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Dream Stop
is the title of the ingenious installation by Gary Hill shown at the recent Kochi-Muziris Biennale. With 31 video cameras and as many projectors, equipped with special mirrors and lenses, he creates a collage of projected images on the four walls of the big room that invites us to make a halt and start dreaming.…
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Dance of Death
My usual order of confronting a visual art object: first I look and, in this case at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, I see a collection of hanging light bulbs. If the work permits it I walk around it and try to make sense of what I see. Then I read the legend on the wall, often an…
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The Annunciation
The mysterious moment when Maria is informed that she is chosen to carry the son of God inside her womb and to bring him into the world, has inspired many a painter to exceptional works of art. All great painters of the Renaissance will have an ‘Annunciazione’ to their name. A very beautiful example is the…
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Holland in Kochi
One of the first things I saw at the 3rd edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was a little painting of a Dutch landscape. Holland in Kochi! I immediately felt at home again. Daniele Galliano, an Italian artist, likes combing flea markets in search of paintings by anonymous Sunday painters. He dusts them off and then…
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Ambrosia
According to one creation myth of ancient Mesopotamia, the gods created humankind because they were fed up of having to look after their own food. Yes, gods also need food to survive, and they want man to provide it. As we can see here, man, religious man, still acquits himself faithfully of his task. This…
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Ελαιώνας
Eleonas is the Greek word for olive grove. There is a real ancient one on the island of Aegina with trees of 500 and a single one even over 1500 years old. What amazing creatures! Having reached such a respectable age, all twisted and grooved and gnarled and knotty, this is not to be seen as…
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Blissful sleep
After their lovemaking ▲ and ▼ are plunged into a deep, blissful sleep. It must be one of those hot Californian summer days in the 1960’s. As a work of art it may be fragile and look dated, but the tender sweetness of the scene is able to touch the heart. Photo of the week: California art,…
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The joy of sex …
… is of all time. This lovely scene was immortalized in stone 1000 years ago. It is part of hundreds of erotic sculptures that adorn the ancient temples of Khajuraho (India), a Unesco World Heritage Site. Rightly so! Photo of the week: Lakshmana temple, c. 1000 AD, Khajuraho, India 2007
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Living doll
Apart from the phallus shrine that I showed you in last week’s post, I also came across – at the same flea market – this exquisite Geisha doll. The doll almost seems alive, radiating the modesty of a real Geisha. A masterly example of true Japanese craftsmanship! Photo of the week: Geisha doll at the…
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Phallus shrine
A wooden phallus in a small wooden shrine. How did this piece end up at the flea market of Kitano-Tenman-gu? Has it figured on someone’s house altar – or bedside table – and fallen out of favour? We can only fantasize about it and think up vivid stories, but we don’t know. It is likely…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 