stage art – Teufelskunst

This year’s art dealers: Ybenhain, Black Arts of Mine and Teufelskunst

The art dealers

The third Samhain Celebration combined again both finest black metal as well as exclusive hand-made art fitting to the event. Ybenhain offered resin jewelry and items all made of bizarre forest finds, from crazy colored beetles, weird spiders to plenty of animal teeth, combined with flora and fauna from the forest ground and trees. You can check them out at the Ybenhain Instagram. In contrast, Black Arts of mine creates all things from metal. He contributed the etched copper pendants and pins with the Samhain Harvest Seal for the event. Besides that there were some pieces that drew my attention, such as the precision work on a copper hendecagram pendant (see below). There was also a weird metal chest with a fly engraving, housing a steel cased vial filled with a dozen dead flies. You can view the works in all their morbid glory on the Black Arts of Mine Instagram. Last but not least, I brought with me new art editions as well as an ever growing assortment of incense blends.

Samhain Harvest Seal 2018, collab between Teufelskunst, House of Inkantation and Black Arts of Mine

Etched copper amulet by Black Arts of Mine

My table: limited edition box sets of ‘*Regina Bombina*‘ ink drawings and ‘*Rauhnächte*‘ ritual kits

The bands

The other part of the evening, and a reason for people to travel as far as from the States, were the bands. I could not check out all of them, but at least caught a few snapshots of Turia, the Mosaic feat. Schwadorf set and Fyrnask. I would love to hear about your first impression of seeing Turia live and realizing a female is doing those ghoulish voces…

Moved by special performance of Mosaic and Schwadorf (Empyrium)

The Stage

Signature feature and fundament for the evening’s special atmosphere appreciated so much by the audience is the stage set, annually adorned with reeds, ivy, chestnut garlands, corn dolls, carved skulls and this year’s corn sun. Connecting it all since three years is the Seal of the Harvest in the back, which I once designed for the event.

Initiating the Samhain magic

The Samhain Celebration in Gotha is one of those rare occasions where I can show presence with my work and art and meet people that are on a similar wavelength. It is a unique combination of art, tradition, music and spirit, which both is highly satisfying for the performers as well as the audience. Making it all possible are the people of The House of Inkantation, Eisenwald and a handful of helpers.

Making it all possible: C. + M. Falkenstein + crew

October 31, 2018

Posted In: Events

Tags: black arts of mine, black metal, occult art, ybenhain, art, eisenwald, harvest Seal, stage design, samhain celebration, seal of the harvest, events, harvest sigil, gotha, fyrnask, the londoner english pub, turia, mosaic, stage art, schwadorf, house of inkantation, empyrium, samhain

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*Carved horse skull by Kvlt&Knochen, featuring the Samhain Harvest Seal*

One week ago I took part in the second Samhain Celebration, hosted by the House of Inkantation, at The Londoner in Gotha. I attended bleary-eyed yet exited. I had worked until the very last minute on the artworks and merch, which included ink drawings of my sigilla magica, samples and glass jars with my self-made incense blends, the last Teufelskunst rosaries, postcards and the original art I had done for German doom band Werian.

The House of Inkantation folks prepared again a unique stage design, which was crowned by a horse skull, into which G. Bergfex of Kvlt&Knochen had carved and imbued with blood the official Samhain Harvest Seal. On the stage performed Rim Runa, Werian, Forndom, Sun of the Sleepless and Malokarpathan. Another special treat were the dedicated wooden boxes pyrographed by C. & M. Falkenstein.

*Dedicated box with VIP pass and leather amulet, pyrographed by House of Inkantation*

My company, the photographer Anne Ida Helmer, has set herself the goal to document me for a photo series – by all means not an easy task. But I was glad to have her around. We spend the whole weekend in Gotha, touching base and forging future plans. It was nice to finally meet some of the people in person, whom I had done artwork for, and to get to know new faces. I was overwhelmed by the support and interest in my work. This made me forget the sacrifices of the past weeks. It was also refreshing to get to witness new music, bands I had and had not heard of before. I come out of this gathering with new art commissions, possible participation in new events and more.

Thanks to all involved, who made this year’s celebration of the end of summer a success beyond expectations. Thanks in particular to the House of Inkantation/Eisenwald, Mosaic, Werian, Photos of Kaos, Kvlt&Knochen and friends from Austria and Switzerland, the rest of the merch team, Forndom and Anne.

Below some impressions…