Think of bizarre creatures with goo oozing out of their orifices, detached brains and creepy skeletons when you try to imagine the angst-ridden and grotesque art of Trenton Doyle Hancock. Evoking art luminaries like German expressionist Otto Dix, Belgium sculptor Thierry De Cordier and cartoonist Robert Crumb, Hancock grabs bits and bobs from B-grade horror films like The Toxic Avenger and Street Trash, and creates an “alter-verse” that is uniquely his.

The artist is bringing his monstrous vision to the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) for an exhibition entitled A Day Ahead A Head A Day. “I was interested in merging some of the icons and motifs I’ve been using lately, such as bones, cartoon heads, hands and biomorphic oddities with the rather straightforward image of my face. With this body of work there's also a looser usage of my icons. Ultimately, the new works deal with "transition” and this exhibition is the bridge from the last six years,” Hancock explains of his work for the gallery.

For his show at STPI, Hancock decided to plunge himself in to the throes of Singapore’s Chinese mythological themepark, Haw Par Villa. “It is perhaps one of the strangest destinations on Earth.” He adds, “This amusement park exists in Singapore as a counter to a pervasively conservative culture. Most of all, it represents the extremes to which one will go to tell a story. I am impressed with the park's creators and their insistence to follow-through with an idea no matter how absurd. To me, that is where art and beauty converge.” The result of this artist’s journey into Hell? An anthology of stunning works that document twisted worlds within his psyche. While “Aboard” overwhelms the viewer with an orgy of intertwined limbs, “Imported but Beautiful” is a three-meter outstretched hand (a recurring theme in Hancock’s oeuvre) poised ambiguously. Hancock explains: “The hand not only plays an important role in the life of an artist, it is integral in most human interaction. The hands in my works are emotive in the sense that they can be contorted into any number of symbols. The hands are almost always used as symbols for the constructive need to make things, but making usually involves destruction on some level.” And that is the message of Hancock’s epic: An open-ended tale of hope and the forces that seek to destroy it, of good versus evil—a gripping allegory for our times perhaps.

Trenton Doyle Hancock: A Day Ahead A Head A Day is on Jul 31-Sep 4 at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 41 Robertson Quay, 6336-3663. Free.