Alcatraz #3

Something a bit different this time. Walking around the cell block, you'll find that a few of them have been staged in one way or another and the one above caught my eye because it had been set up to show some inmate drawings. I'm not 100% sure the cross-processing effect I used here really works so will likely take another stab at it in black-and-white at some point. Still, it does serve to highlight the drawing above the sink (as well as the headshot above it), which was why I went that road in the first place, it's just that the coloration of the cell door doesn't really seem to work so well. Still, I do like the arrangement of objects in the cell, and in particular the way they are delineated by the bars of the cell door.

Lords Of The Samurai

We finally got round to visiting the Lords of The Samurai exhibition this weekend, still running at the Asian Art museum in San Francisco. Spread over three rooms and featuring some 160 artifacts, this is as much as anything a history of the Hosokawa family whose personal inventory of objects forms part of the Eisei-Bunko Hosokawa collection in Tokyo, the primary source for this exhibition.

Overall I'd rank is as "interesting" rather than "must see" largely because of its narrow focus and hence limited ability to address any one aspect of samurai history and culture thoroughly. Personally, I'd have liked to see more of a logical progression of artifacts through either a time line or else more of a grouping of objects around different aspects of samurai life. (I'd also ding them for less-than-perfect presentation of the swords in this display, especially the tachi that were poorly lit and shown edge down, making it hard to study the hamon properly.)

For me, the most interesting section featured items relating to Musashi, the legendary master of the two-sword fighting technique and the best known codifier of the samurai Bushido through his (originally scroll-based) "A book of 5 Rings".

However, don't rush round to see any of it until you check the date. Tomorrow is the last day, and that of course assumes you are reading this on Saturday 19th September! And just to heap even more disappointment upon you, photography is banned, hence the photo above is of another artifact from the permanent collection in the same museum and not even something Japanese in origin. Bummer.

Fine (Detail) Art

Sit down, fire up a browser, generate some CO2 and via Google go here. Voila, a Gigapixel view of treasures from the Prado museum. For the first time, you can now get microscopically close to some of the finest works of the art on public display anywhere in the world today.

The example I liked to above (given that it works, of course. As you can see from the video, you'll need Google Earth installed to get there, otherwise start from here for more information) should take you to a detail from the perfect test case, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden Of Earthly Delights. This incredibly complex triptych, surely the artist's most well known work, depicts the perils of straying into earthly temptation, particularly of the fleshy kind, and what will happen to you in the afterlife should the pull indeed be too strong for a mere 16th century mortal to resist.

I've seen the work in person, on a long-ago visit to Madrid, and found it to be mesmerising. However, as with all modern museums these days, there's a limit to how close you can get. Most particularly in the case of this work, that leaves you craning forwards trying to take in the massive amount of detail, something that doubtless drove huge book and poster sales in the museum shop right up until, ooh, roughly yesterday.

No more, dear art lover. Now, from the comfort of you own arm chair and with a price of but a few grams of CO2, you can drill right into each and every facet of this hugely significant piece. The capture above is way closer than you can get in the museum, but nowhere near what Google Earth will offer you. Really, it is that good.

I for one can't wait until they get more of this done. The technology is pretty basic by all accounts: a standard DSLR with a long lens, plus some fancy software to figure out distortions, stitching points etc., and a tripod-mounted mechanism to move the camera over the piece in question. From the video you can see that it just requires after hours access and nothing that gets in the way of photographing the work. You don't have to take it down; you don't have to remove it from display for weeks on end; you don't need any fancy laboratory set-up.

Here's hoping that Google donates the necessary equipment, software and storage space to every major museum around the world on the basis that, in return, they'd progressively digitize all their major works. Just think of all the plane flights it would save: call this Google's approach to carbon offsets! Even at a cost of just 7 grams of carbon dioxide, viewing it online is a lot more carbon friendly than flying there!

Glass Ceiling #2

Here's an additional view showing more of the inhabitants of the sea-ceiling referred to in the post earlier today.

Glass Ceiling - Literally

Persian Ceiling and Wall Reflections

Back to the glass exhibit for a post today: one of the most impressive things we saw was an installation comprising a back-lit glass ceiling. This was a recreation of something he built for the bottom of his own swimming pool and comprises an amazing diversity of glass-modelled marine life, from mermaids to fish to seashells, lit to gives the impression of light being filtered throiugh water.

It's one of those exhibits you could easily spend an hour or more looking at, always finding something new and interesting to further catch your attention. Each piece is so well crafted, each piece so carefully placed.

The above shot doesn't really do it justice but at least it gives some impression of the scope, color and sheer joy of this unique piece of art.

Glass Encounters

As previewed in the previous post, S and I went to the Dale Chihuly exhibition at the de Young museum, San Francisco. As many of you will already know, glass is definitely her thing - much more so than mine - but I was anyway happy to tag along to see what there was to see.

First things first: this is more a study in modern art expressed through glass than it is a simple collection of art objects that happen to be made out of glass. There is a wealth of form and colour in many of the individual pieces shown, let alone the larger arrangement of multiple separate items featured along the eight or so galleries spanned by the exhibition. For example, one room alone, comprising a collection of long slender glass cylinders fixed into logs, is more reminiscent of an installation work at the Tate Modern than it is a commercial glass exhibit.

In addition to his well know series of chandelier-like forms featured in various public spaces, an example of which is shown above, we find everything from the single item vase or jug right up to a complete tableaux stretching the entire length of one gallery. But it's not all glass. We also find a collection of baskets mixed in along with some woven items, providing a strong contrast to the angular nature of aspects of his glass work whilst also pulling us back towards the more organic forms used, again such as those shown above.

More to come in the next few posts ....

Hitler Teapot

Sunday last, we visited the de Young museum to catch the penultimate weekend of the Dale Chihuly exhibition. I'll come back to that later in the week, but meanwhile on the way from the car park into the exhibition there was a small collection of teapots fashioned by Charles Krafft set up on stands lining the corridor.

Of all the six or so items on show, the one above stood out for me as having real impact. In checking on the web afterwards it's clear that Krafft's fashioned this item in a number of differing ways so this is a theme the artist has come back to more than once.

According to the display tag at the museum, the word "Idaho" refers to the known association in people's minds between that state and neo-Nazi groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood who base themselves there. The description also noted the way the lid of the teapot was fashioned as a yarmulke, and that the handle and spout create a strong impression of devil-like horns.

Poking at his MySpace page reveals that Krafft has also taken the concept of Spode ware - aka bone china - a step further, creating a version that uses the remains from human cremation instead of animal bones. I don't believe this piece was fashioned from Krafft's trademarked "Spone" - at least, I hope it isn't for obvious reasons - but other items can be, perhaps a dish or a vase, if having breakfast off a loved one is how you want to remember them of course.

Back to the teapot. The notion of taking the bloodiest dictator that the world has likely ever known and fashioning his likeness into a common kitchen item such as a teapot is either a stroke of artistic genius or an utterly tasteless piece of sensationalism; personally, I opt for the first. Compared with another version shown on Krafft's MySpace page (second link above) this one conveys an even stronger impression of absolute menace; the blank eyes alone speaking volumes about the bottomless pit of hatred Hitler was able to contain. Krafft here reminds us that Hitler's power came from the mundane, the everyday German who, by sitting round the kitchen table and doing nothing, was complicit in his rise to power and assumption of total power without which the Reich could not have pursued its totalitarian agenda of conquest and extermination.

Given how quickly we seem to be able to forget the lessons of history - even those learned so painfully barely one lifetime ago - there should be one of these in every kitchen across the face of the globe. Surely seeing - using it even - everyday of the week might just be enough to help prevent the human race allowing this kind of madness ever to overtake us again? Alas, history also teaches us that we very quickly distance ourselves; we subsequently forget; and we then feel free to fall into the same abyss time and time again, a human failing not even the greatest of artists has ever been able to prevent.

111 - The New Mark Of Damien

And that's as in "111" million pounds and "Damien" as in Hirst.

When his direct-to-customer, two day sale at Sotheby's ended yesterday, Hirst's works had sold for a a staggering total of 111 million pounds. That's not just a record for any single artist sale, it's ten-times the previous record set 15 years ago by a sale of Picasso's finest, who of course by this yardstick was merely 1/10th the artist ...

Iconic though Hirst's work may be, given how prolific he is and how susceptible to degradation works like The Dream (a pickled foal made to look like a unicorn, 2.3 m GBP) and The Kingdom (pickled tiger shark, a staggering 9.6 m GBP) are known to be then you have to wonder if this less an art investment and more like buying rare wines, commodities that can age badly or suffer bottle loss thereby rendering your investment both worthless and tasteless; thinking about it, history may yet judge these massive purchases as exhibiting both of those characteristics.

Oh, and spare a thought for the poor dealers. They just got cut out of the biggest pay-day the art market has ever known. Really, my heart bleeds for them, an image Hirst would most likely want to capture by ripping it from my chest and preserving it, aterial foam and all.

Financial crisis? What crisis? Not round the London art market, matey.