Explore the Underworld

The season of spook is upon us and AFTERNOON is taking you straight to the depths of hell. From Dante’s Inferno, to Milton’s Paradise Lost, to Giotto’s The Last Judgement, writers and artists have long explored the eternal destination through frightening, maddening, absurd, and moving depictions of the home of dead souls and demons. Below, find the work of two talented AFTERNOON contributors as they consider their own relationship to the underworld and the artistic legacy it inspires.

Satan by katie morton

I have a friend that I’ve known for many years who, by all accounts, should know me. We reunited in my studio space a year ago and, upon seeing this piece, I could feel her body tense up. She asked me in a very serious tone, “Katie, are you worshiping Satan?”

I laughed because she must have been joking.
However, I realized quickly that she was not.
She was afraid. I had forgotten what it was like to have that tangible fear of a boogeyman.

Satan was a very real concept to me in the first part of my life, but as I began to shed Mormonism from my system, I was able to shed “Satan” from my mind. I was able to discover that there is no evil monster coercing me to sin.

It’s just me here and my human brain.
The religiously programmed voices fell away, and now, for me, there is no longer a Satan.
Concepts like these are supposed to be powerful and “sacred,” so I continue to free myself from these previously untouchable concepts by putting them into my art and touching them all over.

Because of this friend, I decided to name the piece “Satan.”

WHERE IN HELL is Hieronymus? BY WESTON FRAZOR

Within his lifetime, Hieronymus Bosch’s work was widely collected and copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell. Bosch’s hellscapes often incorporate iconographical conventions, yet Bosch describes hell not as a fantastical place, but as a realistic world containing elements from day-to-day life. He depicts a world in which humankind has succumbed to the temptations of evil and are reaping eternal damnation. His works are generally regarded as enigmatic, leading some to speculate that their content refers to contemporaneous esoteric knowledge since lost to history. See if you can find where in hell Hieronymus hides.