Tag: Art
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Bird’s-eye view (1)
Bird’s-eye view (1) As you can see, I was particularly interested in the black-and-white pattern of the floor in this courtyard. It consists of small round stones, a kind of simple mosaic that you can see in some places in Greece. This particular courtyard is located in the Panormitis Monastery on the island of Symi.…
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Non-objects
Non-objects My criticism of the large number of mirror works by Anish Kapoor in last week’s post, doesn’t do him justice sufficiently. He has made other, different works that deserve attention. Nevertheless I start here again with a distorting mirror work. Kapoor has named it a Non-Object, a title that fits many of his works…
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Distorting mirrors
Distorting mirrors I remember with delight the fun-fair that once a year pitched its tents in the small Dutch town in which I grew up. One of the attractions sometimes was a tent full of concave and convex mirrors in different sizes and combinations that showed the strangest, distorted reflections when one stood in front…
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The art is not our thing
The art is not our thing Art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi was appointed curator of the Italian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Given that he is known for his opposition to modern art – and certainly to the ‘mafia’ that organises the art world – his appointment was rather controversial. He decided…
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Art is my thing
Art is my thing The experience of art in all its manifestations (literature, music, visual arts) is occupying a privileged place in my mental and intellectual life. I could say: in my spiritual life, but I always hesitate using that word since it has these strong religious connotations I’d like to avoid. With acknowledgement and…
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Fall of man
Fall of man Adam and Eve, driven out of paradise by an angry god. What had they done wrong? They had committed the first, original sin. They had eaten the fruit of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’, which God had expressly forbidden. As a result, the first man and woman lost…
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Silent witnesses
Silent witnesses As I walked amongst the thousand-year-old Khmer monuments, with the guardian deities on the gopuras gazing out over the land in all four directions with their inward-turned faces, I could not help but see them as silent witnesses to the horrors that had ravaged Cambodia only a few decades ago. They had all…
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Angkar, Angkor
Angkar, Angkor Two similar images, two similar words, but referring to two very different memorable episodes in the history of Cambodia. Angkar (“the organisation”), being the name the Khmer Rouge used for its own leadership. Between 1975 and 1979, Angkar’s regime of terror caused the death of approximately one quarter of the total population of…
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The art of tea
The art of tea Looking at the photos in each of the last four posts, I highlighted a concept that is central to Zen or – in broader terms – to traditional Japanese culture. With the photo of the display in the Tokonoma I brought the word ‘harmony’ into focus, but ‘respect’, ‘purity’, or ‘tranquillity’…
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Tranquillity
Tranquillity Zen rock gardens are oases of tranquillity. They are not intended as places we set foot in, but places we quietly contemplate from the outside. They are places for meditation, created in the precincts of Zen Buddhist temples. Ryoan-ji, the rock garden in the picture, dates from the end of the 15th century. With…
καιρός remembered 