Mark Powell's nightmarish dioramas
Melbourne, Australia-based artist Mark Powell makes incredibly intricate and nightmarish dioramas. They remind me a bit of Frances Glessner Lee's dollhouse crime scenes featured in The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. You can see Powell's magnificent miniatures on his own site or his Flickr stream. Sculptures From Beyond The Gate (markpowellart.com), Mark Powell's photostream (Flickr, via Morbid Anatomy)
Previously on BB:
• Death in the dollhouse
the latest
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Very Clive Barker crossed with Tim Burton. I could see ninjas emerging from under that bed easily.
Actually it looks like my college dorm room... except I paid $400/month in rent.
These are wonderful. They remind me of the stop-motion animations created by the Brothers Quay. Their impact on the genre can, in turn, be seen through the work of many artists including Adam Jones - Tool's guitarist and the person behind their music videos.
Justin pulled the thoughts from my brain..
It all looks like stills from Tool videos.
I agree with Chumprock, it looks like Tool early videos
Guess I'm late off the starting blocks with the Tool comparison, huh?
@#2 I came here to say that exact same thing. Nice to see others ack'ing the Bros. Quay.
Early NIN videos
These are great! I also enjoyed the Jake and Dinos Chapman's stuff at the White Cube in London recently, Fucking Hell. Dioramas of Nazis in Hell, very horrific and lovely.
there was an artist in the 70's, 80's who did these type of things life size and had a semi-permanent piece in the guggenheim in nyc on the ground floor. awesome work. i wish i could remember his name...
Is it G.I. Joe scale? 'Cause I can totally picture Snake Eyes moving in there when he goes all Goth after Scarlet dumps him.
Another someone logging in just to comment and say: Tool. The one on the right in particular. Cool.
those videos were done by the Brothers Quay - seriously awesome Soviet stop action animation makers from the Czech Republic - birthplace of marionette-making
Brothers Quay, Adam Jones, Clive Barker, Tim Burton, H.R. Giger. All these artists come to mind.
Simultaneously disgusting and beautiful.
I have found, through experience, that those who have seen enough destruction tend to favor things like clean linens and sunlight through spotless glass windows. Those whose lives were consistently pleasant, meanwhile, show a fascination with skulls, rust and other symbols of decay and death.
I know my observation isn't 100% accurate, but it is largely what I have seen among people. So when I see art like this, I reflexively assume the artist had a very nice upbringing in a comfortable home. The horror of the art itself is no worse than any puppet show. It isn't to say his art is bad; it's actually really good. I'm just throwing my perspective out here.
Show me an artist with painfully precise, turned-down linens in a clinically clean room with painstakingly-polished furniture. That's a diorama that sets off little alarm bells in my head. That's the mark of someone who has seen way too much darkness in their life.
@GD23: Chapman Brothers were the first things to pop into my mind as well. Had the fortune of seeing "Hell", as it was originally called, at the Saatchi Gallery in 2004 scant months before it was destroyed in the Momart warehouse fire.
"HELL hath no fury
Like a chapman spurned,
So come see the second,
'Cos the first one burned."
Love it!