Dance Floor Dale

I tend to think its better when this video speaks for itself. It break the mold by taking explicit material and making it playful and colorful. Its a parody on the normal sexual imagery we are exposed to.


http://www.dancefloordale.com/

-Christian

Alice

A few semesters ago I took this really interesting class on the History of animation. Seeing Chris’s post on Tim Burton reminded me of something I had seen in that class. Tim Burton is doing his take on Alice and Wonderland, which is supposed to be a dark departure from the familiar Disney version by. In that class on animation I saw a version by a Czech artist named Jan Svankmajer that seems to similarly exploit the disturbing nature of the Carroll’s original text. Svankmajer recaptures this disturbing character by celebrating the grotesque. Stop motion animation is usually done with clay puppets, which Svankmajer replaces with taxidermy animals and pieces of meat. The effect is this gritty and dirty; grotesque in a Salvador Dali meets Eastern Europe way.
-Christian P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wHMgTPF-s

Documentary Photography and the Grotesque

Documentaary photographers often focus on grotesque situations and people who are outsiders, outcasts, ill, insanes, etc. The above photo is by Jessica Dimmock who spent almost two years interacting with (and sometimes staying with, for days) a group of addicts in a squat apartment. You can see more of her work here: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/02/jessica-dimmock-dove-headlong-into.html. This site contains A LOT of interesting work - please spend some time looking though it and we can talk about whose work you found most interesting.

_Erin

A picture you may have seen

(Hopefully this picture comes out animated). We've all seen the still picture as one of the horrors of the Vietnam war but I personally never saw the film (or animated gif) of it. What's really grotesque, besides the obvious, is the following:

"Adams later apologized in person to General Nguyen and his family for the irreparable damage it did to Loan's honor while he was alive. When Nguyen died, Adams praised him as a "hero" of a "just cause"."

To be grotesque is to apologize for the truth.

The Anatomical Venus

So Colby has his mannequins and mummies and the Franklin Institute has Body Works again so what better time to introduce my favorite desktop images - the Anatomical Venus in her many incarnations.

"Anatomical Venuses are life-sized wax anatomical models of idealized women, extremely realistic in appearance and often adorned with real hair and ornamental jewelry. These figures consist of removable parts that can be "dissected" to demonstrate anatomy-- a breast plate is lifted to reveal the inner workings of the mysterious female body, often with a fetus to be found nestling in the womb..." (taken from Morbid Anatomy check it out along with Curious Expeditions. Most of these images were taken from those blogs.)

My reaction to these figures is similar to my reaction to many of Eco's examples. Any initial discomfort is immediately overwhelmed by a sense of awe leaving me with no difficulty describing them as beautiful.





-theresa

Baby Rosalina

Wow, I cannot articulate how much I love this book, On Ugliness. The images are so beautiful (somehow) and everything just seems to flow so well and still be reminiscent of other things I've read. I plan on posting more about it in the coming days because there's some really cool stuff I need to show everybody. For now, I am looking at the pictures on page 65 of the mummies in the Capuchin catacombs and I was reminded of things I'd learned about in seventh grade. With a little help from google, I found I was spot on. So... has anybody ever heard of the mummy of Baby Rosalina? There are tons of sites that discuss it, but here is just the first one I found. Basically, she is just this perfectly preserved little baby girl in the Palermo Catacombs. Rosalina Lombardo died in 1920 but she looks like she's just sleeping to this day. Eerie? Yes. Beautiful? Yes. Grotesque? I'll leave that up to you to decide. Nonetheless, it just had me thinking more about what constitutes ugliness and how something can be both compelling and off-putting. Here's some links.


here


and here


Oh, and if any of you want to look up more about her, it's kind of unfortunate that the character in Mario Kart is also Baby Rosalina. Oh well...




-Colby

Everything Is Bigger In America!

Since the dawn of stores like Sam's Club and Costco, Americans have become obsessed with buying in bulk. A 30 lb t-bone (grotesque) and four dozen watermelon seem reasonable at the time of purchase but after several weeks, just the thought of a melon and steak sandwich makes us want to heave.
While wholesale purchases have made it easier for us to host holiday parties and cheese tastings, bulk-buying has seemingly revolutionized our need for birth control. Turn on TLC and you are swarmed with families numbering well into double-digits. How do you feed/clothe/bathe/afford that many children? you ask. We can only assume that the modern convenience of wholesale has made feeding a family of 21 (and counting) a lot easier.

Our reaction to cultural phenoms like "19 and Counting" and "Octomom" vary from fascinated to mortified. Is having so many children "fulfilling a religious duty" or is it contributing to world problems such as starvation and overpopulation? What is the quality of parenting received by a child in such a huge family? Are the parents kid-hungry, sex-fiend loonies or blessed and nurturing caretakers?

With the ability to field their own football team (defense and offense) are mass births grotesque?

-Ali Blum

Lady Gaga

I'm not sure I really like Lady Gaga, but I do find her a little bit fascinating. I think this video in particular is appropriate for discussions of the grotesque. First there's the opening music, reminiscent of a cheesy haunted house. Her costumes mix the sexual with the bizarre (note the lizard-lady getup in particular), as do her dance moves. And finally, there's the priceless apocalyptic image with the skeleton at the end. This video is full of images of the grotesque, ugly, and otherworldly, yet is also feels like farce. It is hard to know what to make of it.
-Lauren

Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Here's another example of something that is grotesque, but still aestheticized. Edward Gorey wrote a (sort-of) children's book called the Gashlycrumb Tinies, which is an alphabet primer that chronicles the death of children for each letter. My favorite is "N is for Neville who died of ennui." It is disturbing and most likely shouldn't be read for children, but I loved the illustrations when I was a kid. Gorey also influenced Tim Burton, and I figured this was apt as we had already looked at Burton's exhibition.

Mannequins

Mannequins. They creep me out. I’m not sure exactly

what it is. Maybe it’s their lifeless almost human

appearance. Maybe it’s that some of them are

reminiscent of a slaughterhouse victim. Maybe it’s their deformed genitals. Maybe it’s just their idealized form of what a human should be while being elusively

non-human. Maybe it’s their vacant stares. Maybe it’s

just that they’re better dressed than I am. Whatever it is, they are scary and I would certainly even argue,

grotesque.

Let’s look at a few examples.

This headless bronzed man might be the epitome of the

perfect male figure. Yet I find his vaguely lewd gestures off-putting.

And I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the

crotch area.

These cyborgs are apparently excellent models for

showing off the clothing of your choice.

Not only do they have the mannequin non human factor

going for them, but also the robotic non-human quality.

Why this one is posted as a "Sexy Mannequin," I'm not

exactly sure.

She is very detailed in the non-clothed shot, sure. But I

cannot for the life of me figure out what is appealing or

even non-nightmare inducing about that face.

Just creepy...

Once again, I don't think much explanation is necessary.

I love the shadowy close-up of the face.

This one could come directly from some horror

movie about a butcher murderer.

Whoever thought it was alright to take the child's

naked form, amputate the arms and legs,

and make it hang by a hook coming out of its head is

truly demented.

I think I saw this in Terminator or something.

Why do they insist on displaying glasses using a stack of

severed human heads?

I tried to limit my pictures and my commentary, but I

really could go on for hours about it. The amount of

purely horrific mannequins is more vast than I'd even

thought. There's one in center city displaying

high-fashion clothes, yet the face is for some reason cut

in half. I can post more examples if anyone else would

be interested. I mainly just wanted to get this done in

time to project it in class. Because these really need to

be displayed bigger...

-Colby

EDIT: FOR SOME REASON THE IMAGES AREN'T SHOWING UP. I WILL FIX THEM SHORTLY

Mass Graves

I don't know what to say about this picture to do it justice but I find it fascinating. If you start looking at it from the top, the scenery is beautiful. It's a clear blue sky, rolling green hills, but as you scroll down you see dozens of bodies being buried. I hope i'm not doing the "Whoa this is deep, check it out" type of thing, I just find this picture haunting on how it is laid out and taken.

Idealization of body forms

I always find it interesting when I see people outwardly project their notion of the perfect body. I also find that it often leads to the picture i've posted. I think this is more grotesque mentally than physically but I find the picture i've shown gives the reader the feeling I get when I think about the damage the media causes regarding this topic: Disgust. To subtly coerce a population into psychological trauma where many young men and women starve and abuse themselves to look perfect is something I find grotesque.

Chris Burden's "Shoot"

This performance piece came to mind for me in part because of the Vogler reading; paired with the question of when a book is not a book, the age-old issue of what constitutes art becomes foregrounded in a radical performance piece like this. For Chris Burden's "Shoot" in particular, the idea of the grotesque seems to be a pivotal point for whether it is artistic or just shocking. Burden asked an assistant to shoot him in the left arm from a distance of 5 meters, while being photographed during and directly after. These photographs are difficult to look at, but different from actually witnessing a performance piece because the event already happened (so, more or less grotesque?). This piece was done in the context of a rash of extremist performances in the 1960's-70's (this one was done in 1971), but I wanted to post it on the blog because it exhibits a "smack factor" that is pretty prevalent in contemporary art; I am curious at what point that becomes the grotesque. Does it shift from art to shock value if there isn't an audience? I also think that the label of 'art' on this piece drastically changes implications for the viewer, just as certain kinds of books necessitate more active reader participation. The framework of art alters or legitimizes this action, and also can protect the artist and the audience by providing a buffer over moral obligation 'in the name of art.' Inversely, the label of art makes this action supersede the specificity of anyone being shot in the arm--by claiming to be a performance piece, Burden effectively translates from a kind of universal text (the shooting) into the guise of an artist book (where intention and presentation make it unique from books that are merely vehicles for that text).

This piece was very controversial for a lot of reasons, so if you are interested, I highly recommend reading up on it. There are some great articles out there.

The Grotesque in Children's Books

If you're anything like me, then the title "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" will send waves of nostalgic terror down your spine. Said book series is a frequently challenged (and often banned) collection of horror stories that, taken by themselves, really aren't so bad.

Then there are the pictures.

If you have read any of the books, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. "Scary Stories" had some of the most haunting, unnerving, downright grotesque images that I have ever seen--and remember, they reside between the covers of a book marketed toward children. Are the images less grotesque because their textual counterparts aren't very scary? Are they grotesque enough to warrant banning them from libraries? I can't really comment on either, but I know that I would think twice about letting any of my kids see these images.

-Chris

Beth Cavener Stichter

As my interest in the grotesque continues to be monopolized by ideas of odd juxtapositions I thought I'd share the art work of Beth Cavener Stichter who explores through sculpture "those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human" (from her artistic statement).

If you have the time I highly recommend checking out her website as I had an extremely difficult time selecting the images to showcase here.


-Theresa

check this this url

http://www.artandculture.com/feature/1678

Take a look at this blog on book artists working with collage, altered books and the exquisite corpse game. There is a link to a slide show of the Tom Phillips book, A Humument, which we saw in special collections on Monday. The video of Brian Dettmer is especially interesting.

We will view some of the links during class tomorrow. Enjoy.

—Tricia.

ZAUM TUM TUM!

What I posted below is a link to a show the Getty did almost a year ago. It was on the book art of the early Russian Avant-Garde which experimented with words - they created new words (which are roughly translated on the site) and also how words are drawn into the image. They were known as Zaum (za=beyond / um=mind) or transrational poets, there is a part of the time line that was handed out in class that refers to them, so there's some context to look for. After the Revolution of 1917, there was a perceived need to establish aesthetics for a Soviet mind and world distinct from previous eras'. By finding new ways to construct and use language, artists hoped to break through the pre-established thought patterns and culture of the past. So from this we got futurism and the whole Soviet culture and aesthetic which I think we all recognize more or less. At the beginning of the Soviet Union, all this art was experimental and not yet totally undermined for the purposes of government propaganda. It was at this point in time that these art books were made. The great thing about this site is that it gives you a tour of the books and there is even the option of listening to the text out loud so the concept of what they were getting at with these poetics is all the more illuminated. Any way, there is narrative, pictures and poetry - you know, fun stuff. I would recommend taking some time to browse.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/tango_with_cows/

~Alfred

Kathoey (Bless you!)

Kathoey, or Ladyboys, are an eastern phenomenon that I was introduced to during a summer trip to Thailand. These Kathoey are men who dress, act and look exactly like women. Most common in urban areas, Kathoey act as stage performers in Cabarets or as prostitutes on the streets and in brothels. They solicit both males and females for business, but are usually "employed" by drunken tourists who don't know at first glance the difference.

Recently, Ladyboys have been protesting for transgender bathrooms and transgender notation on the "gender" portion of their passports. Whereas Ladyboys may seem like a taboo subject in Western cultures, Buddhism discourages judgement and teaches that the feminine characteristics of a Ladyboy are remnants of a previous life.

If you find the desire to do further research, I would be careful about what you're typing into the search box. The term "ladyboy" guarantees some pornographic hits (learned this one the hard way.)

-Ali Blum

So Uncanny. So Grotesque.

When Erin mentioned the uncanny as the grotesque in class these train ads for Halls throat lozenges immediately sprang to mind. They're a pretty recent addition to the regional rails and they're just so unnerving. Every time I ride the train these days I can't help but think about those placid smiles, the blank, glassy stares and just feel uncomfortable. There's just something off, like the models in the ads are just shy of being real people, almost, but not quite. So next time you decide to ride the rails, take quick look and see if these glassy eyed weirdos are staring right through you, you shan't be disappointed.

~Henry Steinberg

A Sticky Subject

In the grimy cupholder of my rusty Camry sat an old Wawa water bottle. My friends and I would spit our old gum into the liter, depositing these sticky toll payments daily. Eventually, gum wads began to pile up. Shades of green, blue, white, pink and yellow stuck together, and their effect slightly resembled Monet's Water Lilies. My mother, however, failed to recognize my impressionistic masterpiece and hastily trashed it.

"That is grotesque" she screamed.

"Isn't that an opinion?" I thought.

In a world where art is subjective, "grotesque" is a relative term.

Chew on this Wiki article on Bubble Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo! Fashionable, fantastical or just plain gross?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_Alley

-Ali Blum

Ancient Texts

Hey All,
After, reflecting on some of the reading and just the class in general, I want to share something I learned in another class about the ways in which early bookmakers and scribes creatively produced versions of the most famous book of all time: the Bible. These images speak more to the layout of the page rather than the structure of the book itself, and they may be a bit small here, but I hope you'll find them interesting. The first image is a page of a polyglot bible, which contains the same text written in 5 different languages. Next is a page of a mesorah, which is a biblical text surrounded by various interpretations and arranged just so to fit as much on the page as possible. On the bottom is another example of a creative biblical text. You might not be able to see, but the lines of the bizarre creatures are Hebrew letters. I find these images inspiring both visually and substantively.
-Lauren

Angelfish Decay

The grotesque through proximity?

A clip from A Zed and Two Noughts with score by Michael Nyman.

The film’s director, Peter Greenaway, has said many times that there are only two themes worthy of artistic exploration: sex and death. While I won’t take the time here to examine the statement, it seemed particularly relevant to our discussion of the grotesque.

In many ways I find the grotesque only in the intersection or proximity of two or more mundane forms. Sex alone is not grotesque, but couple sex with an abundance of flesh, or sex with death, and something entirely new and potentially grotesque emerges. Greenaway is not alone in this exploration of uncomfortable meeting spaces but he is certainly masterful in it.

Tim Burton @ MoMA

Hey guys! This is my first post, so I may be doing this completely incorrectly. Hope this works!

Anyway, MoMA is currently running a pretty detailed Tim Burton exhibit in New York, and because he's a filmmaker who has always been pretty concerned with the term "grotesque," I thought it might be valuable to talk about my experience at the exhibit.

Here's a link to the gallery, so you can check it out for yourselves: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/timburton/

First off, on a pretty basic level, I was struck by his artistic output; I had assumed that the exhibit would be comprised of stills from his movies, props, character models, etc.... Apparently, he does a whole lot more than that. There were drawings, paintings, sculptures, even some photographs. But the theme was pretty consistently an examination of the grotesque, the creepy, the dowright unsettling.

One thing I noticed was that Burton almost always opts to portray some degree of physical grotesqueness in his work. I think Erin mentioned in class that in certain cultures beautiful women were conceived of as being grotesque because of the actions they engaged in, or the physicality they embodied. With Burton, the grotesqueness was obvious. There were images of giant monsters, deformed clowns, disproportionate mothers, all drawn in the heavily stylized fashion that Burton is known for. More often than not, the art basically took on the form of portraiture, with the subject occupying most of the canvas or, if it didn't, the fringes outside the main subject remaining unpainted. There was almost no emphasis on scenery or action; all the attention was meant to be drawn to the physical ugliness of the subjects.

But this ugliness was so over-the-top and stylized that it really bordered on being comical. When we first entered the exhibit, we noticed pockets of little kids working their way through the artwork and we were shocked that their parents brought them. After about half-an-hour of taking the time to look around for ourselves, it seemed less strange for kids to be there. Most of the work was so grotesque, so downright absurd, that it freely moved from being threatening to being amusing. Which would make sense, given Burton's role as a filmmaker; whether he likes it or not, he's certainly in the business to entertain.

-Chris

Philigraphika Blog is Up

Do you know about Philigraphika yet? Only the awesome-ist giant print event to ever take over our fair city? It starts at the end of the month and will be in over 90 locations. This is international! The blog will keep you up to date. Check-out the site, too!

http://philagrafika.blogspot.com/

~Erin