ZED Presents…
The Carpe Noctem Interviews: Vol. 1
Conducted by Thom Carnell
Edited by Catía
First Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press
Copyright 2011 by Thom Carnell & ZED Presents
ZED Presents…
Publishing
First Edition
February 2011
Entire contents © Thom Carnell 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from copyright owner, except for brief quotations in reviews and articles.
Cover photo of Connor Shae by Jessica Von.
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Table of Contents
George Higham
Dave McKean
GWAR
Robert Rodriguez
Lorelei Shannon
Bob Wilkins
Neil Gaiman
Ronnie James Dio
Tim Bradstreet
Introduction
In 1993, Thom approached me with the idea of putting out a dark art fanzine. With the help of a few friends and volunteers, we collected artwork and interview suggestions for the first issue. After deciding on a name, I took charge of producing the magazine and Thom was responsible for content. We wanted to put out something that elevated the genre we loved and exposed readers to people they normally wouldn’t know about. The Internet was barely available to people at that time and so information was passed around through hard copies – astounding, I know – and committing something to print that promoted dark culture was a risk since it was so taboo.
We spent many nights at House of Usher in San Francisco promoting Carpe Noctem before it was released and hit every record store, book store and cool clothing shop we could find with flyers. We seemingly came out of nowhere and with the help of people like Autumn Adamme and Monique Motil from Dark Garden Unique Corsetry, photographer John Carey, and Jhonen Vasquez our publication began to take shape.
In the course of pulling the first issue together, our dear friend, Randy Brown was killed in a tragic accident and it left a deep mark on all of us that definitely affected the tone of the magazine. We wanted to present in a positive light the dark beauty that was found in death as well as have a sense of humor about life. We were more determined than ever to get the first issue into like-minded people’s hands.
When the finished project came from the printer, Thom and the rest of the staff were surprised – they envisioned the issue photocopied and stapled together, as so many fanzines were at the time. I had a much grander vision and, to my delight, it was well received. True, we still had the obligatory “goth-girl-in-cemetery” photo shoot, but the cover of 4-year-old Connor Shae was so striking and the articles well written that our readers called it a success.
Seventeen years after that first issue, I am happy to say there are now infinite outlets for exposure for cool artists – famous and unknown – and Thom and I like to think we had some small influence, back in the day. Here are ten interviews, as they ran (or, in Tim Bradstreet’s case, meant to.) I hope you enjoy reading Thom’s interviews as much as I did going over them again.
- Catía
George Higham
I met George as a result of my friendship with The Westgate’s Leilah Wendell. She forwarded me a photo of a statue she and George did called “The Gift” and it blew me away. The figure was a woman being held in Death’s arms. She is bent back, looking up into his eyes rapturously. It is quite clearly the embrace of two lovers, one of who just happens to be The Angel of Death. Leilah later sent me more photos of George’s work and it was so unique and moving we included it in the first issue. From fetal sculptures to screaming pumpkins, George’s work is a twisted delight.
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Higham’s House of Horrors – Volume I, Issue 1
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A dark countenance stares through you from the photograph with black, empty eye-sockets. Intricate symbols cut deeply into the metal skeletal structure of the face work to overwhelm your eye. The face grins malevolently, letting you know that it has the ability to see into your most secret nocturnal fantasies.
A woman swoons in the arms of a skeletal lover offering to him a symbol of her love… her still-beating heart.
A man’s arm protrudes from a board, held in place by a latticework of piano wire. The wire is fastened to the skin like a scene from Pinocchio’s most frightening nightmare.
The preceding are not slices from a dream therapist’s hidden files. They are descriptions of artist George Higham’s work. A gifted artist who breathes a certain beauty into these scenes of suffering and redemption.
Are you comfortable with the word BEAUTIFUL when it comes to your art?
Oh absolutely…beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
When did you begin operation of Higham’s House of Horrors?
Higham’s House of Horrors I started in 1985. Before that I did a bit of free-lance work on films.
Where was your schooling?
Basically, as far as the effects I was self-taught, the sculpting and all. I did go to the School of Visual Arts in New York City but my major was general film making and I graduated from there. I had taken one sculpting class there but it was mainly a lot of objects and stuff I wasn’t particularly interested in at the time.
What were some of your influences? Were they classical artists or was it just Dick Smith [special effects authority]? Was it all film based, effects based, or was it classical sculpture?
The work I did before 1989-90 was basically film, comic book, various mass media inspired. Since then I’ve done an incredible amount of traveling all over the world. I’ve been to many museums, art galleries, different cultures and since then I’d say that’s been my greatest inspiration and influence. Basically all of the sculptures that I’ve done, that you’ve seen, I’ve been inspired in my life by that. If it’s before 1989, I pretty much have concentrated on film effects and theater and television and props.
When did you first begin to work in film?
1984 I think was the first feature I worked on. A movie called Twisted Souls that became known later as Spookies. Very bad. Very schlocky but it was a great learning experience. I went in with basic knowledge and just went out on every job and practicing in between on my own, that’s how I developed.
I had read that you also did a film called Necromania…
I did that in college as my thesis project. The reaction to that overall was good technically. Nobody there was crazy about the subject matter, but technically they thought it was done really well. They just couldn’t quite figure out why I was putting my energy into something like the horror film. To them it didn’t seem to be worth the effort.
Personally, I’m a huge horror fan and that reaction sometimes frustrates me.
It’s frustrating, but it’s not for everyone. I’m well aware my work isn’t for everyone. They had recognized it was done well technically – I learned all the technical aspects of the school – so on that level I’d
say it succeeded very well.
In what capacity did you work on Jim Muro’s Street Trash?
I worked first as a Makeup Assistant and then as a Special FX Props Assistant.
What FX were yours?
I assisted a lot of FX in the film – it’s hard to say in particular. I worked on the big toilet the guy melted into and the oxygen tank that went flying through the air and knocked the guy’s head off. Just various effects.
Just as a side note, after reading some of the material you had sent me and learning that you worked on that film, I went back and watched it again.
I’m sorry. (Laughs)
You know, there’s a lot of that film that’s kind of enjoyable on some levels. Obviously it was done with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek…
So firmly it was bursting through the face. (Laughs)
Tell us how the “Dead Fetus” line began.
It’s kind of convoluted. It started actually with Necromania. The story of the film that I made involved a talisman that was made out of a fetal skull and the goal was for this character to get this talisman back. Someone stole it from his grave and he came back for it. I had the fetal skull as a prop from the film. I made a cast of it and decided to put it in my catalog, Higham’s House of Horrors, to sell. The response was really tremendous. My girlfriend, who has helped me quite a bit – she’s been very supportive – urged me to kind of try a variation on it. Just to see how it worked. I made a little candelabrum with wings and that sold well, so I did a dish. That was the first big piece, the sleeping dead fetus candy dish/incense holder and it’s been one of my most popular pieces since. It’s just taken off. There’s nothing else really like it out there that I’ve seen. I’m drawn to the whole thing on several different levels as well as aesthetically. And originally, through Higham’s House of Horrors, it started business oriented, more or less, but I’ve been incorporating images more into pieces I’m making for art galleries, museums. I’m drawn to it from that point as the opposite of something that people really associate with life the fetus. And combining it with, to some degree, the Grim Reaper or a Death’s head, everyone associates with the end of life. There’s basically a life missing – the middle. It upsets some people. It’s not for everybody. I’m also drawn to the idea of something that’s very reflective of what everyone experiences in this life and beyond: the suffering of innocents. There’s really no justice and the best way I’ve found to communicate that is showing fetuses suffering – with the ability to suffer. Something so innocent that could never really harm anyone. Being tortured, mutilated, suffering for something they could never have done.
Does this in any way reflect your views on certain political lines or is it something much broader than that?
I think it’s much broader than political. More spiritual than anything else. I do present the fetus as a being with the ability to suffer and to recognize it as a being.
Based on some of the pictures you sent us, how involved in Body Modification are you?
Nothing permanent except for scarification. Basically what I have done is more for art and experience – for the casts that I’ve done.
The interest of body modification was mainly for art’s sake, to get an image that you wanted?
No, that was also for the experience, to see what it would be like; interesting sensations, varied quite a bit. That was also inspired by something I had seen in Malaysia. The Thai Pu Sam festival, the Hindu ascetic festival. Very colorful, large color plumes, flowers, very decorative and also very dark in a sense that there were rows and rows of hooks put through people’s flesh and skewered through faces. A real endurance test for the sake of religion. It was fascinating.
Some of the other things I read were trips to the Leper colonies, was that for the same sort of reason, to experience?
I had spent some time in India, about a month and a half and it seemed interesting to go to and it was extremely educational. The leper colony that I went to was better kept than one might imagine and when you compare it to the living conditions of a lot of people in India I’d say it was a preferable place to live. It was very serene. It was secluded, obviously, out in a wooded area, and it was very peaceful. And I went on rounds with the head doctor there and got to meet the people there. By no means something enviable. It’s a very sad condition and they’re outcasts, they’re very depressed. But as far as the living conditions physically I’d say it’s definitely better than a lot of what I saw in the rest of the country. I was impressed by the neatness and the order.
In some ways, do you think that was a reaction to the condition or was it just that they had resources available to them the rest of the population didn’t?
It’s not a matter of resources. I think it’s just a matter of them being forced to make their own world and what they’ve made didn’t appear to be a bad one. They were dealing with their horrible condition in the best way that they can and that impressed me quite a bit. It was a very powerful experience. Actually, just being in the country was a very powerful experience from just the different sights and complete culture shock.
Can you tell us about your relationship with Westgate & Leilah Wendell?
I’ve known her since she was in New York. We became friends actually through my girlfriend, they were in an art show together. She moved down to New Orleans a couple of years ago and transferred her gallery down there and expanded it to a large mansion painted black and purple. I visit there at least once a year and since last year have been collaborating on sculptures with her when I go. I just finished another one a couple weeks ago with her.
I have seen photos of “The Gift” and was very impressed, what other pieces have you done for Westgate? Is “Archimimus” one of them? How about “Death and His Lady”?
“Archimimus” was something on my own. She has some of my pieces on display down there, a large six foot piece I did called “Death & His Lady” which had the blue light and blue smoke behind it. I drove that down there a couple of years ago. She has a number of fetal pieces that are there as well as a catacomb wall section that I made. And a piece that we just finished called “Carnivale”, which was a collaborative effort, is on display down there now.
Have you read her book?
Oh yes. We were drawn together because of common interests basically and an appreciation for art, and each other’s art. The idea of us working together actually came much later.
What kind of things are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a bunch of fetal pieces for the Seattle Museum of Contemporary Art for a show I’m going to be in. I have to get them out within two weeks. What I’m doing is re-working some casts of my older pieces, but making them more unique. I’m doing them all in different materials, painting them differently, building bases or environments for them so they’ll be on display there. I have a few pieces also cast in bronze. I have a whole book filled with ideas of sculptures but I have to work my way through and I just keep getting more ideas which is just adding to the book. The next big piece I’m going to do is a kind of a little section of what would be a fetal hell. Inspired very much by what would be like a vision of hell, with lots of activity in it only to try and translate it into a sculpture and something that would be a fairly manageable size. About the size of a small table.
Just the image alone is incredible. So that’s what’s next?
It’s pretty much what’s next. It’s hard exactly what to tell, what’s going to be next. I certainly planned on doing that next but then I finished “The Reach”, one of the performance art pieces. That was the most recent piece I finished up here. I also have a cast I did of another performance art piece I’m going to be turning into sculptures. One is also a fetal piece, a marionette-type image. The marionette strings attach to hooks running from my arm and my hand is stapled and nailed to a board. So it would be coming off as a horizontal support carrying that.
It’s incredible to me, just from you describing that and then seeing the res
t of your work, I could see how someone might take a step back, but there’s a pathos and an inherent beauty that you seem to inspire or infuse into your work where something normally, someone wouldn’t see that. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it does. I appreciate the kind words. I see beauty in my work.
I do, too. I think it’s beautiful stuff.
Thank you.
How do your parents relate to that? Do they see the beauty in your work?
My whole family has been very supportive, they always have. Very supportive and encouraging. I’ve never had a problem with that. Actually, most people’s reaction to my work, it seems to be good in general. But then again, I’m not going to PTA meetings with my work.
That might be fun.
I stay within the context. I’m expanding more into the general art world at this point, I’m trying to. I think the show in Seattle’s going to be pretty helpful.
How’s the “accepted art world” receiving you?
It’s too early to tell. I’m just constantly trying to build up my body of work. A lot of what I’ve done has been the fetal casts, which I sell. And it’s been real tricky to try and split that apart from what would be considered more the fine art in what I do. Like “Archimimus” would be an example of fine art and a plaster cast of a dish would be more commercial. I have had the dish cast in bronze and I had only one made. It’s kind of like an artist who paints t-shirts to make money. They do both but there has to be some separation. I’m still struggling with that. The one I’m doing now I think is very helpful. I’m taking the fetal casts that I’ve made and working them into fine art pieces by putting so much extra attention and detail – building up different bases and environments for them.
Carpe Noctem Interviews - Volume 1 Page 1