Tag: Art
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Dream Stop
Dream Stop is the title of Gary Hill’s ingenious installation, which was on display at the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Using 31 video cameras and an equal number of projectors, fitted with special mirrors and lenses, he creates a collage of projected images on the four walls of the large space, inviting us to pause for…
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Dance of Death
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…
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The Annunciation
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…
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Holland in Kochi
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…
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Blissful sleep
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…
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The joy of sex …
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
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…
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Death of an anthropologist
Death of an anthropologist I haven’t found an explanation by the Aboriginal painter July Dowling about this work of hers. Whatever I say about it will be guesswork. But it is interesting, and probably not without significance, to note that apart from red ochre and synthetic paint, blood has been used in the painting. The three…
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A plunge into the unknown
A plunge into the unknown “Voici le temps du vertige et son délicieux effroi. Encore un instant maître, suspendu à la loi, et puis la chute aillée dans le vivant abîme.” (Hans Thomann – Himmel) Ready for the New Year? Photo of the week: Sculpture “Himmel” by Hans Thomann, 8e triennale de sculpture contemporaine Bex &…
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Feminine beauty
Feminine beauty Five pillars, five depictions of Hathor, the goddess of beauty, joy and love. We are here in the temple complex on the islet of Philae in the Nile, south of Aswan. The temple dates from the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Three thousand years of Pharaonic rule are drawing to a close, and…
