The Oddball Art Thread

Sredni Vashtar

Because this site needs an all-purpose thread to talk about strange art. Be it outsider sculpture, surrealist painting, visionary illustration, Dada collage or conceptualist performance work, this will be the thread in which to discuss it!

A disclaimer: Some of this stuff may not be work-safe, albeit not necessarily for conventional reasons. Exercise caution thusly and link and label when appropriate.

Anyway, let's get started with a new favourite of mine, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. He hailed from Milwaukee and was mostly unknown during his lifetime, but after his death came to the attention of collectors and critics as a most unusual talent. He worked in multiple media, including painting, photography, poetry, sculpture and ceramics, creating otherworldly and disconcerting pieces that toe the line between beautiful and creepy. His (usually nude) photographs of his wife are a good example: The most famous is framed and treated in such a way that she looks like she is holding her own severed head. He also built towers and tiny thrones out of chicken bones, painted alien landscapes in wild colours and constructed ambiguous leafy objects in ceramic and wire.

This video is about the bone towers; the website above is more focused on his paintings. Enjoy as you will.

Obā-san

http://www.ignant.de/2013/04/05/handheld/

Sredni Vashtar

The ability of a piece of art to make one clap and shudder involuntarily is always appreciated.

On that note, here's an article by the late Roger Ebert on Chris Burden's notorious performance piece White Light/White Heat.