Grotesque Menagerie
Spooky accessories, unsettling visions in art, & general October excitement.
October started off strong with the Cheap Perfume album release party at the Marquis. We bought tickets mainly for Team Nonexistent’s opening act. It’s also the second time we saw Diva Cup and they’ve got great songs, energy, and overall style. I had fan girl moment when I spotted THE Dana Meyers of Indie 102.3 standing next to us. She’s my favorite radio DJ and I was so excited to meet her, having spent so many studio mornings listening to her impeccable music selection and good humored musings about life. We bonded over our shared love of Team Nonexistent. She really is the sweetest! Also, support public radio with trans DJs now that they have lost their government funding.
This past weekend I set up a booth with my friend Sarah at a neighborhood block party. I leaned into a spooky theme with offerings such as a smoking skull (homage to my favorite Van Gogh painting and a Team Nonexistent lyric), Bug Mug, Creature Mug, Cyclops Potion Bottle, and other items of dark intrigue. Some of them were even created by candlelight due to an unexpected power outage. You can find a few to collect on my web shop.
Spooky Accessories
Team Nonexistent has an unrecorded song that I’ve only heard live called “Lick” which reminds me of this hand-crafted Demon Lick Wrap necklace by another Denver local madeline.dtmg. All of Madeline’s pieces are stunning. A real knack for the alchemy of metal work.
I think people (myself included) need to wear more dramatic hats. My favorite fashion substack Esque introduced me to the millinery brand Hurtence. I love the jokester raven vibes of this playful black number. Endless outfit possibilities.
Some of us started wearing arm warmers in middle school and never stopped. I bought this pair last autumn and they are perfect if you can’t bother with the hassle of gloves. A wool exterior and fleece lining is key for keeping your hands warm in the windy colder months. The key to worn-in Tim Burton stripes is to choose natural fibers with good texture.
This Vivienne Westwood spider (I’m not an etymologist, but these might be ants?) pouch looks like something a modern Miss Havisham would store her face powder in. Ants or spiders, I do love a freaky gingham.
The Yohji Yamamoto Gothic line offers some modern classic silver pieces. These would not be out of place in the collection of a white-bearded Hells Angel (a coveted category of jewelry). The gargoyle ear cuff is my favorite; it can gaze out from the perch of your curving cartilage.
Mask off? Probably not.
As we enter the flu and covid season, masks are on the mind. I’ve been drawn to art that uses masks as both a medium and a subject. And also instances where skin becomes a mask. Masks can offer both concealment, protection, and freedom to the wearer, for better or worse.
At a recent estate sale I was disturbed by the way a box of Halloween masks had begun to fuse together, requiring a surgical peeling apart of the fleshy layers of witch and demon faces. The odor was unsettlingly organic. Reminding me of the work of…
Nick Fagan
Nick Fagan primarily uses found textiles to create hand sewn objects that embrace moth-eaten holes and dry rot. My favorites are his works from this past year that utilize latex Halloween masks flattened out into uncanny Rorschach tests. The crumbling alien mask piece, with all the scattered crumbs puzzle-pieced together, looks like a dehydrated alien fossilized into the New Mexican desert.
Didier Willliam
Didier William is a modern master of mark making and I’m glad he’s finally earning some widespread recognition. I witnessed his finesse with literally every two-dimensional medium when I took his Drawing I class in college. If you look closely at this painting, you’ll notice he carved eyes into the black panel background.
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus has a dark biography and her photos reflect a more unsettling side of the world, revealing the cinematic side to ordinary life. The contrast of the older women’s closed fists against the dark coats makes it look like they are en route to beat someone up. I think homemade masks and Halloween costumes are a lost art, let’s bring it back. The uneven cuts and wonky eyes make everything a bit more spooky.
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois’s exhibition at MoMA in 2017 was an all-time favorite; I’ve been a fan of her work since high school and she was one of the first woman sculptors I had ever heard of. Her fabric works piece together an emotional autobiography in personal color palettes and irregular seams. The stitched-together head with a gaping mouth was a standout work to me.
Toyin Ojih Odutola
I prefer Toyin Ojih Odutola’s smaller works on paper because you can really get up close and admire the fluid sinews of lines. These cut vellum masks are unique in her overall body of work and I like that they enter object territory. I am imagining them worn by the artist in a series of photographs, à la David Wojnarowicz’s Arthur Rimbaud in New York.
Robert Gober
The Matthew Marks website explains, “Following the ancient tradition of death masks that preserve the memory of the departed, Gober created Death Mask in 2008 after the unexpected loss of his dog, Paco. A cast of Gober’s own face forms the basis of the mask, upon which he sculpted Paco’s snout, merging his own likeness with that of his beloved pet.”
Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas delivers the subtle emotional horror that can come with existing in a body that the show Nip/Tuck attempted. The flesh betrays us everyday: crying, sweating, bleeding, exposing pain and truths to the outside world that we would rather keep inside.
October Media Recs
When I like an artist’s work, I always try to find their reading lists or favorite movies to trace the inspiration further down the line. Florence Welch posted a photo of the book Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology and I was intrigued so I checked it out from the library. Mitski is listed in the song credits for Everybody Scream, so I am paying extra attention to Florence & The Machine’s witchy album drop.
Speaking of, another October event I’m looking forward to is Mitski’s concert movie The Land. My center-view tickets are secured and I WILL be crying in the theater. Mitski said it best…I cry at the start of every movie. October 22nd is a perfect release date, since her music is heavily influenced by horror movies.
If you’ve been following Mitski’s music, you may have noticed that she started introducing unique choreography during her Be the Cowboy tour. That’s thanks to the dark magic of performance artist/choreographer/movement coach Monica Mirabile of the performance duo Fluct. I was originally introduced to their work at a venue somewhere in Brooklyn circa 2014 and I’ve never seen better performance art. It was uncomfortable, grotesque, dangerous, and deeply emotional. The specific hysteria of their movements is so recognizable that I immediately suspected Monica’s involvement in Mitski’s new dance style. What a destined collaboration.
On the topics of hysteria, masks, and the horrors of womanhood, these are my personal media picks for October:
Books
Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
Bunny by Mona Awad
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque by Joyce Carol Oates
Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Movies
Eyes Without a Face (1960, dir. Georges Franju)
The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Safe (1995, dir. Todd Haynes)
The Juniper Tree (1990, dir. Nietzchka Keene)
Multiple Maniacs (1970, dir. John Waters)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962, dir. Robert Aldrich)
La Belle et la Bête (1946, dir. Jean Cocteau)
Persona (1966, dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Music
Teeth by Team Nonexistent
Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory
The Milk-Eyed Mender by Joanna Newsom
Laurel Hell by Mitski
Franks Wild Years by Tom Waits
All Mirrors by Angel Olsen
Upcoming Exhibition
I also have a two-person exhibition with Genevieve Waller opening in November at Memento Mori Gallery and Tattoo on West Colfax. I will be showing new and old ceramics, as well as some newer canvas experimentations with found textiles and objects. If you’re in Denver, I’d love to see you there!
Peace,
Paloma