'McCarthy's Rents' art installation

[Altered DNA]

A little bit about myself and the installation

Hello all,
Before I get into the why’s and wherefores of my project at Domy Books, there are a few people I need to thank for their help in recreating that crime scene. First, I’d like to thank my good friend Chris Campbell, an incredible ceramic artist in his own right, for helping put together or flat out building from scratch nearly every piece of furniture that you see in that room. He built the bed, end table and fireplace all from scrap wood from pictures I collected online or from the simplest of sketches on scraps of paper. Chris was also the catalyst for the color scheme used in the installation, but more about that later.

I’d also like to thank my good friend Jason Becker for all of his help in making the life casts of my model, Lindsey Harrison, and for his help in casting all of the silicone arms and legs. I couldn’t have done it without him, and I couldn’t have asked for a better helper.

Last, but certainly not least, I owe a debt of thanks and gratitude to my wife Trisha. Without her constant support and love, this would never have been finished on time. She kept me going when I was tired, fed me when I was hungry, and never let me forget the deadline.

Now, a little bit about me. When I was a young boy, I was fascinated with monsters and monster movies…still am as a matter of fact. That fascination led me to wonder how these monsters were made and who made them, which led me to discovering Lon Chaney and movie makeup in general. From the time I first discovered Richard Corson’s Stage Makeup book when I was 8 until today, my world has revolved around makeup and special effects makeup. I have a huge library of makeup and special effects books, as well as almost any and every video or DVD put out on the subject.

Before my wife and I moved to Austin, Texas almost 4 years ago, I was working with a great makeup artist in Orlando named Rick Gonzales. He owns and runs Rick Gonzales Studios in Orlando, Florida. From Rick I learned hands on about mold making, body casting, using silicones for molds and making prosthetics, the finer points of sculpting and airbrushing, and how to make props and effects for as little money as possible, as well as too many other things to mention. Working with Rick allowed me to work on sets for low budget films, international commercials, music videos, and TV shows. He taught me about set etiquette, how to deal with onset problems with makeup and actors, and more importantly, how to act like a professional.

To backtrack just a bit, my interest in movie monsters eventually lead me to an interest in real life monsters. When I was in my early teens, I read my first book about Jack The Ripper. Of course, I had heard about Jack The Ripper, and was vaguely aware of his crimes, but I had no idea what the extent of his crimes were or how horribly he mutilated his victims. Reading that first JTR book opened my eyes to a world that, at the time, I was naively unaware existed. I knew people murdered other people, sometimes savagely, and I knew about people like Hitler and Stalin who murdered scores of people indiscriminately, but JTR was my first brush with a serial murderer. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that there were people out there who killed people just because they could, and had no other motive for the crime other than the death itself. Since JTR was my introduction into that world, I figured that if I could somehow figure out who he was, I might be able to make some sense out of why he acted out as he did, and how that related to modern age serial murderers. Obviously, the more I read about the crimes, the murkier the waters became. Every book had it’s own suspect and every author was sure they knew the true identity of JTR…until the next book came out and somehow or other disproved one or more of the “facts” that the previous authors stated. In my mind, it was time to try a new approach. After reading and collecting every JTR book I could find, and coming no closer to a suspect that at least “I” could say I believed to be truly viable, I decided to investigate other serial murderers. My thought was that by studying people that had committed similar crimes and been caught, maybe I would learn something that struck a chord with me in relation to the Ripper crimes. Maybe some little piece of psychological insight, or evidence of childhood trauma or war experiences would ring true with one of the suspects that I had spent years reading about. I spent my high school years continuing to read every new ripper book that came out, as well as any true crime book I came across in the hopes of finding that one thing that helped it all make sense and put it to bed once and for all.

Well, high school came and went and I was no closer to a suspect than I was when it all started with that first book. If anything, I was only more confused and the facts more convoluted. Reading and rereading about JTR and his crimes became a part of my life and the crimes became more like scary bedtime stories than factual incidents that involved real people.

After I graduated high school, I headed to college. My major course of study was Criminal Justice. Not because I was interested in becoming a police officer, but because I realized that if I was ever going to figure out who JTR was, I was going to need more tools for the task than reading books by people who spent their time rehashing what someone else wrote decades or even a century or more ago. So, I spent the rest of my college years taking courses in Psychology, Sociology, Criminology, the causes and history of crime and punishment, as well as the history of the penal system in the United States and the rest of the world, and all the other science classes I could sign up for to further my knowledge base. During this time, I was also working for the makeup department on campus and working on all of the college plays in my free time so that I could keep up with my makeup skills and to have a creative outlet in my life that was more about fun and creation rather than death and destruction.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Criminal Justice, I moved out into the real world to find work. I won’t bore you with all of the details of that, but some of my jobs were: assistant manager of a restaurant (1year), design engineer for a major custom motor coach manufacturer (6 years), custom motorized window blind builder and installer (4 years), etc. While working at all of those jobs, I still found time after work at night and on the weekends to work on my makeup “hobby”, as my parents like to call it. They’re still not sure you can make a living at it, and would prefer I spent my time trying to get ahead in a “real” job. Suffice it to say that my interest in true crime and JTR in particular were and are still a part of my life, as is special effects makeup.

This more or less catches us up to the present day, not counting some detours to get married to the same woman I’ve been with for 18 years and have known for 25, as well as buying and selling a home in Florida and then buying a new one here in Austin and getting settled into this incredible city. We live in a neighborhood close to some great friends we knew from college, and just a few houses down from some great new friends we’ve made since moving here. All in all, I couldn’t ask for better place to live. Most of our friends are artists of one sort or another and my wife and I spend our evenings and weekends going to art gallery openings or working in our shops out in the garage. She has her side and I have mine, and it’s a nice way to spend some time together while working on our projects.

Which brings me to the installation at Domy Books. Every Halloween at the store they have an annual Monster Show. It opens on or about Halloween night and has artwork created by artists from all over he country. Each artist creates their own version of what a “monster” is…it could be anything. Some artists use photos, some artists do drawings or etchings, while others do paintings or collages.

My wife and I have been going to the shows since we moved here and have always been excited by the level of work as well as the creativity of all of the artists involved. Some of the monsters are funny, some are scary, some of them are just plain weird, but they’re all interesting and good.

The front of the store is an art book store, and there’s a wall that runs through the middle of the store that starts about 15 feet into the store. On the right side of the wall, after the book space, is an art gallery space. On the left side of the wall is more books, and in the back is a small hallway that leads to an installation space in the back of the store. So, when you walk into the store you can see the short hallway, but you can’t see into the space until you actually walk down the hallway and past the back wall that separates the installation space from the back wall of the book store. Hopefully, that makes sense.

At any rate, last year, after he found out I was into special effects and mask making, the store manager, Russell Etchen, asked me if I could create something for the show that was in 3-D, as most of the work created for the shows was 2-D artwork. I had intended to make a series of masks that could be sold and taken away by the buyer for Halloween night, but an illness in my immediate family prevented me from being a part of that show.

Talking with Russell earlier this year, he asked me if it would be possible, and if I’d be interested, in recreating a crime scene in the installation space at Domy Books for the Monster Show this year. After talking with him and Allison Kuo(Assistant Manager) at length about what they might want and about my thoughts on the subject, I decided that I would do the show if I could come up with a suitable scene to recreate. My initial thought was to create an original crime scene from scratch that had no basis or connection to an actual crime. Then, after looking through some of my true crime books for reference, I thought about recreating a well known crime scene photograph. After looking through one of my JTR books, I came across the picture of Mary Kelly that we all know so well, and decided to research it and see if I could make that work for the installation. The fact that it was the first instance of crime scene photography in the history of England was also a major appeal of the photo.

Truth be told, I was initially going to do the whole scene in full color, because after years of looking at that picture and trying to figure out what half the things were that were going on in that room, I figured that the only way to get any concrete answers was to do it as real as possible, and that included doing it in color. I went back over to the store and discussed it with Russell, and he seemed really up on the idea, so at that point I bought a sketchbook and decided to start making preliminary sketches and gathering information about her murder and the whole scene in general. I kept notes on everything I could find in my books as well as everything I could find on the internet that pertained to that one moment in time.

While talking with Chris one night at a friends going away party, I was telling him about the idea I had for recreating the Mary Kelly murder in full color. We were talking about how gruesome and intense it was going to be and wondering if it would be too shocking for most people to view. Chris came up with the brilliant idea of recreating the scene just like the photo, in black and white. The more we talked about it, the more excited I became about trying to recreate that scene just like it looked in all the books about the crimes. We talked about my doing it all in black and white except for the blood, which would be the only color in the room, but I eventually decided against it in favor of the whole thing being black and white. It would be less shocking to the viewer, and would allow someone to examine the room and the scene without being distracted by all of the obvious gore.

I had also intended to recreate the outer wall of the room in my original sketches. As the installation room has only 3 walls, with the open wall facing the hallway, my original idea was to put up a fake brick wall with 2 windows in it, which would also be in monochrome black and white. There would be a missing pane of glass, and the muslin curtains with an old coat hanging over the inside window, and the viewer would have to reach through the pane and push aside the curtains and the coat to see the scene inside the room, just like she was originally found. Doing it that way would have effectively put the viewer in the position of the first person that found her, Thomas Bowyer, so that every viewer is the first person on the scene.

Unfortunately, time and money did not permit me to build the wall, but I think it worked out for the best. Without the wall, the viewer is able to walk through the scene and see it from every angle, much like the police of the time would have been able to do, and it makes it more accessible than an old photo, if that’s possible. It allowed me to make sense of the, what I thought at the time, weird angles of her legs and arms. It brought home her death in a way I never would have thought possible. In creating her body, I had to consciously think about what happened to her and how she came to be and look like you see her in the original photo. It’s one thing to read about JTR cutting the strips of flesh off of her abdomen and slashing her face to shreds, but it’s quite another to sculpt it and recreate it.

I was as accurate in the depiction of her injuries as I could be based on the current information at hand, meaning the photo and the coroner’s report. It wasn’t done to be lurid, sensationalistic or as some kind of torture porn exhibit. The reason the rest of the room is in pure white is so that the viewer’s main focus is on the reality of the crime. The fireplace, the tables, the bottles and pipes and chairs are all secondary to the death of Mary Kelly. In the books and on the websites, everyone focuses on the minutiae of the room instead of on the most important object in the room: the body of Mary Kelly.

By breaking down the barrier of the 4th wall in the installation and in the photograph, I put the viewer in the position of the “Monster” Jack The Ripper admiring his handy-work and in the position of the police, morticians and coroner that had to deal with the aftermath of his brutal crimes. You see it like they saw it, for better or for worse, which is why we look at it. Can any of you honestly say that if the missing photos of the Mary Kelly crime scene resurfaced sometime in the near future, that you wouldn’t look at them? And, if so, why? She’s over a hundred years dead, the buildings demolished, Jack The Ripper, whoever he was, is dead. Why bother? Because, just like me, you’d be curious. “What am I NOT seeing when I see that photo?” you’d ask. Well, my installation shows you what you’re missing, to the best of my abilities. You can see the scene from any angle, as close or as far away as you want to be…

I don’t now, nor have I ever, seen Jack The Ripper as some darkly romantic figure stalking the shadows of Whitechapel servicing the city by dispatching one “unfortunate” at a time. There is nothing sexy about Jack The Ripper. He was more than likely a sociopath. He probably fit right in with all the other dregs wandering around down there at the time, and I doubt we’ll ever know who he was, which is why we continue to look at the photos of the victims. It’s our only tangible link to the man. We don’t have any weapons to fingerprint, no real contact with the killer (Other than the Lusk letter, which I believe to be the only real JTR letter), and no real description of what he might look like. All of the descriptions are different. Who was he?

My installation is a way to take a small step back in time and see the crime for yourself, with the focus on a real person in a real situation. It’s not supposed to be pretty or sanitized, although I’ve seen that phrase used on this site. The reason she is the only detailed part of the scene is because she’s the ONLY important part of the scene. Everything else is secondary and filler. She was a real person murdered by another real person. Not a ghost, or a legend, or a Mason, or some agent of the crown…just a sociopath bent on killing others.

I figure I’ve dragged this out enough for one day, but tomorrow I’ll go through everyone’s posts and answer individual questions one by one if they haven’t been accurately covered in this post. Sorry for the length, but now you know a little bit about who I am and hopefully a little bit about why I chose Mary Kelly’s murder for the installation.

Thank you for reading.

Peace,

David N. Allen

[John Bennett]

It may well be art, but more importantly it's an exercise in one man's ego and perversion.

The return of Anne McMurdie?

[babybird67]

Demean myself? I give my honest opinion of what this piece of "art" makes me think about the "artist" and you consider that demeaning myself?

Ally, you know very well that is misrepresenting what i said. I particularly said don't demean yourself by making personal comments about the artist. You are perfectly entitled to give your honest opinion of the art, but you do demean yourself, in my opinion, by the conclusions you have drawn about the artist because you don't like or agree with his art...you've made unfair comments about him, very judgemental comments, and that is a shame. I hated T.S .Eliot's politics but i could still appreciate his poetry, for example.

Just because it isn't fluffy, kitten comment of "oh you touched my soul" doesn't mean it's any less valid a perspective than yours.

I quite agree and would never have dreamt of suggesting that it wasn't. If you read my post carefully you will see that i said nothing of the sort.

Frankly I think anyone who looks at a fake version of a real butchered woman and says it's more meaningful to them than the real picture of a real woman is demeaning themselves.

I don't think anyone has said that either. For me, art including fiction, acts in dialogue with reality. I feel nothing for any fake woman. A representation of what happened to Mary Kelly gave me, personally, more insight into her fate, which moved me, because the only victim i felt similarly for before seeing that representation was Catherine Eddowes. I find the photograph of the actual Mary extremely difficult to make out...i've asked on here before what others could see was left of her face trying to make it out...people on here debate all the time about what is on her table...is it flesh, is it a bolster? The representation made everything factually clearer for me...i could SEE for the first time in clarity what Jack did to MARY, not to a dummy. That made it all the more real for me, because of the dialogue between reality and representation. I've tried to explain this to you in chat, but i think you just don't get it, which is fine, we are all different.

This was a real woman, butchered brutalized and displayed and he turned her into a caricature and an art project just for "effect" and to shock and titillate.

I don't agree. He made what happened to her all the more accessible and her as a person more comprehensible to me. This reminds me of the debate about whether it was pornography or not to have her photo on the cover of a book about the case...there is no titillation. I think that is a red herring and something grossly unfair to allege was the purpose of this representation.

So don't demean yourself by attempting to chastise me, just because my opinion disagrees with yours.

My post was not meant as chastisement. It was a gentle reminder about personal remarks demeaning the person who makes them more than the person they are aimed at. You don't need to use them. So why do it?

The artists EVERY move including his carefully crafted post on this thread has been designed to forestall criticism "oh I wish I'd had a chance to tell you before it came here..." BS. If he wanted to talk about it first, why didn't he? He got exactly what he wanted. Personal contact so everyone would feel bad about saying anything negative if that's what they really believe, but no real discussion from him regarding what this is supposed to accomplish.

Casebook may be the centre of some people's worlds, but there are a lot of people with busy lives out there as well! Why place base motives on the artist's communication/lack of communication with us? Casebook are not the arbiters of who should and who should not be interested in Mary kelly's murder and indeed it was one of my hopes that such an exhibit might bring more people into the field. The artist was not responsible for posting a link to his work here...i believe Philip was the one to do that, so we are lucky that the artist even KNEW it was being discussed, and he has posted i see tonight stating he will contribute again at some point. Give him a chance, i say. I for one would like to hear what he has to say about his work.

You may find it art and that's all you care about. It may well be art, but more importantly it's an exercise in one man's ego and perversion.

Art is certainly not all i care about. This particular piece shocked me with its power to move me...i wasn't expecting it to be honest. I fully expected to be on the side of the debate where, like Damian Hirst, i would be arguing, well, that's art for some but it does nothing for me. But it did do something. It showed me something i hadn't connected with as far as Mary herself was concerned, and that's good i think. I do not think your comments about ego and perversion are fair, and it is that sort of remark i was referring to when i made my remarks about demeaning yourself. If i was on the receiving end of some of those comments, i wouldn't come near Casebook with a barge pole. I would think if people are going to treat me like that, why should i bother? you have already made up your mind he is a perverted egotist, so why should he bother coming back and seeking to explain his work to you at all? I do hope he does come back because i would like to hear from him.

Criticism of the art work is fine; derogatory comments about what you think the artist behind it must be like and what his motivations were are not. That's just my opinion. I spent a long time in chat with you the other night discussing it and i think we had an excellent debate about the art...you didn't resort to insults then, why do it on the boards? There really is no need.

For Dave: i do hope you come back and post about your work. I'd like to hear more from you.

[Chris]

I am currently writing up a post to hopefully reply to everyone's questions and/or comments. It may not make everyone all warm and fuzzy inside, but at least it will be accurate. Take care all.

It's probably worth bearing in mind that in any unmoderated Internet forum there are going to be a few "trolls" intent on picking an argument above all else.

I shall be interested in what you have to say.

[Altered DNA]

I am currently writing up a post to hopefully reply to everyone's questions and/or comments. It may not make everyone all warm and fuzzy inside, but at least it will be accurate. Take care all.

Peace,

Dave Allen

[Robert]

That's the second time I've seen IKEA mentioned. Unfortunately I can't tell IKEA from Leggo. Every time thay shove a catalogue through my door, I bin it (the catalogue, not the door).

[Ally]

Demean myself? I give my honest opinion of what this piece of "art" makes me think about the "artist" and you consider that demeaning myself? Just because it isn't fluffy, kitten comment of "oh you touched my soul" doesn't mean it's any less valid a perspective than yours. Frankly I think anyone who looks at a fake version of a real butchered woman and says it's more meaningful to them than the real picture of a real woman is demeaning themselves. This was a real woman, butchered brutalized and displayed and he turned her into a caricature and an art project just for "effect" and to shock and titillate.

So don't demean yourself by attempting to chastise me, just because my opinion disagrees with yours.

The artists EVERY move including his carefully crafted post on this thread has been designed to forestall criticism "oh I wish I'd had a chance to tell you before it came here..." BS. If he wanted to talk about it first, why didn't he? He got exactly what he wanted. Personal contact so everyone would feel bad about saying anything negative if that's what they really believe, but no real discussion from him regarding what this is supposed to accomplish.

You may find it art and that's all you care about. It may well be art, but more importantly it's an exercise in one man's ego and perversion.

[babybird67]

Jen,

Except your explanation of how a 3-D image makes it more real is balls because you are STILL looking a 2-D image.

True and not true. True which is why i said if i was near enough i would want to go and see the 3-d image for myself. Not true as in the development of photography the contrast between the one of the real Mary and the various representations of the art work in question is pretty stark...i knew what it was about, what to expect, and yet it still left me stunned in its power.

I don't think you should demean yourself or who i consider 'the artist' with personal insults, though. You're better than that as our conversation on the theories behind it in chat the other night demonstrated.

You don't like it being called art because it doesn't touch you in any way, but it has touched me, and some others...it's ok to disagree. I find it difficult to accept Damian Hirst's animal carcases as art, but they do something to some people!

And as for your point about there being something creepy about the detail in this...i categorically disagree. It is only one step removed from there to accusing all of us here of being creepy in my opinion...many many people here have spent hours of painstaking research, both in trying to track down facts such as through the census, or down to Steve's brilliant mathematical replotting of the angles in Mary's room to pinpoint exactly where the photographs of her were taken, and yes, they do care about getting every detail correct. Dave has done exactly the same with his work and deserves respect for that, even if you cannot honestly give him appreciation for it.

[Archaic]

Just An Idea

Hi, Cel, I agree with what you and Robert said about the strangely "antiseptic" setting, which does make it look rather clinical.

My own first reaction to the setting was "Oh, look, Mary Kelly has been slaughtered on a display bed at IKEA".


Having read back over our diverse reactions to Dave's art installation, I now have a somewhat different idea.

I wonder if Dave is possibly a Graduate Student in either Art or Psychology at the nearby University of Austin, and he created a disturbing piece of 'Modern Art' in order to observe our reactions and then write a paper on it?

In which case we can assume that all the powerful emotional effects, jarring dichotomies, and deliberate ambiguities of this piece were consciously designed in order to elicit the maximum response from the test subjects?

Just an idea...

Gosh, if Dave is watching us, I hope the notorious "Goodall Effect" doesn't skew his results! lol

Cheers, Archaic

[Celesta]

I agree with the notion of focusing on her, but my first reaction was 'My god, he put her in a doctor's office.' It gave me the creeps because it's about two steps down from a gyno's office. I doubt this was the intention, but that was my reaction.

[Ally]

Probably more along the lines of: sure I'll be known as a creepy geek with necrophiliac tendencies but the key part of that sentence is "I'll be known".

[John Bennett]

Well if you read his post where he attempts to ward off any such speculation by assuring us what a nice normal guy he is, you know the thought's already crossed his mind about what might be coming from this unveiling. So he's considered it, and decided it's worth the price.

A case of "sticks and stones may break my bones.." perhaps?

[anna]

I'm with Suzi on this...it's a very fine art study,indeed.Well done Dave.

I like them,because Dave has had the foresight to remove Kelly entirely from the crap that was Room 13,and give her back her individuality by placing her in a sterile room,so she is what you concentrate on,with no distractions.

[Ally]

Well if you read his post where he attempts to ward off any such speculation by assuring us what a nice normal guy he is, you know the thought's already crossed his mind about what might be coming from this unveiling. So he's considered it, and decided it's worth the price.

[John Bennett]

I wonder how he feels about being described as a potential "creepy little geek with necrophiliac tendencies"?

Unless he is one, of course.