Every so often I encounter lists of wonderful words that describe emotions for which there are no English equivalents. (Saudade remains my most favorite.) Brooke Shaden accomplishes the same feat with photography, complex and raw emotions expressed in single square narrative images. The very first time I saw one of Brooke Shaden’s self-portraits she’d squeeze herself into a freezer for a piece […]
Death can be a tricky subject to discuss, even for those of us more morbidly-minded than most. It’s also endlessly, irresistibly fascinating and affects every single one of us. As our beloved Caitlin Doughty often reminds us, ignoring topics that frighten or make us uncomfortable only makes them scarier, whereas openly talking about them brings […]
I’ve lived in the PNW for nearly 17 years, first in Seattle and now in Portland. But no matter how long one lives in a place, conversation eventually turns to where you lived might’ve lived before, which then glances over its shoulder and asks how you came to live where you do now. My answer […]
Good news, deathlings! We no longer need to wait until we meet our respective demises in order to obtain a copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, that oft-coveted yet inscrutable guide to the afterlife first seen in Beetlejuice. Think Geek has released an exclusive, officially licensed replica of the dearly departed Maitlands’ very own handbook. The Handbook […]
For all their splendid colours, intricate patterns, and exquisite shapes, I find the most beautiful aspect of butterflies is how all those characteristics occur in such fragile, short-lived bodies. They remind me of a favorite line written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Beautiful and Damned: “There’s no beauty without poignancy and there’s no poignancy without the feeling […]
Color is a uniquely powerful tool in the art of cinematic storytelling. We’re all naturally sensitive to color and its impact doesn’t require our conscious awareness in order to be felt emotionally, psychologically, and even physically. For some filmmakers, the role of color is so important it may as well be considered a character unto […]
All we want to do today is chase after this skittering teapot creature, which is the work of San Francisco-based ceramic artist and painter Sarah Duyer and undoubtedly contains some incredibly powerful elixir. Duyer also created these marvelous skeleton and severed finger ring bowls, both of which look like perfect places to store all the Blood Milk jewels we […]
I freely admit that I first fell in love with the Pacific Northwest from afar while watching Twin Peaks back when I was attending high school in Chicago, but I’ve actually lived in the PNW since 2000. With its deep, lush forests, stormy beaches, and seemingly endless chains of grey, rainy days, the PNW is a wonderful […]
The ever-inspiring Pam Grossman (recently interviewed here by S. Elizabeth) just tipped us off about the forthcoming release of a fascinating new book by Brooklyn-based photographer Shannon Taggart, who specializes in contemporary spirit photography. Entitled SÉANCE: Spiritualist Ritual and the Search for Ectoplasm, the book combines Taggart’s ethnographic study of Spiritualism with her processes for photographing spiritualist transformations, including such […]
Because the (admittedly fictional) Pevensie children discovered a magical portal to the land of Narnia in their caretaker’s wardrobe, I’m convinced that my house must somewhere conceal a gateway to the fairy-tale oil paintings of British artist Stephen Mackey, a land rich in haunting symbolism, as beautiful as it is disquieting. Inspired by oil paintings from the […]
In the grand scheme of things, loving the living is easy. There are countless ways to show your animate loved ones that you care. But what about those paramours who’ve shuffled off this mortal coil? What if you’re crushing on a ghost or perhaps there’s a phantom beyond the veil who’s pining for you. The Forever Collection from UK-based oddity shop Decorus […]
There’s a Morbid Anatomy-shaped hole in our hearts. Last year, on December 18th, the Morbid Anatomy Museum first announced that they would be closing their doors. Shortly thereafter the museum was beautifully eulogized by Evan Michelson. Now we here at Haute Macabre would like to raise a glass in tribute to a singular institution that was dear to […]
Until this moment I had no idea that my house has been desperately missing a skeleton rocking chair. Modeled after a mid 19th century Russian chair, these beautiful, elaborately hand-carved rockers were made in the US in the 20th century, most likely during the 1930s. With an estimated auction value of $2,500 to $3,5oo, this isn’t the most […]
Dutch photographer Nona Limmen is based in Amsterdam, but her marvelous analog photos capture visions of a vast, mystical world nebulously bordering our own. This mysterious land, woven of dreams and memories, is inhabited by powerful women, liminal creatures wielding arcane forces so great they sometimes fracture their very being. Some of Limmen’s women are eldritch pagan priestesses conversing in whispered chants with […]
I’ve been quietly in love with the work of Polish photographer Laura Makabresku for years. Her otherworldly photographs fall into that special category of things that feel too personal and precious to mention to another living soul. Or rather, that’s how I once felt about certain things I held dear: that sharing something intensely meaningful […]
For visionary Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, fashion is tantamount to worldbuilding. Since 2007 she has been dazzling the fashion world with collections inspired by everything from lucid dreaming, scanning electron microscopy, synaesthesia, and Egyptian mummification to fluid dynamics and crystallization, radiation, and black magic and alchemy by virtue of a murder of crows living near her […]
Many artists find inspiration in the natural world, but few collaborate so directly with it as Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck. Since 1991 Dyck has been creating sculptures with honeybees by placing objects into specially designed apiaries where the bees industriously cover them with patches of honeycomb. The finished pieces have a haunting, otherworldly feel that’s reminiscent of the “Takiawase” episode […]
The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic is located in the village of Boscastle in Cornwall, South West England. Founded in 1951 by English folk magician Cecil Williamson, the museum houses what is widely considered to be the world’s largest collection of objects related to folk magic, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and Wicca. Needless to say, we would all love to […]
The work of Chicago-based artist Lana Crooks beautifully demonstrates that reminders of our mortality need not be made of bone. So skilled is Crooks with wool, silk, and all manner of tiny found objects, that her delicate textile sculptures, faux anatomical specimens of human and animal skulls, bones, and insects, feel as lifelike as the references […]
Artist and art teacher Rebecca De Groot creates delightfully sinister works of functional art. From small objects to large tables, her wooden sculptures stand on delicate insectoid legs, each poised to skitter or skulk away the moment their owners aren’t looking. That is, unless they’d rather inch closer. De Groot’s sculptures are primarily made of wood (some […]
