Craphound
What a phenomenal publication! Craphound really captures the gestalt of our culture, both at the high level of the seemingly free associative themes that might actually be quite semiotic and at the lower level of huge heaps of imagery that are largely dull, prosaic and valueless but are treasured for the emotional attachment to the hunt to find them.
We just picked up Craphound 6 - Deaths, Telephones, Scissors. It was originally published in 1997, but it seems very timely today. Skulls have made the metaphorical leap from Hell’s Angels’ arms to shirts from H&M. I’m not sure if the current wave of apocalyptic scenarios in the media is fueling the connection to such imagery, or if death has always been a cultural fascination, but it came as no surprise to me that the Death section of Craphound outweighs the Scissors and Telephones by about 3 to 1. Skulls, tombstones, reapers, coffins, hourglasses abound.
The connection of Death and Scissors is quite apparent, but I particularly like the inclusion of Telephones. The telephone increases the scope of whom we can talk to by a factor of thousands, while simultaneously reducing our senses to hearing alone. Surely, some long dead relative would reach beyond the pale over the long distance lines? Does the graveyard accept collect calls? Editor Sean Tejaratchi hints at such deep mental relationships both in a preface to the edition, as well as a small set of images where the three themes intermingle, e.g. an executioner on the phone at the electric chair switch.
Aside from the editing that makes Craphound so fascinating, there’s the basic conceit of the magazine: it’s worthwhile to collect and look at thousands of images of the same thing. There’s something deeply satisfying about collecting, that might hearken all the way back to organisms most primitive. A bee’s life is largely moving from flower to flower, a hawk’s looking for movement in a field, a bear’s chasing signs of the next meal. Our hunts in the developed world are no longer so immediate, but they still push some of the old buttons.
All in all, a wonderful thing to have on hand for a deeper look at ourselves and to waste some time.
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