THIS MONTH: the re-imagined monsters of chris roberts
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oronto’s chris roberts is no stranger to these pages. We ran his Twilight Zone piece, Terror At 20,000 Feet, for our Richard Matheson retrospective (RM#35) and a collage of Vincent Price portraits called Vincent Price Is Right for our art feature celebrating 100 years of Vincent Price (RM#111). Needless to say, we’re big fans, but he also may just be Canada’s best-kept secret when it comes to horror art.
By day, Roberts works at a print shop, creating graphics and illus-
trations for various film and television productions, most recently work- ing with prop departments on Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rimand the upcoming Total Recall remake. By night, he can be found working away in his art lab, stitching together his love of art history and classic horror. “I had done traditional monster portraits in the past and was looking
for a fresh approach,” explains Roberts of his idea to mix monsters with classical works of art. “The first mash-up painting was a commis- sioned piece and the response was so enthusiastic, it developed into a whole series.” His work is similar in theme to lowbrow artist Isabel Samaras, who’s
become known for placing classic monsters within classical painting settings, such as her Black Venus, which puts the Bride of Frankenstein in the familiar context of Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth Of Venus. Roberts, however, takes the concept to a new level, while adding a healthy dose of black humour. His spoof of Death Of Marat (by French painter Jacques-Louis David), for example, is re-imagined as Death Of A Gillman (pictured) and portrays the Creature instead of assassinated rev- olutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat lying limp in the bath. Both Marat and the Creature are seen as tragic figures and the parallels are comical but poignant. Perhaps the Crea- ture was as much the victim of Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), as was Marat of his real- life murderer Charlotte Corday.
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Similarly, Roberts’ take on Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque de-
picts the Bride of Frankenstein naked, save for stitches, and surrounded by lab equip- ment. She is no doubt a concubine for the Monster. Perhaps Roberts’ most memorable piece, though, is his brilliant riff on Leonardo da
Vinci’s The Last Supper (above). In it, Jesus and his twelve disciples have been replaced by Universal’s roster of infamous ghouls. “I started with Frankenstein as Jesus because he rose from the
dead, Judas became Mr. Hyde because he’s a two-faced jerk, and the two figures on either end of the table, with their long flowing capes, could only become Dracula and the Phantom,” says Roberts of his take on the famous painting. “The others were mostly dictated by the poses of the figures; for example, the robes of one disciple suggested the bandages of the Mummy.” Close inspection reveals other ingenious touches, including the fact
that the Invisible Man has no feet under the table. And, if there’s any question that Roberts is a man of detail, one need only look at his sculptures. Working with plaster, he’s created one-of-a-kind mini-busts of diverse creatures such as the Gillman, Ray Harryhausen’s cyclops and an intricate Norris head from John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Roberts says he takes inspiration from an exceptionally diverse roster of artists, in-
cluding classical painters Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Magritte, as well as more modern masters such as H.R. Giger, comic book illustrators Richard Corben and Bernie Wright- son, and Aurora model box art illustrator James Bama. So then, what’s next? “I’ve been thinking of Dali’s The Persistence Of Memory as a possibility,” notes Roberts