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MERLIN PUPPET THEATRE "Clowns' Houses" Official Trailer

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Backrooms: why being trapped in the film’s endless corridors feels a lot like modern life

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Beneath the horrifying labyrinth, Backrooms tells a familiar story of foreclosed futures, precarity and frustrated aspirations.

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OLD TROUT PUPPET WORKSHOP (Canada) Famous Puppet Death Scenes

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The Cave: a parable told by Orson Welles

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Das Blumenwunder (1926; Ger.; Max Reichmann)

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In 1921, the chemical corporation Badische Anilin und Sodafabrik (BASF) sponsored the production of a new film. BASF had bankrolled several short films with heart-poundingly exciting titles like Di…

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Penis Nests - Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog

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We have previously visited a remarkable passage in Malleus Maleficarum (1485) where that work’s author, Heinrich Kramer, describes a penis theft: or rather a penis illusion, because Kramer claims the penis is still ‘there’ but hidden. That account was apparently based on a witness: this account sounds like folklore. Finally, what shall we think about […]

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Penis Nests

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A Masterpiece of Classic Science Fiction:

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott , first published in 1884. Written pseudonymously by "A Square",the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

Physicists and science popularizers Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking have both commented on and postulated about the effects of Flatland. Sagan recreates the thought experiment as a set-up to discussing the possibilities of higher dimensions of the physical universe in both the book and television series Cosmos, whereas Hawking notes the peculiarity of life in two-dimensional space.

A Must Read Classic for Lovers of Science Fiction!

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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

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Buy Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott by Abbott, Edwin A. (ISBN: 9798630248015) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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Christians early links between Jesus and Dionysus

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Christians early links between Jesus and Dionysus

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Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate at a protest decrying the opening ceremony. Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo

Paris's Olympic opening ceremony on July 26 was the cause of much online discussion. No moment more so, perhaps, than when several drag queens were shown seated at a long table.

Many viewers, including Pope Francis and Ayatollah Khamanei, interpreted the scene as a parody mocking Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper (c. 1495). By extension, they claimed that the opening ceremony mocked the Last Supper, the event Christians believe instituted the Eucharist celebration - and Christianity itself. The outrage has been so intense in some quarters that the ceremony organisers have been subject to death threats.

These responses fundamentally misinterpret the scene, which was not supposed to reference the Last Supper at all. The director of the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, was principally inspired not by da Vinci's The Last Supper, but by Le Festin Des Dieux (The Feast of God, c. 1635-1640) a painting by Jan van Bijlert.

This painting depicts the marriage of the characters from ancient Greek mythology, Thetis and Peleus, with the god Dionysus and his satyrs dancing in the foreground. This makes considerably more sense considering Le Festin is housed at the Musée Magninin in Dijon, France. The Last Supper, meanwhile, resides in Milan (quite ironically, as Milan will be the site of the 2026 Winter Olympics).

The confusion between these two scenes is not merely a product of the internet's rage cycle. As other commentators have rightly noted, much of the confusion is grounded in the failure of Christian audiences (and others) to recognise the debt Christian iconography owes to pre-Christian Greco-Roman imagery. But more than this, a failure to recognise the long standing connection between Jesus and Dionysus.

Understanding this connection and its influence on early Christianity is crucial for understanding not only the scene at the Olympics but also the broader history of Christianity.

Jesus and Dionysus

Christianity as we know it began as a Roman mystery cult - a type of religious expression that emerged out of dissatisfaction with Rome's traditional religious practices.

Rome's so-called "civic cults" tended to be based around communal ritual with little spiritual substance for the individual believer. "Mystery cults" provided spiritual substance and direct access to the divine for individuals. These mystery religions offered believers a sense of connection with the divine and the hope of eternal life. Christianity adopted the messianic figure of a recently formed Jewish sect for their saviour. Others turned to the Greek god Dionysus, re-imagined in a similar form to that of the Jewish rabbi.

Dionysus is often described as "the god of wine and the theatre". He and his Roman counterpart, Bacchus, are associated with debauchery, drunkenness and licentiousness. In later centuries, Christianity adopted an ethic associated with its austere monastic elements, so it's understandable that today the comparison of Christ with Dionysus could offend or shock. But a look beneath these facile understandings of Dionysus shows a much more complex picture.

Dionysus was not just a deity associated with wine, but a god of the enlightenment that comes from placing yourself in liminal spaces, that is to say the places on the margins of society and, importantly, of nature.

With a mortal, virgin mother and a divine father (does that sound familiar?), Dionysus was ripped from his mother's womb prematurely and so finished the gestational process sewn into his father Zeus's thigh. He was then raised in Asia, and when he returned to Greece, his divinity was not immediately recognised.

In Euripides' Bacchae (405 BC.), Pentheus, the Theban King, rejected Dionysus, while the relatively powerless old men and women of the city fled to the country. Later, he became known as the deity who guides reincarnation and promises immortality. In this context, the feasting of Dionysus is not just about unrestrained pleasure, but about connection and the breaking of boundaries.

The cults and churches of both Dionysus and Jesus encouraged their practitioners to find meaning in the spaces between: life and death, the power and the might, the human and the divine. They also encouraged worship of a god who feasts with all people indiscriminately, in a culture in which eating with people was a powerful sign of relationships.

The Eucharist feast of early Christianity (which today is "communion" in most modern Christian practices), after all, had similar connotations to the Dionysaic feast. They're both symbols of broken social boundaries, as well as the broken boundary between the human and the divine. These sentiments have largely been lost after centuries of Christian hegemony, during which participation in the Eucharist has been used as a political weapon and as a way of establishing and publicly enforcing societal norms.

It is undoubtedly true that the connections between Dionysus and Christ exist in the context of a larger blending of pre-Christian and Christian Mediterranean culture. But focusing on the specific connections between Dionysus and Christ seems particularly relevant in this situation. There is, after all, a certain irony that a type of ceremonial feasting, associated with reaching out to the marginalised and breaking boundaries, is being weaponised to reinforce boundaries and further marginalise the marginalised.

The response to the tableau at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony highlights the overlooked historical connections between Christian and Greco-Roman religious imagery. But it also provides an opportunity to recognise the profound connections between Dionysus and Jesus. Particularly their shared themes of divine suffering, resurrection, and boundary breaking.
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Claims that Olympic opening ceremony 'mocked Christianity' ignore the long-standing connection between Jesus and Dionysus

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The stories of Jesus and Dionysus share themes of divine suffering, resurrection, and boundary-breaking.

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Love Spells and Deadly Shrieks: Illustrations of Mandrakes (ca. 1650–1927)

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Love Spells and Deadly Shrieks: Illustrations of Mandrakes (ca. 1650–1927)

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Love Spells and Deadly Shrieks: Illustrations of Mandrakes (ca. 650-1927)

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More than 70 images of the magical, hallucinogenic, and perilous mandrake.

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Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy (BBC Radio 4), 2014

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Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy (BBC Radio 4), 2014

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Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy (BBC Radio 4 Dramatization)

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A surrealist artist, who created an interesting film called Nightmare

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Head Shrinking Scene, Beetlejuice (1988)

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Head Shrinking Scene, Beetlejuice (1988)

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FANTASIA. A Stop motion Animation by Guldies

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Follow a Lava River’s Mesmerizing Path of Destruction, National Geographic, 2018

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Follow a Lava River’s Mesmerizing Path of Destruction, National Geographic, 2018

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Follow a Lava River’s Mesmerizing Path of Destruction

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Follow a Lava River’s Mesmerizing Path of Destruction | Short Film Showcase

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A retelling of the crusades from the Arab prospective, using 200 year old marionette puppets.

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A Breakable History: Wael Shawky’s “Cabaret Crusades” at MoMA PS1

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Trailer DAS BLUMENWUNDER 1926 - Live Score by Tout Bleu

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A nightmarish world filled with mycelium networks and spores, which phosphorescence in orange, and infiltrate the mind of their unsuspecting victims.

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BBC Sounds - Limelight - Available Episodes

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Listen to the latest episodes of Limelight on BBC Sounds

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An unconscious naked man lying on a table being attacked by little demons armed with surgical instruments; representing the effects of chloroform on the human body. Watercolour by R. Cooper.

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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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Bonnacons were creatures able to defend themselves by defecating, expelling toxic wind or explosive diarrhoea at an would be attacker.

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To ward off attackers this mythical animal was said to expel excrement with a devastating explosive force.

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An eight part series from c.1989 exploring modern art from the 1870 to the present day.

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The Shock of the New is a 1980 documentary television series written and presented by Robert Hughes produced by the BBC The series consisted of 8 episodes ea...

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Puppet: An Uncanny Life, Kenneth Gross, 2011

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Puppet: An Uncanny Life, Kenneth Gross, 2011

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The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, 1967

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The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, 1967

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The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Official Video)

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The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever, 1967

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The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever, 1967

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Star Trek, The Trouble with Tribbles, 1967

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Star Trek, The Trouble with Tribbles, 1967

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When cute goes wrong, with a furry cuddly pet, which reproduces a new generation every three hours, and threatens to swamp the Enterprise.

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Star Trek - A New Generation Every Three Hours

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EL PATIO TEATRO Insides/Entrañas (Spain)

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Matt's Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition in two parts by Nicola Bealing. Drawing from two connected new bodies of work: Chapter 1 will present works from Dead-man's Fingers and chapter 2, The Borough.

Dead-man's Fingers is a body of work made during lockdown when total immersion in an alien world seemed a logical response to darkness beyond the studio door. The works developed into an intense investigation of heightened, imagined sub-marine landscapes. The maritime environment is seen as a place of threat. This darkness forms the perfect accompaniment to the Gothic horror explored in Chapter 2: The Borough.

The series comprises paintings and a series of newly developed 3D works which take their macabre title from the common name of a coral - Alcyonium digitatum. The works immediately precede The Borough and are linked through their depiction, investigation and study of fictionalised underwater worlds which drift between beauty and menace.

Apart from a few scattered teeth and finger-bones, there is little human presence in these still and strange paintings. They are quiet images of sub-marinescapes which revel in the act of painting. Colour is heightened, controlled elements contrast with the random outcomes of Rorschach blots and scrapes.

After storms, lost, battered boat fenders, buoys and crab-pot markers wash up along the coast - links between natural & man-made elements in the sea, but also the detritus and jetsam of other people's lives. These inherently sculptural objects became the basis for suspended constructions. These sculptures grew slowly - clustering & spreading across the studio like an inverted reef.

The sculptural elements of Dead-man's Fingers developed after the paintings, as if growing out of them like eerie 3-dimensional embodiments. They echo a vertiginous effect of submersion, a feeling of being below the surface & looking up.
Chapter 2: The Borough runs 15 March - 16 April.
Click below to read Q9, an interview with Nicola Bealing about the two exhibitions.

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Matt's Gallery - Chapter 1: Dead-man's Fingers

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Private View: January 29 2023, 2-5pm Matt's Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition in two parts by Nicola Bealing. Drawing from two connected new bodies of work: Chapter 1 will present works from Dead-man's Fingers and chapter 2, The Borough.

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A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester (1971) [x264]

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A Warning to the Curious (1972) - A Ghost Story for Christmas

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The Treasures of Abbot Thomas, BBC, 1974

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The Treasures of Abbot Thomas, BBC, 1974

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Ghost Stories for Christmas, MR James, BFI Collection, c1971

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Ghost Stories for Christmas, MR James, BFI Collection, c1971

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Ghost Stories for Christmas - The Definitive Collection

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The Changeling, Lazurus Theatre Company, 2023

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The Changeling, Lazurus Theatre Company, 2023

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De Flores will do anything for Beatrice Joanna... literally anything.

Beatrice Joanna has fallen in love with Alsemero, but she is betrothed to Alonzo, a man she does not like, let alone love. Employing her Mother's servant, De Flores (by whom she is repulsed) she disposes of Alonzo, but when it comes to payment De Flores doesn't want money.

Their descent into hellish madness haunted by ghosts and lunatics, propelled by obsession and sex, leads to one of the bloodiest, ferocious, and downright bonkers climaxes of the English stage.

Regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of Jacobean drama Middleton and Rowley's extraordinary play of jealousy, lust, and murder hits Southwark Playhouse in this theatrical, daring and full throttle ensemble production.

Recommended for ages 14+.

Press on previous productions:

★★★★★ "Visceral, brutal and horrifically messy... An exceptional, must-see production." Views from the Gods on Edward II

★★★ ★★ "Marvellous, riveting 'no holds barred' production." Boyz Magazine on Salomé

★★★★★ "This is the show to see...Visually striking... Dynamic production." The Spy in the Stalls on Doctor Faustus

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De Flores will do anything for Beatrice Joanna... literally anything. Beatrice Joanna has fallen in love with Alsemero, but she is betrothed to Alonzo, a man she does not like, let alone love. Employing her Mother's servant, De Flores (by whom she is repulsed) she disposes of Alonzo, but when...

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Fire - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown @ TOTP 1968

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The Beatles - The Beatles - A Day In The Life (Official Video)

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In Backcomb the demonic is unleashed on domestic space. It takes the form of two of femininity's mildest tokens, hair and embroidery, that serve here in the creation of a sexualised surrealist experience. Within the claustrophobic space of a table-lay, a forceful and erectile mass of hair comes alive and slithers across its surface. The hair probes into vessels and punches through the cloth till finally order overturns and all smashes to the ground.

1995-97

Carlton Television, UK; London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Mix: New York Film Festival; Toronto Short Film Festival; The Raw and the Cooked, Ruby Rich and Chris Darke, The Fourth ICA Biennial of Independent Film and Video Art, London; Feminale Cologne; Montreal Image and Nation International Queer Film and Video Festival; Ankara Film Festival, Turkey; Femme Totale, Dortmund, Germany; Womens Film Festival Norwich (nominated for best experimental film).

1998

Tate Britain, curated by Gary Thomas (retrospective)

Lux, London (retrospective)

1999

'Sweetie. Female Identity in British Video' curated by Cristiana Perrella and Maria Rosa Sossai, British School at Rome (1999)

2000

Lux, London DNET Festival of Electronic and Digital Art

2002

291 Gallery (retrospective)

2003

The UK/Canadian Video Exchange, curated by Cate Elwes, South London Gallery, TRANZ<>TECH 2003, Toronto

Hair The Show curated by Marcia Farquhar and Peggy Atherton, Tablet Gallery London

2004

Feminale, Cologne, Germany

2006

Greenwich Picture House (retrospective)

'Light Reading' series, NO.W.HERE Lab, London (retrospective)

2008

New York Filmmakers Co-Op Screening, curated by Caroline Koebel

Millennium, New York (retrospective)

The Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle Uon Tyne (retrospective)

2009

Anthology Film Archives, New York

Mass Art Film Society, Boston, US

Arsenale, Berlin

2010

Tate Modern, London, (part of Vivienne Dick Retrospective)

Light Industry, New York, (part of Vivienne Dick retrospective)

2011

BFI Southbank (retrospective) as part of the LUX DVD launch of Sarah Pucill Film Shorts 1990-2010

2012

Madrid Experimental Film Festival (retrospective)

Parasol Unit, Curated Gil Leng LUX

2017

Programme curated by Vivienne Dick, Irish Film Institute, Dublin 10 October

"Milk" Exhibition at The Wellcome Institute, 30 March = 10 September

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1995, 16mm, col, sound, 6min In Backcomb the demonic is unleashed on domestic space. It takes the form of two of femininity's mildest tokens, hair and embroidery, that serve here in the creation of a sexualised surrealist experience. Within the claustrophobic space of a table-lay, a forceful and erectile mass of hair comes alive and...

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Self Devouring Womb by Thantifaxath, released in 2017.

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Really excited about the new series of podcasts created by Somerset House, exploring softness, a slower pace of life and environmental issues.

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Our ways of working aren’t working. How can art offer new ways of being outside of the values of hustle culture?

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In her studio, Holly Hendry towers over a scale model of her new sculpture that will sit atop Temple Tube Station on the banks of the Thames in London, contemplating its plasticine strands and cardboard walls.

'The best place to see the work is in the studio because it's in the process of being made, shaped and formed into circulations, veins, bowels and edges...' says the British artist, who lives and works in the capital.

Those familiar with Hendry's work will immediately understand the reference, the colour palette and the elements at play in the new work, which exposes a building spilling its guts, becoming undone and laid bare. Stemming from a dense 'bowel', sections of the sculpture are regulated and stacked, but towards its furthest limits, frayed, like threads of dead nerves.

"I'm addressing slow anxiety, rhythmic anxiety - interventions and reverberations at a glacial pace" - Holly Hendry

'The work started from thinking about the borders of the space, the concrete containment,' explains Hendry. 'The word 'temple' is originally a weaving term, meaning to keep things straight and in order. And the idea of edges plays heavily here. Working with the boundaries of what has been given each time - in this work, the edges of the Thames and the Embankment - and the gradual spreading - the final chop of the endings become the big thing.'

The exposure of Temple Station's rooftop site and its dense surroundings makes it an exciting but challenging space with many variables. Test pieces lie about the studio, and there's still a decision to be made on the colouration of the sculpture. 'It scares me, the thought of the colour choice. It's been going on for two months so far.'

The pace of producing new work can often be anxiety-inducing but is also a crucial element to its birth. But Hendry doesn't conform to the cliche of a tortured genius tormented by their inner artistic visions.

She says, 'I'm addressing slow anxiety, rhythmic anxiety - interventions and reverberations at a glacial pace.'

Looking down at the model of the installation, you can see how it could represent that regulated soundwave slowly graduating into the sound of an alarm or a siren as it stretches outwards into chaos.

But it's not always the obvious that causes unease. 'The stopping of the rhythm is sometimes more of an alarm than the alarm itself.'

"My public sculptures are about putting something big and ridiculous in the world, and the feeling that it's intensely important and also ridiculously outrageous" - Holly Hendry

Any city dweller can appreciate this. The sound of the traffic is a constant in London, the rhythmic heartbeat of the city that courses through our ears like blood through our veins. The sudden halting of this sound can be anxiety-inducing - ask the urbanites who fled to the country during the pandemic, only to find its silence too much to bear.

'My partner is a junior doctor, and for him, the cessation of a monitor is the very reason to be alarmed.'

As we're talking, the fitful buzz of a bumble bee creates its own tension in the room. It's caught in a spider's web, high on an out-of-reach windowpane. Occasionally it ceases its struggle, causing us to listen deeper.

While the intent of Hendry's work is serious, there is an obvious humour interlaced throughout. Bodily movements, residues and the flesh-coloured palette are ripe for playfulness and amusement. The engorged scale of these inner private parts also infuses joy and fun into the works.

'Humour comes from my approach to making sculpture. My public sculptures are about putting something big and ridiculous in the world, and the feeling that it's intensely important and also ridiculously outrageous - and that they're equally important. You don't really get to do that with many things,' says Hendry.

'I'm interested in that with architecture too, where a big dumb gesture becomes part of the way you interact and move through that space. So dumbness - and slapstick - are seriously important in that way. And scale becomes essential to that too.'

The danger of public art - especially in this manner - is that it often becomes simply entertainment. And the delicate balance of messaging, broad appeal and designing an object of attraction is a difficult harmony to achieve.

Take Jeremy Deller's, Sacrilege 2012, for example, a full-scale, inflatable replica of Stonehenge. The installation encourages human participation and is part of Deller's ongoing exploration of contemporary culture.

Deller produces social experiences through his work, creating sites of exchange and aggregation. However, the rush of fun carries a more serious message about place, heritage and current British identity. He achieves the point deftly without ever bludgeoning the viewer but with a subtle enticement to participate in the presence of the artwork.

'I welcome human interaction with the work, but there is a real curatorial consideration that needs to happen. This isn't advertising; this is art. It has a different function, and that's been important in the conception of the work so far . I'm not just going to paint it the brightest colour to bring people to the space; it needs to do the right thing.'

Humour is often our defence mechanism to hide something deeper, a way of coping with unease. There is always a sense of anxiety within Hendry's work, of inner workings on show, private, made public. It's the classic stress dream of public nudity, of being vulnerable and exposed - but also completely authentic, as psychologists will tell you.

Discovering this feeling is an essential part of truly experiencing the piece: 'I always make public work from this sense of anxiety. People haven't chosen to see art, and it's a responsibility or a dismissal of the responsibility of that role. It's something people see everyday and either the joy or the friction they get from that is anxiety.'

Hendry would like to (rightly) be considered an architectural artist. But she is also an archaeological artist.

Closer inspection of other pieces reveals eye-catching specks, worked from disinterred ideas and scavenged artefacts unearthed along the bank of the nearby Thames.

Horizontal layers of aggregate in the works, cut like slices of cake, reveal seams of colourful strata bedded together, much like the walls of the quarries she visits for inspiration. And as the plaster and aggregate set in the mould, it appears to fossilise.

Lately, water has become a consistent theme in her work. 'I have a strong relationship to the water - all of the studios I have been in have been close to bodies of water', she says. Her recent move to a studio near the Thames foreshore and the upcoming project at Temple have solidified this bond.

Most Londoner's relationship with the Thames is of the river as a barrier: a place to cross, get past or over. But sometimes the best way to navigate London is by boat and take in the scenery.

Of course, Hendry's works around water still have a thematic sense of unease.

She has been researching Hunger Stones, markers from the 15th century that noted historically low waterlines in receding lakes and rivers and served as famine memorials. They are engraved like tombstones carrying grim and prophetic messages of the times.

One example from Germany's Elbe River reads: ' Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine' - 'If you see me, then weep'. Many of these Hunger Stones were re-exposed in Europe for the first time during last year's scorching summer.

She is also drawing on early depictions of water, such as the final works of Da Vinci, who made a number of deluge drawings before he died. The inference is a realisation of the end of his life, a gushing of fluids, a letting out or even a ceasing of movement after a flood. The 'still' after the storm of his life.

We don't much discuss influences and a favourite artist, but Hendry is happy with references to Richard Deacon and Phyllidia Barlow in her work. It's always with awareness, though, not imitation. Hendry's work is best realised as a continuation of the lineage of both these giants.

Hendry still finds time to teach at Slade and recognises that Barlow (who passed away in March 2023) still has a strong presence at the school.

'When you're making to a scale, you can't help being influenced by her. A lot of us go back to her to have hope. She does it well, and there's a real generosity and intimacy with her work that makes it historically important already.'

Like Barlow's, Hendry's hand is always present in her sculptures, whether created from fun or anxiety, scored into the surface via her handmade moulds and gouged in paint marks.

Much like the anxious marks of history on the Hunger Stones.

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Holly Hendry: inverting space and inspiring wonder - The Spaces

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The Artist's Garden, on the roof of Temple tube station, London

'Slackwater' is Holly Hendry 's first public commission in London and her most expansive to date. Made for The Artist's Garden, this site-specific work occupies the vast terrace on the roof of Temple Underground station. The project continues theCoLAB's dedication to commissioning innovative contemporary installations by women artists within this unique, half-acre site. The Artist's Garden has been realised in close partnership with Westminster City Council since 2021.

'Slackwater' will emerge as an immense sculptural entanglement that weaves together the watery history of its riverside location, with references to the abstract rhythms of the Thames and liquid movements within the human body. In conceiving the work, Hendry was drawn to changes in the pattern of the river's surface; after slackwater, when an incoming tide meets the fluvial flow, water stills, and then eddies - whirlpooling against the main direction of the flow - before pursuing its course upstream. Constructed with industrial-scale ducting, curled around electricity spools and over casts of inflated boat fenders, the work ebbs and flows across the site's architecture. The artist's visual language brings together both scientific research and cartoon imagery. Its pastel tones and exaggerated forms are drawn from ancient depictions of floods and rivers, and 19th century microscopic images of Thames water, described as 'monster soup', a bacterial slurry teeming with surreal, animated forms.

Holly Hendry says: 'I have been using the pattern of tide, wave and sound motion diagrams to create a physical rhythm and a surface in the space where things interconnect, tighten, loosen and come undone. I hope to confront and challenge the idea of what sculpture in cities can be - the constant change in how we move and exist in relation to this, something that opposes individual static permanence and hierarchy.'

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'Slackwater' is Holly Hendry's first public commission in London and her most expansive to date. Made for The Artist's Garden, this site-specific work occupies the vast terrace on the roof of Temple Underground station. The project continues theCoLAB's dedication to commissioning innovative contemporary installations by women artists within this unique,...

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H P Lovecraft, A the Mountain of Madness

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H P Lovecraft, A the Mountain of Madness

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Noel Carroll describes the Shoggoths as "giant, shape-changing, black excremental worms", which emit a foul odour.

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Jenkin van Zyl is a multi-disciplinary artist who makes hallucinogenic, narrative installations usually centred around film, for instance  ghouls breeding cakes and latex inflatable heads. The artist also has a great website. https://www.jenkinvanzyl.co.uk/

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Classic 1970's horror film about a remote Scottish Island performing a pagan ritual.  The scene with Christopher Lee wear a wig and gown, should be funny but in reality is deeply disturbing.

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Famous Puppet Scenes, Old Trout Puppet Theatre, 2023

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Famous Puppet Scenes, Old Trout Puppet Theatre, 2023

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Rowland Atkinson plays the role of a spoof professor giving a lecture on visual comedy.  He discusses the three principles of visual humour, unexpected size, place and behaviour, plus how we often laugh at what we fear.

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Laughing Matters | Comedy Documentary | Earful #Comedy

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Amazing film!  Based on the original text by George Orwell, the scene were O'Brien(Richard Burton) has Winston (John Hurt) brought to the Ministry of Love for a quiet work, are particularly memorable.

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A book written in 1948 imaging a dystopian future of constant surveillance, thought police and manipulation of the truth.

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The amazing organic shapes and textures, with the structure of knitting used as an artform.

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I really like the colours, inflatable forms and puffy textures, which fill a space - feels sugary and sweet, yet claustrophobic.

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Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of Crucifixion

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Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of Crucifixion

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One of my favourite images, greatly inspired by the teeth and the grotesquely human-phallic figures on a blood red-orange background.

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A horror story about the mysterious origins of a tentacle-like clay figure, representing a primordial species with the ability to subconsciously communicate across time and space.

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A science fiction form of rebirth and resurrection, first written in 1816.

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Book explores the healing properties of mushrooms, which colonise an area destroyed by humans for capital gain.

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A collection of essays exploring the appeal of the cute, and its use in visual culture, as a watered down version of beauty, which in turn is a watered down version of the sublime.

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A horrible yet humour scene, where a man chest turns into set of teeth and severs of a pair of hands, and his head drops of and grows a pair of legs and scuttles off like a spider.

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Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno

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Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno

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The Divine Comedy begins "In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost."  Dante is then confronted by three beasts, before finding himself at the gate of hell, where he witnesses contrapasso - torments or punishments fitting the nature of the sin.

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Enlightening book exploring what makes something weird or errie and how these manifest in films, literature and popular culture. Especially inspired by weird and the grotesque - where something can combine human, animal and plant features.

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The book explores the culture of knitting in the modern age, mixing cosy with subversive approaches.

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The book explores the nature of disgust - a learned response to protect humans from harmful or contaminating matter, which can also extend appropriate social behaviour and etiquette. There is also a particularly interesting chapter on bodily orifices and discharges.

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Inspired by Kristeva's ideas surrounding the abject, leeching fluids and the taboos surrounding bodily orifices, which maintain the structure of society.

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A very interesting book revealing the alien and labyrinthine world of fungi, including some which can send parasites to hunt down their prey.

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The book have a particularly good description of the Mother Archteype, in both its positive (mothers, grandmothers) and negative forms (witches, medusa, and anything capable of swallowing us up, including deep water, graves, etc.)

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Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle

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Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle

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Svankmajer discusses his belief that all human's have a tactile memory, which can be stimulated through sight.

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An exploration of women's contribution to technology through Ada Lovelace - a brilliant mathematician who helped Charles Babbage develop the first mechanical computer.  Although discussing weaving, Sade believes in binary code 1=penis (thread), 0=vagina (space/hole between), and that culturally Christianity has always had a problem with zero and equate it and women with nothing.

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Pan's Laberinth, Guillermo del Toro, 2006

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Pan's Laberinth, Guillermo del Toro, 2006

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Disturbing Oedpial horror of a child devouring monster.

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Last Judgement Alter Piece, Hans Memling

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Last Judgement Alter Piece, Hans Memling

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Metamrophosis of Narssius, Salvador Dali

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Metamrophosis of Narssius, Salvador Dali

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Christ on the Cross, Francisco de Zurbarán

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Christ on the Cross, Francisco de Zurbarán

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Life like painting of Christ on the Cross - the deep shadows and stark background may have some connection to Spanish polychrome religious carvings.

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The Descent from the Cross, Van der Weyden, 1443

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The Descent from the Cross, Van der Weyden, 1443

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Amazing painting, located in an obscure and unexpected religious museum in Glasgow - St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.

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Greatly inspired by the loose painting style which seems ahead of its time, the distorted faces of the witches, and senses of smell and sound the painting arouses.

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Recently saw this painting in the Prado Museum - and it was even more impressive in reality.  Greatly inspired by the loose painting quality, and haunted look of horror in Saturn's eyes as he clutches and gnaws at a soft, palpable body.

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Inspirational image by Goya showing a man being plucked and carried away by a group of young male witches - a contrast to the typical old woman. The witches are dressed in pastel colours and wear pointed hats resembling bishop's mitred - a brave political statement at a time when the Spanish Inquisition still held great power.

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Ulysses 31 is a 1980's cartoon combing ancient Greek myth with space travel and science fiction.

In this episode Ulyesses (Odysseus), meets  Orpheus and has one more final trail in the Kingdom of Hades.

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These public information videos were created in the event of a Nuclear War, the naive graphics and childlike quality with a familial dolls house attempts to down play the horror of the situation.

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Protect and Survive (Complete Nuclear Survival British Public Information Film) (REMASTERED)

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A scene with puppets in Knowing Me Knowing You - after a disastrous appearance, the puppeteer returns in This Time with Alan Partridge, and acts as if his puppet is a real person.

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Worst Ventriloquist Ever | Knowing Me Knowing You | BBC Studios

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The puppet which acts as the brains and tells Rimmer to do bad things.

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Mr Flibble | Red Dwarf | BBC Comedy Greats

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The comedy Red Dwarf often featured parallel universes exploring societal stereotypes and philosophical issues.  In this episode the crew find themselves in backwards world, where everything happens in reverse, include eating and toileting.

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The Prisoner - Collection of original TV trailers