The End (of "Undead")

Some final images of the Undead show, a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers.

Consumption, control, attraction, repulsion... Capes. Fear. Lines of defense. Why do zombies and vampires continue to captivate our cultural imagination? Undead is artwork and writings that explore these fetid creatures of film, folklore and nightmares.

Featuring art by Jessica Balsam, Jessica Bender, Marc Dombrosky, Shannon Eakins, Matt Johnson, Lisa Kinoshita, Peter Lynch, Saya Moriyasu, Jennifer Peters, James Porter, Elise Richman, Julie Rivera, Chris Sharp, and Randy Wood.

As well as a folio including writing and art by Jessica Balsam, Marc Dombrosky, Bob Fingerman, Ben Paulson, Brooks Peck, and Brad Young. Contact thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for copies of the folio.

Undead at the Telephone Room Gallery, October 2009.

Undead at the Telephone Room Gallery, October 2009.

Randy Wood, Dogula. Papermache, wire, ink, marbles. 2009.

Randy Wood is a Seattle cartoonist/sculptor/painter. He is a member of the artist run gallery, SOIL, and teaches cartooning classes at Pratt and Gage Academy.
www.randywoodart.com

Julie Rivera, Untitled. Photograph. 2009.

Elise Richman, Wolf Man. Gouache on Illustation Board. 2009.

Elise Richman is a Tacoma based artist with an MFA from American University and a BFA in painting from the University of Washington.

James Ackerley Porter, TURNED. Charcoal/graphite/vinyl/collage. 2009.

Chris Sharp, Creep. Sign paint on sign board. 2009.

“Local award winning artist Chris Sharp is totally fine.” –Chris Sharp

Matt Johnson, Lestat the Elder: The Cleansing. Doily, crystal glass, dentures, water, Alka-Seltzer tablets. 2009. Price: Your soul or best offer.

www.mattjohnsonart.com

Lisa Kinoshita, NO HOST BAR. Sterling silver barbed wire, silver shark’s tooth (cast from fossilized tooth), leather. 2009.

www.lisakinoshita.com

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Fearpump

Peter Lynch is a musician and sound designer in Seattle whose band "Library Science" fends off the zombie tendencies of lacklustre crowds at local rock shows with flashing lights and dancey beats.
www.libsci.com

"My brother just had twins and the baby monitor is a permanent fixture in whatever room he spends his time. I was going to do something with baby monitors, but ended up discovering the prenatal heart monitor while shopping for used baby monitors and thought that could be much more interesting.

'Fearpump' is a prenatal heart monitor linked to a postmortem soundtrack through the participant's heartbeat. The heartbeat is the first exposure we have to rhythm before we are even born. It may have been the catalyst for music to be invented. In this way, I hoped to make a thing where the heartbeat was somehow interacting with and mutating music.

The movie score I wrote is for a short film called 'El Borracho' which isn't released yet. It is a zombie film wherein the hero keeps his blood thin through alcoholism and saves himself from contagion."
—Peter Lynch


Peter Lynch, Fearpump [Your heartbeat mutates the score to "El Borracho", a zombie film]. Prenatal heart monitor, CD player, audio signal processors, excerpts from the score to "El Borracho" (2009, short film by Will Hoppins), headphones, red latex paint. 2009.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Walrus Island and His Unwanted Vampire Guests

"Much has been made lately about the life of the vampire as human. But there is the animal side to explore. Bats live in caves. But what do their animal neighbors think? For my piece I made Walrus Island and His Unwanted Vampire Guests. He's got this great island with a cave to hang out in and another one to look out from. But geez, two vampires decide to crash the upper cave. He's below looking annoyed. Mostly I liked to think how big his tusks are in relationship to their fangs.
Or you could think: Is the walrus also a vampire? Has he been bitten and that's why he now has big fangs?"
—Saya Moriyasu, www.sayamoriyasu.com


Saya Moriyasu, Walrus Island and His Unwanted Vampire Guests. Ceramic, glaze, light, wallpaper and glue (goop and hot melt). 6"x7"x7" (approximately). 2009. Courtesy of G. Gibson Gallery.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Chihuly Chupasangre

Seen in Tacoma, autumn, four or five years ago I think. If you know whence this came, please let us know.

"El Vampiro - Chihuly chupa el sangre de Tacoma"

translation: "The Vampire - Chihuly sucks the blood of Tacoma"

Undead Filmography

There are, of course, many many opinions on what movies you should be watching this month, so here's a few more recommendations.

31 Days of Zombie Movies:
www.projectionbooth.blogspot.com/2007/09/photo-sharing-and-video-hosting-at.html

Day 1: Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder, 2004)
Day 2: 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2003)
Day 3: Undead (Michael and Peter Spierig, 2003)
Day 4: Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Blind Dead (Amando de Ossorio, 1971/1973)
Day 5: Homecoming (Joe Dante, 2005)
Day 6: The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon, 1985)
Day 7: Land of the Dead (George A. Romero, 2005)
Day 8: Oasis of the Zombies (Jesus Franco, 1981)
Day 9: 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnallido, 2007)
Day 10: Revolt of the Zombies (Victor Halperin, 1936)
Day 11: Resident Evil (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002)
Day 12: I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
Day 13: Zombi 2 (Lucio Fulci, 1979)
Day 14: King of the Zombies (Jean Yarbrough, 1941)
Day 15: White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932)
Day 16: Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez, 2007)
Day 17: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (Ray Dennis Steckler, 1964)
Day 18: Braindead (Peter Jackson, 1992)
Day 19: They Came Back (Robin Campillo, 2004)
Day 20: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt, 2004)
Day 21: The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)
Day 22: Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985)
Day 23: Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
Day 24: The Dead Pit (Brett Leonard, 1989)
Day 25: The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981)
Day 26: The Serpent and the Rainbow (Wes Craven, 1988)
Day 27: Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Jorge Grau, 1974)
Day 28: Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1988)
Day 29: Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)
Day 30: Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
Day 31: Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)Closing Thoughts

Top 70 Vampire Movies of all Time:
www.snarkerati.com/movie-news/top-70-vampire-movies-of-all-time

1. Nosferatu (1922)
2. Dracula (1931)
3. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
4. Black Sunday (1960)
5. Martin (1977)
6. Horror of Dracula (1958)
7. Near Dark (1987)
8. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
9. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
10. Cronos (1993)

The Best and Worst Vampire Movies:
www.cinematical.com/2009/08/06/the-best-and-worst-vampire-movies

A comprehensive "Vampire Filmography" from Washington State University:
www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/vampirefilms.html

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

PLASMA

Marc Dombrosky lives and works with his wife Shannon Eakins in Las Vegas, and he is sensitive to sunlight.

http://marcdombrosky.blogspot.com/
http://battlebornlv.blogspot.com/


Marc Dombrosky, PLASMA. Embroidery on found envelope. 2009.

"I don't know if the writing on the envelope is a reminder for dropping off or picking up.

The envelope is from the Department of Social and Health Services.

It's also printed on recycled (resurrected?) paper, which probably had a prior life somewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling

And plasma? In Tacoma, you can donate here: www.cascadebloodcenters.org

Plasma is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_plasma

Tru Blood: www.trubeverage.com

Sleep all day, party all night, never grow old."
—Marc Dombrosky

Marc Dombrosky lives and works with his wife Shannon Eakins in Las Vegas. He has had solo exhibitions at Portland Art Museum and Platform Gallery Project Space, and his works have been shown at Tacoma Art Museum; Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA; Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA; d.e.n. contemporary, Los Angeles; PDX Contemporary, Fourteen30, and Gallery Homeland, Portland; Davidson Contemporary, SOIL Artist Collective, and the Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, as well as the traveling exhibition "Skirting the Line: Conceptual Drawing" (organized by DePauw University, Greencastle, IN). Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Platform Gallery (2010) and inclusion in the exhibition Traces, at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design in Raleigh, NC (2011). He is currently an adjunct professor at University of Nevada Las Vegas and holds an MFA from The Ohio State University. His projects are represented by Platform Gallery in Seattle.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

to baby strigoli, with love

"In Romanian mythology, Strigoi are the troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some of the properties of the Strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss. They are most often associated with Vampires or Zombies.

If a person dies before they are married they are at risk of becoming a vampire. The corpse is wed to another unmarried person to prevent them returning from the grave but if this fails, Strigoi will return to have sexual intercourse with the spouse and will attack family members.

One remedy against Strigoi is to bury a bottle of whiskey with the corpse. The Vampire will drink it and not return home.

If the Strigoi can go undetected for seven years, it can travel to another country or place where another language is spoken and become human again. Once human, the Strigoi can marry and have kids, but they will all become vampires when they die."
—excerpted and summarized from Wikipedia by Jessica Bender.

http://cabinet713.blogspot.com/
http://jessicaabender.blogspot.com/

Jessica Bender, to baby strigoli, with love, felt, leather, found buttons, ring boxes, whiskey, "blood," 2009. For sale: $66.6

To learn more about strigoi, watch Across the Forest, a documentary by two American filmmakers who travel through Transylvania collecting stories from villagers about vampires, werewolves and forest spirits.

The Olympia Film Festival is also showing a movie about strigoi on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 10:15 pm. Check here for the most recent info: www.olympiafilmfestival.org/movies/strigoi.
"Forget everything you thought you knew about vampires. Strigoi is an intriguing glimpse of post-communist Romania deftly mixed with an ancient myth of wronged souls who return from the dead with enhanced appetites and a hunger for blood."

Jessica Bender lives in Gig Harbor, she wants to be a vampire.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Coffins... Coffins filled with earth

In the classic 1922 vampire horror movie, Nosferatu, the vampire Count Orlok travels with multiple coffins—some of which are filled with only dirt and one of which also contains Count Orlok. The Count's guest, Thomas Hutter, discovers in The Book of the Vampires that the source of a vampire's power is the soil in which he was buried.


Shannon Eakins, Coffins... Coffins filled with earth, Tacoma dirt, Las Vegas dirt, polymer clay, postage, 2009.

Shannon Eakins lives and attends school in Las Vegas where she is paler and much, much older than those around her.

http://shannoneakins.blogspot.com/
http://battlebornlv.blogspot.com/

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Cocktails for the Undead

The Vampire
(also known as Purple Haze)
1 1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz black raspberry liqueur
cranberry juice

Pour the vodka and black raspberry liqueur into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well. Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice.

The Zombie
1 1/4 oz lemon juice
1 oz dark rum
3/4 oz orange juice
1/2 oz cherry brandy
1/2 oz light rum
1/2 oz high-proof dark rum
2 dashes grenadine

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well. Strain into a highball glass with crushed ice.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Vampire Homework

Read this good and short (for The New Yorker) history of vampire literature. Discuss with your friends and colleagues. Send us your comments.


A 1928 advertisement for a play of Bram Stoker’s story.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

There's a day for everything

What better day to start our month of Undead blog posts than World Zombie Day!?!
Yes, today, October 11, 2009, is World Zombie Day.
www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-ae.mo.zombies09oct09,0,415347.story


If you're like Heide, you should probably read the Wikipedia entries for vampires and zombies. Or maybe search the archives of The New Yorker (more on that later).

If you're like Marty and Ellen, supplementary reading on zombies and vampires won't be necessary.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

What's that ever-so-slowly shuffling its way toward you? It's the UNDEAD!

Undead: a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers opens this week at the Telephone Room Gallery!

You'll see new names along with some familiar TRG contributors, and we'll be distributing a special, very limited edition companion publication to the exhibition.

It all happens at the opening, this Wednesday from 5 - 9 pm, only at the Telephone Room Gallery!

But remember: beware The Vampire Lovers....



Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—don't be scared, email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.