Wilder Mann - Charles Fréger
In this series of photographs Charles Fréger searches for the Wild Men of Europe, the practitioners of an ancient Pagan tradition of donning the costume and becoming something other than human. The Wilder Mann leads New Year celebrations, celebrates fertility and lust, they terrify village children, and are killed then born again. At one point they would have been central figures in cultures across Europe but have since been shunned by main-stream religion permeating the land. The photographs are a fascinating insight into a more untamed Europe. I love the shapes and textures of the costumes.
The Ebstorf Map - Gervase of Ebstorf
The design of this map is unintentionally morbid, Jesus has been flayed and stretched out, his guts and muscle embroidered into the 12ft by 12ft of goats skin. The hi-res picture on Wikipedia is worth looking at, it's a huge jumble of monsters, castles, and religious iconography. Another famous mappa mundi is the Hereford Map, though I prefer the anatomy of its cousin. Part of my fascination with this mappa mundi lies in that is lost, destroyed during the Second World War; it's destruction only serves to make it even more bizarre and mysterious.
Two Inuit Dolls - Horniman Museum
These dolls live at the Horniman Museum. Dolls can say a lot about a culture, traditionally they are given to young children to teach them about the roles they will play as adults. The craftsmanship of these dolls is pretty spectacular, everything has been given care and attention because the maker knew that these dolls would matter to their owner. (The tiny baby is also very precious.) I found myself comparing them to Barbie and ActionMan, and they're not so different, although their plastic counterparts are more so about fantasy than the reality of subsisting on the ice.
David Duchovny Pondering the Apple
I'm interested in the idea of celebrity and the life of a celebrity. One facet of celebrity culture I find particularly amusing is the Awkward Male Celebrity Prop Photoshoot. Above is one example. There's a David Bowie song, 'Andy Warhol', and the lyrics go: "Andy walking, Andy tired, Andy take a little snooze." Those lines sum up this self awareness, that I am not just David or Andy but David Ducovny You May Have Heard of Me and Andy 'Pop Art' Warhol.
Tomb of Nefertari
I had not heard of this tomb before though I've long been interested in Ancient Egypt; it was recently featured on 'Egypt's Lost Queens' and I was instantly captivated by it. The ceiling of the tomb is beautiful, a carpet of stars, reminiscent of my favourite Egyptian goddess, Nut. Nut is a sky goddess with a body covered in stars that she uses to blanket the world in at night, it's a comforting image. Ancient cultures tend to interest me so much because of the visual impact they have, before the alphabet and written language they communicated through drawing, sculpture, through monuments, in short, they were illustrators.
La Musique - Matisse
One of my favourite paintings ever. I like how the composition is reminiscent of sheet music, the tall violin player on the left marking the beginning of the bar. The figures are simplistic but charming, their stances are almost child-like. It's so stark and strange and basically I just love it.
The Mysterious Kingston Egg
A few months ago somebody dropped a can of white paint outside of Wilkos in Kingston-upon-Thames, a couple of days later it was mysteriously transformed with the edition of a yolk. What does it mean? Who did this? The council has not made moves to remove the paint, possibly in the hope that a famous street artist will step forward and claim the work.
Salvation Mountain - Leonard Knight
Salvation Mountain is an art installation in California, USA. It's an intensely American expression of religious fervour. It's a big, loud plastic heap in the dust and desert. The sculpture has been made from adobe (a mud brick), straw, and paint, but these materials suffer from the desert climate. Salvation Mountain requires constant upkeep from volunteers, visitors often bring cans of paint as donations. I find it apt that a monument to God as brash and bold as this is in reality so fragile.
Plant Studies (from my sketchbook)
I drew these whilst plant-sitting for a neighbour. He has around ~400 cacti in his tiny greenhouse and it's one of the best places I've ever been. I love learning about plants and botany, particularly plant symbolism. It's an interesting way of communicating emotions, a bouquet of flowers can contain pages of information.
Great Mothers 5300 - 4200 BC
This is a part of a catalogue of stone age statues of women, Due to the exaggerated breasts and hips archeologists were quick to dismiss pieces such as these as 'pornography,' dirty stone work by lonely cave men. Meanwhile they decide that the stone dicks littered across the Roman Empire are symbols of luck and power. In reality these statues were most likely carved by women for women, depictions of goddesses of fertility, mothers like themselves. I love the diverse shapes, and looking through the catalogue is fascinating.
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