September 2014 – Necromantic

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Beyond the Dark Veil

Last Gasp Books has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their fall publishing season, the most intriguing offering of which is Beyond the Dark Veil.

{ Postmortem & Mourning Photography
from the Thanatos Archive
A compilation of extraordinary and haunting photographs
documenting the practice of death and mourning photography
in the Victorian era and early 20th century }

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The Abandoned Child: Necronymphic Creations by Tari Nakagawa

Tari Nakagawa’s exquisite ball-jointed dolls exude a deep sense of melancholy. With a haunting aura of mourning and vulnerability, these innocent, wan little faces expressing languor and dolor, malady and misery, with finely eloquent hands and limbs, bespeak a corrupt eroticism and a necromantic sensuality. They are disturbing as a strange alchemy of pathos, innocence, death, decay, and sirenlike allure. A primary inspiration for these lovely creations is 19th-century postmortem child portraiture.

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The Anatomical Art of Pole Ka

The whimsical, wistful drawings of Paris-based artist Pole Ka have the pensive elegance of vintage anatomy illustrations, expressing the emotional and personal entanglements and intricacies of human beings, no less than the delicate structure and beauty of veins and arteries.

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Joaquin Jara’s Ruined Effigies

Joaquin Jara creates eerie, unsettling installations wherein he selects a natural location to place a “human simulation,” and observes the interaction between it and the environment, and the stages by which it is disintegrated, ravaged, adorned, and transformed into an otherworldly effigy.

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Oneirica: The Art of Zakuro Aoyama

Zakuro Aoyama is a Brazilian artist who creates beautiful, intensely detailed graphite drawings with a vibe of macabre eroticism and romantic decay.

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The Hag’s Hand

This is a delightful little pendant cast in the shape of Baba Yaga’s gnarled hand. I have had much more of an appreciation for Baba Yaga since reading Catherynne M. Valente’s Deathless, where she figures prominently.

“The veined and clawed hand of the forest hag, Baba Yaga. The Yaga lives in a hut on chicken legs and travels the woodlands perched in her mortar, propelling herself with the pestle. I created this amulet as a reminder of the crone, the wise one who dwells not only in wilderness but as part of our inner divinity. Bitter herbs, harsh love and dark moon belong to her.”
— raintower

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Casstronaut – “Of the Earth”

{ Jewelry & accessories: Hunter Gatherer
Dress: Sanctus
Model: Angela Thornton of Morph Knitwear
Makeup: Christine Shields
Styling, cinematography, editing, sound design, & vocals: Casstronaut }