Art That Isn’t Beautiful
I’m a big fan of horror manga. Almost obsessively so. Every week I check for a new chapter for one of my favourite manga, Mieruko-chan, even though I know it’ll be about a month between new chapters.
For those who haven’t read it, it’s a horror story about a high school girl who can suddenly see ghosts and pretends to ignore them so they leave her alone. The art style and use of body horror are what make this manga stand out from others. Each monster takes some element of normal everyday life and twists it into a horrific form.
While I was waiting for a new chapter, I flipped some of the older panels to see how the older ghost designs compare to the newer ones. Then I felt nostalgic for some of Junji Ito’s work, so I decided to revisit some of his most famous panels.
Eventually, that lead to me searching for grotesque works from other mediums, like Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings and pretty much everything from Beksinski.
While I was looking at all these works, I thought about the commonalities in their themes, why people create artworks that are so unappealing, and more importantly, why people enjoy these types of artworks so much.
Ugly Artworks: Why they exist, how they feel
As with any piece of art, there are a number of reasons why someone would decide to create something different from the aesthetically pleasing style we’re so used to seeing.
A common reason is that “ugly art” is incredibly effective at creating a sense of unease or discomfort for the audience. If you’re creating a narrative work, scenes of disturbing imagery are an essential tool to convey atmosphere.
In fact, this uneasy tension is what so many artworks popular in the first place. When people talk about their favourite horror movies, the first thing they mention is usually the disturbing imagery or eerie tension created by the soundtrack.
Ugly art can also be used as a gateway into a raw, unfiltered view of reality. While conventional art often shows exaggerated moments of happiness or beauty, unaesthetic art seems to pull audiences back down to a more grounded level, showing the ugliness of the world in a matter-of-fact way.
Creating Ugly Art
Feeling inspired and needed an excuse to practice my photography after a bit of a break, I decided to try my hand at making “ugly art” using photography.
I didn’t have a good idea where to start so I thought I should take a look at some work from Andre Kertesz and Jacques Andre Boiffard for some inspiration. That ended up being a good starting point so I looked at some of my favourite manga to see what thematic or technical ideas I could transfer to photography.
The things that stood out to me the most across all these works were the abstract and uncanny appearance of the subject, as though it vaguely resembles something you’re familiar with but can’t quite put your finger on, and the use of the human body (or parts of it) in unsettling ways.
Unfortunately, I left all my cadavers in storage and murder is still illegal, so I had to make due with only my body to manipulate. In some pieces, colour played an important role in conveying tone. Fortunately for me, however, working in black and white helps emphasize the misshapenness of the subject to greater effect, so I decided to keep working in black and white for this project.
With that in mind, here are some of the photos I took. I don’t feel particularly great about any of them but I feel like this is a good starting point if I decide to pursue this sort of style in the future.
One idea I tried to present in my photos was the raw and organic nature of lines in the human body. In some ways I think I was able to get that across but as I’m writing this post I’ve already come up with several composition sketches that I want to try for next time.
If you know of any disturbing artworks or artists, or just spooky art in general, let me know! I’m always looking for more material to add to my collection and make new photos about.