Viktor Wynd

Viktor Wynd is an artist, author, lecturer, impresario and committee member of The London Institute of 'Pataphysics.^[1]

Artwork

As an artist, Wynd created The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History in London's East End, a strange reinterpretation of a Renaissance Wunderkabinnet, stuffed with two headed lambs, fiji mermaids, unicorns, taxidermy, dodo bones, erotica, old master etchings, surrealist, occult & outsider artworks ^[2] and celebrity poo ^[3] the museum has featured in a BBC4 documentary on Cabinets of Curiosity ^[4] and is ranked 28 out 1237 speciality museums in London on trip advisor ^[5] In 2005 he had an exhibition entitled 'Structures of The Sublime; Towards a Greater Understanding of Chaos at Ingalls & Associates in Miami featuring drawings and video ^[6] In 2007 he had another exhibition in Miami,called, in reference to Goethe, 'The Sorrows of Young Wynd' based around a waxwork figure of himself hanging by a noose from the middle of the gallery surrounded by a cloud of tropical butterflies and many other images of him committing suicide ^[7]

As an impresario he founded The Last Tuesday Society with David Piper in 2003 reinterpreting Gunter Grass's Onion Cellar Nightclub from The Tin Drum with 'Loss; an Evening of Exquisite Misery' where guests would dress in decaying beauty, be fined £1 for smiling, chop onions and cry whilst being entertained by the saddest music in the world ^[8] he went on to put on Halloween parties in London for many thousands of guests ^[9] often with literary themes ^[10] and other over the top parties such as his masked balls ^[11] The Animal Party at The Old Vic tunnels where people were told to 'Dress Like a Beast Dance Like a Beast ^[12] and a festival Wyndstock held at Houghton Hall in Norfolk^[13] He also runs what may be londons longest running literary salon with over 500 events in the last ten years ^[14]

Other work

Wynd is the author of two books, Structures of The Sublime; Towards a Greater Understanding of Chaos, a fragmentary, modernist anti-novel published in 2005 in Miami and Viktor Wynd's Cabinet of Wonders published by Prestel/Random House in 2014 ^[15] described by the filmmaker John Waters as being 'An insanely delightful how-to guide on becoming a mentally ill, cheerily obsessive eccentric hoarder told with lunatic humor and absolute joy. Viktor Wynd is a sick orchid who seems like the perfect man to me'.

He wrote an essay about his friend Sebastian Horsley for Yale University Press's book Artist / Rebel Dandy ^[16]

He has made several TV appearances on documentaries and programs, and National Geographic included him in their "Taboo" documentary series.^[17]

As a lecturer he talks about cabinets of curiosities, his book and his museum at The Lost Lectures,^[18] the British Library ^[19] Manchester University ^[20] 5x15 ^[21] and the Barbican.^[22]

He previously ran a curiosity shop Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors, dealing in taxidermy, shrunken heads and other oddities^[23] including the erect mummified penis of a hanged man^[24] in 2010 it was reported that Jonathan Ross's wife Jane Goldman had bought the skeleton of a two headed baby from the shop^[25]

and curated some 50 exhibitions at his gallery Viktor Wynd Fine Art including exhibitions on Mervyn Peake^[26] Tessa Farmer^[27] Leonora Carrington^[28] & Stephen Tennant^[29]

He also runs The Last Tuesday Society

References