⋆༺𓆩☠︎︎𓆪༻⋆
AS ABOVE SO BELOW (2024)
48 pages
8” x 8”
130# Cover Epic Black (White Ink)
100# Text Matte
Saddle Stitch Binding
Open Edition
Release Date: October 17th, 2024
Double Dutch Gallery
Creative Direction & Book Design/Production: Skyler Ketchum
Photographers: Alchemist Angel & Carley Denneen
Fashion Design: Scrapyard.c0m / Carley Denneen
Styling: Carley Denneen & Alchemist Angel
Models: Cheyenne Dobine, Evie Hart, Carley Denneen, & Alchemist Angel
AS ABOVE SO BELOW is an ode to horror, witches, the occult, and scream queens. This spellbook is the culmination of year-long collaboration between Alchemist Angel (alchemist_angel3) and Carley Denneen (scrapyard.c0m). As Above So Below refers to the interconnectivity of everything and how we manifest in the physical plane as well as the other unseen worlds. It begs us to understand our bodies + souls as transformative spaces that link us to the universe.
Alchemist Angel is a 25 year old multi-displinary artist based out of NYC with special interest in photography, mixed media, & print. As a witch with a love for the spiritual practice but also an artist who loves the aesthetics of the occult, I wanted to create a visual lookbook exploring both spirituality and aesthetics. I took much inspiration from the rise of new age spirituality and satanism in the 60’s and 70’s, which came with an onslaught of literature and design. While I don’t follow these paths spiritually, they were monumental for shaping our conception of the modern witch and constructing a dark aesthetic that has embedded itself in popular culture.
With horror being my favorite genre, it always plays a large role in my creative mindset and understanding of the world. I am deeply inspired by horror as an interactive genre that plays with your senses using noise, visuals, and even touch through visceral scenes that make our body cringe. It always questions who we are as a people and what makes us afraid as a larger society. In that vein, it is often a refuge for queer communities and other marginalized voices, as it isn’t afraid to explore tabboo topics that are faced by these communities directly. I wanted to take the sensory + interactive aspects of horror movies and translate them into print using photography, design, and collaborative fashion pieces created by scrapyard.c0m. We based much of the clothing design, styling, and creative direction on classic cult horror such as Possession (1981), The Ring, Meghan’s Body, The Craft, and Scream. My hope is to add to the ever expanding genre of horror and memorialize it through it’s visual & visceral beauty.
Creator of “@scrapyard.c0m” Carley Denneen is a 24 yo fiber artist based in New York. During her B.S. in Neuroscience and Design, she began incorporating textile art into her studies through a 3-D modeling class, using visual graphs and mixed materials to create striking silhouettes.
My process began when Skye sent me an eclectic archive of campy vintage pulp fiction covers, horror film posters, and witchcraft books from the 60’s & 70’s. I wanted the designs to emulate the campiness present in their dramatic posing while maintaining a sense of cohesiveness, each piece a different variation of the same concept. Using a flatbed knitting machine, I played with texture and opacity, relying on thin, stringy, bamboo fibers and sheer wool fibers to convey shadows cast against the human form. Some pieces are solely hand-stitched, using filet crochet among other techniques to plant mysterious motifs and spell-casting sigils. Others pay homage to real life witches. “Isabelle”, uses mohair to imitate the iconic v-shaped silhouette in the 1981 film poster for Andrzej Zulawski’s “Possession”.