Today - London and NYC humans in public service /
Ever since Brexit I was determined to get to the bottom of it and have been calling American friends working in the UK as well as in Europe to find out a bit more about it. To me the responsibility for a nation's attitude falls on the individual. If you think there's a person worth a palace with 1000 rooms and there are others not worthy of it on account of being born here and there.. i have a problem with this. Same thing with NYC politics. You can choose to worry about your organs any way you want.. especially in NYC with around 70 bars within a mile radius.. a determined person could practically swim in bodies all day long on a daily basis. It is no big deal. But i don't know why newspapers need to worry about people's organs, i don't know why this person just doesn't get what he wants and the newspapers need to circulate pictures of his child. .. We are given one shot at 100 years to be fully aware in a soup of atoms and molecules. We are clouds of possibilities, we are free to use our clouds any way we want save for harming others.
I am off to Mars.
p.s. actually, always have been a martian .. just going home.
BE A MARTIAN! /
Games of the XXXI Olympiad Memorial Thread on REDDIT, it is the whole Olympics in a nutshell i.e. REDDIT Comments ( in case you missed it ) /
Games of the XXXI Olympiad Memorial Thread self.olympicssubmitted 11 hours ago * by iamthewookieenow
..
Before I get into the many, many amazing comments, moments, pictures and general brilliance of the games I want to write a thank you to everyone that took part in these threads. I originally wrote/stole these from other websites shamelessly for /r/unitedkingdom and got about 20 comments. At the lowest these threads had 4000, at the highest nearly 11,000. You've all made my Olympics and this has been one of the nicest experiences of my sporting life (literally nothing will ever beat Ulster Rugby winning anything or this David Healy goal) but this comes very close.
These Games haven't been without their controversy, there's been doping allegations, zika worries, gender questioning, a green pool, poor sportsmanship, blatant cheating in the boxing...but still we had moments where two warring countries had competitors come together to take a selfie, we had a refugee team, we had people crying in joy because they got to see their flag raised high and their anthem played for the first time, the 20th time, the 100th time and we had people setting aside any differences to compete in a massive sporting arena. I hope that's what they'll be remembered as, the great distraction we get from the worlds issues and our own every 4 years to remember that we aren't all that different and that we can all come together for a friendly competition. Unless you sort the medal table like that you sicko! :P
I genuinely think these threads have represented the best of the Olympic spirit, i've seen people from all over the world come together and support random countries in ridiculous sports because an athletes story spoke to them or because they wanted glory to come where it hasn't before and for the most part everyone has been respectful, helpful and kind. It's been amazing and i'm so glad we did this. :) Also if you've been inspired by the Games at all, here's a link to a comprehensive guide to every sport you could imagine! Finally i'd be remiss not to mention the new Olympic Channel!
.. THE REDDIT BITS OPENING CEREMONY MEGATHREAD.
.. Top Five Comments 1) Haha "the last time a German team came to Brazil they did something unspeakable". I love the BBC. /u/iamthewookieenow 2) "We invented the plane! Fuck you wright brothers lol" /u/BiocaHD 3) Lol, the brazilian broadcaster just said that NBC tried to change the order of the countries back to English, but the IOC said no to that. /u/BlondieMenace 4) Lol our Canadian announcer loves pointing out interesting tidbits like "that person holding the flag is a weightlifter who was disqualified at Beijing for doping". /u/CrackingYs 5) Nobody but Brazillians will understand how this feels,our country so maligned,looked down upon being celebrated worldwide.Our diversity,our music.Aquele Abraço played with images of Rio made me cry.This is amazing. /u/Kirbyhiller2 DAY ONE MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Refugee team LETS GO!!!! 18 year old girl won her swimming heat! /u/gandalfswagoff 2) 3) Reddit really dropped the ball not allowing us to gift Reddit silver and bronze to posts/comments. /u/jgstate1 3) The hardest part about watching the biking is i have no idea if these people are ahead or behind other people. /u/gandalfswagoff 4) Good on that swimming ref allowing him to compete after the false start. /u/tldw 5) Fuck the Korean Archers are all real life Elves. /u/TareXmd DAY TWO MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Can NBC please stop asking silver-medaled athletes if they are disappointed. Why do they have to make everything so negative. /u/sassy_severus_snape 2) People on Twitter saying they don't care who won because Mara choked. How the fuck did she choke? She rode for almost four hours and gave it her all. /u/conceite 3) Can we just stop the olympics now and award the winners to the country winning the medal tally? /u/cockroachclitoris 4) BREAKING NEWS Russia have been completely banned from the Paralympic Games. /u/iamthewookieenow 5) Rugby Sevens is so much fun. Wish it has a bigger exposure, more people should watch it. /u/bdzz DAY THREE MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Let me just say thanks to everyone on this sub for being such a great group to share this viewing experience with over the past couple of days and the upcoming days. From answering honest questions about athletes and the nuisances of different events to providing interesting, sincere, humorous, insightful, and witty commentary, you all have enhanced this Olympics for me and for countless others. Again, thank you for this. /u/therealdynamoscotch 2) Awwwww yeeeee. Day three of hating myself as I watch people ten years younger than me accomplish more than I could in a lifetime. /u/rocknrolljedi 3) I feel like horses get punished for being smart. There's this tiny obstacle and acres of space to conveniently ride around it and when the horse tries to be helpful to the rider 'don't worry, we don't have to go over there, I know another way' they get penalty points for it. /u/gluecksritter90 4) I don't think anyone can deny that so far sevens has been an excellent addition to the Olympics. /u/tipfoster 5) BBC commentator just called her Effidoper, I'm crying. /u/nothematic DAY FOUR MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Imagine being Boomer Phelps at the dinner table in 15 years hearing dad's stories about working harder because you got a C+ in math. /u/espinmind 2) "The diving pool has turned green and no one knows why." Well, that's reassuring. /u/nikkissippi121 3) Everyone's focused on Phelps and I am here more amazed that a random Japanese guy is within 0.04s of Phelps himself. /u/harrason 4) Aly Raisman is my favorite on our team, in addition to her tremendous skill on every apparatus she actually looks like a grown-ass woman out there. At age 22 she's already over the hill in gymnastic years but I would love to see her continue competing. /u/youthdecay 5) Alright Phelps we have tolerated you for this long ... take of you skin suit and return to the planet from which you came. /u/amatteroftrust DAY FIVE MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) What a day for the British. The shit weather has unlocked our potential. /u/marauding_forward 2) Hello people. I miss you all. So whats happening today? Today I need to support our rower, Dattu. He got one incredible story. /u/nachihapter 4) I know Sun Yang is a bit of an asshole, but I just read this in his wiki, "He wanted to be a singer in his childhood and his favorite singer is Avril Lavigne." I'm not sure I can hate him now. Why you gotta go and make things so complicated, Sun??! /u/emmac02 5) "The lights are on, the pools green, I don't know what's going on" Lol BBC commentary is the best. /u/pearroc DAY SIX MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) LOL CBC. "Ryan Lochte wins it! Phelps might not even medal!!!! ... My mistake. I had the lanes mixed up. Phelps with gold." /u/rosemarysbaby 2) Just wanted to say, I'm super stoked to have found this community. It's awesome to share the joy of sport with those literally all around the world. /u/southbaker 3) Some say the Americans are still rowing. /u/fuzzedlogic 4) Genuine love and respect between Raisman and Biles. So wonderful to see young girls not pitted against each other. Pure class. /u/cashfortrash 5) Phelps swimming three events today and I'm sitting here eating a box of oreos. /u/parsnippity DAY SEVEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Fuck yes that 20k walk bout to be liiiiit son /u/fair_enough_ 2) So, a day late. But watching Fiji hold each other and pray, sing, cry together after their gold win. That was really beautiful. /u/cressidaa 3) Yo, my fellow Singapore peeps in this thread. How's it feel to wait for our National Anthem to be played for the first time ever in the Olympics? I am saying it right here, it's not even here yet and I already feel fucking fantastic. /u/harrason 4) ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ RELEASE THE LEDECKY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ /u/americanidiom 5) Hahaha that's a hilarious error, the organisers thought this Latvian hep lady's seasons best hurdles time was the distance she threw in shot put, so they put her in the wrong heat -_-; /u/geosaurusrex DAY EIGHT MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Reporter: "Michael, seeing your family cheering for you, doesn't it make you want to continue?" Phelps: "No, it makes me want to be with them more" This made me realize that now he'll finally have time to be something else: Father and husband. /u/MMMLG 2) "Fuck your world record" GB(NI!!!) Cyclists /u/nothematic 3) Shoutout to the ethiopian steeplechase runner who has lost a shoe /u/nickp1991 4) Realistic chance of 4+ golds today. Excited. /u/nothematic 5) I'm totally on-board with Bill Murray's suggestion that every event should have someone out of the crowd take part to give you real-life context. /u/thephotoguyupstairs DAY NINE MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) I've been really only focusing on this post and olympic reddit that when I went and browsed the front page and all I forgot how stupid the rest of this place is. I don't think I can go back. /u/MotherLicka 2) do the brits come out the womb on bicycles? /u/cryloren 3) I always feel emotional when people cry when they win, but these Brazilian gymnasts are really making me cry. And they didn't even win gold. /u/edilioescobar 4) Diego Hypolito's medal is especially sweet because in 2008 he qualified first on FX, but fell on his last tumbling pass, losing the gold medal with his fall. He actually also lost a lot of sponsorships after he failed to medal as well. Now he gets silver 8 years later! What a great event final! /u/aunque 5) Congrats to Britain and Max Whitlock! I'm delighted for Mariano and Hypolito but I feel awful for Shirai and Mikulak. Nobody deserves to have their mistakes celebrated like that and you can tell they were rattled. /u/fun_with_forks DAY TEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) If someone told me i had to swim to the start line of a 10km swim I think I'd have to slap them. /u/R1wy 2) I heard these horses sometimes come from small towns where horse dancing is illegal and their horse parents dont approve of such antics. /u/mortherlicka 3) I am drinking citrus punch loose leaf tea from a pot at 10:48pm watching Dressage. I have peaked, ladies and gentlemen. /u/yeahnahteambalance 4) I won't respect Dressage until I see a horse Dab /u/yeahnahteambalance 5) China, you may eventually take our second place, BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE OUR DANCING HORSES! /u/Blurandski DAY ELEVEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) BBC Commentator: 'This is a very talented, very capable horse' Horse proceeds to crash into the next two obstacles, then throws off rider. /u/gluecksritter90 2) Irish boxer: "They're cheating boxers and I don't give a fuck if I'm cursing on TV. They're cheating and they're known to be cheats - amateur boxing stinks from the core to the top". /u/pucker_pot 3) The 10k openwater is astonishing to me. Swimming 10k is long. Very, very long. Now include the openwater. Currents, waves, having to navigate yourself, even though you barely see anything in the sea. Such a hardcore sport. /u/isthisdutch 4) The commentators should get a medal for coming up with things to say about swimming for nearly 2 hours straight. /u/1852sw 5) New boxing rule that was introduced for these Olympics: decisions can no longer be appealed. hahaha /u/pucker_pot DAY TWELVE MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Andre De Grasse and Usain Bolt smiling at each other as they cross the finish line is my new favourite Olympic moment. /u/rosemarysbaby 2) Looking at the front page of reddit makes me wonder if all these people commenting and upvoting stupid shit have actually watched the olympics at all. Nothing but negativity and complete ignorance. I knew there was a reason I try to avoid this place outside of smaller subreddits. /u/MotherLicka 3) I love how Brazil is donating the gymnastics apparati to Ukraine after the games. 4) Two friends going for a jog. While one casually improves the national record. /u/isthisdutch 5) Welcome to Whose Line Is It Anyway? where everything is made up and the points don't matter just like in Olympic boxing. /u/LaternaLux DAY THIRTEEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) I reckon they should do an extra week of the olympics just for fun where all the athletes swap events drawn randomly out of a hat. I just want to see Bolt attempting dressage /u/drunkpossum 2) Reddit has been so unbearable when it's come to this Olympics, even though with all things considered it's been a success. If you went by what people on reddit have been spewing, you'd think it was worse than Munich where olympians were killed /u/DuhSpecialWaan 3) I don't know if people know what this is. It is fending, swimming, show jumping and combined pistol shooting with cross country running. That all sounds like a random collection of sports, but the idea behind it is that it simulates a 19th-century (time this sport was invented) cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight enemies with pistol and sword, swim, and run to return to his own soldiers. /u/nightowlanna 4) After the boxing, it's obvious these Olympics are rigged against the Irish. Making an Irish man run in the midday sun in Rio? Cost him at least 2 seconds, lucky he didn't melt into a puddle half way around. /u/surfacing710 5) Johnathon Brownlee - "Why have you betrayed me, brother?" /u/rachelkarengreep DAY FOURTEEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) I propose we replace this 50km walk event with the unlimited. New event called the 'walk of attrition'. To win you've just got to be the last person walking. Just days, weeks, of some poor POW looking people struggling. No spastic action, just sheer spastic will. I'd get invested. /u/cunthead 2) (Hockey) Apparently the best-paid players in the GB(NI) team all pay into a pool so that all the players earn the same. That's what you call a team. /u/tipfoster 3) Did... Did we just win a standing up gold? /u/blurandski 4) I kinda want to just start dropping Ryan Lochte into random countries and see how many days it takes to create International incidents /u/Dr-Haus 5) Haha french commentators after the 50km race walk where everyone is half dying : "So maybe this will generate some interest and motivation for this particular sport. - Yeah I'm not so sure." /u/henrax DAY FIFTEEN MAEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) Are people feeling like they've missed so much of the Olympics even though they've actually seen quite a bit of it? So many events. /u/phineusforneusfloop 2) The only upside to the olympics ending is that I might actually be able to get to bed at some point before 2am for the first time in two weeks. /u/acedino 3) Gem from the German commentator: 'They are not four men anymore, they are one boat, they have become one racing towards the gold!" /u/gluecksritter90 4) They should have told him he was disqualified before springing it on him in an interview /u/papertowelrod 5) Great that Brazil made it through, the final wouldn't have been the same without them /u/Jay-Em DAY SIXTEEN MEGATHREAD Top Five Comments 1) General mood here in Rio. /u/northernsparrow this is long so i'm not copying it all but it's worth a read 2) I think we can officially say fuck you to /r/apocalympics2016 /u/bentvnerd21 3) To everyone being sad about the Olympics coming to an end: stay tuned for the Paralympics! Those guys and gals are awesome as well and the amount of work they had to put into their training to overcome their obstacles is just mind blowing. If you liked the emotions of the Olympic athletes then you're in for a treat with the Paralympics! /u/fredelsloh 4) THEY PLAYED THE MARIO THEME FUCK OFF NO WAY /u/jvickery13 5) Bach: "I declare the Olympic Games closed" Crowd: "Aaaaaaaaaawwwwww..." /u/leverhelven FUNNY MOMENTS 1) The Mongolian Wrestling Coaches stripping in protest. 2) The Green Pool 3) Bradley Wiggins enjoying his medal ceremony 4) Hatian hurdler has an embarrassing fall after showboating 5) Spanish mountain biker crossing the line for a bronze medal 6) Fu Yuanhui's post-semifinal interview SAD MOMENTS 1) Lutalo Muhammad loosing in the last second of his Gold Medal Taekwondo match. 2) Judoka Islam El Shehaby (EGY) refused to shake the offered hand of his Israeli opponent 3) Renaud Lavillenie in tears on the podium after being booed by the Brazilian crowd 4) The 50km walk race of Yoann Diniz, the world record holder. He fainted during the race due to gastric problems. He later finished the race, 6min after the winner IMMORTAL MOMENTS 1) Opening Ceremony 2) The Triple Triple 3) The Double Double 4) King Phelps 5) Simone Biles and the rest of her team 6) After winning gold, Colombian weightlifter Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera leaves his shoes on the platform, signalling his retirement from the sport 7) Ten countries won their first gold medals (Bahrain, Fiji, Kuwait (as independant), Cote D Ivoire, Jordan, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Tajikistan, Vietnam) 8) Team GBNI became the first country to increase its medal total after hosting the previous olympics. 9) Wayde van Niekerk (RSA) coming from the outside lane to win the 400m and breaking Michael Johnson's 'unbreakable' world record. 10) Sweden over USA and Brazil in women's football 11) Juan Martin del Potro beating champion after champion to claim Silver in tennis. 12) Andy Murray beating him to become the first man to defend the Olympic singles tennis title. 13) Neymar taking the final penalty kick to win Brazil's first gold medal in football 14) Abbey D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin helping eachother after a collision in the 5,000 meters 15) Evan Dunfee. He encouraged a fellow competitor who was suffering--breaking his stride/rhythm to do so (apparently this is important to race walkers). Then, during the final stretch of the race he was bumped by another walker and fell to fourth. After the race the bumper was DQd and he was awarded the bronze only to see it taken away when the DQ was overturned. Despite what must have been a rollercoaster of emotions he graciously accepted the decision as the correct one. 16) Heptathletes joining hands and bowing to the crowd after their event was over. 17) Brianne Theisen Eaton, the last woman standing after the heptathlon 18) Kohei Uchimura's high bar routine in the final rotation of the men's Individual All-Around competition in Artistic Gymnastics. He was in second place by 0.9 points and won by 0.1, repeating as Olympic champion. 19) Men's keirin final. 2 very close disqualification calls, in which nobody was DQ'd in the end, and a very close race on the 3rd try! 20) Chen Aisen's perfect final dive in men's 10m platform, achieving a 108.00 score. 21) The Fiji rugby team kneeling to accept their gold medals after standing in a circle and singing hymns and prayers after winning the Rugby 7s. 22) Closing Ceremony and Intro to Tokyo 2020.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Explains Quantum Computing /
Always had much respect for uncertainty. ..
Red /
Red red red.. literally drowning in red, practically drinking it straight from the tube. Love the feeling of a single wavelength of light flooding my brain. There's a large canvas on the opposite wall that lies in wait for the flood.
Automatic Red /
Last day of ANIMATED PEN AND INK DRAWINGS – AS PART OF ART FROM THE BOROS at Denise Bibro Fine Art - 529 WEST 20TH street - 4W, 11-6 pm /
Soon I am going to ask Londoners from all walks of life to write me a message. In Hyde Park and elsewhere - together we are going to write the poem of our collective subconscious and I will call it Today. /
Subway Grids /
Japanese Zen Gardens and I Have Everything Project /
Japan, and the way of Zen, had a profound effect on me. I had seen how the absence of a thing creates meaning, of the thing itself. I sat on the sidelines of a sand pit, with rocks in it, and this gave me a very meaningful experience - I got in touch with something within myself that was a part of the bigger world around me.. and this experience made me realize how connected I am to everything without actually owning it or having a formal relationship with it, or even an intellectual understanding of it. It was the absence of everything that we expect to give us a worthwhile experience ( in the west ). I returned to the sand pit several times. And went on to other similar gardens around Kyoto and had several days of uninterrupted near bliss which i have not had the capacity to explain as I am not a Buddhist and this wasn't a religious experience, I didn't have any crutches to stand on.
Around a year after the trip to Japan I decided to sell and donate most of my possessions and move to New York City. I had built a substantial cache of things and had a pretty lifestyle, this is all i want to say about it. The possessions that surrounded me had started to take a large amount of my time and resources. all required not only dusting, regular care and space to inhabit - they needed use. It means I had to sit around playing with my possessions to put them to good use or find them storage, organize them properly and so on. Imagine the amount of time it takes to properly care for a house full of stuff. Sounds like a lifetime.
Now I don't really recommend doing a big shed unless you are properly motivated. Short of putting on a robe or having another"proper" context - it is hard to explain or relate such a move to anyone. At the time I wanted to find self-worth beyond what I had, and beyond my commercial work. I found that with being constantly fed a program i had atrophied my own capacity for self-motivation and self-tasking which is essential for independent artists. I left my apartment in San Francisco and moved to a small room in Harlem. Till this day i only feel relief and not a single drop of regret or doubt.
What does it mean? Nothing, it really has no meaning to anyone or no purpose beyond what it really was - i did my first hand drawing in this room and because I had no distractions whatsoever and no other model - a whole body of work emerged focused on my personal space.
I often come back to the big shedding of things as it was really fascinating to watch all the stuff go. Each object I sent away had a connection to my life and held a string to a particular event or reflected on a particular experience. None was trivial, I always felt an object had a permanent bond to their owner on account of us being blobs and constantly absorbing molecules from our surroundings. Thus emerged the what I call "I Have Everything project". There was no intent for any of it to become any sort of project, simply had to photograph each item for either craigslist or ebay.. at different times, both in San Francisco and New York city.
Saks Fifth Avenue evening gown I wore to the Met opera, complete with box seats ( if you have ever shown up to the met overdressed and all eyes are on the gown and the bare back ), unforgettable moment which I never repeated. Since, I have always gone to the Opera in jeans and a jacket, standing room only. In fact the standing room area at the Met Opera is the most fun as you have often a reason to get a conversation going with others on the railings. The gown went on ebay.
My Tae-Kwon-Do gear. Had to question every single thing I was taught, and the whys outweighed the dos. Eventually realized I cannot be completely conscious and kick or hit another human.. Loved the color of the yellow belt.
Tae Kwon Do was not a trivial or trifle experience, I learned much about it and what creates a mastery of movement. The same thing that creates mastery in anything - practice. Once you have practiced poomse 10,000 times - you become one with motion, with the air around it and enter a zone of being. Never became Jackie Chan but appreciated him more. along with the doing I needed questions answered and a meaning built around it that I could't find in kicking itself, although i enjoyed it physically. I loved kicking paddles, not humans. The favorite lesson form Tae Kwon Do was the fact that my teacher, Mr K, always said commit the kick vs simply saying "kick" it. Commit the kick to me contained the whole philosophy of martial arts which is repetition and becoming one with air. Or with chairs as is the case with Jackie, it is an Art form after all.
This set got left i believe on the streets of Brooklyn. Perhaps I still have the belt.
The trusty jetta got donated to KQED. Bay Bridge, 101 taught me to appreciate audiobooks. I learned a bit of Japanese in this car, mostly during San Mateo bridge commutes.
Still have the ladder.
A small photograph from an obscure book
about a dry waterfall and a poem from Hyakunin isshu that read:
“Though the sound of the cascade long since has seized we still hear the murmur of its name”
Denise Bibro Fine Art is pleased to announce - Art for The Boros Closing Reception - August 4, 6-8pm /
Art From the Boros IV will be on view until August 13. See you soon! /
Fashion in an Age of Technology at The Met /
When you look at the first (3-D-Printed) piece made, you can see the fine lines of the print. You can see how the piece has been built up. In one millimeter, there are up to ten lines. It’s almost like a fingerprint - it’s as detailed as your fingerprint… It was inspired by the way limestone deposits from shells. With 3-D printing, I am very much drawn to the organic.
Iris van Herpen
I call this the the Matrix dress!
NEON DANS LA NUIT SUIT 1990/91 hand embroidered with fluorescent stripes
3-D-printed polymer
2014
Noa Raviv
“While working (with) 3-D software i was fascinated by the grid shown on the 2-D screen and by the way black repetitive lines define voluminous objects.”
1968 Egg Carton Dress
Modern Egg Carton Dress 2015
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO 2010
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1990
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1990 - same dress flat
My favorite! It is all about the name and it has got spirit.
MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIOS 1994 Flying Saucer Dress
BAHAI 3-D-printed Fractal weave dress - with six degrees of fractal growth.
3-D latticework dress 2015 Iris van Herpen
3-D printed dress using stereolithography. it was built layer by layer in a vessel of liquid polymer. The polymer hardens when struck by a laser beam.
Alexander McQueen 2012
Laser cut white foam 2013
Noir Kei Ninomiya 2015-16
Bye!
Happy Monday - self-reliance and the most important page ever written /
Having recently become overly reliant on images and words from long times past, on this glorious Monday occasion I wanted to mention that the most important words and thoughts you will ever read and have are your own. No one else is more important or wiser than what you got inside. That's why we were given this faculty - and this is why the thoughts of "sages and bards" are only second to the bard inside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self-Reliance
Marble /
I have had many encounters with marble, most notably.. until the Pergamon show, in Rome, in the vatican Museums and Michelangelo's Moses. Rome is practically riddled with it and I discovered I really very much love stone. Not forgetting the Galleria Borghese where a certain marble rape takes place, it is a beautifully disturbing masterpiece which i spent several hours contemplating. Now, marble, as far as art is concerned, is not at all trivial. And very substantial - it doesn't wobble as paintings do and works quite well even in pieces or fractured.
Marble can certainly be decorative but when it is done by a master's hand it is the ultimate fine art. There's a shift that occurs when the decorative purpose gives way to craftsmanship and it seizes to be just a pretty object but a work of art. I'd imagine you can't fix marble, the bliss of undo totally unavailable in this medium. Oil painting can be fixed, architecture can be fixed, i know of a certain skyscraper in New York that got fixed, but you can't fix marble.
What was special of the Pergamon show at the Met was that, unlike all the other stone at the Louvre, or British Museum, or Rome, the Met was curated and installed by world class talent with desire to not just show but tell a compelling story through visual means. The show was impeccably devised and paced, you wouldn't think your mind is being controlled by beauty.
Don't think i have ever seen a sculpture show this strong.. most I have seen in world class museums were well presented exhibitions.. or in the case of Florence - a strong focus on one sculpture or artist. I remember very little of my long plane ride as I worked on my photographs of the show and my entire head turned, for a few hours, into a marble one.
This show was the art equivalent of Noah's Ark, it had all art of all the world that came after it. Michelangelo was an heir of these sculptures, and Andy Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh.. everything we know about art and about how we see the figure, until this very day all academies in the world draw figures and busts in the same exact manner. All we know of beauty, what is pleasing, what is good to the eye, began with the standards these ancient greek sculptors established two millennia and some. I have been hearing trumpets of bliss in my head ever since i saw the Pergamon show. And i am glad I took my camera to it as it is, sadly now, dissipated into all corners of the world.
One more thing to add - occasionally I listen to Indian mystics who say they feel one - the inside and outside they feel as one, there is a blurry line as to who they perceive as themselves and where their inner world ends and the outer world begins. Not there yet myself. But on the particular instance of seeing the Pergamon exhibit - i felt as one with a much much larger world, not just the inside and the outside, but all past and present felt as one. That is how I imagine nirvana if there's one such thing.
NYC GALLERY OPENINGS: DENISE BIBRO - Group Show /
Video from the Art From the Boros opening reception, which was shot by O'Delle Abney. The video showcases the featured pieces from the exhibition as well as footage of the gallery attendees.