Category: Disturbing

Fear, Beauty, and the Abject: Handcrafted Art Dolls by Emilie Steele

Emilie Steele is a multidisciplinary artist based in Stockholm, Sweden, who creates handcrafted posable art dolls. Each doll’s body is first sculpted in clay, then silicone molds are made, and the pieces are cast in resin. Steele also makes all the clothes, wigs, and accessories by hand. These are far from your ordinary dolls, notable […]

Tiny, Creepy-Cute Sculptures by Qimmyshimmy

Qimmyshimmy is a designer and “accidental sculptor” from Singapore (currently based in the Netherlands) who has been gaining attention on Instagram due to her creepy-cute subject matter: particularly, the tiny sleeping babies and disembodied human hearts she’s been sculpting. With soft skin and sleeping faces, the babies look quite endearing—except that Qimmyshimmy often arranges them […]

Creepy-Crawly Hybrids in the Dark Tattoos of Jeanchoir

Jeanchoir is a Marseille-based tattoo artist and the founder of Sombre Tache (in English: Dark Spot) tattoo studio. As the name suggests, this is indeed the place for dark and unusual ink; occultism meets Giger-esque aliens in Jeanchoir’s unholy tattoos, birthing the kinds of creatures you’d only expect to find in the forests of distant […]

10 Visually Stunning Cosmic Horror Films

In regards to the fear of the unknowable, there is no writer more influential today than H.P. Lovecraft.  His stories saw humankind come into contact with beings older than time: sinister masses of tentacles whose very existence could drive someone completely mad. This was the birth of “cosmic horror”—that is, horror rooted in the idea […]

Transcending Sickness: Atmospheric Portraits by Nihil

Nihil is a French artist residing in Norway. “Ventre” is the name of his ongoing project, which includes short, cryptic texts and images filled with symptoms of illness and rapture, often with a medieval, religious slant. He describes his work as “portraits of saints and martyrs who lost their humanity to drown in divine serenity”; […]

Suburban Occult: Joseph Haxan’s Twisted, Euphoric Photography

Welcome to the dark world of Joseph Haxan, a bizarre place where suburbia meets the occult in scenes of bacchanal-style rapture and pure absurdity (with subtle tones of eros). Hordes of nude male bodies congregate in late-night fields and construction sites, averting their faces to avoid the subjectifying gaze of the camera; the only time […]

Mind-Melting Dark Art by Dusty Ray

Dusty Ray makes art for “strange but discerning” people who enjoy “a touch of weird in their life”—and you’ll very quickly see this is true. Working mostly in gouache, watercolor, and Micron pens, he brings to life surreal mutant beasts. Wolves, bears, and other North American animals (as well as the odd human) are unveiled […]

10 Imaginative Japanese Science Fiction Movies

Modern Japanese science fiction was birthed in nuclear fire at the close of World War II. It left a sobering impression of the dangers of technology that can be felt to this day, and it created a generation of directors who are keenly aware of how delicate their mortality is. Science fiction is a medium […]

Eerie, Disintegrating Bodies by Yuichi Ikehata

Yuichi Ikehata is an artist born and based in Chiba, Japan. In a series titled “Fragment of Long Term Memory (LTM),” Ikehata sculpts human bodies (or body parts) using wire, clay, and paper. Next, he photographs the sculpture and digitally adds in skin, hair, eyes, and other features. The final image is so seamless that […]

Armin Blasbichler’s Taxidermy Designs Critique Consumption

Armin Blasbichler is an artist, architect, and educator whose studio explores designs built on “transgression and chance, conceptually and physically.” When he’s not making cross-shaped coffins and glowing nooses that spray water (both of which contain clever literary allusions), he can be found making works that critique unpleasant cultural trends, such as over-consumption in the […]