The second edition of the Bizzarro Bazar Contest is over.

In writing this, I realized I don’t know a way to express my gratitude to all candidates that’s not boring. So just take it for granted that you’ve warmed the heart of an old seeker of oddities.
Let’s not beat around the bush, you’re here to see what the deliciously deviant minds of your fellow readers have come up with.

Like last year, the entries were so many, and of such high quality, that they made it awfully hard for me to select just three winners.
So the warning stays the same: what you’re about to see are the honorable mentions — at the incpontestable discretion of the Jury, that is me — but a round of applause should go to all those who don’t appear in this limited space. Over the next few weeks I shall find a way to make it even by sharing on social media all the submitted works, along with the info about the authors.

So, let’s kick off our weird parade!

Many classic elements — the hourglass, the withered flower, the skull, the burned-out candle — for this rather gothic version of the vanitas.

(Debby: Facebook, blog)

If you want to split hair, that plainly pasted logo in Giulia’s works does not fully comply with the contest rules; but hey, we’re among friends, and her collages entitled Under The Skin are so beautiful that I just couldn’t leave them out.

(Giulia Dah Mer: Facebook, Instagram)

Memento mori, alright, but above all memento cogitare: remember to think.

(Diego Bono: Facebook, Instagram)

Gaber Ricci sumbitted an anatomical animated GIF, which would be perfect for a T-shirt. All we need now is some tech guy to figure out how to play GIFs on T-shirts, and we’ve got a business that’ll shake the world.

(Gaber shies away from social media, but he runs a highly intelligent blog in Italian: Suprasaturalanx.)

The LondoNerD is another great blogger, and for the occasion he drew a portrait of me as Jeremy Bentham‘s famous auto-icon. Apart from the fact that my head too is often somewhere else, the juxtaposition with the great philosopher is undeserved.

(The LondoNerd: blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Alessandro gifts us with a sacral vision entitled Curiositas, which reminds me of Art deco, Beardsley and some of the graphic work of Alberto Martini.

(Alessandro Amoruso: Facebook, Deviantart)

Greta a.k.a Nevestella celebrates a hypothetical union between two famous freakshow artists: can you guess who they are?

(Nevestella: Facebook, Instagram, Deviantart)

Pamela too submitted a spectacular composition including typical vanitas elements.

(Pamela Annunziata Artworks: Facebook, Instagram)

I doubt this will ever go viral, but the way has been opened: here’s the first meme dedicated to this blog. (Text says: Your expression when a new Bizzarro Bazar post is up.)

(Bruno Boborosso Craighero: Facebook, Instagram)

Elena Nisi went as far as to turn me into a comic book hero. And the detail that made my day was the allusion to my friend and BDSM expert Ayzad, whom I can only picture as the villain here: I’d give anything to read the issue in which I finally confront his deadly whips! FSHH! THUD! KA-BOOM!

This photo perfectly describes what happens when the deadline for submitting a new book to my editor is approaching.

(Sara Crimilde: Facebook)

I’ll leave it to Mala Tempora to explain his submission, created in collaboration with Viktoria Kiss:

We imagined a hypothetical article on Bizzarro Bazar regarding the Icelandic folkloric monster called Tilberi [a little monster witches can summon to steal milk from sheep, cows and occasionally human mothers – Ed.], and we created two objects to illustrate the story. In this case the collaboration with Viktoria was priceless, as these beings could only be summoned by women.

(Mala Tempora Studio: official website, Facebook, Instagram)

Consuelo & Samantha designed and animated a discordant macabre sonata for skeleton band, and a tear.

(Consuelo & Samantha Art: official website, Facebook, Instagram)

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next tattoo, Seltz got you covered with this refined, elegant and romantic sketch.

(Seltz: Facebook, Instagram)

In this provocative self-portrait, Irene poses as an anatomical Venus, perfectly capturing the ambiguous sensuality of female dissected figures.

(Irene Manco: Facebook, Instagram)

Blue Luna blends clear references to the Capuchin Crypt in Rome (see my book Mors Pretiosa), wunderkammer’s naturalia, and a skeleton with an all-too-familiar goatee.

(Blue Luna: Facebook, Instagram)

The amazing Emanuela Cucchiarini a.k.a. Eeriette, who won the second prize last year, created this unbelievable gouache on crayons, inspired by the jewel-covered relics of martyrs and saints.

(Eeriette: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)

This work deserves, I think, a honorable mention.
Meewelyne’s illustration may be deceivingly simple. But carefully look at it, and a sense of uneasiness will start to creep up.
A little girl is walking hand in hand with her mother towards what looks like a circus or a fairground; the strokes are gracious and quite reminiscent of Beatrix Potter‘s illustrations. Yet, in the most calssic Freudian declination of the uncanny, some details seem to be out of place, ambiguous and confusing: the mother wears a fox’s head pinned to her waist, and the child’s backpack is made of a bear cub’s skin and bird wings (look at those robins!). Who are they? Why are they so comfortable with taxidermy? Is it a family business, does the mother teach her daughter how to skin and tan animals? Or should we infer that, in this imaginary universe, it’s OK to dress up like that?
This image — despite its delicate line drawing, straight out of a children’s book  — is hiding an unsettling vein which I really loved.

(Meewelyne Rosolovà: Facebook, Deviantart)

WINNERS

After days of indecision, I decided to opt for a joint third place.

3rd Prize

Another astounding nude self-portrait, but this time quite ironic and wild-eyed.
Chiara Toniolo’s work is deliciously loony, and it seduced me for the enthusiastic, smiling and bright way in which it presents elements that, in theory, should be upsetting.
And let’s face it. There’s the artistic nude, the skull, the kitten: that spells boost in page views.

(Chiara Toniolo Art: Facebook, Instagram)

Joint Third

This year’s surprise was the unexpected participation of mentalist Francesco Busani (a couple of years ago I posted a special feature about him). Being a great collection of ouija boards, Francesco created one especially for Bizzarro Bazar. The philologic attention to details is astounding, from vintage artworks to the use of the original materials (namely masonite) that were employed in the Sixties to build these psychic instruments.
Francesco created only two copies of this board: one stays in his collection, and one is already a part of mine. But I must confess I still haven’t tried to consult it, because if there’s one thing I learned from horror movies is that you don’t fiddle with some things.

(Francesco Busani: official website, Facebook)

2nd Prize

The wonderful Gadiro (Gaia Di Roberto) crafts dolls, plush toys, accessories, pendants and necklaces that are both creepy and kawaii. In order for this mixture to be fresh and original, you need a lot of talent but above all a unique sensibility.
A sensibility that also appears from her words:

The existence of Bizzarro Bazar not only inspired me for my work but it urged me to take this strange path of the “sweet little creepy creatures maker”; in times when I almost felt guilty about nurturing certain interests, this blog and all the people who follow it made me feel less alone, I would say in family.

Looking at myself as a puppet among Gadiro’s dolls, I now feel part of a family, too.

(Gadiro: Facebook, Instagram, Etsy shop)

1st Prize

Look, a mysterious box!
Wonder what’s inside.

A decorated skull?
But what about that kind of microscope slide on the side of the door?

Now I get it!
It’s not a skull, it’s a… Bizzarroscope!

Taking inspiration from one of my very first articles, in which I talked about the extraordinary stenoscopic cameras of Wayne Martin Belger, André Santapaola a.k.a. Elragno built this spectacular instrument which has the purpose of injecting wonder into our worldview.
Thanks to a stenopeic hole in the skull’s right eye socket it is possible to fix reality through the artifice of photography (it’s not by chance the relative viewfinder is labeled Artificialia); by inserting the slide on the left side of the skull, one can watch the world throught the filter of a butterfly wing, a dewdrop, or any other natural element  — and that’s why this lens is called Naturalia.

The label on the forehead reminds us of the third classic element of any wunderkammer, as well as the inevitable result of these explorations: Mirabilia, “marvels” and “awe”.

Thus Elragno wins the 1st prize with a particurlarly well-crafted object, but above all for its very sophisticated concept: “the Bizzarroscope […], just like Ivan Cenzi’s writings, allowes us to see the world from a different perspective, in which the “observed” becomes a means for observation.”
It’s like saying: the passion for the unusual spurs from the desire to change one’s own way of looking, and Wonder is the key to discover new, unexpected horizons.

(Elragno Creations: Facebook, Instagram)

If you particularly liked some of these works, make sure you show the authors your appreciation in the comments!
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing on social media all the submitted works which do not appear here.
Once again, thanks to all contestants, you cheered me up and moved me  — and I hope you had fun.