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Results: When the Pet Shop Boys met Liza Minnelli
09.27.2017
03:53 pm
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The ‘Results’ cover by David LaChapelle

Whenever I have posted on this blog in the past about her mother Judy Garland, some of our less culturally-enlightened (troglodyte) readers accuse me of having “the musical tastes of a middle-aged drag queen”—so what if I do?—but that’s not going to stop me from recommending a somewhat obscure (in the US at least) 1989 collaboration between Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys.

Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant had already teamed up with Dusty Springfield, providing England’s greatest blue-eyed soul singer with a featured role in their “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” worldwide smash, her first hit single after two decades away from the pop charts, so the Pet Shop Boys producing Liza Minnelli’s comeback album must have seemed like a natural fit. Minnelli, who had not been in the recording studio since 1977, was already a fan of theirs, they of her, so it was apparently a bit of a love affair from the very start, Liza having a demonstrated knack (like her mother before her) for falling for gay men…

The results of the pairing of the chart-topping duo, then at the height of their hit-making powers and the showbiz royalty (who was working around her London concerts with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. during the sessions) were so stellar they opted to call the album Results, in keeping with the one word nomenclature customary for PSB releases. The material, cannily selected with Minnelli’s own tabloid-documented experiences—and age, at the time she was 43—in mind came together to sound exactly like what you’d think it would sound like with Minnelli’s iconic powerful/tender/vulnerable/triumphant voice placed atop typical (but by no means second rate) Pet Shop Boys symphonic electronic disco beats. Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti and Anne Dudley from the Art of Noise did the orchestral arrangements.
 

 
Originally released in September of 1989, Results went gold in the UK and Spain, with the “Losing My Mind” single hitting number #6 in the British singles chart. In America however, Results didn’t even make the top 100 and it was easy to find the CD for cheap in the cut-out bins not so long after it came out. It remains an undiscovered gem. Results spawned four singles: “Losing My Mind”; “Don’t Drop Bombs”; “So Sorry, I Said” and “Love Pains.” There was also a VHS video EP release titled Visible Results. The by now 28-year-old album has just been given a make-over in the form of a remastered and expanded edition three CD and one DVD box set by Cherry Red Records and hopefully it will (deservedly) pick up some new admirers with this latest iteration.

If you are even slightly curious if the Pet Shop Boys and Liza Minnelli are indeed two great tastes that taste great together, then I am pretty sure that you will love this album. But the beauty of writing about pop culture these days is that you don’t have to take my word for it, you can simply hit play on this clip of Minnelli lip-syncing “Love Pains” and make up your own mind:
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.27.2017
03:53 pm
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That time the Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus in Furs’ was used to peddle tires…
09.27.2017
01:21 pm
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It’s difficult to tell which lyric in Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs,” off of the band’s debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, so causes tire manufacturers to incorporate the song into their commercials. Is it “downy sins of streetlight fancies” or “tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you”? See, rumor has it that Goodyear once made a commercial that uses “Venus in Furs” but it was clearly not shown for long, hardly anyone seems to have seen it. Somewhere there lurks a royalty-clearance attorney who knows the answer to this question.

In James Dean Transfigured: The Many Faces of Rebel Iconography, Claudia Springer mentions the Goodyear commercial one time, in between references to William S. Burroughs’ Nike ad and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” appearing in a Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines spot. Ah, the 1990s.
 

 
That Goodyear spot is lost to the sands of time, alas—until some astute video collector finds it and posts it on YouTube, that is. But Goodyear wasn’t the only company that wanted “Venus in Furs” in its ad. Dunlop Tyres (a subsidiary of Goodyear’s) also ran a completely different commercial for tires in 1993 that used the song. Dunlop Tyres was a British concern—does the name give it away?—and the ad was a product of the ad agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO in London.

The commercial was directed by British director Tony Kaye, whose name you might recognize from the ugly fight over the Edward Norton movie American History X, which he directed and then disowned. This minute-long commercial featured tons of self-consciously “weird” imagery, such as a falling piano, a cackling voodoo master, a skull in flames, and a bald albino in a corset. Basically it’s what would happen if the album art for the Pixies’ Doolittle (or really any 4AD album) suddenly came to life. The name of the ad is “Tested for the Unexpected.” The people who made HBO’s Carnivale probably had to memorize this commercial. 

One wonders if the people who commissioned the ad ever heard of Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, who bequeathed us one-half of the term sadomasochism? (For the record, I’m guessing Kaye had, at least.)

More after the jump…

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.27.2017
01:21 pm
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Powerful anti-racist miniature dioramas created inside jewelry boxes
09.27.2017
09:37 am
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‘Deluge’ (2015).
 
Maybe it was the miniature world of The Sims or the illustrations in Where’s Waldo? with its crammed panoramic scenes filled with chaos and action that first suggested the possibility to Canadian artist Curtis “Talwst” Santiago of producing tiny dioramas inside jewelry boxes. Or, maybe it was the Parisian dude living in Vancouver, from whom Talwst bought old magazines and posters to make his collages, who one day tossed him an engagement ring box and said, “I want to see what you can do with this.”

It didn’t take long. Talwst’s turned the box into a diorama of a beach scene with his girlfriend coming out of the water like Botticelli’s Venus. It was the start of a process with which Talwst creates astonishing works of power and beauty.

Talwst—pronounced “Tall Waist” a reference to his Caribbean grandfather’s and his father’s nickname—was born and raised in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. His father emigrated from Trinidad to Fort McMurray in 1969. The experience of growing up in Canada was different to the life Talwst discovered when he moved to New York. As a Black man then living in Brooklyn, he found himself stopped and frisked by cops for no other reason than the color of his skin.

When I came to the States, there was some difference between me and the young man here that I see. But the minute I put on that big black hoodie, my black sweatpants, and I’m standing outside having a smoke outside of my studio, I’m immediately viewed as ‘nobody,’ and they know nothing about me. I realized that could happen to anyone, at any time. How many young men, that are loved by their families and are good people, were being killed? That resonated with me. It was the start of looking at Black identity in America because it’s significantly different than Canada.

The state-sanctioned racism and violence against the Black community made Talwst understand that Black lives have less value in America, and that at any moment his own “life could be taken or seen as having no value.”

Watching news reports of Black men being murdered on the streets for no reason led Talwst to produce dioramas on the shooting by police of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and the strangulation by police of Eric Garner on Staten Island in 2014.

[W]ith Michael Brown, it’s almost like a Goya painting [The Third of May]. Where we have images of this person beforehand and then we have images of him dead.

It’s a plethora of feelings. It’s frustration, it’s feeling thankful that I’m standing in a position where I’m able to observe and look at it, and not feel lost, locked in it, trapped by it. With the Eric Garner tape, you watch the whole thing happen in front of you. Working on that piece was so sad for me. I felt so much sorrow for his family. You hear him beg for his life.

Just before Garner’s murder, Talwst had seen Goya’s Disasters of War etching Por Qué? of “this guy being choked against a tree by three soldiers.”

A few days later, it’s 4 AM in the morning and I’m watching the YouTube video [of Garner being choked by police officers], and it draws to mind the etchings. I started crying, working and crying and feeling so sad and hurt. But I learned so much from that. I learned that I had the ability to channel my emotions into the work, if it’s honest work. But I held in the back of mind, this is not a monument to death. This is the spark to thinking and looking differently for a lot of people that are going to view this and see the video. It had to be a catalyst, mainly for his family. They’ve seen the moment of his death so much, but they never saw a moment of his ascension, his soul moving. And that’s what I wanted to create.

Talwst has also produced dioramas on the plight of Syrian refugees (Deluge) and the rape of indigenous people (The Rape). He also has produced work on environmentalism, gender and identity. His dioramas have been featured in art galleries and museums across America and Canada, and in Paris, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Geneva, Switzerland. And you can see more of Curtis Talwst Santiago’s work here. Click images to see larger picture.
 
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‘Execution of Unarmed Black Men’ aka ’ Execution of Michael Brown’ (2014).
 
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‘Por qué?’ (2014).
 
More of Talwst’s astonishing dioramas, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.27.2017
09:37 am
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‘Miss B. Haven’: The sexy pinup art worn by the Nazi-hating pilots of WWII
09.27.2017
09:29 am
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A decorated WWII bomber jacket worn by a member of the 401st Bombardment Group
 
According to the history books, the 401st Bombardment Group Association made things kinda difficult for the Nazis during WWII (you have to specify the era with Nazis these days, sadly) . The group was utilized on an “as needed” basis and according to historians, it is noted that the 401st’s bombing accuracy was the best in the B-17 class in the entire Eighth Air Force. The group dropped a total of 17,784 bombs on their collective targets during their 254 missions. But I’m not here to talk about war—there’s enough talk of that in the news already. Instead, let’s take a look at the cheeky artwork that adorned the 401st’s bomber jackets back in the day which featured illustrations of sexy pinup girls along with the number of bombs that the individual pilots of the 401st successfully dropped on those dastardly, deplorable Nazis during their runs.

The standard-issue jackets worn by the airmen of the 401st were badges of honor for the airmen who took their jobs seriously. The National Archive thankfully cataloged photos of the pilots wearing their bombers, and I’ve posted a large number of images of the heroes wearing their slightly NSFW jackets in all their glory below.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.27.2017
09:29 am
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Fungus from HELL: Messed up mushrooms that look like boners, brains & zombie fingers!
09.27.2017
09:16 am
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An example of “Xylaria polymorpha” aka a mushroom known as “Dead Man’s Fingers.”
 
Even though I love being outdoors and have hiked my way around much of the Pacific Northwest, I have a deep-rooted fear of bears—and that keeps me from deviating from paths that are not well-worn. Now, thanks to what I’ve recently learned about mushrooms, I’m also afraid of running into some of the bizarre fungi that grow in the woods. Bleck! For this post, I’m going to showcase four different types of mushrooms that for very good reasons have earned the following names; “Dead Man’s Fingers,” the nightmarish “Bleeding Tooth,” the “Brain” mushroom, and one that should need no real introduction at all, the “Common stinkhorn” which looks just like a penis. For the record, I’ve never seen any of these natural abominations in the wild, and I’d love to keep it that way. Now, here are a few gross facts about each weird shroom.

Dead Man’s Fingers” are unsurprisingly as bad as they sound. And not because ingesting them will result in a long strange trip, but because the appearance of this fungus at the base of a tree means that it is quite literally breaking down the structure of the tree which results in soft rot. In other words, Dead Man’s Fingers (aka Xylaria polymorpha) are tree-murdering mushrooms though it is said that they are edible. Good luck with that. As gross as those mushrooms are, the “Bleeding Tooth,” (Hydnellu Peckii) fungus looks like something Dr. Seuss might have had nightmares about. The Bleeding Tooth secretes a dark red liquid which as you may have guessed, makes it appear to be “bleeding.” The non-toxic fungus is quite useful as it possesses the naturally occurring chemical, atromentin which is said to work quite well as an antibacterial and anticoagulant. (It’s a dessert topping and a floor wax.)
 

As if going to the dentist wasn’t enough of a drag, here’s a species of mushroom known as “Bleeding Tooth.”
 
Gyromitra esculenta or “Brain” mushroom is somewhat common fungus, and highly toxic. But that doesn’t stop people from eating them despite the risks associated with ingestion that include vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, dizziness and sometimes (though rarely) coma and death. Brain mushrooms are quite popular in Finland and are sold with extensive warning labels because even boiling them in water will causes the chemical gyromitrin (the stuff that might kill you in a Brain mushroom) vaporize which can make you sick just by breathing too much of it. Yikes.

Lastly, I give you the “Common stinkhorn” or the Phallus impudicus—the mushroom that looks like just like a dick. The stinky horns allegedly smell wretched and toward the end of their lifecycle the produce a nasty looking dark-colored goop out of the top of their “heads.” Regardless of what appear to be warning signs to stay the fuck away from them, the stinkhorns are eaten widely across Germany and France. The mythology around the distinct-looking mushroom includes its use as a “love potion” in medieval times for somewhat obvious reasons. I’ve posted photos of all the funky fungus discussed in this post below—some images are slightly NSFW.
 

A Gyromitra esculenta or “Brain” mushroom.
 

A “Common stinkhorn” or “Phallus impudicus” in the wild.
 

Dead Man’s Fingers.
 
More images of disturbing mushrooms after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.27.2017
09:16 am
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‘Beauty Warriors’: Look at these bizarre devices used by women to seek unreal ‘perfection’
09.26.2017
10:07 am
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Every morning I get up, look in the mirror and say “How the hell did you get to be so handsome?” Well, if I don’t think I’m good looking, then who the hell will? Not that many would ever agree with my unbiased assessment, but what do I care? I know at least with a face like mine I can scare the kids every Halloween with minimal effort.

According to a recent survey, it’s estimated women will spend an average of $300,000 on face products alone during their lifetime. Beauty may be skin deep and in the eye of the beholder but it’s also a very BIG business.

Our strange obsession with attaining some kind of artificial ideal of beauty is the focus of Latvian photographer Evija Laiviņa’s series of portraits Beauty Warriors. With each photograph, Laiviņa presents a portrait of a woman wearing some kind of bizarre beauty product which promises the wearer instant perfection. These gadgets were bought on eBay and range from lip-enhancers and nose straighteners, to devices for measuring just how out of whack our faces are. Which reminds me, I once interviewed a plastic surgeon in LA for a TV show, who offered to straighten my nose (broken in a barroom fight with a cop—long story) and remove the over-stuffed suitcases from under my eyes for some obscene amount of money. I kindly demurred—but in not so many words. He wasn’t too impressed with my reply.

Laiviņa took up photography in 2007. As soon as she got her hands on a camera, she knew this was the thing for her as a camera offered unlimited possibilities for creating art. In 2009, Laiviņa emigrated to Inverness, Scotland where she studied Contemporary Art Practice at the University of Highlands and Islands. She took an interest in identity, psychological problems, and human relationships. She also studied portraiture and staged photography. Which brings us back to Laiviņa’s critically-acclaimed series of portraits Beauty Warriors which questions our relationship with the beauty industry. As Laiviņa explains:

To be successful, you must be perfect and look perfect—these are our society’s rules, which we all follow without even realizing how ridiculous the standards are. We often forget about the importance of inner beauty.


The finished photographs go beyond being just amusing (or sad) to a point where we recognize the real beauty that’s in all of us. See more of Laiviņa’s work here.
 
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See more beauty portraits, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.26.2017
10:07 am
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Human skull bowl
09.26.2017
10:04 am
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I totally want this human skull bowl by Etsy shop Catacomb Culture. The handmade skull bowl sells for $100. Kind of pricey in my opinion, but isn’t it a beauty? The bowl is perfect for Halloween or just because you want to eat out of a damned skull bowl! No one is judging you.

According to the listing it’s not machine washable, it’s hand wash only!


 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.26.2017
10:04 am
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To ‘Dune’ and beyond: The interstellar hyper-realism of Wojciech Siudmak
09.26.2017
09:41 am
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“Le Regard Gourmand” (“The Gourmet Look”), a painting by Wojciech Siudmak.
 
Polish artist Wojciech Siudmak‘s contributions to the world of science fiction and fantasy art are as vast as the space that is inhabited by our solar system and beyond. Though it is easy to classify Siudmak as a surrealist, the artist himself prefers to operate under the banner of “fantastic hyper-realism” which is also a more than accurate way to describe Siudmak’s stellar work.

In his bio, Siudmak does align himself with surrealist Salvador Dali as it pertains the incorporation of 3-D images in his paintings. Born in Wieluń, Poland in 1942, Siudmak soon moved to France in the mid-60s where he still resides today. In his late 20s and 30s, Siudmak got work along with a small group of like-minded artists whose work was used by certain publishers of science fiction/fantasy books and magazines. Widely considered one of the most significant contributors to the realm of fantastic realism, Siudmak is admired by people and art scholars around the world. Here are a few words from one of the masters of Italian cinema, the great Federico Fellini on Siudmak’s remarkable talent:

“What boundless fantasy and what prodigious ability to make it come true. An almost unbelievable talent, more gifted and infinite of the one who guides, expresses himself and invents our richest dreams.”

Some of you may have seen Siudmak’s work in a covetable Polish edition of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune. The artist created approximately 70 illustrations for the book which were displayed in galleries and museums across Europe starting in 2008. His spacey artwork has also been used as album art for German prog-rock band Eloy (who adapted their name from fictional evolutionary humans “The Eloi” in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine) and Massachusetts-based rock band, Boston. Siudmak’s work is the topic of several books, including the beautiful 2015 publication simply titled, Siudmak. I’ve posted a large array of Siudmak’s work that includes many of his illustrations for Dune below for you to ponder—some are slightly NSFW.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.26.2017
09:41 am
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Ever wanted to play bass in Dinosaur Jr? In 1991, you could have applied for the job via fax
09.26.2017
09:34 am
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Finding new (like-minded) band members can be really hard. I mean, have you ever taken a look at the insane “Musician Wanted” fliers that people post at Guitar Center? Craigslist is even worse. What other options are there? Well, perhaps you could try national television.

If you dig deep into a lifetime of unnecessary pop culture references, you may recall the laughable, once-upon-a time reality series from 2005, Rock Star: INXS. After losing founder and vocalist Michael Hutchence to a potentially accidental, autoerotic asphyxiation death in 1997, the Australian rock group auditioned an oblivious group of starry-eyed randos in front of the entire world in hopes of “discovering” their new frontman. Competition winner JD Fortune really did become the new face of INXS for a number of years, and the group even recorded their eleventh studio album Switch with him. Fortune was eventually kicked out of the group (twice), in true rockstar fashion, all thanks to his newfound drug addiction.
 

INXS with their new replacement singer, JD Fortune
 
While an attention-seeking stunt like this may seem absurd to you, let’s take a moment to admire the time Dinosaur Jr. was a guest on MTV’s alternative music program 120 Minutes in 1991. The scenario was simple: vocalist / guitarist J. Mascis and drummer Murph joined VJ and series creator Dave Kendall on air to promote their newly-released fourth album, Green Mind. Not only was it their first to be released on a major label (Sire), but it was essentially a J Mascis solo album with him playing nearly every instrument on the record. Original bassist Lou Barlow had departed from the group years prior, in 1989, due to internal tension and they hadn’t quite replaced him in time for this major milestone.
 

 
Discontent and lacking a bass player for touring purposes, J and Murph utilized their MTV appearance as a humorous opportunity to round out their dynamic three-piece. After much withstanding and sarcastic deflection of Kendall’s prototypical interview questions in true Dino Jr. fashion, show producers flashed a fax number where one can reach out to try out for the band. According to the interview, the only requirements of the applicant was that they “had to rock” and, of course, all band members had to get along. I’m not sure if this was how replacement bassist Mike Johnson got the part later that year, but I would like to imagine Mascis choosing his application among the stacks of papers rolling out of their fax machine. The band eventually disintegrated in 1997, only to reform with the original lineup of Mascis, Murph, and Barlow in 2005.
 
Watch Dinosaur Jr.‘s hilariously awkward appearance on ‘120 Minutes’ below:
 

 

Dinosaur Jr. perform “Raisins” on MTV Europe’s edition of ‘120 Minutes’ in 1994
 

Posted by Bennett Kogon
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09.26.2017
09:34 am
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Hauntingly life-like sculpture of Sigourney Weaver in character from ‘Alien’
09.26.2017
09:04 am
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Artist Steve Scotts’ spooky sculpture of Sigourney Weaver as “Ellen Ripley” from ‘Alien’
 
Steve Scotts is the incredibly talented sculptor and FX specialist who created this mind-bogglingly realistic sculpture of actress Sigourney Weaver in character as the ass-kicking alien killer, “Ellen Ripley.” Weaver would make her first appearance as Ripley in director Ridley Scott’s horror film franchise, which started with 1979’s Alien. Scotts documented his work by capturing images of his blow-by-blow process—and the photographs that chronicle the making of his faux “Ellen Ripley” are as astounding as they are atmospherically unsettling.

In his bio, Scotts recalls the moment that he knew his destiny to pursue art had been sealed. It was 1993 and Scotts’ family had finally deemed that he was old enough to see a film by Steven Spielberg—specifically Jurassic Park. Scotts would refer to this event as a “life-defining 127 minutes” and credits the great FX master Stan Winston (the dinosaur wizard behind the special effects in the film and 1986’s Aliens) as a key creative inspiration for his work. As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, Scotts’ sculpt of Sigourney as Ripley is so remarkably life-like it seems conceivable that she might blink or even breathe. Another reason Scotts’ sculpture of Ripley is a standout is the fact that he did it just by studying photos of Weaver in character from the film, then constructed it using foam, silicone, acrylic paint—and if I understand correctly real hair. I’m continually amazed by an artist who creates work that challenges grounded perceptions of reality—and Scotts’ sculpture of Ripley blurs the lines between what is real and what might be masquerading as such brilliantly.

Some images below are ever-so-slightly NSFW.
 

An eerie early shot of Scotts’ sculpt of Weaver as “Ripley.”
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.26.2017
09:04 am
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