I recently went to Paris and found a few skulls which I wanted to share with you all – I do not know the names of the shops/artists/creators so if you recognise any then please share the names with us. I was hoping to find more but here are some of the ones I spotted, apologies for some of the blurry images.
This creative woodwork skull carving is by Maskull Lasserre. We’ve featured a skull of his before where he carved a skull out of a book which had been clasped in a vice. The man is amazingly talented and you can see some of his other works here, which include carving skulls and skeletal systems out of wood.
Jacky Tsai, a designer who used to work for Alexander McQueen, is currently working on his own fashion line. These decorative floral skulls are stunning and are part of a larger body of work which includes a number of prints, sculptures and drawings.
We’re glad to see you doing your own stuff Jacky. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more skulls from him in the future!
We’ve featured Ali GULEC‘s work before and this skull is another kaleidescope of awesomeness (yeah, that’s what I said). You can see the rest of his work on Society 6 here.
Li Hongbo uses layers of paper to create life-size flexible art sculpures. This video shows a variety of his work, including a skull piece, and talks about his latest exhibition, aptly named Pure White Paper, at the Dominik Mersch Gallery in Sydney Australia.
Li Hongbo – Pure White Paper from Dominik Mersch Gallery on Vimeo.
The Empire of Death by Paul Koudounaris is a must-have book for any skull lover. I was lucky enough to win this beautiful edition through another skull-themed website called Obsessed With Skulls. I actually received my signed copy around 16:30 on Christmas eve, and boy was I happy, as it turns out it was my best Christmas gift (but don’t tell my girlfriend that).
The Empire of Death is available from Amazon and is on offer for £19.16.
The Empire of Death is a cultural history of ossuaries and charnel houses. Paul Koudounaris takes us on a well-documented and beautifully illustrative tour of numerous tombs which are situated throughout Europe including famous sites such as the Catacombs of Paris, the Sedlec Ossuary and the crypt of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. The book actually got its name from the Catacombs in Paris where visitors are greeted with a sign telling them they are about to enter The Empire of Death.
Most of the tombs are covered top-to-bottom in skulls and bones, with the focus being human bone. These marvellously macabre surroundings are rather harrowing but intriguing too as they tell a story of religion, cultures, beliefs and views from different centuries past through architectural masterpieces.
Some of the images below have been taken from the book can also be bought as prints if you follow this link here.
Skeleton of Pancratius
Robed skeleton from Roman Cataccombs
Bavarian painted skulls (Dingolfing, Germany)
Capela dos Ossos (Alcantarilha, Portugal)
Mummified monk in the crypt of Santa Maria delle Concezione (Rome, Italy)
I have yet to finish it but so far it has blown my mind right out of my skull and back again. I would suggest getting yourself a copy now and get yourself educated on the interesting world of death.
Death: A Self Portrait is an exhibition currently on show at the Welcome Collection in London and is from a collection of works from Richard Harris.
The exhibition has been running since November and will be closing its doors on the 24th February 2013 – I suggest going to see it; it’s free and full of skulls (not to forget loads of interesting information and history). See here for more details on Death: A Self Portrait.
The exhibition is one of the best that I have been too and contains a fantastically diverse collection of skulls, skeletons and anatomical art. The collection has been put together by Richard Harris and was inspired by anatomy in art, skulls and also death.
The collection comprises of around 1500 artworks and historical artefacts relating to death and Richard Harris started this collection in 2000 and is still collection works today. Harris has said: “As I get older the thought of my own demise has begun to enter my conscious thoughts. The universality of ‘Death,’ with the realisation that we will all die, encouraged me to begin the conversation of my mortality visually, rather than reading about it.”
You can see an interview below where he talks about the collection:
Just like Richard Harris, the exhibition also got me thinking of my own death – where will my skull be in a hundred years and what would I have done with it to not only enrich my life but also the lives of others.
All this time I have been drawn to skulls as objects for artistic expression but they are more than that. They represent our mortality, our life, past and present, and our imminent death. Initially when we started this blog posting skulls daily it was for enjoyment and to share our passion with you, but it’s more than that, it’s about celebrating life and death every day.
My favourite piece at the exhibition was this huge skull, Calavera from the Mondongo Collective (Argentina), plasticine on board, 2011; which is three-dimensional and and stands about 4 ft tall (rough guess). I have included the description from the Welcome Collection’s website below.
Calavera, Mondongo Collective (Argentina), plasticine on board, 2011
Argentinian collective Mondongo (the word for a traditional Argentinian tripe stew) assemble everyday things into irreverent three-dimensional collages. In this work, the economic and cultural dominance of Europe and the USA (represented by neoclassical architecture and Western literature) is seen to have radical consequences for South America (evoked by the villa miseria or shanty towns that are found close to Argentina’s largest cities). Copyright Mondongo Collective
Get on down to the Welcome Collection and explore death before it’s too late.
We have seen this beautiful skull bottle, or Crystal Head Vodka bottle, making the rounds online – it definitely deserves a place on the SAS wall.
“The bottle is made by Bruni Glass in Italy, and the kosher-certified vodka is made with pure Newfoundland water and filtered through 500-million year-old crystals known as Herkimer diamonds.” – Taken from The Whisky Exchange where this Crystal Head Vodka is available to purchase for only £42.49
These beautiful sugar-skull inspired skull incense burners are the bomb. The skulls were original sculpted by hand by Nicola, founder of IN HER GLORY, and every skull incense burner is created from a mould and then made unique as they are all painted by hand. The incense burners are £18 and available from In Her Glory’s online shop.
These beautiful acrylic skull paintings have been sent into us by Tony Rose, the artist behind these beautiful pieces. Unfortunately Tony doesn’t have a website yet but you can check out more of his work here in his Facebook album.
