We’re back and we’re pushing boundaries. Good taste has never come easily to us, but it’s downright impossible when talking about art that might inspire Call of Cthulhu games. From performance artists who mutilate themselves in inventive ways to photographers who raid the local morgue looking for models, it’s hard for horror writers like us to make this stuff any nastier. But still we try.

Main Topic: Art and the Cthulhu Mythos

This episode is the conclusion of our two-part look into the relationship between art and the Cthulhu Mythos. Last time, we looked at the artistic influences that went into the work of Lovecraft and other Mythos writers. Now, we’re following that up with a discussion of artists who might inspire us at the gaming table.

Be warned that this episode covers a number of transgressive artists, and we discuss self-mutilation, bodily fluids, regurgitation, human remains, and acts of blasphemy.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Kailas Elmer back to the Good Friends! Kailas is the publisher of Trebuchet Magazine, an international art journal which has featured writings from our own Scott Dorward. There is also an associated podcast, for those who like to experience art with their ears.

Issue 17 of Trebuchet, titled “Destinations”, is now available at Barnes & Noble, WH Smith, and directly from trebuchet-magazine.com.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• “A Message of Art” from Nameless Horrors
• “The Whisperer in Darkness” by HP Lovecraft
• The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron
• The brain as a receiver for consciousness
• Dawson’s Creek
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by by Georges Polti
• Performance art
• Ron Athey
• Brian Catling
• The Vorrh Trilogy by Brian Catling
• Stelarc
• Yaqui myths and legends
• Transhumanism
• A Man Called Horse (1970)
• Balinese trance dances
• Mortification of the flesh
• Whirling dervishes
• Austin Osman Spare
• Chaos Magic

• Liber Null and Psychonaut by Peter Carroll
• Sigil magic
• Orthodox icons
• Fountain by Marcel Duchamp
• “The Space Between” from Nameless Horrors
• “The Treachery of Images” by René Magritte
• Charlie Kaufman
• Synecdoche, New York (2009)
• Adaptation (2002)
• Being John Malkovich (1999)
• Salon de la Rose + Croix
• Impressionism
• Naturalism
• Occult Paris: The Lost Magic of the Belle Époque by Tobias Churton
• The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
• The Yellow Book
• Aubrey Beardsley
• Decadent movement
• Comte de Saint Germain
• Unknown Armies

• Dada
• Cosmic horror
• Over the Edge
• Cut-up technique
• Art Nouveau
• Art Deco
• Cthulhu by Gaslight
• Chrysler Building
• Backmasking
• Conspiracy theories about occult layout of Washington DC
• Denver International Airport conspiracy theories
• Occult layout of Milton Keynes
• The Peace Pagoda
• Medicine wheel
• Tree Cathedral
• Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Aleister Crowley
• The Equinox
• Argentum Astrum

• MC Escher
• Metamorphosis series by MC Escher
• “House of Stairs” by MC Escher
• Castrovalva Doctor Who novelisation
• “MC Escher, the Impossible Rapper” by Momus
• Joel-Peter Witkin
• “Pickman’s Model” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Kiss” by Joel-Peter Witkin
• Resurrection men
• Mortsafes
• HR Giger
• “Piss Christ” by Andres Serrano
• Re/Search Publications
• Jim Rose Circus Sideshow
• Francis Bacon
• “Europe After the Rain II” by Max Ernst
• Cave paintings
• The Rules of Art by Pierre Bourdieu
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft
• Lord Dunsany

• Damien Hirst
• “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” by Damien Hirst
• “Mother and Child Divided” by Damien Hirst
• “Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable” by Damien Hirst
• Jake and Dinos Chapman
• Francisco Goya
• The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
• Banksy
• Turbine Hall at Tate Modern
• Anselm Kiefer
• Sistine Chapel
• Augmented reality art
• JMW Turner
• Tru’nembra
• “The Secret of Marseilles” from King of Chicago
• “The Art of Madness” from The House of R’lyeh
• “Silent Screen” from Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood and Less Pleasant Places
• Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell
• “The House of Memphis” from Mansions of Madness vol 1
• “Catland” from The Curse of Nineveh
• Louis Wain

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