horror and disclosure – a scene of crime clings to its past

A couple in the UK are suing their home’s former owners for not disclosing that the house had been the scene of a murder twenty years ago. [Link]

Dr Samson Perera, a dental biologist at Leeds University UK, murdered his adopted daughter, Nilanthie, in 1985 and buried the dismembered body around the house and garden. Not all the remains have been recovered.

house of horror

Horror as the underside of everyday life. The secret histories and lives of things and places.

David Lynch has made a career out of this. I think of the opening scenes of his movie Blue Velvet and the severed ear found on a suburban front lawn in small town America.

Fred and Rosemary West in small town England and their serial killings intimately connected with home improvements – a new kitchen floor for the latest victim.

Happy like murderers

We are often fascinated by the histories of houses and the ghosts, sinister or appealing, of lives passed within, of events witnessed. My good friend David Austin fronted a BBC series called the House Detectives where a team of archaeologists and architectural historians visited houses to unlock their hidden pasts.

Things that were once lost or hidden uncovered. The underside of everyday life. What mundanity can hide or become. Locale as scene of crime. These are archaeological vectors of metamorphosis and disclosure/manifestation.

Blue Velvet
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