24.arts
Monday 28 October 2013
The Courier
Arts Editors: Millie Walton and Charlie Dearnley Deputy Arts Editor: Laura Wotton
A stake through the ‘art
Clare Robertson shares her top five most gruesome and terrifying art works this Halloween 1. Marc Quinn, Self (blood sculpture, 2006)
In our Halloween column special, Hannah Myers laments the superficial nature of contemporary Halloween
Grotesque, it seems, brings malformations of the limbs and contours of the human body to mind. It is perhaps deserving of Marc Quinn’s blood head to be dubbed ‘most grotesque s c u lptu re of all
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n today’s generation Halloween conjures up images of little children swarming shadowy streets lit up by the ominous orange glow of carved pumpkins. Dressed in an array of scary costumes they knock on strangers’ doors, soliciting copious amounts of treats. Ancient Celtics may not have carried out this tradition exactly, but our contemporary celebration of Halloween does stem from the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. Samhain, is what Hallows Eve, or as it’s more commonly known, Halloween, originates from. The festival celebrates the end of the harvest, where Gaels would start preparing for winter, bidding summer adieu. On October 31, in the dead of night it was believed that the boundary between the world of the living and world of the dead became blurred. The air thins, allowing the deceased access to the mortal world, bringing chaos and sickness with them, damaging crops along the way. October 31 to the Gaels was a night of superstition and suspected ghoulish behaviour. The carved pumpkin, or Jack-O-Lantern, is one of the most central images associated with Halloween. This eponymous tradition is named after the legend of Jack, a man that liked to play tricks on the Devil. When artful Jack eventually dies he is denied into heaven, as God would not allow such a devious figure into heaven.
“The air things, allowing the deceased access to the mortal world, bringing chaos and sickness with them...” The Devil also rejects claiming Jack’s soul, still bothered by the tricks that had been played on him. Jack is left with no choice but to roam interminably into the dark night with nothing but a burning coal in a carved turnip to guide him, and that is where Jack-O-Lantern gets its significance. Trick-or-treating is what most children’s dreams are made of, the promise of more sweets than they know what to do with. This tradition, however, wasn’t always so rose-tinted. The term “trick or treat” dates back to 1927 where the poor would visit the houses of wealthier families and receive pastries called soul cakes in exchange for a promise to pray for the souls of the homeowners’ dead relatives, known as souling. Although the principle is the same, the modern day ‘trick-or-treat’ is far more greedy and superficial than it was in the late 1920s. There is no prayer for the deceased nor is it any longer an action of charity. Would it be fair to say that Halloween has lost its true meaning, then? Are the youth of today cognisant of the deep roots that the Halloween we celebrate today has grown from? The majority of people would not know what Samhain or souling is, nor would they know where the Jack-O-Lantern gets its significance from. Times change, traditions change, one thing that is for certain is that there is more to Halloween than just sweets. Hannah Myers Want to write for Arts? Come along to our weekly meeting, Wednesday 1PM in the Curtis Auditorium.
QUOTES SO SIMPLE:
t i m e .’ Q u i n n’s head combined stainless steel with Perspex, refrigeration equipment - and of course, blood - to create what is perhaps the most disturbing self-portrait imaginable. Grotesque? Yes, it looks like a decapitated Quinn-replica has been severed from its body to have its skin skillfully peeled back on a steel slab. Eyeless, soulless, Quinn’s self-portrait challenges mortality and tangibility, prompting you to stare death in the face.
2. Damien Hirst, Mother and Child Divided (original 1993, copy 2007) No artist has ever quite interrogated dark matters through dead cattle like Damien Hirst. Black diamond skulls are pretty thought provoking, but what can be more disturbing than the preserved innards of a dead animal? Sliced in two, Hirst’s sculpture consists of each cow-half pressed against a block of glass to reveal its insides; the observer
can then walk through the middle of the sculpture, fully immersing themselves in grotesque imagery, a well of existentialism and disillusionment. Why do I identify with Hirst’s piece? It’s raw, real, radical, and infinitely bold. It’s so cold I can almost see my breath...
3. Nathaniel Mellors, Animatronic Heads (2011) What could be creepier than android heads that murmur in turmoil, tethered to one another with a grotesque strand of hair growing out of their faces? Exceptionally lifelike, this set of robotic heads engages its audience, providing means for a kind of terrifying interactivity. The theme of estrangement seems to be recurring in the sinister vein of the art world, drawing you into the a g on i z i n g dismay of this dystopian species. These bionic creations wallow into your consciousness as you approach the room; it’s the hair that does it for me. As Talking Heads say, ‘psycho killer, Qu’est’ce que c’est…’
5. Louise Bourgeois, Marman (1999) To me, spiders are a fundamental image of terror; spiders of the giant variety are particularly grotesque. Bourgeois, who expresses ‘loneliness and conflict, frustration and vulnerability’ in her art, created Marman in the late nineties. Marman, a giant arachnid with twisted limbs and a contorted body that is sure to paralyze any living thing with fear alone, is evocative of the paralytic injection a spider uses to dismantle its prey. Although threatening in concept, this sculpture projects sadness: a towering yet grotesque symbol of the spider that most associate with fear and rejection. Marman scares me to the core.
4. Annette messenger, The Ballad of Hanged Ones (2007) Messenger produces powerful installation pieces, proof that beauty can be terrifying; in her own words “very morbid, very sad.” As the name suggests, Messenger’s installation consists of hanging stuffed animals, limbs, toys, and large body parts that rise and fall. Evoking putrid images, the notion of ominously moving, bloated body parts beneath hanging limbs reminiscent of a butcher’s shop, the ‘hanged ones’ are grotesque and infinitely sorrowful. All of these entities revolve around a small model of Pinocchio, suggesting a powerlessness to be human, to be ‘real’.
Article: Clare Robertson Images from left: Helen Dearnley, Roland zh
Desert Island Books
This Halloween, Charlie Dearnley and Beth Durant reveal which books they’d choose to ruin their sanity and security whilst stranded on a deserted Island. IT Stephen King
C
lowns are just like Marmite, a few people pretend to like them, but deep down we all hold a deep hatred for their all-smiling ashen appearance. Pennywise, is the child devouring demon from Stephen King’s ‘IT,’ a novel that toys with our childhood fears.
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
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ritten in first person by serial killer Patrick Bateman, this instant classic is an incredibly well-written book, despite all the hype around the grisly content. As it was originally sold in black shrinkwrap, at least it would be kept dry.
The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter
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he Line “he thrust his virile member into the dead girl,” will haunt me for years to come, even now it sends a disgusted shiver down my spine and causes me to gag gently. Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber,’ is a collection of twisted fairy tales, reminiscent of the Grimm brothers’ stories.
Unwind Neal Shusterman
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ased in a dystopian universe where parents have the option to “unwind” their children if they step out of line, this book has a horrific concept but is a good read if fancy a cry. If the main character can successfully repopulate an island with half an arm, I’m sure I’d be able to.
“It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music...’ Bram Stoker, Dracula