The Abode of Chaos is a compound building in a small town near Lyon, France. It’s not like an elitist consumer based gallery, but an artwork in itself. It is like a Banksy image come to life. Thierry Ehrmann the sculptor behind this, is like an Andy Warhol with this house of chaos being the Factory. A place that just doesn’t give a fuck with 2,700 international artworks and a free admission. I think this Abode of Chaos is a symbol of resistance against our institutionalized Orwellian art world. But it is of course facing on-going law suit from the local mayor’s office. Like anything different in this world it causes fear.

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Jason Hopkins is the mad scientist behind Abhominal, he created deranged, deformed and freaky creatures behind this moniker. This UK based artist works with sketch and 3D program, experimenting with “flesh” and form to create what he call as “perfect posthuman beings”. I remember stumbled across his dA gallery like two years ago, one of his piece really caught my attention. Untitled 5 looks like a deformed creature sitting alone, needs to be loved. Holy shit, beautifully ugly creature! From his writings, I can tell that he’s obsessed with science fiction, evolution, human genetic and everything in between. But to create such strange beings, I have no idea whats inside his insane mind. Well if you havent seen much of his creations, I urge you to browse through his website while jamming Creation Is Crucifixion and started to question yourself: WHO IS THE ENGINEER? Abhominal is the answer! Now lets step inside Jason Hopkin’s laboratory and meet his freaky creatures, after the jump!

“Biostructure”

Not many artists have the reputation of receiving several court trials and three prison terms for their work. At age seventy-two, Austrian born artist, writer, and composer Hermann Nitsch reigns king of blood-drenched, ritualistic art performance, and has been awing/shocking crowds with his religious, pornographic, and grotesque work since the early 1960s. He has a knack for incorporating slaughtered animals, red fruits, music, dance, and active participants to satirize religious rites. “He is only holding up a mirror to his detractors’ own hang-ups with religion and the weird, antiquated ceremonies inherent to their beliefs.” (Vice) Do not confuse his views on religion, however. In his interview with Vice Magazine he states, “I am fascinated with religion of every era and every culture. I respect them all, without belonging to any of them. I only have religious feelings for life, nature, the cosmos, and eternity.” Provocation has never been his intention, he says. He is simply fascinated with the intensity of it all; the aesthetic process alone gives him an artistic high. Today, it is often discussed that his work may also exemplify cultures’ fascination with violence, as Nitsch is known to have grown up during World War II. Because of this, he despises politics.

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I’ve been knowing this dude since the first year I joined dA, I remember at that time I dont find many Indonesian artists that into deranged and dark arts. Abomination Imagery is the moniker, and Bahrull Marta is the man behind all of this madness! Hailing from Jakarta – Indonesia, he started doing digital art since 2007. He’s working mostly with digital collage mixed with drawing and photograph, all of his pieces could bring your imagination to abomination! His artworks are dark and macabre, with the use of colors and textures that rather unique – sometimes looks like paintings. By what I mean ‘macabre’, no its not like ‘guts everywhere’ or boring shit like that. He has his own style, a bit abstract and surreal yet still dark. He has done artworks both for local and international bands such as Bloodcraft, Dawn of Disease, Exussum, Elude Fearra, Funeral Inception, Houwitser, Profanus Nathrakh, Sickmath, Sacrificial Slaughter, Sinister and more. Enough said, feel the abomination after the jump!

Artwork for Profanus Nathtrakh

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If you are in the NYC vicinity this weekend, and need a cold beer and rad art to recover from a nasty hot day, here is an event you can’t miss…and if you are in Manhattan, that means getting your ass to Brooklyn, no matter how intimidating that seems (no cabs is not an excuse!): ‘Dreams were made for Mortals’ is a one day group show happening this Sunday, July 24th, at St. Vitus Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The show is curated by the multi-talented Karlynn Holland, and is hosted by St. Vitus Bar‘s David Castillo and CVLT Nation’s favorite photographer, Samantha Marble. This show is a haven for the underground artists of NYC; Holland describes it as an “anti-art show” – no shee-shee white walls, dainty wine-sipping or obscure commentary. This is a down and dirty, beer drinking, black-walled bar show, where you will meet real awesome people and see some amazing and probably under-appreciated works by some established and some up-and-coming artists. The artists showing are Mick Barr, Lee Bartow, Dallas Erl, Jamie Foster, Grey Heart, Karlynn Holland, Suren Karapetyan, Victoria Lui, Gerry Mak, Samantha Marble, Nicholas McMaster, Brian Montuori, Angel Nacol, Nicholas Palmirotto, Owen Rundquist, Sierra Seip, Nathaniel Shannon, Nikki Sneakers, Erin Utzig, Justina Villanueva, George Wilson…these artists will be showing a whole bunch of unique and disturbing works. Some of them I have already covered on CVLT Nation, and many I will be covering in the future now that Holland has given me the heads up. Also, there will be a ton of DJs from excellent bands and blogs and I have a feeling that if you miss them, you will feel like a big loser. Below, read the inspiration behind the show, and after the jump check out a selection of preview images from the show and also get all the info you will need before you go.

Dreams, frequently, are broadcast across neural pathways in vibrant color. They are so vivid, the dreams feel more real than my waking life. It haunts me. Life feels like the dream, a series of passing moments. As I rise from paralysis, they evaporate from memory. How could something so real fade so quickly? I often find myself asking this question. Exploring the dawn hours of your fervent mind, please choose or create work that exposes our perishable nature and echoes human frailness so often deified by gods of rock and roll.

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A month or so back, I did a post on Karlynn Holland, a Brooklyn-based artist who can see, and draw, your inner demon. She is one of those artists that is able to create her visions in many different media – be it illustration, sculpture or collage. She can bring you back to life from your dry, dusty bones as a trained forensic reconstructor. Holland also works with and among some influential bands and people in underground metal. And today I am happy to bring you a fascinating interview with Holland, who will take us on a journey through her life and inspirations.

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There’s something contradictory about Cenin’s artworks, the subjects rather dark, strange and surreal, but with the combination of vibrant colors. I’d say, this is a psychedelia surrealism! Cenin von Catlien is the alter ego of Turkey-based visionary artist Burcu Çorbaci, her medium is traditional drawing with the use of colored pencils, crayons, felt-tip pens and markers. Cenin means “fetus” in English, she lives and works in mind, womb, tomb and Istanbul. Her subjects of drawing concerns self alienation, the feelings of death-melancholy-despair, fear, occultism, gnosticism, depressions, self destruction, traumatic feelings of being born and everything in between. I noticed that some of her drawings mainly focus on woman, child and fetus. Also the expression of that creepy “dollish” face, she has her own characteristic! Cenin’s works have been exhibited in Poland, Germany, Brazil and also her hometown Istanbul. She made several illustrations for some underground fanzines, and also has been featured and interviewed in several publications such as Yeni Harman magazine (Turkey), Imagine The Imagination: New Visions of Surrealism book (published by Negoist, Poland), and a few others. Check out some of her rad artworks, after the jump!

“Dichotomy Incarnate”

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Terence Hannum of Locrian not only lives his music, he shares it via visual representations of depth and reverence. Hannum’s work embodies the spiritual connection many of us feel when in the presence of live music. Most of the time, I feel like I have never truly heard a band’s music until I have seen them live, because the vibrations emanating from the amps possess my body and soul in a way that recorded music almost never does. Hannum paints images of this experience, creating Gothic halls with altars of amps and candelabra, invoking the holy experience of live music. Like Locrian, Hannum’s shrines are to the dark power of music, waves of sound that wash over you and cause chills of reverence to rise up all over your body. In addition to his gouache paintings, Hannum also create video installations playing on the same theme, such as his Offering piece embedded below. And he authors beautifully presented and laid-out zines featuring both dissections of his video pieces and his gouache paintings. Ablation is a series of stills from video he shot of Bloodyminded at one of their 2007 shows, and the images work to convey the intensity of their performance in a zine that can be re-lived over and over. Death Posture is a collaboration with fellow artist Scott Treleaven, and is composed of Hannum’s paintings and stills form Treleaven’s Super 8 footage. Both zines are available for purchase on Hannum’s website. Terence Hannum is an artist’s artist – he is deeply passionate about his creations both on the level of his band and in what he makes with his hands. Check out images from this prolific creator’s collections after the jump…
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Josh Graham has supplied Neurosis with a visual language for their performances since 2000. Since then, he had gone on to do album art for Neurosis and Soundgarden, as well as cultivate his own project, A Storm of Light. He created flyers for the first two installments of Scion Rock Fest and did live visuals for legendary stoner doom band Sleep. Within the past few years, Graham’s visual art and music have focused on the imagery of an apocalypse brought about the selfish and exploitive tendencies of mankind post-industrial revolution.
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Death is an ever-present and completely preoccupying aspect of life. Whether it terrifies you or excites you, it is something that is constantly under scrutiny by the metal community. I guess that’s why I search out artists who bring death to life in their work, who ask us to face it and to think about it. One of those artists, whom I am so happy to have found, is Sarina Brewer. Brewer is a taxidermic artist – she creates reverential portraits of found animal carcasses, sometimes simply using the carcass as she finds it, but more often than not altering it in some way. She creates chimeras, gilded corpses, frankensteins, talismans, siamese twins and the occasional punk squirrel. Brewer acknowledges that some people may find her perspective offensive, but contends that she is paying homage to and carrying on global traditions of revering the dead through mummification and other forms of preservation. She points out that the Victorians often used preserved body parts, such as hair or teeth, in their death jewelry, and that she too makes death jewelry with her animals. As Brewer says, reverence is relative, so why judge how a people deal with their dead? Not just an artist and jeweler, Brewer is also active in the science and animal rescue communities – she volunteers in the biology department of the Science Museum of Minnesota, and also works to rescue and rehabilitate animals. Her art uses roadkill, discarded livestock and donated corpses – the animals are in no way hunted or killed for her artistic purposes. I find her breed of art weird in a wonderful way; it makes my skin crawl with the enjoyment of her creativity. After the jump, enter Sarina Brewer’s world…

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