Installation images: exhibition at Peter Fingesten Gallery, Pace University, NYC.

Say no more…

Krampus, the Austrian Christmas boogieman (via NPR), beware all naughty kiddos.

Note to self: plan Graz vacation next Winter!

I’ve been working on a new web project called Horror Stories with Julie Gill, a programmer who is also a ballet dancer. Here’s a sneak peek at the visuals. I am hoping to launch it soon.

Better Off Dead is a new scholarly book edited by Sarah Juliet Lauro and Deborah Christie (Fordham Press). It features a chapter titled Zombies Invade Performance Art…and Your Neighbourhood, featuring Thea Munster’s Toronto Zombie Walks and my own artworks. Cover art and other images from my recent work. Well written and researched, the book is not another campy zombie book; this one considers the post-human archetype from some surprising angles.

Here is a catalogue of my recent horror-related artworks which can be downloaded or viewed online as a pdf.

Text by Virginia Spivey. 16 pages, 3.6 MB

Two recent TV series which, despite my low expectations, I have been watching, for “research purposes” are The Walking Dead and Being Human (UK version only).

The Walking Dead, on AMC, is based on a weekly comic series begun in 2003. It’s a zombie apocalypse tale set in the American South (Georgia), and better than a lot of zombie movies. The worst part is the first season had only 6 episodes and it’s been off now for many months. It shares a problem with a lot of high production TV: namely, suspense fades fast. I already forgot the characters’ names. I may have missed the undead for a while, but I got over it.

Being Human, decidedly more light-hearted, has a ridiculous premise: a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost shack up and try to pass as human in a working class Bristol neighbourhood. As embarrassing as this may sound, it is both funny and dramatic. Refreshingly, Mitchell the vampire, despite being abstinent and devastatingly handsome like his fellow male vampire stars Bill (True Blood) and Edward (Twilight) which I’ve mentioned before here and here, has no human ingénue to protect with his powers, and torture with his immortality. The worst thing about this series is the terrible and completely charmless American remake, hot on its heels and eager to capitalize on its success.

Vampire Diaries set in small town Virginia and currently in it’s second season on CW, is equally charmless. No amount of beautiful pouts can drag the teenaged characters from their dull lines and generic prettiness, and I lost interest long before the first diary entry (yes, the vampire does keep a diary, as does his human ingénue love interest).

On Tuesday my solo show, Zombies!, curated by Lee Arnold opens in New Jersey and includes 3 videos, 2 drawings, and 2 lenticular photographs featuring, you guessed it, zombies!

A reception will be held Friday, Nov 12 at Drew University’s Korn Gallery, following a zombie makeup workshop and campus zombie sneak attack!

Read the exhibition essay by Kimberly Rhodes (pdf, 1.7 MB).

Zombies, Victims, Make-up artists needed. No experience necessary (will train).

“Dead of the Night is a re-imagining of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) in the gallery space, where audience members are inserted into the narrative as the horror unfolds. Surrounded by menacing zombies and set within the context of a rural farmhouse, visitors attempt to evade the ghouls unyielding thirst for human flesh.”