Issue 6: Monsters
Concerning THE MONSTROUS, this issue brings together artists, visionaries, rogue philosophers and hip photographers, poets, ravers and dreamers to describe the darkest of fantasies and phantasms.
The issue features exclusive interviews with street-artist Stik, K-punk theorist Mark Fisher, alongside theories of the weird by Eugene Thacker at the New School and a theoretical defence of genocide by Nick Land, now based in Shanghai. Sofia Himmelblau, firebrand of the University for Strategic Optimism, revisits race and class in the 2011 riots clean-up alongside artwork by Laura Oldfield Ford. Amedeo Policante finds in today’s black bloc a spectral echo of Franciscan profanators, whilst Yari Lanci tears through Amy Winehouse, Andre Breivik and the superheroes of contemporary comic-books what it means to be a vigilante.
Side-stepping theory, Lara Choksey offers a new story on the deathliness of old family bedrooms, and Dan Taylor documents a case of Cordyceps contamination amongst a limited human population. Phil Sawdon pieces together the correspondence of demonologists, madmen and creatures even more unnameable in a Monstrum Impuissant, Marcin Kolodziejczyk goes on a cheeseburger zombie safari whilst Becky Ayre discovers a new alphabet amongst genetic oddities. izabela Lyra begins a sequence of new stories about Jade, sick with gems, containing all the contradictions of the modern world.
This monster finally contains numerous pieces of work by up-and-coming artists like Abigail Jones’ ‘A Taste of Perfection’ series, a freakish desecration of Lady Gaga and others by Nuala C. Murphy, a criminal badge of honour by Peter Willis, the beasts and ice cream inside the mind of Christy Taylor, disquieting new sketches of the female forms by Julia Scheele, and a cosmophilosophical comic-strip by Emix Regulus. Lucy Pepper shares with Nyx her reflections on the viciously observant Trolls catalogue, whilst we leave with an apocalyptic photo-essay on strung-out ravers by the anthropological eyes of Sinikka Heden and Nicholas Gledhill.
Contents
Un-nameable Thing - essay on theology and horror by Eugene Thacker illustrations by Christy Taylor
Stiks and Stones - interview with graffiti artist ‘Stik’ by Nicholas Gledhill photographs by Sinikka Heden
Haunting the Present, Inventing the Future – interview with Mark Fisher by Dan Taylor
To Have Done with the Judgement of Dogs – essay on London riots by Dr. Sofia Himmelblau (University for Strategic Optimism) images by Laura Oldfield Ford
Ascension – graphic narrative by Emix Regulus
Monstrum Impuissant – text by Phil Sawdon
Fransiscan Profanators – essay on radical pacifism by Amideo Policante
About Cordyceps – fiction by Dan Taylor
Kinds of Killing – essay on genocide by Nick Land
How to Troll a Troll (2.0 style…) – text and images by Lucy Pepper
Rising Fog – fiction by Lara Choksey
The Double Flow of Vigilantism – essay on the vigilante by Yari Lanci
Zombie Mine – poetry by Marcin Kolodziejczyk
Puppetry - images by Nuala Murphy
Zombie Safari – text and photography by Sinikka Heden and Nicholas Gledhill
Spectral Stories – poetry by Becky Ayre
The Right One – text and images by Abigail Jones
Jade – fiction by Izabela Lyra
