Archive for August, 2005
Postcards From The Past: The Intense Horror of Making a Mess
by Suzanne on August 31st, 2005
SUICIDAL WOMEN IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND
(George Cruikshank: The Poor Girl Homeless, Friendless, Deserted, Destitute, and Gin-Mad Commits Self-Murder, 1848, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.)
“Hysterical girls make demonstrations on the Embankment, and a pail of water over their finery would often be more efficacious a deterrent or cure than the notoriety they gain (or perhaps seek) by apprehension [...]“
→ More obscure Victorian facts & myths over at The Victorian Web
Japanese Girl Info hosts an impressive range of early 1900′s postcards of Japanese girls, ladies and geishas.
THE N.Y.P.L.’S WOMEN’S CLOTHING PICTURE COLLECTION
(Théatre National de l’Opéra : le Miracle)
Vintage women’s fashion photos and etchings from the New York Public Library Archives
→ Browse the N.Y.P.L.’s vast image archive
CURIOSA DU JOUR
by Suzanne on August 30th, 2005
(via BoingBoing)
“The first recorded story of a person actually being shot from a cannon was in England, circa 1877. And yes, it was a girl, (14) called “Zazel” (Rossa Matilda Richter).
She went on to tour with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Unfortunately (as some stories are told), during one of her performances, she broke her back and had to spend the rest of her life in a back brace.
Since then, dozens of brave souls have been propelled from cannons at speeds up to 90 mph and as far as 201 feet at a height of 100 feet. They endure “G” forces of around 12 G’s when hitting the net.
More than half of these entertainers were killed while performing their act, most by missing the net. New York State even issued a law prohibiting anyone from being shot from a cannon.”
THE MECHANAMORPHIC SCULPTURE OF Wm. DUBIN
(via Cipango)
“In the late 1960s, having finished a day’s work in the studio, I went to the local magazine store, and, while looking at a group of model railroad magazines, I found my first issue of Model Engineer. Thus began a series of events which led to the sculptures pictured on this website.
I was a sculptor, working in hard woods at the time, but I was aware that I was missing something which carving wood didn’t offer. I understood this when I saw the photos of finished models and the plans for building them in M.E.
What I was missing was precision. This awareness affected me in a profound way.”
Things That Are Scarier Than Clowns
by Suzanne on August 23rd, 2005
N° 1: DOLLS
© Julie Blackmon – click image to enlarge
“It was worth all my obsessive efforts, when, amid the smell of glue and wet plaster, the essence of all that is impressive would take shape and become a real object to be possessed.”
(Hans Bellmer‘s “Memories of the Doll Theme”, 1934)
(by Shuko – click image to enlarge)
(by Hiro – click image to enlarge)
(by Hans Bellmer – click image to enlarge)
(by my very talented friend Rik Garrett)
Cabinet de curiosité
by Suzanne on August 18th, 2005
Sometimes, when you get emails from complete strangers saying…
“Thank you for the lovely compilation of visual treats and intriguing artists.
I very much enjoyed your site.
Best wishes.”
… from enchanting artistas who create beautifully grotesque sculptures like this playful kitty here…
… and are married to equally talented and inspiring artists who paint glorious anachronistic divas like this seductive mademoiselle here…
… you’re beginning to think for a second that what you’re doing actually matters.
And even if it doesn’t, it might have at least inspired and amused a mysterious woman living hidden away somewhere in Chicago.
Thank you, Jessica, for letting me have a peek into your and your husband’s Cabinet de Curiosité.
May your future be blessed with love, pickled monkey brains and embalmed squirrel toes.
Poetic Addictions
by Suzanne on August 18th, 2005
“They described a feeling of ‘oneness’ with the needle, how they would caress the needle, and how they would never forget their first time using the needle — much like someone would describe a first love.”
(Davina Moss on recovering heroin addicts)
INTERVIEWS
© James Jean – click to enlarge
Chris Cunningham interview (by Pitchfork Media) | Dan Clowes interview (by The Guardian – and again, by ReadyMade) | Francis Bacon radio interviews (by BBC4 – incl. many other artists interviews) | James Jean interview (by The Drama Magazine) | Joe Sacco interview (by Village Voice) | Margot Quan Knight interview (by Pixelsurgeon) | Mark Murphy interview (by ArtDorks) | Nathalia Edenmont interview (by Adam Szrotek, who’s an insanely talented artist himself) | Treasure Hunting with Anne Faith Nicholls (by Fecal Face)
NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
Lou von Salomé, Paul Rée und F. Nietzsche – click to enlarge
‘Friedrich Nietzsche’: The Constructive Nihilist (by the NYT)
→ Read Thee Temple‘s article on Nietzsche’s last anniversary of death.
NEW FREE GUTENBERG™ & eLIBRARY BOOKS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by William Shakespeare / English) | All Around the Moon (by Jules Verne / English) | Metamorphosis (by Franz Kafka / English) | Pride and Prejudice (by Jane Austen / English) | Selected Works of Marquis de Sade (by eLibrary) | The Canterville Ghost (by Oscar Wilde / English) | The Entire Project Gutenberg Works of Mark Twain (by Mark Twain / English) | The Iliad (by Homer / English)
SLAM POETRY CORNER
Today: Obscenities Uttered by Jesus Christ
“Dad damn you.”
“Holy Mom, mother of me.”
“Dad.”
“Myself almighty.”
“Good me.”
“Me, Mom, and Mom’s husband …”
“Me.”
Flickr™ Featr® 006
by Suzanne on August 17th, 2005
In this continuing series, Thee Temple ov Psychick Blah portrays Flickr™ photographers who deserve more attention.
Previously featured photographers with Thee Psychick Stamp ov Approval:
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001 – Egenerica
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002 – Shadowplay
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003 – Eryn
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004 – Las Vegas Sucks
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005 – Julia Keller
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Please use our submission form to suggest a truly outstanding Flickr™ photographer you stumbled upon. Thank you.
FLICKR™ FEATR® 006
Katie West, 21.
Just like Mer, Bara, Corran, Mike and many, many other inspiring and fascinating people, I got to know Katie via the praiseworthy Warren Ellis who’s been spending the past few days on his death bed.
However, I’m sure he’ll make a full recovery if you send him Tentacle & Eel Pr0n movies featuring your best mate’s Japanese girlfriend.
Please get well soon, Warren. We miss you dreadfully…
© Katie West – click to enlarge
GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS & A ROBOT HOUSE TO KEEP THEM IN
by Sizemore on August 17th, 2005
Rodger Roundy and Graham Pilling :
Meanwhile Dark, But Shining illuminates Amulet
No Salesmen, Hawkers or junk mail.
Elsewhere there is fun to be had with the STRIP GENERATOR. Come dally with us.
Flickr™ Featr® 005
by Suzanne on August 16th, 2005
In this continuing series, Thee Temple ov Psychick Blah portrays Flickr™ photographers who deserve more attention.
Previously featured photographers with Thee Psychick Stamp ov Approval:
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001 – Egenerica
|
002 – Shadowplay
|
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003 – Eryn
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004 – Las Vegas Sucks
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Please use our submission form to suggest a truly outstanding Flickr™ photographer you stumbled upon. Thank you.
FLICKR™ FEATR® 005
Julia Keller, 23, from Ekaterinburg, Russia.
“And though the hands that played with her were cold she let them drag her down, and as her cardboard world begins to fall, she’s lying on the ground.
Her mother writes her every week, she says she’s worried for health. Her dad says she’s finding her feet, but now she’s lying on the shelf. Like faulty goods that are returned, her pretty fingers are all burnt.”
© Fräulein Keller – click to enlarge
From Her to Eternity
by Suzanne on August 16th, 2005
POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST
(via Aeiou)
“Charles François Jeandel (1859 – 1942) was a honourable member of the Archeological Society of Charente.
With his wife Madeleine, he seemed to have a quiet life in the countryside. Or not…”
(via We Make Money Not Art)
“This archive of vintage photographs shows the ingenuity of our testers and traces American consumer products over the decades.”
“New York Changing, the current body of work by New York City photographer Douglas Levere, is a photographic record of the ever-changing landscape of New York City. Guided by Berenice Abbott’s 1930’s project Changing New York, Levere revisited neighborhoods and former storefronts, documenting the evolution of the metropolis known for constantly reinventing itself.”
CURIOSUM DU JOUR
(via BoingBoing)
“The Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Elecric Railway, the so-called Daddy Longlegs railway, was built in 1896. This was a proposal by Magnus Volk for a railway that ran along on rails underneath the sea for about 50 to 100 yards offshore, from where his existing electric railway finished all the way to Rottingdean, where it was connected to a pier. The tramcar ran on stilts that were about 24 feet above the sea bed.”
→ Related steampunk marvel: New York’s pneumatic subway
PHOEBE & THE NEWLY BORN FOAL
by Sizemore on August 15th, 2005
You’ve got to love a girl who when forced to strip at whip-point by a perverted Nazi thinks to her self Normally, I would disembowel this man with a few simple oriental combat maneuvers, but the drug has left me weakened, powerless to resist. Say hello to Phoebe Zeit-Geist.
One of my favourite horror blogs, The Groovy Age of Horror, has collected, scanned and uploaded the complete adventures of this saucy heroine who legend has it retired to the seclusion of the Swiss mountains. There every ten years she chooses another pupil to instruct in the almost lost art of damsel-distress and kung-fun. Make with some clicky on the perview preview below:
Curt is taking a well deserved break but will be back in September – take the opportunity to accustom yourselves with the archives, filled as they are with 70′s eye candy. There may be a test later.
A big thank you to Suzanne for letting me on board… I see her Spastic Bunny below and I raise her one Goddess Bunny. In the immortal words of Warren Ellis DON’T LOOK.