, the line …

Pan and Liberation: The Panic Movement

Panic is a spirit closely related to times of transition: panic always appears as the announcement of spiritual birth. -- Alejandro Jodorowsky   Madness and heresy at the Paris Festival of Free Expression, 1965. I envy and fear for the audience who witnessed this landmark delirium.   Paris, 1965. A dark-eyed man in biker clothing …