By: MADDI MCGILLVRAY
Bram Stoker is finally on his way home to Dublin!
Thanks to a two-year crowdfunding campaign and a dedicated team of horror fans, the long awaited Bram Stoker bronze bust is coming to the Dublin Writers Museum in Ireland, as well as The Museum of Popular Culture (known as MoPOP) in Seattle, WA.
Continuing the tradition of crafting busts of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, celebrated sculptor Bryan Moore set his sights on another master of horror: Bram Stoker. Moore teamed up with Bram’s great-grandnephew and fellow author Dacre Stoker to immortalize the celebrated Dracula writer.
“As great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker and a representative of the Bram Stoker Estate, I am thrilled to be partnering with Bryan Moore in presenting a bronze bust of Bram Stoker to MoPoP as well as on his native soil of Ireland,” says Stoker.
The first bust will be unveiled during a special opening celebration for MoPOP’s new Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film exhibit on September 29, 2017. The second bust is scheduled for public display at the Dublin Writers Museum in the first week of November… just in time for Stoker’s 170th birthday.
Moore has been a sculptor in the film and toy industry for over thirty years. His sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Providence Athenaeum Library, Boston Public Library, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Art Gallery of Ontario as part of the current Guillermo del Toro exhibition At Home with Monsters.
As Moore states, “I am ecstatic to be working with MoPOP on several bronze busts of authors including Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley for next year’s 200th publication anniversary of “Frankenstein,” which fills me a gratitude that cannot be measured. To actually pair the Godfather and Godmother of horror fiction in the gothic tradition together in one donor location is a point of pride in my career.”
“Our fascination with the vampire and its spread across all media can be traced back to Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” explains Jacob McMurray, Senior Curator at MoPOP. “Stoker took elements of folklore and his own inventions and created a monster that is seductive, deadly, and continually feeding on the lifeblood of our popular culture. We are very excited to display artist Bryan Moore’s sculpture of Stoker within the Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film exhibition, and we thank Moore and Dacre Stoker for generously donating it to our permanent collection.”
ABOUT SCARED TO DEATH: THE THRILL OF HORROR FILM
Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film takes an in-depth look at more than a century of horror cinema. From blood-thirsty vampires and unrelenting zombies to fiendish slashers, this immersive experience presents the broad range of iconic horror villains and the stories over the generations that have brought them to life. The exhibit features a macabre display of more than 50 props and costumes from film and television including A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Bride of Frankenstein, The Thing, Dawn of the Dead, Hostel, Jeepers Creepers, Pet Cemetery, and more. Taking inspiration from the genre, the 3,000 square foot gallery space is designed to evoke the unsettling sensations associated with cinematic terror. Themed sections include an unholy vampire chapel with walls dripping blood, a zombie containment area with an aquarium wall of submerged zombie heads from The Walking Dead, and a slasher’s den with a thicket of corpses suspended from the ceiling. The exhibit will also feature multi-media experiences including exhibit films, oral history interviews, and interactive photo ops.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF POP CULTURE (MoPOP)
MoPOP is a leading-edge, nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel popular culture. With its roots in rock ‘n’ roll, MoPOP serves as a gateway museum, reaching multigenerational audiences through collections, exhibitions and educational programs, using interactive technologies to engage and empower its visitors. At MoPOP, artists, audiences and ideas converge, bringing understanding, interpretation and scholarship to the popular culture of our time. MoPOP is housed in a 140,000 square foot Frank O. Gehry-designed building. This spectacular, prominently visible structure has the presence of a monumental sculpture set amid the backdrop of the Seattle Center. Find out more.
