Sarah Elizabeth on Art, Darkness and the Unknown
Watch or listen to the Transmute Tapes podcast with Sarah Elizabeth
Some artworks ask us to look. Others seem to open a door.
That threshold between the visible and invisible is at the heart of our new Transmute Tapes episode with writer, curator and obsessive explorer of the stranger territories of art, Sarah Elizabeth.
Through Unquiet Things and books including The Art of the Occult, The Art of Darkness and The Art of Fantasy, Elizabeth has built a deeply personal world around art, horror, the occult, music, fashion, perfume and the supernatural.
Her new book, The Art of the Unknown: A Visual Treasury of the Esoteric, Uncanny and Unexplained, takes that exploration even further. It moves through parallel worlds, hidden forces, ghosts, forgotten knowledge, altered states, ritual and the mysteries of consciousness.
What makes the book especially compelling is that it does not treat the unknown as a problem waiting to be solved.
Instead, it asks what happens when we simply admit: I don’t know.
In our conversation, we talk about the childhood fears that became fascination, the first artwork that truly spoke to her and why human beings are so drawn to darkness, mystery and disturbing images.
We also explore the relationship between art and ritual, artists who describe their work as something received rather than invented, and whether contemporary art can help restore a sense of myth and meaning in a culture increasingly shaped by speed, productivity and explanation.
That leads us to one of the central questions of the episode: Could one of art’s roles today be to protect the unknown?
To create spaces where we are allowed not to understand immediately?
We also talk about monsters as containers for collective fears, the anxieties of our technological age, forgotten forms of knowledge, art outside the traditional canon, curation, perfume and the artists, books and other influences inspiring S. Elizabeth right now.
A conversation about art as threshold, darkness as a way of seeing, and mystery as something worth preserving.
Listen to the new episode of Transmute Tapes with Sarah Elizabeth.
Shownotes:
Sarah’s website:
https://sarahelizabethauthor.com/
Sarah on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ghoulnextdoor
Sarah’s latest book “The art f the unknown”:
https://sarahelizabethauthor.com/books/the-art-of-the-unknown/
Books
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths — Ingri d’Aulaire & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
The classic illustrated retelling of Greek mythology, first published in 1962, combining myths of gods, heroes, monsters, and the ancient Greek world with the D’Aulaires’ distinctive illustrations.
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths — Penguin Random HouseDown a Dark Hall — Lois Duncan
Duncan’s 1974 gothic YA novel about a mysterious boarding school where a group of young women begin exhibiting extraordinary artistic abilities connected to the dead.
Down a Dark Hall — Little, Brown / HachetteGhosts I Have Been — Richard Peck
Part of Peck’s Blossom Culp stories: an outsider discovers that her supposed ability to see ghosts may actually be real, eventually experiencing visions connected with the Titanic.
Ghosts I Have Been — Penguin Random HouseThe Sphinx and the Milky Way: Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield — Charles Burchfield, edited by Ben Estes
A selection from the visionary American painter’s enormous lifetime journals, bringing together his observations of nature, art, depression, spirituality, weather, cosmic wonder, and everyday life. The volume includes an introduction by Burchfield scholar Nancy Weekly. Sarah Elizabeth has also written enthusiastically about the book on Unquiet Things.
The Sphinx and the Milky Way — ARTBOOK / The Song Cave
Sarah Elizabeth on The Sphinx and the Milky Way — Unquiet ThingsPowers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection — Julia Kristeva
Kristeva’s influential study of abjection — the psychological and cultural response to things that destabilize boundaries between self and other, life and death, purity and contamination. Particularly relevant to horror, the body, taboo, art, and religion. Originally published in French in 1980; translated into English by Leon S. Roudiez.
Powers of Horror — Columbia University PressGhosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures — Mark Fisher
Fisher’s 2014 collection exploring culture as something haunted not only by the past, but by futures that were once imagined and never arrived. He develops this through music, film, television, politics, memory, Joy Division, Burial, The Shining, and more.
Ghosts of My Life — publisher pageThe Weird and the Eerie — Mark Fisher
Fisher distinguishes two related but different cultural modes. The weird suggests something that does not belong; the eerie is often generated by strange absences or inexplicable forms of agency. The book moves through Lovecraft, M. R. James, Daphne du Maurier, Margaret Atwood, Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Glazer, music, television, and other cultural forms.
The Weird and the Eerie — Repeater BooksHauntology
The term originates with philosopher Jacques Derrida and Specters of Marx, and was later developed in cultural and musical criticism by writers including Mark Fisher and Simon Reynolds. Fisher uses it particularly to think about cultural memory, spectral traces, repetition, and those unrealized futures that continue to “haunt” the present.
Podcast
Endless Thread — WBUR
The title is Endless Thread, rather than “Endless Threat.” Hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson, the WBUR podcast investigates strange stories, mysteries, communities, phenomena, and rabbit holes emerging from the internet and their connections to life offline.
Endless Thread — WBUR
Scent / Perfume
Moth — Zoologist Perfumes
A 2018 fragrance created for Zoologist by perfumer Tomoo Inaba. Moth combines dark spices, powdery florals, honey, resins, woods, patchouli, vetiver and smoke. Inaba describes the fragrance as an olfactory interpretation of the moth’s relationship with darkness, powdery wings, attraction and flame.
Zoologist — Moth / interview with perfumer Tomoo Inaba
Artist / Illustrator
Bill Crisafi — The Glam Reaper’s Guide to Slaying: Life Lessons for Rebellious Souls
This was the reference in the notes as “The Grim Reaper’s Guide to Self-Care.” The correct title is The Glam Reaper’s Guide to Slaying. Crisafi’s first book brings his occult, camp, folklore-inspired characters — including the Glam Reaper — into an illustrated guide about self-acceptance, negative self-talk, resilience, friendship, and caring for yourself. It was published in August 2026. Sarah Elizabeth wrote about Crisafi and the book on Unquiet Thingswhen it was released.
The Glam Reaper’s Guide to Slaying — book link
Bill Crisafi — official website
Sarah Elizabeth on Bill Crisafi’s book — Unquiet Things
