Initial Design - Explained.

This post is a response to the following post.
http://gabrielchecuti.blogspot.com/2012/12/library-chair-crossover-another-idea.html

I wanted to 'decipher' or rather explain how I reached such as design from my research.
I decided to first analyse the subject of Macabre, in particular, between two separate cultures that have their own unique views on the subject.

Medieval Period, the origins of 'Danse Macabre'.
As previously discussed, the skeletal figures were painted in such a way that they should be feared, or inspire dread in the viewer. The rotting skin tones and defined anatomy support this.

Overall response from said culture, Negative.

Aztec/South American culture, 'Calavera' or 'El dia de los Muertos'
Again as mentioned, bursting with colour, rounded shapes, more comical rather than anatomical, also, floral patterns are heavily emphasised.

Overall response, Positive.


By taking both aspects of both cultures, I wanted to achieve the reminiscent anatomy of the skull, yet but also giving it some clean, rounded features that makes it appealing as a piece of furniture, as well as a work of art. Having a lighting fixture within the skull would be ideal. Aesthetically, the light within the cranium would imply deep thought or ideas. 

Evil Robot Designs - Revisiting Giger.

During my research, I came across a company that designs products taken from renowned series and pop culture. Coincidentally, they had developed an actual lamp shade using H.R Giger's Xenomorph design.

Which comes back to the theme, Transformation.
Its evident that these designers took the Xenomorph and created it into a dynamic and animated piece of furniture.

'Alien Nation', ND, Evil Robot Designs

                      Height: 57cm
                      Width: 20cm
                      Depth 20cm 

               Shade: 38cm x 18cm 

Enlarged view of the Xenomorphs

Source :

Evil Robot Designs (online), Available at [http://evilrobotdesigns.com/aliennation/],[Accessed 16/12/12]

Library Chair Crossover - Another Idea

Upon browsing for ideas, I decided to take a different approach. I put my original ideas aside and researched chairs that incorporated book libraries.

To break the ice, I came across this chair in particular.

'BIBLIOCHAISE +:
Measures in centimetres: 102 x 86 x 74,5
Measures in inches: 40,16 w x33,86 l x29,33'

I took the idea of having the library within the chair itself and built upon it.
A small concept of my own.

The concept incorporates the human skull as well as the seating and library elements.
Its something I might build on eventually.


Source of first chair.

http://www.nobodyandco.it/sito/inglese/the%20bibliochaise.html

First step into development.

So from the research gathered, I've got some ideas up my sleeve.
I wanted to implement the stillness of the human skeleton with themes such as music or flexibility, also, finding a way to further emphasise colour.

What I came with are furniture pieces, static yes, but making them flexible as to reposition them, make them more alive, as well as to create intricate ways of storing things such as books or music records.

I drew some sketches, mainly of skulls with spines.
I'll bring them more together to make them appear more functional as to the final product.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Analysis

Halloween was a bust this year, so I ended up spending mine at home doing absolutely nothing, until I decided to grab a movie just to fill the void. I watched 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' by Tim Burton. I've lost count on how many times I've watched it, but it never seems to get old.

This clay-mation film introduces us to a withered forest, which tall trees stand, each having a decorated door on their bark which represents one of the seasonal holidays. We are first introduced to Halloween Town, as the name implies, this 'world' is home to ghosts, ghouls, witches and other entities related to the Holiday. The Gothic buildings and monuments further emphasise the Halloween feeling towards this town. The town's most favoured, also our main protagonist, Jack Skellington, also titled, 'The Pumpkin King', is the master of terror, the mind behind all the town's festivities, but after one Halloween, Jack becomes bored with the usual workings of Halloween, and feels disheartened. From this point onwards, transformation in the film's plot emerges.

Jack discovers the forest with the doorways to other worlds, and he stumbles upon the doorway to Christmas. Here, we see a complete change in the environment, Christmas town holds inches of glittered snow, small brick red houses lines with tinsel, Christmas lights. Elves in colourful uniforms working on toys. A total contrast to the dark and eerie Halloween Town. Jack was inspired, and from being the master of terror, he wished to bring the warmth of Christmas to Halloween town. I wont continue the plot, but ill start listing down a number of transformations with regards to the plot.

1. The environment - The transition from Halloween town to the warmth of Christmas Town
2. Jack's views - After his encounter with Christmas town, his views transformed into that of colour,     brightness and jolliness, and thus began his profuse research into the holiday and integrating it with Halloween.
   
   
   The film itself is a musical, which includes dancing. I couldnt help but realise how much it reminded me of Danse Macabre.
   
   Think of it this way. You've got similar elements, being the skeletons, a dark feel to it., but then, you notice how the dark, almost haunting figures of the corpses dancing in Danse Macabre, to the comical and somewhat child friendly design of the characters in this film.
   
   Jack Skellington, as well as the towns community, are more rounded, somewhat pleasing to the eye, colourful and invoke a certain joy in the viewer rather than pure fright. So you could say that the concept and style as transformed, for the reason of its context.
   
   
   

Paul Rumsey - His own flare on the macabre

Paul Rumsey, a surrealist artist that caught my eye recently, reason being his style revolves around the darkness of macabre, quite similar to the late medieval paintings, but with a distinct edge that makes it completely new and unique.

A fine example would be this piece (fig.1), which unfortunately, is untitled, or at least I wasn't able to obtain it through my search. The picture depicts rounded skulls flying through the air on streamline bodies made up of their own spine...that would be a rough interpretation in my opinion. These skulls are likely to represent actual sperm cells making their way through the female system, thats the physical interpretation. A deeper meaning to this piece would be, although death ceases life itself, it seeds and grows into the everlasting afterlife.

This way, Paul Rumsey is portraying the same themes associated with Macabre, but also developing deeper meanings to it. 

'Untitled', Paul Rumsey, ND
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/423322_306741632719210_871964871_n.jpg

A particular decoration in the Sedlec Ossuary.

During my research, I came across this photo of this chandelier completely composed of human remains. I find this very ornate, interesting and most importantly, macabre. Something to note in regards with transformation, would be that something useless and rather disturbing to the average person, was transformed into a beautifully macabre chandelier that is very complex yet beautiful to the eye. 

The main chandelier in the Sedlec Ossuary.
Untitled, Anonymous, ND
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sedlec-Ossuary.jpg

Alien (1979) - Xenomorph concept applied to furniture

This is a film I've seen countless times and never got bored of, especially the initial trailer of it. The trailer is a long, sweaty build up of tension and fear, with alien like howls and heart beat sound effects to reinforce that building tension.

This trailer is portraying the helplessness of one trapped in the vast darkness that is outer space, and the climax of the trailer, is the final sentence.


'In space no one can hear you scream'

Side note. The actual aliens in the film were designed by H.R Giger himself, a previously mentioned artist in this blog. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEVY_lonKf4

With the trailer to get you into the mood, especially to obtain the feel of what the Xenomorph menace really look like, I would like you to notice how Giger took the same design of the Alien, and transformed it into a stable desk chair. I edited two images together, the original concept art of the alien and the actual chair that was designed.

A side by side image of the Xenomorph art, and the desk chair that was developed from it.

As you can see, you have very similar elements between the two images, namely the ribbed areas forming the back of the chair, the 'vents' which can be seen below the seating as well on the concept art as well.
The most important part would be that although the chair developed from the Alien concept, they retained many features, like the combination of Organics and Mechanics.


Giger's furniture gallery can be viewed by following this link:
http://www.hrgiger.com/new_chairs.htm

H.R Giger's take on the Macabre

H.R Giger is a surrealist artist and sculptor who personifies true terror and nightmarish entities on canvas. His all round theme is monochrome, preferring to make use of the airbrush.

His influences include Macabre, which can be seen in his work, but in a different aspect. A common trait in his work is the manipulation of the human body, giving them mechanical attributes, also, all his work surrounds itself around Lust. 

The use of bare bones in his work is very minimal, taking Macabre in a more new, and transformed approach. 

In this piece, Giger has managed to combine the organic with the mechanical, creating a hybrid creature that manages to invoke uneasiness, something that Macabre paintings from the 1400's were very well known to do. 

Giger was influenced by the Macabre, and from that, came this xenomorphic style that portrays the inner workings of his mind.  

I feel the need to immerse myself deeper into every possible sub-category of the macabre, Giger's work is partially why I chose this title for this assignment, due to the fact that the human body is one of the most diverse canvases one can work on.

H.R Giger, 'Xenomorph', ND
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-usf6j-wVz6MkxR-vmY9BhAimIsrvxLc3uCseTG2a04hyphenhyphenbXssZsZtiZJtlpHhUFm6ePmZg0k6TvFRNWe0afn9x8rFvI22NUs3NXyUEiGdpMz2-6lDwfc9w3xZp1DHoJFFKu7HgtGXy0LR/s1600/hr+giger.jpeg

Calavera

Further research into current day art related to Macabre, I discovered a particular genre known as Calavera. Calavera, in a nutshell, is any artistic interpretation of the human skull. This is mostly used in the traditional Mexican holiday, known as 'Día de los Muertos'.

As far as artistic interpretation, candy is moulded into the forms of skulls, then decorated as to serenade graveyards along side freshly picked Marigold. 

What interests me is the use of stark, uplifting colours on skulls, in contrast to the dull, neutral tones used on the medieval paintings. I consider this proof that not all that has to do with the Macabre must be dark and drab, but can be spontaneous, something it has slowly transformed into.

  

Calavera Skulls, Anonymous, ND
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7VniRFaQ_y5Fdj5TkUzbmLLaX6fVNNg544PXZwEg-7pxcXTQIC1i7RJ3WBzjlaLc7SPLr_JKe_-OTyc8tLzYrN_XO2jtjNB66E7zkqf1T5ifwm22NVWYtg6COyRDi0j8DcCaELXEOeI/s1600/las-calaveras-cancun-mexico+1152_12926867816-tpfil02aw-26286.jpg

Macabre - An introduction

Macabre - An introduction

Macabre, also referred to as Momento Mori, (which translates into, 'Remember your mortality') is an art genre or style, which originated in the late Medieval period in the 13th century. The first ever documented pieces making use of this art style were illustrated Sermon texts, found in the Saints Innocents Cemetery (Wikipedia, September 2012).

Saints Innocents Cemetery, Paris

An important 'foundation' to the Macabre art style (Wikipedia, September 2012) was the painting known as 'Danse Macabre', more commonly known as 'The Dance of Death'.
It was to remind people of life's fragility and to acknowledge the importance of their daily privileges. The subliminal message behind the paintings were that, no matter the circumstances with every individual, the dance unites all in death, and the afterlife.

'Danse Macabre', Bernt Notke, 1463

Bernt Notke, self portrait.

 Although a vast collaboration of artists during the late Medieval period devoted themselves to this art style, Bernt Notke (original artist of the painting above) was amongst the most important artists in Northern Europe. 

Throughout the course of this blog, I shall demonstrate the transformation of this art style, and how it has adapted to various modern classes, such as film, design, art etc, from a previously feared symbolism of death.

Sources :

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori>
Accessed 3rd October 2012

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre>
Accessed 3rd October 2012

<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04617a.htm>
Accessed 3rd October 2012