Romantic Ruins

Airy Contrasts

2012-01-22T00:40:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I discovered in an abandoned factory in Barcelona some artwork of the Brazilian artist Rodrigo Villas. Some colourful graffitis on the walls and above all the little birds, for which he’s probably best known.

These little bird sculptures provide a light, floating contrast to all the rotting concrete.

Battle Circle

2012-01-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here some cover versions of the science fiction trilogy "Battle Circle" by Piers Anthony. The covers are by the British artist Patrick Woodroffe.

In an post-apocalyptic world people settle their conflicts with highly ritualized combat in a so called "battle circle". Each warrior wears as second name the weapon he wields. And so the books are name after their protagonists:

Sos the Rope (1968)

Var the Stick (1972)

Neq the Sword (1975)

It’s good old thrilling action stuff, like those novels were in these times paving the way for the Road Warrior and others to come.

FreakAngels 5

2012-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

The great webcomic FreakAngels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield is still going on. Volume 5 is in the stores now for everyone who wants it printed. I like especially this mixture of steampunk and decay in partly flooded London.

Gothic Tradition

2011-12-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

Some covers of juvenile thriller and mystery novels by the American illustrator Charles Geer. Ruins are used here in the British gothic tradition as icons of mystery, suspense and horror.

America’s Decay

2011-12-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

This editorial was publishes by Vogue Korea in July 2008. It shows America in full decay. An abandoned motel and a gas station somewhere lost in the desert, kind of American dream. And probably an Asian romantic vision of the West.

Haunted House

2011-12-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

An old abandoned Art Nouveau mansion in Spain. It burned down some years ago and is now recovered by the vegetation, a really enchanted place.

Don’t call me babe

2011-12-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

Pamela Anderson in the post-apocalyptic film Barb Wire (1996), which is kind of a bad Russ Meyer version of Casablanca.
O.K., I know it’s a really bad movie, but Pamela looks good in her leather outfit and tries really hard to be cool. Maybe she’s got only one got sentence in the whole film "Don't call me babe!", but it’s not the worst I have seen over the years.

Max Ernst's Dark Visions

2011-11-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Two variations called "The Entire City" (1935 and 1936) by the German Surrealist painter Max Ernst (1891–1976). I have no doubt that this city is an abandoned ruin, large dark and menacing, a remnant of a ancient times.

Country in Ruins

2011-11-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

Surfing the web I stumbled upon this amazing video by Sarah Blackwood.
I didn’t know the music before, but when I saw this girl wandering through ruins, rescuing old dummies, I was immediately fascinated. And the music counts among the best what I have heard in the last months.

LONELY PARADE on Youtube

Post apocalyptic Western

2011-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah is a Belgian comic book series by Hermann Huppen. In a post-apocalyptic world, where racial wars have destroyed the USA, Jeremiah and his friend Kurdy are facing a series of adventures. The post-apocalyptic USA are depicted as kind of Wild West with some modern weapons.
Despite Jeremiah was very successful in Europe the series never was a success in the USA. Maybe it’s despite all the Western scenery too European after all. Nevertheless there was made the American television series Jeremiah based on the comic books.

Forgotten Worlds

2011-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

Some more of the impressive artwork by Frederick Catherwood, who visited and painted the ruins of the Maya civilization in the 19th century. His paintings have the enchantment of a long forgotten world.

Metro 2033

2011-11-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Metro 2033 is first-person shooter game elements. Based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. In a post apocalyptic world you have to fight mutants in the dark tunnels of the metro system.

Graphics and animation are really great. Maybe it’s a little surprising that a Russian computer game is still so strongly influenced by Stalingrad.

Decorative Elements

2011-10-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I stumbled about this nice piece of postmodern decoration. Some doors to a public park were produced with great efforts that they look like they were half broken by rust.
But it’s all a typical romantic pretension of decay.

Best is the contrast if you see these pieces in their real modern environment.

Crude Bloody Mary

2011-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Bloody Mary is a crude comic book series written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra abot an nun who is also a highly trained soldier. Returned to New York she finds it destroyed by foreign facists She fights the enemies, turning more fascist like these.

Anyway it’s an especially stupid comic, only of some interest because the iconographic Lady Liberty in ruins provides the whole topic of it.

Tim Burton’s Post apocalyptic Fairy Tales

2011-10-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

In the film "9" – produced by Tim Burton – an apocalyptic war between human and machines had destroyed human life and left only ruins, the deadly machines and some living. burlap dolls.
It’s a beautiful film with the typical Tim Burton esthetics, illumination and fascination of morbid decay. So there a lots of impressing ruin sceneries.

John Pugh’s Trompe-l'Oeil Ruins

2011-10-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

John Pugh is an American artist best known for his large trompe-l'oeil wall murals. Many of his murals show broken (ruined) walls revelaing some kind of classical architecture behind them. Funny is, that the old architecture is shown fully intact and not as ruin, which would probably its actual condition.

Post-Apocalyptic Dogs of War

2011-10-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

The great Humungus, the Ayatollah of the Rock and Roller is gravely disappointed and unleashing his dogs of war.

And here we have the oldest fried and true companion of men.

Yeah I liked an still do the Road Warrior. It imposed new standards on the whole genre and was full of dark humor and cutting irony.

The Ruins of Samuel Bak

2011-09-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Samuel Bak is an Israeli artist (born in Poland 1933) who stands in the great dark symbolistic tradition of Zdzisław Beksiński. Sure that Bak not is as dark and threatening as Beksiński but they share their obsession for ruins, which at least in Bak’s case is related with the experience of the Nazi occupation of Poland.
Typical for Bak’s paintings there are also as chess pieces and sometimes dices as recurring subjects.

Kind of Steampunk Fashion

2011-09-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

Here the Brazilian model Bruna Tenorio was shot by the fashion photographer Geoff Barrenger for the Ports 1961 Fall Winter 2010 Ad Campaign.

She poses in an old factory 19th century style. It’s especially this kind of industrial decay which gave the photos that fashionable steampunk look.

Remaining Signs

2011-09-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Two sience fiction cover illustrations of the 1960s. Both are using the ruins of human monuments to indicate that there happened a great disaster. The first looks like if thare where too much water, which has flloded great parts of the world. On the second there’s no water at all and sand is covering the the impressive monuments of mankind

Ruin Decoration

2011-09-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

Especially temple ruins are very popular to decorate aquariums. Naybe they shall remind us of great disasters like Atlantis.

2019 - After the Fall of New York

2011-07-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

2019 - After the Fall of New York (1983) is one of the cheap copycat films that followed the great success of the Road Warrior.

Like many of this genre it’s an Italian production where producers had a long experience with the peculiar Sword-and-Sandal films. Like the Road Warrior films their Italian sucessors preferred desert sceneries which resulted much cheaper than that filmed in cities.

Therefore a lot of these films look like Hercules meets Star Trek in the desert.

The Hangman

2011-07-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

These magnificent dark romantic paintings are by Paul Julian one of the best artist of warner brothers in the forties and fiefties.
They belong to the animation movie THE HANGMAN produced already in 1964. I suppose Stephen King used part of it as inspiration for his Dark Tower novels.
Anyway, more of this terrific artwork you’ll find here.

All Fools’ Day

2011-06-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

"All Fools' Day" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by the English writer Edmund Cooper. It was already published in 1966, meaning in the good old days of post-apocalyptic fiction. There was no atomic blast and Cooper is really enjoying the scenery when great parts of humanity have vanished.
It has happened in a nearly comfortable manner. Because of the strange radiation from sun-spots suicide became endemic. Nearly all normal people decided happily to end their lives, only the psychopaths and eccentrics were imune and left.
So it’s a kind of Road Warrior in Great Britain, nice to read at least for all, who are interested in the roots of the genre.

Strange Leftovers

2011-06-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

Some strange stone carvings in the Spanish community Catalonia. I think that’s all what’s left of an old medieval chapel.
Really fascinating place, but there's no sign, no description, nothing.

Hombre: Post Apocalyptic Comic

2011-06-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hombre is a Spanish comics series written by Antonio Segura and drawn by José Ortiz and was first published in 1981 in the magazine Cimoc.

Hombre lives in an America after the collapse of the technological civilization. He is sort of a post-apocalyptic cowboy and many of the people populating the ruined citues look (and behave) like zombies, long before these became fashionable in post-apocalyptic films and comics.

It’s a dark well drawn comic series which may have influenced even Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.

Embedded in Nature

2011-06-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

These fascinating buildings belong to the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in Noumea, New Caledonia. It was designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano, known for the Centre Pompidou.

Even though the buildings are a reference to the traditional huts of the Kanak tribes living in New Caledonia, there is also a strong impression of decay. The buildings seem to fall apart, to be covered by the vegetation, becoming once again part of nature.

Post Apocalyptic Posters

2011-05-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

Two paintings by the American artist Fred Eunaudi (born in 1971), who a unique surrealistic style to show nightmarish sceneries of a post apocalyptic world.

Some of his paintings look like old wartime propaganda posters like this one, which is one of my favorites. It’s called "Patriot". Proud and happy she’s returning from the battlefield presenting her pickings.

Post Apocalyptic Fashion

2011-05-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

A fantastic post apocalyptic Vogue editorial in Vogue Paris (September 2006) by Craig McDean.

Skinny models in the best Road Warrior look in an ambiance of industrial decay. That’s the combination to make a cool Vogue photo shoot.

Ruins to Rob

2011-05-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

A Tom Raider comic with the famous heroine Lara Croft.

Despite ruins are crucial in Tomb Raider, they never have any (romantic) value of their own. Like Indiana Jones Lara Croft is totally unsentimental. Ancient ruins exist for her only to be robbed, to look for treasures. Don’t mind if they are destroyed by the way. In absolutely no way Lara could be an archaeologist, she combines the mentality of buccaneer with that of a bank robber.

The Dark Tower

2011-04-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Dark Tower is a series of books by Stephen King. Despite the novels are set in a post apocalyptic world ruins and the decay of our civilization isn’t that important. King prefers obviously the scenery of the American Old West, the wastelands, the deserts. And their wandering heroes, like the gunslinger.

But anyway I like King’s language his descriptions: "The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what might have been parsecs in all directions. White; blinding; waterless; without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway and coaches had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied."

Zombieland

2011-04-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film, which combines elements of a zombie films with a road movie.

Four survivors of a zombie apocalypse are traveling together to "Pacific Playland" an amusement park, which is said rumored to be zombie-free. Sure it isn’t. And so happens the last shoot out in an abandoned amusement park. It’s a very diverting and funny movie.

Beksiński’s Bone Architecture

2011-03-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some more paintings of the famous Polish surrealistic artist Zdzisław Beksiński (1929–2005).

Beksiński used different techniques to achieve this characteristic mood of death and decay. One of them was the mixture of organic structures with architecture. Live is converted into dead material, bone architecture.

Post Apocalyptic Evenings

2011-03-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Three more post apocalyptic wallpapers, which can be found all over the web. Though they are probably by different artists I’ll post them together, because they represent the same post apocalyptic view. Civilisation has gone and without any doubt the world is now a better place, a romantic one. Nature comes slowly back.

Mad Bündchen

2011-03-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Gisele Bündchen posing as a female version of Mad Max for DT Magazine in october 2010. I think always if the post-apocalypse is so fashionable it must be a little more than the weird dream of a bunch of lunatics.

Transformers vs. Lady Liberty

2011-03-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

An edition of a Transformers comic book. We see once more Lady liberty as the icon of destruction. “Humanity at it’s lowest point”, as it is called.

Breaking Bad

2011-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

Breaking Bad is at the moment my favorite television series. It’s about Walter White a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. To secure his family's financial future he started producing and selling methamphetamine with his former student Jesse Pinkman.

Despite the series black humor it’s at a first look not much about ruins. But at a second it’s much about decay, about the ruin of the American middle-class, struggling in vain to maintain the status, without a secure future and without a good health-insurance.

This pivotal topic is reflected by the impressive beauty of the images of abandoned parking lots, decaying buildings and behind all a vast western style landscape. Above all because of the images Breaking Bad is also a profoundly romantic series, confronting human decay with the beauty of nature.

And last not least there is Saul Goodman Walt and Jesse's criminal lawyer. Above his shabby office there is flapping a trashy Lady Liberty, in this form a well known symbol of American decay.

Abandoned Monastery

2011-02-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

An abandoned monastery in northern Spain. Nature is coming back, destroying more and more of the old buildings.

Beautiful Decay

2011-02-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

Two beautiful post-apocalyptic paintings by the Swedish artist Andrée Wallin. It’s easy to be seen where the allure of such sceneries can be found.

Big Tits Zombie

2011-01-25T00:41:00.000-08:00

Big Tits Dragon (2010) is a Japanese fantasy-horror film. Because of the zombies it’s also a kind of post-apocalyptic movie.
I love the strange colours and sceneries of these trash movies. The world is already gone and we’re living in a weird panopticon. And despite all the big titties the film is profoundly sad.

London Futures

2011-01-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

A new exhibition shows London landmarks in an environment transformed by climate change. From rice fields in Parliament Square to ice-skating on the Thames, 14 familiar views of the capital have been digitally transformed by illustrators Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones. The exhibition runs from October until March 2011 at the Museum of London.

The Walking Dead

2010-12-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

Some covers of the comic book series "The Walking Dead". One of my favorites. In my humble opinion the covers are really great art.

Robert’s Ruins

2010-12-20T02:08:00.001-08:00

Hubert Robert (1733–1808) was a French painter who marks the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. Like many artists of his time he traveled to Italy to visit and study there architecture, museums and landscape. Soon ruins became his favorite subject, which earned him the nickname "Robert of the Ruines".

Interior of the Temple of Diana at Nimes (1771)

Roman Ruins (c. 1760)

The Old Bridge (c.1775)

But even though he chose classical ruins as subjects he painted them in a romantic manner. It’s a sweet decay reminding of greater times which have long passed by.

Disaster Architecture

2010-12-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pasadena, California was designed by the Californian firm of architects Morphosis and finished in 2009.

The terra cotta facade is fragmented and reminds of buildings after earthquakes. To me it looks like the quotation of disasters like that in Chile 2010 – in this case more a kind of anticipation.

Atomic Apocalypse

2010-11-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

Back in the Fiefties fear of a nuclear war was real. So Collier’s published a series about how New York would look like after an atomic bomb. Reminds of the more romantic post apocalyptic stuff from today.

Terminator Styling

2010-11-22T06:28:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon this Dior advertising. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think that it’s possible to show an eye like this without quoting good old Arnold.
This red mechanical eye is already an icon, which was even quoted by the last Terminator film.

Industrial Gothic

2010-11-12T09:02:00.000-08:00

Industrial Gothic is a comic book series illustrated by Ted McKeever and published in 1995. The story is settled somewhere in a dystopian future with lots of nice ruins.
The images are from volume 1.

Old Fortress

2010-11-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

Abandoned pre World War One fortress in Lorraine (France). It’s closed but abandoned in the forest. The gun towers are exploded.

The Walking Dead on TV

2010-10-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

Finallly The Walking Dead will premiere on Halloween (October 31, 2010) on TV. I expect much, because the comic book series is really great. So probably there will be a lot of abandoned places, death and decay…

Doomsday

2010-10-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

Few days ago I watched the film Doomsday (2008) by Neil Marshall. I didn’t expect too much because the film received a lot of mixed and even bad reviews. But I liked it. It's nothing genuine new much more an homage to the classical post-apocalyptic films like Mad Max, Escape from New York and others. And last not least Rhona Mitra is a gorgeous kick ass heroine like Milla Jovovich from Resident Evil.

I think it’s a good action movie for all who appreciate the good old post-apocalyptic stuff. The message ist simple: civilization is rotten and corrupt. The savages on the other side of the new Hadrian Wall are the better men.

Dead Mermaids

2010-09-24T08:37:00.001-07:00

The August 2010 issue of Vogue Italia published this editorial by Steven Meisel. Called "Water & Oil" reminds of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf. Though it pretends to be critical it looks to me a lot more like an exploitation of the subject.

Anyway I appreciate a lot the cool style of Meisel’s photos and the quotation of the mermaid-subject. And there are his romantic roots, which seems much more important to him than this actual desaster.

Post-Apocalyptic Survival Tips

2010-09-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think that I will probably never understand US-Americans.

To me it seems normal to visit industrial ruins and breathe and feel there the nostalgic atmosphere of decay. I also understand that many people like Mad-Max-style post-apocalyptic movies or are passing their time with shooting zombies in video games.

But then I came across that book "When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes" by Cody Lundin. At the first look it seemed to be some post-apocalyptic zombie novel (I'm always looking for books like these). But then I discovered that it is real, not a bad joke, someone is really giving tips how to prepare for the apocalypse. And not enough, there are further a lot of people who are buying that stuff, who wanted to be prepared for 2012. Sometimes good fiction seems to be overtaken by reality.

FreakAngels

2010-09-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

FreakAngels is a free web-comic written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield.
The FreakAngels are a group of young people living in flooded London. They are cultivating plants on platforms over the rooftops a sunny tropical climate. Despite the story and the characters are interesting the abandoned decaying London has a special charm.

Beautiful Girls & Decay

2010-07-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Here two nice paintings by the Spanish artist Luis Royo. He combines his usual sexy girls with an environment of ruins and decay. Leather, bare skin with red and black as dominating colors, could be painted fashion.

Evangelical Etertainment

2010-07-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" is a Christian video game based on the evangelical Christian Left Behind series of novels. The player controls the Tribulation Force, a Christian military group in a post-apocalyptic New York ("post-Rapture" is the Christian term). He has to fight against the world government led by the Antichrist.

To defeat the enemy the player has to convert neutral and enemy-allied civilians or to annihilate them. He is encouraged to use conversion over violence when possible.

Nevertheless the game caused a lot of criticism upon its release. Even many Christian groups criticized the use of religious intolerance and violence as essential parts of the game. One critic said: "The game is about killing people for their lack of faith in Jesus."
But just because of that it may be a good example for the Christian Supremacist movement in the United States of today.

Cherry 2000

2010-07-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Few days ago I watched again Cherry 2000, a science fiction film from 1987. It’s one of these post Mad Max productions, mixing road-movie, western and science fiction elements. Despite the lack of ruins – like most of this genre and this time the film is set in the desert to reduce costs – there’s a lot of decadence and decay, which is presented with cutting irony.

Plastic fantastic. I’m sure that even Steven Meisel couldn’t do much better.

Trash and decay

When the beloved female home robot of the yuppie Sam Treadwell is broken, he is looking desperately for a substitute a new Cherry 2000. But it’s the future and Sam has to learn: "In The Year 2017, A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. A Cherry 2000 Is Even Harder."

Sweet Cherry 2000

He is told, that maybe in the lawless wasteland known as "Zone Seven" he can find another Cherry 2000. To go there, he has to hire a tracker, a certain E. Johnson, who turned out to be a woman, played by Melanie Griffith with cherry red hair. It needs the entire film and a lot of adventures until Sam realizes that a real woman could be more attractive than a robot.

Cherry red Melanie Griffith

Pixel Apocalypse

2010-07-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Probably one of best apocalyptic clips on Youtube is PIXELS by Patrick Jean. It’s very clever planned and well-realized. Old classic video games are destructing New York converting it into pixels.

Kinda Atlantikwall Bunkers

2010-07-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

On the Costa Brava in Spain I discovered this strange piece of modern architecture. Half a dozen cubical beach cabins are hosting a sailing school.

What I found really interesting – besides the neglected condition – was the inclined construction, which gives the illusion that the cabins where half sunken in the sand.

It reminded me immediately of the well known pictures of the old German bunkers of the Atlantikwall in France.

Boring Gore

2010-06-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful and splendid future the side effects of global warming have to offer shows one of the latest Diesel ad campaigns. Guys like the boring Al Gore seem completely wrong with their negative forecasts.

Rio de Janeiro is underwater but good looking people have still a lot of fun, on their yachts.

In flooded New York there is also nice weather, so that people use the rooftops of the skyscrapers for sunbathing.

Even foggy London became a tropical island.

With so much optimism I don’t wonder that already some new interpretations of this campaign can be found in the web. Like this one by dr4oz.

World Trade Center

2010-06-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

"Rebel" is A graphic novel by the Spanish comic book artist Pepe Moreno. Rebel was first published in Heavy Metal magazine in 1985 and then in the following year as a graphic novel.

So it was done long before 9/11. And though Moreno left great parts of the Twin Towers standing he converted other parts of Manhattan in ruins. Anyway his illustrations seem really prophetic compared to later photos.

Fantasy Art

2010-06-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

These two paintings are by the American painter and illustrator Michael Whelan (born in 1950). He is a well known science fiction and fantasy illustrator who produced hundreds of book covers. Like many artists in this business he knows quite well to use ruins and decay in his work.

Lust for Destruction

2010-06-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

I don’t like the film and I neither like Roland Emmerich as a director. But because I’m writing here about ruins, decay and destruction and the iconographic interpretation of it, I cannot prevent to write at least some few words about this nuisance.

First I’m annoyed with what great delight Emmerich celebrates (once more) the destruction of the world. Now it’s not only Godzilla (1998) trampling down New York or wicked aliens blasting away the capitals of the world like in Independence Day (1996). Neither the destruction of half of the world like in The Day After Tomorrow (2004) is enough. All this is kid’s stuff compared to the new apocalypse. Now Emmerich is tearing continents apart and engulfing the Himalayas. And nobody should think that all these disasters are a kind of warnings, how Emmerich sells them sometimes, it’s pure lust of destruction, always more, bigger and faster. Maybe he will trample down the whole universe in his next movie.

But what bothers me most, is that all these films have lost the good old grace of narration. There’s no time for a global warming or freezing, for the continental drift, all has to happen like Mission Impossible in some hours, maybe some days or weeks. Means that there is no story, there is only a hollow spectacle. Maybe that’s the real apocalypse which Emmerich is showing us.

The Ruins of Barcelona

2010-06-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Albert Puntí is a Photographer from Barcelona. In one of his projects he shows well known buildings of his native city in ruins.

On his website he writes about this series: "This project’s aim is to reflect upon the fragility of human projects, and comes from two different ideas. Firstly, the idea that our civilization (as any previous civilization) will come to an end and, secondly, at a formal level, the treatment of ruins in romantic painting. In the 18th century, many painters aiming to improve their knowledge of Greek and Roman civilizations, traveled across different European cities, documenting the remains of these civilizations. In this project I have used the same three elements as them: ruins– vegetation- painter, with one key difference, which is the originality of this work: here, the traveler does not admire the remains of a previous civilization, but travels to the future to see what is left of his own."

Roman Quarry

2010-05-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

El Médol in an old roman stone quarry few kilometers north of Tarragona, near the Vía Augusta which connected Tarragona with Rome. The still impressive site has a special charm. Because of the humid microclimate in this artificial valley all is covered by tropical vegetation, different from the kind surrounding area.

In the center of the quarry rises a spectacular monolith called the "Needle of Médol" to a height from about 16 m.

Fashion in Ruins

2010-05-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

There are more than a few fashion photographers who exploit the contrast of beautiful well dressed models to industrial ruins and decay.

This series by the photographer Baldovino Barani was published in the South China Morning Post in the March issue 2008.

Medieval Heritage

2010-05-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

These images are from the book "The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain" (1807-14) by John Britton.

Despite the illustration are very typical for 19th century books they are surprising in a historical context. Only few years before artists used to travel to Italy where they painted classical ruin scenarios.

Kenilworth

Lindisfarne

In the aesthetic of ruins this was a great step from these classical roman ruins to the own "homemade" ones. It was a step towards romanticism and towards national history. The ruins of Romanesque and Gothic architecture became symbols of a national heritage.

Post-Apocalyptic 3D City

2010-05-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

3DRT produces 3D models which can be used by developers of multimedia applications and games. On their homepage 3DRT.com offers a lot of stuff: characters, vehicles, arms, spaceships and whole cities. I was especially interested in the cities and really surprised that half of these consist in ruins. It seems that day and night-versions of an abandoned city are the most important things, that game developers need today.

Nice photos but here the animation on YouTube

Fallout 3

2010-05-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Some impressive pictures of the video game Fallout 3:

For me the pictures of Fallout 3 are like a summary of modern post-apocalyptic ruin aesthetics.

Resident Evil: Extinction

2010-04-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

From the Resident Evil movies "Extinction" is the post-apocalyptic one. Mankind has nearly disappeared and only few survivors are trying to make their way through an infested country. And if there wasn’t Milla Jovovich like an avenging angel nobody would made it.

That’s a nice occasion to show the glamour of Las Vegas in ruins. Like relics of a bygone civilization there are the Eiffel Tower and Lady Liberty.

Exotic Orient

2010-04-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Like many other artists of this time the Scottish painter David Roberts (1796–1864) traveled in the early 19th century to Egypt. But different from others he intended from the beginning to sell his artwork later as lithographs to a greater public. And as true son of the romantic movement he drew dramatic sketches of exotic ruins, still covered with paintings and half buried in the sand. Maybe he was the first to discover the special attraction of exotic ruins at all.

Probably it was due to this combination of romantic interpretation and (unromantic) mass production that Roberts gained this enormous influence on the iconography of ruins. Without his artworks many modern films and videogames like Tombraider or Indiana Jones would have a different look.

Defending New York

2010-04-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Mighty Samson was a post-apocalyptic comic created by writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Thorne and published by Gold Key between 1964 and 1982.

Mighty Samson is a kind of superhero who has to fight with evil humans and mutated monsters. Here in #4 he’s defending New York against foreign scrap robbers. Despite I don’t understand why anybody should fight about metal scrap in a world full of ruins, it’s nice to meet Lady Liberty again and to see that she will be defended by our hero.

Exotic Battlefields

2010-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

Two beautiful paintings by the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904).

Vereshchagin was probably the most famous Russian battle painter of his time and accompanied the Russian army on it’s campaigns in Central Asia. At the first look the paintings look idyllic, war and misery are hidden only indicated by the vultures above.

Post-Apocalyptic Rolling Stones

2010-03-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

This nice painting by Rodney Matthews from the 1970s with the title "Another Time, Another Place" shows the Rolling Stones as post-apocalyptical highwaymen.

And because Rodney Matthews is as British as the Stones, in the back there is Big Ben to be seen and not Lady Liberty.

Anticipating Disasters

2010-03-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

The Historic Museum in Ningbo (China) by Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture looks like an earthquake or a tornado have passed by. The walls are asymmetric, inclined and composed of different materials.

The architect Wang Shu explained, that fragments of demolished buildings from all over the region were used to construct the walls of the museum. This is part of local traditional building techniques called "wa pan", developed by local farmers to cope with frequent natural disasters.

Jewish Cemetery

2010-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

A Jewish cemetery in Berlin. Many of the graves are in art nouveau or art deco style. But because of many families there is no one left to take care of the graves they are falling apart.

Ivy, moss, fern and other plants are covering the monuments of death uniting them with nature: Ashes to ashes dust to dust.

Beksiński’s Nightmares

2010-03-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

Zdzisław Beksiński (1929–2005) was an important Polish artist who became famous for his surrealistic post-apocalyptic paintings.

In many of this disturbing sceneries ruins are playing an important part as symbols of death and decay. Also interesting is that he combines sometimes ruins with body parts which underlines the death metaphor of the ruins.

Old India

2010-03-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ruins south Old Delhi. Two steel engravings published c.1860. These typical 19th century and very romantic pictures are already presenting ruins as exotic artifacts.

Post-Apocalyptic Fashion

2010-02-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

This post-apocalyptic series is by the famous fashion photographer Steven Meisel and was published by Vogue Italia in September 2004.

The abandoned morbid scenery refers to a lot of post apocalyptic and zombie films, like for example "Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007) with Milla Jovovich. Jessica Stam the model poses like a dead victim or already as a zombie. I like Meisel because his dark humor.

Construction of Virtual Ruins

2010-02-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

Visiting blogs of my followers, what I routinely do because many have similar interests, I discovered the beautiful project of James Garner. He made a 3D animation about the alien ruins in H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Mountains of Madness. I don’t understand much of animations, but always thought it must be a great lot of work.

Therefore I found it interesting that someone describes it in detail illustrated with a lot of images. Garner starts with some raw sketches and ends up with a convincing video clip.

It’s also interesting to read where he took his inspirations from, how he built up his own vision of ruins to construct these virtual ones

Heavy Metal Ruins

2010-02-18T00:24:00.000-08:00

In search of the iconographic roots of ruin illustrations I passed through a lot of editions of Heavy Metal Magazine – started in 1977. Soon I noticed that in the first years not much is to be found. But then in the 1990s ruins started to become fashionable.

Today a combination well armed half naked warrior women with ruins seems to be the climax of comic art.

Cover of a 2003 edition by Luis Royo

Cover of a 2004 edition by Jim Burns

Ruinenberg Potsdam

2010-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Near Berlin lies the city of Potsdam the old residence of the former Prussian kings. Far enough from the noisy Berlin Frederick the Great constructed here his palace Sanssouci which is still the main tourist attraction.

To provide the fountains of the gardens with water a great tank was built in 1748 on a hill in front of the palace. So that the great king was not annoyed with the view of a banal tank the hill was decorated with a greek/roman folly ruin. Later in the 19th century when the taste had changed more to medieval ruins a Norman castle was added.

Greek/Roman temple

Norman castle with the tank in front

Deathlands Ruins

2010-02-06T00:14:00.000-08:00

In the 1980s Gold Eagle Books started a series of post-apocalyptic novels which were written by various authors but published under the artificial name of James Axler. After a nuclear winter the United States came to be known as the Deathlands, where everybody has to fight for his freedom and his survival.

But above all I like the covers of the books which are normally showing a similar mixture of mutated beasts, survival gear and post-apocalyptic ruins. The ruins are here the symbol of a lost civilization that has returned to wild primitive levels.

Böcklin's Tomb

2010-02-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

This painting by the German artist Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922) refers to the Swiss Symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin and his most famous painting "Isle of the Dead".

Böcklin's Tomb is no ruin, but it’s already covered by plants and well integrated into nature. Ashes to ashes…

Science Fiction Ruins

2010-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

This science fiction illustration is by the British artist Tony Roberts. It was published in the Heavy Metal Magazine in 1982.

Once more it’s Lady Liberty who bears witness to a bygone history of mankind.

Bone Architecture

2010-01-21T11:20:00.000-08:00

Santiago Calatrava Valls is an internationally famous Spanish star architect and designer. In his native Valencia he designed the "Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències" (constructed 1996-2009).

Despite the gigantic museum is far from being something like a ruin, the whole construction resembles the skeleton of a whale and uses therefore the old romantic connection between ruins, skeletons, death and decay. Though Calatrava’s construction is of a clean, fresh washed white death and decay are omnipresent.

The Book of Eli

2010-01-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

The Book of Eli is an upcoming post-apocalyptic action film starring Denzel Washington. The film is directed by the Hughes brothers and is scheduled to be released in January 2010.

The trailer and the images are stylish dark and are showing strong influences of Mad Max, Cyborg and Fallout 3. So let’s hope that it will be better than the last Terminator, but that should'nt be very difficult.

Borderlands

2010-01-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

Borderlands is a science fiction shooter game developed by Gearbox Software for Windows, Xbox and PlayStation and released end of 2007.

The Background is set on the planet of Pandora where rich mines of minerals have attracted colonists. After the "gold rush" the colonists live in isolated settlements and many became bandits.

I dont’t want to evaluate the game here, but the scenery formed by abandoned industrial complexes and rests of alien ruins looks therefore a lot like that of post-apocalytic games. But above all it underlines the importance of a good ruin decoration for shooter games.

Landscapes With Ruins

2010-01-04T00:15:00.000-08:00

Jan Asselijn was a Dutch Baroque Era Painter (c.1615-1652) who was specialized in landscapes. Like many of the artists of his time he traveled to Italy and must have been very impressed by the Roman ruins there.

His Italian landscape paintings are normally dominated by these enormous ruins. They seem to be a part of nature but also witnesses of a greater and glorious past.

Steampunk Ruins

2009-12-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

The ironworks in Völklingen (Germany) were closed in 1986 and became later a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gigantic blast furnaces and Cowper stoves are rusting and became slowly covered by vegetation.

A real impressive site.

After Mankind

2009-12-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

Two nice covers of the U.S. science fiction magazine Fantastic Universe showing robots in typical human poses. To leave it clear that they are the heirs of mankind, who has not survived, the scenery is decorated with some human ruins.

Fantastic Universe (Dec. 1957)

Fantastic Universe (Aug. 1958)

Easy Booty

2009-12-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Maybe that today the most frequent connotation of ruins is that of misery and destruction. That’s how we see ruins nearly every day in the news and therefore these significations are much more common than any romantic or weird glorifications. Nevertheless there may be another meaning which is probably even older and that’s the banal view of ruins as easy booty.

Sure anybody is dreaming of hidden treasures, old weapons or precious statues, but reality is usually much more trivial. Since the beginning of civilization, meaning since the first ruins in history, these served above all as a resource of construction material. Probably already the Neanderthal men examined abandoned camps for timber, bones or useful stones.

Before mankind reached the modern western state of welfare there was no space for romantic reflections, ruins had to serve a certain purpose, they were used as quarries, as an easy resource of ready hewn stone.

Impressive ruins like the Heidelberg Castle were used over many years by the townsfolk to build their new houses. But the castle in Heidelberg was popular enough that the process was stopped already in 1800.

Many castles, monasteries, city walls, roman temples and aqueducts all over the world were not so lucky and disappeared in many completely from the map. Some where only saved by their huge amount of stones, so that there is still left something.

The gigantic Roman Colosseum served over centuries as a quarry for the new palaces in Rome. Maybe it would have been reduced to nothing with the faster construction in the 19th century. Fortunately already in 1749 the Pope declared it a sacred place by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there.

The famous Cluny Abbey for example, the largest church of Christendom until the construction of St. Peter in Rome, was sold as a quarry during the French Revolution and disappeared almost completely in some few years.

In older times there were no romantic feelings regarding ruins. Especially if construction material was needed urgently it was taken from what was near at hand regardless of any sentimentality. Nice examples could be seen in Greece, where Crusaders, Turks and Venetians constructed their fortifications with the remains of Greek temples.

Even the most impressive ruins of mankind like the Pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China were used over centuries as quarries.

The Pyramids of Giza were once covered by casing stones that formed a smooth surface. Some of the casing stones that once covered the whole structure can still be seen at the top, probably because they were there out of reach. But the most were used to build mosques or the immense Citadel of Cairo.

Despite being the tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site parts of the Great Wall of China are still used as a resource of construction material. For example the magnificent wall surrounding Beijing was torn down during the Cultural Revolution, the stones were used for newer buildings.

Sure that there may be ruins hiding treasures, housing memories or representing a glorious past, but that’s all luxury. Normally ruins are simple resources of stones. In the aftermath of World War II when great parts of Germany were destroyed many women were conscripted as so called "rubble women" (Trümmerfrauen) to clean the cities of all the debris. Another important task was to convert as much as possible of the debris into acceptable bricks.

The New Art of Making Ruins

2009-12-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

Fascinating documentary about the decay of Havana. There are many ruins in Havana, some are still inhabited. The documentary shows incredible scenes and also interesting interviews of people living there, who are explaining their situation with a certain kind of grim humour, which may be the only way to survive under circumstances like this.

Post Apocalytic Companions

2009-11-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

Probably everybody, who saw in the film "I Am Legend" (2007) Will Smith walking though New York with his German Shepherd "Sam" as his last and only friend, was reminded of a very similar scene in the "The Road Warrior" (1981) with Mel Gibson.

Without any doubt the image of a man and his dog is already an icon and has older role models:

Dogs are good companions faithful and most loyal to their masters, so that they are even called sometimes "the oldest friend of man". Maybe here’s the root for their popularity in post apocalyptic movies. If they are the oldest friends maybe they should also be the last ones.

Two more examples of dogs in post apocalyptic movies :

A Boy and His Dog (1975) - maybe this was the inspiration for Mad Max.

Downstream (maybe next year)

Baroque Decay in Naples

2009-11-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

I don’t know another city like Naples where the baroque passion for the vanitas the symbol of the futility of live and human efforts is so present, it finds its correlation in the whole city which seems to fall apart.

The skull the main symbol of the vanitas can be found on many old buildings but also as modern graffiti.

Fashion and Decay

2009-11-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

In the Vogue Italy appeared in June 2007 this editorial by the famous fashion photographer Steven Meisel (maybe my favourite).

It shows different models in the scenery of abandoned and derelict industrial architecture. Meisel likes this morbid atmosphere. To me he seems sometimes as a modern version of Thomas Cole, a late romantic ruin lover.

Past and Present

2009-11-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

The Past (1838)

The Present (1838)

The English-American artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) confronts here two paintings showing the same castle in different epochs, first in the middle ages during it’s best time, second today as a ruin. In the painting of the actual castle this is allegorically illuminated by the evening sun. Ruin – evening – death.
These very, very romantic paintings are illustrating the romantic glorification of ruins, death and decay.

Maybe it should be mentioned that neither the old castle nor the actual one are depictions of a real castle, they are pure fantasy.

One small stone, one giant leap in ruin history

2009-11-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

Probably it’s neither a nice photo nor an impressive ruin, nevertheless it is one of the most important buildings in the history of ruins.

It is the so called Ponte Ruinante (the ruined bridge) part of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and probably designed by the Italian artist and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). The currently derelict bridge was already by Bernini constructed as a ruin with one of the vault stones looking as it was coming down. Bernini tried to imitate the ancient Roman ruins. As far as I know the Ponte Ruinante is maybe the first artificial ruin, the first folly ruin.

The Rise of Post-Apocalyptic Movies

2009-11-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

Interesting commentary by the BBC about the new rise of post-apocalyptic movies like Terminator, 9, The Book of Eli, The Road and so on.

"Hollywood is about to launch a new wave of big-budget apocalyptic spectacles, depicting a world where human life has been all but destroyed. From September, big name stars aided by impressive special effects will be bringing competing post-cataclysmic visions to cinemas. Many think this new batch of disaster films has been triggered by topical anxieties."

Al-Qaeda Fantasy

2009-10-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

When I saw these paintings by Boris Vallejo for the first time, I couldn’t avoid thinking of the 9/11. Maybe old Osama and the guys in Afghanistan were great fans of Boris Vallejo. But in the end I don’t think so. The big similarity derives from the fact that the best apocalypse has still to happen in New York.

Vallejo did the paintings in 1997 to illustrate a text by Philip José Farmer.

Colosseum Ruins for Dallas

2009-10-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I stumbled upon this interesting project called CO-OP CANYON by the architecture firm Standard. It was planned as a sustainable, zero carbon, no waste water community of modern, terraced urban dwelling house in Dallas.

This architects claimed that they draw their inspirations from the villages of the Anasazi Indians. But I recognize only the Roman Colosseum. Even better as the original this quotation of a ruin is covered with plants.