Giger. Beksinski. Gleeson. Bosch.
Master artists who created beauty in horror. Each with the distinct and terrible power to both repulse us, and draw us in.
Their work is not schlock. It does not shock for the sake of being shocking. Like all great horror, it uses atmosphere and visceral detail to explore dark and primal themes: sexuality, war, depression, fear.
Starting around 2008, Melbourne artist Mark Powell took the best of what each of his iconic predecessors did best and made it his own in Dream Diorama. The sculpted scenes of terror abound in gore, but what makes them so outstanding is the disturbing reality of the monsters depicted.
Powell has created a medieval world in which pain and suffering are a tribute to the glory of the flesh. It is a world in which its inhabitants pin their own guts to the wall as part of a lecture on biology, and seems totally resigned to the idea of eating their own kind…or themselves.
“My sculptures exaggerate and distort nature’s violent biological processes of degeneration and regeneration, parasitism, and the cannibalistic recycling of flesh which enables myriad life forms to evolve ever more complex perceptual and locomotive functions” he once wrote of his work.
In approximately 2012, Powell disappeared from the public eye, deleting his website and social media accounts. We certainly hope that one day, he reemerges to share his twisted visions with us anew.
For now, enjoy, and have a happy Halloween!
(click an image to see a hi-res version.)
