Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the canon of literary classics that I haven’t yet had the dubious pleasure of wading through yet. I’ve never seen the Boris Karloff film either, and I only made it half way through the modern version with Robert De Niro in, so a bit of background was needed before setting out to write about The Frankenstein Freak Show from Kult Gallery in Singapore. By osmosis I already knew that Frankenstein is the name of the scientist and not the monster, who doesn’t have a name except, referring to God’s creation of man, he likens himself to Adam. I also know why the monster never had children. It’s because his nuts were in his neck. Ba-dum tish. Just think, the 99% of people who quite understandably skip the writing and just look at the pictures missed out on that.
The exhibition has invited an international group of 24 artists to have fun with Dr Frankenstein’s terrible creation. Karloff’s lumbering, lump-headed zombie is the template for most people’s idea of what the monster is all about; although generations of Hallowe’en costumes and comedy send-ups have somewhat transformed the horror icon into a figure of fun, there’s a few gory reminders of the character’s origin story to put visitors off their lunch among the spoofs. The UK’s Russel Taysom and Mysterious Al provide two of the more light-hearted versions, while Ben Frost transplants the 1931 film depiction and Japan’s Sexual Youkai gruesomely splices mechanics and meat. The Frankenstein Freak Show is being held at the Creatory, a disused warehouse on MacTaggart Road, 23-24 August as part of the Creatory Vol.1 – Local is Lovely festival.
Kimiaki Yaegashi
Russel Taysom
Ben Frost
Sexual Youkai
Mysterious Al
