The Nightmares of Eduardo Valdés-Hevia

Have you ever seen a photograph of a planet made entirely of living flesh? Or an insect-human hybrid that can control minds? Or a three hundred meter long sea serpent that emerges every year in Iceland? These images may appear to come from some long-lost paranormal case file. But this is actually the work of brilliant artist and world-builder Eduardo Valdés-Hevia, who has spent the last few years bringing to life a collection of

nightmares

so detailed that he had to know more... The Archivist: “So, what? What would you say? inspire your art? Valdés-Hevia: “I'm a big fan of the found footage genre.

The kind of horror that isn't directly presented as if you are the subject or are being chased by this monster. You just found the diary of a person who was chased by that monster. And you are living that experience through those documents…” Valdés-Hevia’s art, which comes to life through a combination of old photographs and new elements, fuses history and the surreal, with images that seem to come directly from historical documents classified. The artist creates stand-alone images as well as richly detailed series with a dense, interconnected story. So for this archive entry, we'll investigate the monsters and madness of these dark case files.

And you can support the artist on Patreon and follow the projects using the links in the description. Now, prepare for the terrors of Valdés-Hevia... Valdés-Hevia's longest project is the Megalamorpha series, a fragmented anthology exploring humanity's many unfortunate encounters with mysterious insect-like life forms. The Archivest: "What inspired the Megalamorpha project?" Valdés-Hevia: “I sort of modeled this story from the rabbit holes of the Internet. So, it's a lot of little stories. In each of these stories there is like a piece of the puzzle (of that larger story), but only one. You need to read a lot of them to start putting them together.” One of the earliest fragments of Megalamorpha history dates back to 1910 on the coast of Maine.

An unidentified corpse washes ashore: a strange shell that resembles a giant insect. Soon after, the town's fishermen who discover it become paranoid, thinking that the abnormal life form is cursed, and burn the remains before scientists can examine them. Another sighting occurred in 1913, when the Australasian Antarctic Expedition found something strange in the ice. Recovered journal entries indicate that the crew extracted the frozen lifeform from the glacier and brought it back to camp. Unfortunately, the specimen would be lost that same winter, when crewman Sidney Jeffryes came to believe the creature was trapped and wanted it freed. In the end, he broke the frozen block with an axe, destroying the specimen inside… Valdés-Hevia: “The Megalamorpha, can appear to the people around them as anything they interpret.

And it is based on your previous beliefs. What are your backgrounds? They might think he's some kind of deity…” A recovered poster shows that a few years later, in the 1920s, the Turner Bros. circus began touring the United States with an unusual exhibit. They claimed it was a species of "Amazonian mammoth ant", although no such genus exists. One of the two founders of the circus supposedly became obsessed with the mysterious insect and began sleeping with it in the cage. Eventually, he escaped with the ant and was never seen again... A leaked report tells us that almost a century later, in June 1961, a group of Russian navy personnel discovered something disturbing in the Kara Sea. .

While investigating a sunken merchant ship, a diver found the nest of some type of creature. Analysis of the eggs determined that they belonged to a species previously unknown to science. But while the diver's camera was recovered, he was not. The rest of the crew deemed the waters unsafe to investigate further, and what ultimately happened to the site remains a mystery. Researcher Nigel Buckley tracked down the details of most of the Megalamorpha sightings, making it his life's work to compile the scattered reports about the creatures before he passed away in 1986. Fragments of notes and illustrations indicate that Buckley believed the forms of life were related to insects.

Despite the extreme variability in appearance of Megalamorpha, Buckley theorized that they were a single species that underwent radical metamorphosis throughout their life cycle. While Buckley was unable to prove the existence of these

nightmares

, the sightings continued after his death. But we'll return to Megalamorpha... Another brilliant horror series is The Façade, a paranoia-inducing work that arises from a collaboration between Valdés-Hevia and fellow artist Luke Baker. Valdés-Hevia: “I love Luke's art, so one day we were chatting and I thought: we should collaborate on something. “We converged on the issue of doubles.” The story begins in 1865.

A photographer reveals his latest invention to the court of the French emperor: the Turning portrait. However, the portrait of a certain Baron Renard goes... wrong. The camera is considered defective. Unbeknownst to the court, the real problem is that the individual in the photograph is not actually Renard. The next sighting of this way of life, known as the Facade, came in 1896, when during the X-ray craze, people bought machines to show to party guests. At one of those events in Hamburg, financier Franz Mansfeld has this plaque removed, revealing that it is the Facade. He keeps the print a secret until it disappears years later.

Decades pass without sightings until 1960, when a 6-year-old boy from Chicago is admitted to Lurie Children's Hospital. In a crayon drawing, he claims that there is a monster pretending to be his mother. His records show another breakup at age 23, believed to be around the time La Fachada chose a new victim. Valdés-Hevia: “It changes identities. Every time it is discovered, it will go out, kill someone else and become that person.” The last sighting occurred in 1977, when a passerby reported to Chicago police that he saw a man with a changing face swallow someone whole. His story was not believed, although the police made only one portrait of the suspect.

The report was not investigated and the current location of the façade remains unknown... Many of Valdés-Hevia's most striking pieces do not belong to a series, but are independent works. Like this photograph of a group of people watching the emergence of the 'Niddhogg'. “The idea is that this huge creature, the Niddhogg, explodes from the ground every year. But I want to put it in a world where it's completely normal and everyone is used to it." The name Niddhogg comes from Norse mythology and belongs to a dragon that bites a root of the world tree. However, the people in these images do not revere the Nigghogg as something mythical, but rather as a sight to behold, which seems strangely realistic.

Taking hoaxes and fragments of folklore and turning them into something more realistic is a motif that appears frequently throughout Valdés-Hevia's art. For example, “Jenny Hanivers” are hoaxes created by taking the dried carcass of a stingray and transforming it into a fantasy creature to sell to tourists. However, one piece by Valdés-Hevia imagines a deep-sea submarine capturing a "live specimen" on camera, revealing a strange, human-like life form peering from the dark abyss. It's amazing how art turns a pretty ridiculous piece of folklore into something truly scary. And Valdés-Hevia is not afraid to embrace absurdity and horror at the same time.

One of my favorite pieces shows a trail camera capturing something strange on December 25, 2020. The following Christmas, the owner of the camera hears a horrible crack, like bones breaking, coming from his chimney. Thinking that migratory birds had made a nest inside, they take a photo through the chimney… Valdés-Hevia: “Creepy and funny are something really easy to combine. “I like to do both.” One of the best combinations of creepy and funny comes from Crab Person Images, a project in which volunteer test subjects undergo a procedure intended to evolve the blueprints of their human body into something more advanced... with unexpected results.

Valdés-Hevia: “A mad scientist tried to accelerate evolution just to see what humanity would evolve into. And, oh no, he evolved into crabs.” This series is a game about carcinization, or the tendency of crustaceans to evolve into crabs, a fun natural phenomenon that I've talked about before on the channel. So maybe the ultimate human would also have a defensive ribcage and a keratinous claw. Of course, some of Valdés-Hevia's work is more overtly terrifying. Returning to the fragmented Megalamorpha series, the next look at the influence of giant insects occurs in Norway in 1953. Here, an isolated church becomes a strange cult that worships a mysterious being.

Journalist Erling Jørgensen is allowed to visit the community and take photographs, although he is not allowed to enter the church during sermon hours. However, according to Erling's notes, on the day of his departure she becomes curious. As he sneaks into the church, he sees an immense moth-like creature appear on the wall. The congregation falls silent as the monstrous insect pulses, apparently under his control. Valdés-Hevia: “In my Megalamorpha series, it's about these giant insects that manipulate people and brainwash them. “This one who specializes in releasing pheromones with this huge organ could brainwash a whole group of people.” After the sermon is over, a fire destroys the church and the insect that day.

Only years later, after Erling's death, is it revealed that he was the one who lit the match... But Megalamorpha's story doesn't end there. In fact, more recent discoveries suggest that the creatures may have been appearing for centuries. In 1982, a local news channel in Sicily discovers something strange. On the wall of a Roman ruin, a mosaic depicts what looks like a huge wasp devouring an antelope. The piece stands out from the rest of the realistic scenes and does not seem to coincide with any known Roman myth. In a medieval codex from 15th century Spain, the Megalamorpha appear to appear again.

While traveling on a ship, a nobleman's son discovers an unusual cocoon in the sea, which soon begins to alter his mind. When an insect hatches from its cocoon, the nobleman's son believes the creature to be sacred and has numerous statues made in its honor, all of which have insect-like features. But other pieces indicate that human interactions with Megalamorpha go back much further. Neolithic paintings found in a cave near Tírig, Spain, depict what appear to be people fighting a large six-legged insect. However, in the next image, people kneel before a similar figure in a more solemn pose.

It seems they are making offerings to him. The next part appears to represent the next stage in the insect's life cycle, but has been purposely chiseled away, leaving few recognizable traces. The final scene shows more people kneeling and laying down their weapons beneath beings that display elements of both humans and the six-limbed creatures, an image that is perhaps the most disturbing of all. Near the paintings is a human skull with unknown malformations. Taken together, it appears that Megalamorpha's life cycle eventually involves fusing with human hosts. But we'll get back to that story... In Valdés-Hevia's gallery of horrors, another ingeniously strange concept is Xipe-Totec, a planet apparently made of living flesh passing close to Earth.

There's something cosmically terrifying and strangely funny about this image: veins running through the planet like rivers and dots resembling eyes where craters should be. The Archivist: So what can you tell us about the planet made of living flesh? Valdés-Hevia: It has a bit of speculative biology. As precise as possible about, you know, the meat planets. It has a red and fleshy appearance, and that is because it uses a pigment, similar to chlorophyll, to absorb the energy of stars. And to move, it needs to expel some matter... kind of like, in a way, farting through the universe.

In the story that accompanies these images, after passing near the Earth, the Xipe-Totec leaves fragments torn from its surface due to the Earth's gravitational attraction. Authorities are warning people not to approach the rubble as it still appears to be full of life, which does not bode well. And after the planet leaves the solar system, the Voyager 2 probe takes a space photograph of what appears to be another member of the Xipe-Totecs species that is now just a skeleton. Valdés-Hevia: “So the bone version of the flesh planet that we see was one of these planets that did not survive.

He was very unlucky, he did not find a new star system and he continued wandering until he was alone in ahusk…” One of Valdés-Hevia’s longest series is The Lycanthrope Project, an exploration of an alternate history with werewolves. made in collaboration with talented horror artist David Romero. The mixed-media series brilliantly reimagines the werewolf myths, reframing the monsters' relationship with society in unexpected ways. The Archivist: "So what was the vision behind Project Lycanthrope?" Valdés-Hevia: “One of the driving concepts we had behind this was to place the werewolf where the vampire usually is. So the vampire usually works as this aristocratic assassin.

He is the personification of the nobleman who takes advantage of the common people. And get the vampire out of there and put in a werewolf, which is usually something beastly. "Usually it's not a creature that's in control." One of the earliest depictions of werewolves in The Lycanthrope Project's history comes from a Roman mosaic, depicting a group of hunters killing a werewolf. The wolf curse is passed down through bloodlines. And although the werewolves are hunted in this image, the powers soon change as the cursed individuals rise through the ranks of nobility. The following image comes from a medieval triptych, commissioned in the 12th century by a secret society of knights called the Order of the New Moon.

This group of werewolves, who feature heavily in The Lycanthrope Project, believe themselves to be a holy and chosen people, destined to rule the masses. Slowly approaching the present, an old photograph shows how in some island Nordic communities the ancient customs of worshiping werewolves are still maintained. In ancient times, these groups practiced initiation rites that often included the wearing of masks shaped like wolf heads, showing how the influence of werewolves has spread throughout the world. Over time, the ranks of the secretive Order of the New Moon open to a select few. At the dawn of the 20th century, powerful figures begin to marry into the family, lured by the promise of joining the Lycan lineage.

Today, the highest ranks of the enigmatic Order are said to be made up of the rich and powerful from around the world. However, the full extent of its reach remains a mystery. Like many of Valdés-Hevia's projects, the narrative is intentionally open-ended, encouraging the viewer to fill in the gaps... And to conclude our look into the mind of Valdés-Hevia, we'll return one last time to the terrors of The Megalamorpha project. Some of the most illuminating fragments of the narrative are the last surviving photographs of the secretive De La Cruz family, which finally offer us a glimpse of a Megalamorpha-human hybrid.

According to Adrián De La Cruz, a disowned relative who smuggled the photographs from the family property, the monster in this image was known in the family as “Uncle Alfredo.” Adrián claims that the creature has always been there since the time of his great-grandparents, convinced that it was part of the family. The Archivist: "So how did you approach the design of the Megalamorpha-human hybrid?" Valdés-Hevia: “It took me a long time to figure out how to mix those human and insect elements. Take the bones outside; “The human part is like outside in the exoskeleton.” According to Adrián De La Cruz's story, he planned to kill the creature by drinking a bottle of cyanide and letting it feed on him.

It's unclear if he was successful... In any case, Megalamorpha's story continues into the modern era. In 2004, a company mapping the seafloor off the coast of Hawaii discovers an abandoned remotely operated vehicle. The vehicle was lost during the reconnaissance of a sunken ship, with the umbilical cord cut. And on the vehicle's camera is a photo of a familiar insect-like creature that appears to have been the cause of the vehicle's disappearance and perhaps the shipwreck of the ship itself. The latest glimpse of Megalamorpha comes in the form of 2006 trail camera footage recovered from a now-defunct online hunting forum.

However, as to what happened to the Megalamorpha from here on, no one knows. Because who can say what is hidden in the dark corners of the world? This brief look at the surprising and surreal creations of Eduardo Valdés-Hevia leaves many questions still unanswered. But, according to the artist himself, a mystery is more attractive when there is a little ambiguity. Valdés-Hevia: “I'm not one to tell the whole story to everyone because I think that ruins the fun a bit. It's that found horror that makes you look for more. “You are cursing yourself with knowledge, but you need to know more.” If you want to discover more of this mysterious art for yourself, there are links in the description.

A huge thank you to Eduardo Valdés-Hevia for sharing ideas on his numerous projects. Once again, you can support him on Patreon and follow him on social media using the links below. And as always, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this post, please support us by liking, subscribing, and hitting the notification icon to stay up to date on all things Curious. See you in the next video.