Legendary Artist Transforms Himself into His Late Wife

When artist and musician Genesis P-Orridge met his future wife for the first time, in 1993, she dressed him up in her clothes, makeup, and a wig, transforming him into her lookalike. That, in essence, was his first step towards self-transformation, two decades in the making. To this day, even though his wife Jaye has passed on, Genesis continues their love affair by trying to become her.

Genesis, who was born Neil Megson, was already a controversial musician, artist, and a pioneer of modern body transformation in the ’70s and ’80s, long before he met his wife. His 1976 art collective COUM Transmissions, staged an exhibition called ‘Prostitution’, which featured pornographic photographs, sculptures made of used tampons, and transvestite security guards. He had his genitals pierced in the early ’80s, making it to the front page of many British publications.

But his highly unconventional life got even more bizarre after his first meeting with Jacqueline Breyer, a.k.a Lady Jaye. Genesis fell hard for the tall, blond registered nurse, who shared his passion for body modification.  “She told me she saw me as a mirror image of her, and that we were meant to be two halves of one,” Genesis recalls of that first meeting. Since then the two became inseparable.

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Stupid ‘Sunburn Art’ Trend Puts People at Risk of Skin Cancer

Thousands of Instagrammers around the world are risking skin cancer in a bid to follow the latest online craze – ‘sunburn art’.

One of the unhealthiest trends to hit social media in recent years, sunburn art involves using sunscreen or stencils on parts of their body to burn various designs into their skin. The sunburn patterns range from straight lines to floral themes and abstract shapes. Some designs cover a small patch of skin, while others span the entire body.

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Artist Paints Incredibly Realistic Portraits on His Palms, Then Stamps Them on Paper

California-based Russell Powell is without a doubt one of the most talented and original artists we have ever featured on Oddity Central. The young artist is able to paint incredibly detailed portraits on the palm of his left hand, before stamping it on a paper canvas to create a permanent imprint of the artwork.

Powell calls the process ‘hand-stamping’; it’s a tricky technique because not only does he use the irregular surface of his palm to create detailed works of art, he also needs to work fast to complete the portrait before the paint dries, for a clear imprint. The end result, however, is nothing short of breathtaking.

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Father-Son Duo Create the Most Amazing Pancake Artworks

Edible pancake art is nothing new, but we have yet to see anything as detailed as the masterpieces of Tiger Tomato, a father son duo who shot to fame on the internet after posting their colored batter creations on YouTube.

Looking at their awe-inspiring pancakes, it’s hard to believe Tiger Tomato have only been at it for three months. It all started with a simplistic yet wonderfully colored rainbow pancake, which got over 150,000 views on YouTube. Inspired by the overwhelmingly positive response, the father-son duo from Melbourne, Australia, quickly stepped up their game and came up with elaborate-yet-edible renditions of popular cartoon characters like Elsa and Olaf from the Disney hit “Frozen”, Homer Simpson or Garfield.

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Awesome Beer Portraits Prove Beer Goes Great with Art

Some artists rely on a pint of ice cold lager for a bit of inspiration, but Chicago-based illustrator Kyle Bice actually uses amber brew to create his signature beer portraits.

Kyle Bice graduated from the American Academy of Art with a degree in traditional oil painting, but since he didn’t really believe there was much of a career for him as a painter, the young artist turned to illustration. After making a name for himself in advertising and the world of comic books, Kyle met with Fred Bueltman from New Holland Brewing, who had seen his work and asked him to redo a bunch of labels for the company. It was during this time that he discovered his passion for craft beer.

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Artist Turns Old Circuit Boards and Electronic Components into Beautiful Winged Insects

UK-based artist Julie Alice Chappell has chosen an unusual medium for her sculptures – discarded electronics. She tears out circuit boards and other components from broken devices, and converts them into delicate insect figurines.

Julie’s introduction to the unique art form occurred several years ago, when she happened to find a big box of tiny electronic components at ‘The Craft Bank’, in Portsmouth, UK. “The first thing that came into my head when I looked at them was, ‘a mass of tiny bodies and legs… ants!’ I took them home to my children and we made ants.”

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Real-Life Tony Stark Builds Awesome Replicas of Superhero Suits

Communications specialist Clay Hielscher seems like an average guy, but pay his home a visit and you’ll realise why he’s called the real-life Tony Stark. The Kansas man not only resembles the popular comic book character, but he is also passionate about building superhero suits from scratch – his house is like a costume prop shop for a motion picture studio.

Hielscher is a former law enforcement officer, which sort of explains his obsession with superhero battlesuits. It all started a few years ago, when he was building a 17-foot kayak, just to let off some steam. One of his friends took a look at his work and suggested that he try to construct an Iron Man battlesuit.

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Dutch Artist Creates Grotesque Human Sculptures Out of Women’s Stockings

Nylon stockings can be sexy, but in the hands of artist Rosa Verloop, they take a turn toward the grotesque.

The Dutch artist is famous for using nylon stockings to create distorted sculptures of the human form. She collects thousands of used stockings in nude shades which she then molds, tucks, and sews together until they take on recognizable human shapes. Verloop layers and clumps the material, sometimes holding it up with pushpins, to produce wrinkled and distorted facial features.

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Artist Gives Old Apple iMacs New Lease on Life by Turning Them into Aquariums

Jake Harms converts old Apple iMac computers into beautiful aquariums. He spends hours locked up in his basement workshop, giving these old computers a new lease of life. So far, he’s sold over 1,000 aquariums to customers all over the world.

Jake said that he specifically uses 2000-era Apple iMac G3 computers, because of their distinct shape and bright color schemes. The opaque computer frames allow light to shine through them, so that the fish are visible from various angles. He uses iMacs because they’re a lot better looking than the beige and grey models of other brands.

“No one’s ever asked me to make an aquarium out of a Dell,” he jokingly says.

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Artist Manipulates the Movement of Bees to Create Accurate Wax Maps

Chinese artist Ren Ri successfully combines his love of beekeeping and art to create accurate honeycomb maps of various countries and continents.

Ren works closely with honeybees; in fact, he considers himself more of a beekeeper than a professional artist. He started beekeeping in 2007, and within a year, he mastered the basics. As he got more proficient, he began to think of ways in which he could manipulate the bees’ movements, by controlling the queen bee. Over time, he started creating meaningful beeswax patterns, and he eventually managed to produce a world map.

To create the map, Ren placed a map of the world inside the beehive. He then manipulated the queen bee to move in different directions and angles, so that the bees would build the hive at the locations he desired. “The bees continued to mould the beehive, and this moulding affected the original shape I had given the piece, through a process of addition and subtraction,” he said. Once the world map was ready, Ren created individual maps of several countries as well. He called the series Yuan Su I: The Origin of Geometry.

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Japanese Artist Carves Faces in Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Cups

Parents are forever telling kids not to play with food, but Japanese artist Makoto Asano does just that. He carves smiling faces into tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, using nothing but the flimsy plastic spoon they come with.

Asano’s ice cream faces may look childish to some people, but there’s a certain whimsical quality about them that makes them stand out. Each face is carved out of a different flavor of ice cream, with sauces and toppings forming features such as hair, mustaches, or beards.

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Chinese Artist Creates Dragon Sculpture with 83,600 Pieces of Straw

70-year-old master craftsman Fangze Yu can bring mythical creatures to life using nothing but straw. His most recent piece of work is an impressive dragon that he hand-crafted out of 83,600 pieces of rice straw!

Mr. Yu and his daughter spent four months working on the dragon at his workshop in China’s Jiangxi province. He started by creating a bamboo frame to support the structure. He then painstakingly assembled individual pieces of straw, using 10 different knitting and weaving techniques, to complete the 28-m, 35-kg masterpiece.

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The Amazing Ballpoint Pen Portraits of Enam Bosokah

Using only a simple ballpoint pen, Ghana-based artist Enam Bosokah creates stunningly realistic portraits of prominent African personalities.

“A lot of guys have already made their name using pencil, so I decided to use a pen,” Bosokah said in an interview with Anadolu Agency. “A lot of artists avoid pens because of the irreversibility (i.e., the inability to erase), but I believe it is one of the easier tools to work with. When I use the pen it is like I am adding to the paper – I can’t take it back,” he explained.

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This Clever “Ghost Clock” Is Not What It Seems

At first glance, Wendell Castle’s “Ghost Clock”, an art piece on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, looks like an old grandfather clock covered in a white sheet. But looks can be deceiving.

What’s the point of displaying a covered up old clock in a museum, right? You’d be tempted to think the exhibit is temporarily covered up for reconditioning, but a plaque at the base of the artwork quickly clears things up for those interested enough to read it. Castle’s Ghost Clock was expertly hand-carved from a large block of laminated mahogany, white cloth, rope and all.

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Artist Creates Amazing Photo-Like Portraits with Thousands of Metal Screws

In a phenomenal display of creativity, artist Marc Schneider has managed to transform ordinary metal screws into an art medium. He painstakingly arranges thousands of gray scale screws to create detailed portraits that look like black and white photographs.

Schneider starts by taking a photo and modifying the pixels into a gray scale template. Using the pixelated photograph as a reference, he uses thousands of hand sprayed screws to replicate the photo on a block of wood.  “I enjoy working in a medium that embodies strength and durability, allowing the viewer to touch the art and experience the unique surface created by thousands of screws,” he wrote on his website. “The meticulous approach in the creation of my screw art portraits is medicine for my soul.”

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