Bathrooms Across America

Yes, this is three pictures in one!
The South By Southwest Film and Music Festival can get really claustrophobic and raucous when the music-heads take over. Don’t get me wrong, music is as important to the soul as film. And without it, creating a film of merit can be next to impossible. However, the large influx of people is what really destroys the spirit. I’ve always enjoyed an intimate experience over a crowd, in any event I partake in. Large venues and crowds of people have never been appealing to me.

In much the same spirit–or at least in my mind, anyway–I’ll take this opportunity to introduce you to photographs that interest me a great deal. And that is, Bathrooms Across America. I’ve got a slew of bathrooms already archived on my hard drive and will display them slowly.

There’s something truly intimate about displaying the private crevasses of a particular person or a particular venue. This is Epoch Coffee, Austin, TX.

I posted the first picture with my South By Southwest 2008 Wrap-Up. While I don’t think purposeful graffiti is as intimate as a bathroom unkempt with mistakenly placed artifacts that show interesting tidbits of character, I enjoy the painted walls just the same for its sheer artistry.

Painting the bathroom walls of a coffeehouse, restaurant or bar have become increasingly popular. Permanent reading material is really quite interesting after a few drinks and a full bladder. And what reading material is found on the walls of Epoch Coffee indeed! My favorite is a quote from Davy Crockett: “You can go to Hell. I will go to Texas!”

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The inspiration behind Bathrooms Across America. Taken at Victoria’s house in Fort Worth, TX.
What I really like about this bathroom is that it’s intensely cluttered; yet, for some reason, the composition of the photograph is complete and not too busy. The reflection in the mirror borders the composition, but also alludes to a never ending mess of objects. The subtly muddied sink provides enough negative space, ensuring the eye is not overworked. And the cord that diagonally divides the composition seems almost placed. The other foreign objects, coupled with the toiletries provides for a complete composition, interesting and unique.

I’ll be posting more photographs as I continue my travels. And I’ll work the ones I’ve already shot in as well. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoy shooting them.

Filed under: Visual Arts & Photography, Bathrooms Across America

Arts Hump Christmas Party / Zipper Building

The above picture of Marcus (Top Secret… Shhh) pretty much sums up the way I saw the world last night. Between happy hour at Chimy’s to free Rahr & Sons beer and wine and Absinthe(!) at the Christmas party to more beer at Club Embargo, I seemed to have gotten a bit sloshed. Either way, the party was a success and lots of local artists came out to support the cause. I’m really excited about working more with Pete Asplund and supporting the Free State Arts Consortium. More info about that later. But for now, I’ll just say there’s a lot of ideas in the works and that the primary goal is to get artists of all trades together.

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I was checking out the Texas Pacific Lofts yesterday, and across the street I saw some painters putting the finishing touches on the “Zipper Building.” Hit up West and Clear for a thorough description and history of the building’s paint job.

Filed under: Visual Arts & Photography, Fort Worth

Bodyworlds.

Meet “Tai Chi Man.” He’s a real human body, on display at the Bodyworlds exhibit in the Dallas Museum of Nature & Science. He’ll be on display until May 28th, along with a great many other real human bodies. Bodyworlds is made possible by its creator, Dr. Gunther Von Hagens, who invented Plastination.

Plastination is a scientific process that extracts all bodily fluids and soluble fat from a body, or body part, and replaces it with plastics, such as resin and elastomers; the polymer material then has to be hardened, or cured, by way of heat, gas, or UV light. This process not only halts natural decomposition, but also preserves even the most microscopic details of the specimen.

The figures are all posed in certain ways, emphasizing physical aspects of the body. This gives the viewer a better understanding of his, or her, own locomotive and nervous systems, clearly showing the interaction between the musculature and the bone structure of the human body. In addition to this, other systems of the body are also shown, in detail, by way of manipulating the bodies in certain ways, or adding dyes to emphasize qualities of the digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

What really makes the presence of actual bodies important, is the fact that the viewer can see all the specific qualities and unique characteristics, such as cancers and tumors, natural deformations, and/or arthoplasty and other artificial alterations, of a certain bodyform.

Even so, there has been heavy debate as to whether the positive scientific benefits outweigh the potential consequences of displaying the bodies in ways that make them appear alive, manipulating them as if in action. Some fear this exploits the men and women who donated their bodies to the process, making them something like a circus sideshow. Still others argue the manipulation has more artistic qualities than scientific.

However, science, by and large, is continually represented artistically. Drawing the human body in physical poses, for example, is an important way to consider the locomotive principles of the muscles, with relation to the bones and other structures of the body. The fact that it’s artistic, and somewhat sensational, plays on the curiosities of people who wouldn’t normally be interested in learning about the human body. It certainly got my attention.

Filed under: Science, Visual Arts & Photography, Bodyworlds

Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World, 1690–1850

Scenes from the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter Attributed to: Hishikawa Moronobu Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The “floating world,” or ukiyo in Japanese, is a term describing the lifestyle of pleasure-seeking in Japan during the Edo Period (c. 1603 – 1867). It is marked with brothels, tea houses, and kabuki theaters, set in government-licensed red-light districts transliterated by many as the “pleasure quarters.” Pictures of the floating world, or ukiyo-e, depict scenes and geography of these districts; characters who frequented the areas, such as courtesans, Geisha, actors and sumo wrestlers; parodies of the gods, demons, political figures, and famous scenes from theater. Many of these woodblock prints were for commercial use, lining the streets as advertisements for theater, decorative lanterns, and within the tea houses and brothels.

The scene above, as titled, is from the pleasure district Yoshiwara in the city of Edo (modern day Tokyo). It is an original painting, currently displayed at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX, along with many other screens, paintings and scrolls that are far more rare than the ukiyo-e, as they were not mass produced.

Three Women Playing Musical Instruments

What really sets the pleasure districts apart from the rest of the city, is not what went on there necessarily, but the total lack of distinction between the social classes. In these areas, a samurai warrior (who had to check his weapons at the gate) was equal to a commonplace townsman. The prevailing thought of the time was Neo-Confucianism, and these pleasure quarters seemed a place to seek refuge from the “sorrowful world,” the earthly place of death and rebirth in Buddhism. Neo-Confucianism, at bottom, relies on the philosophical paradigm of Confucianism, coupled with the spirituality of Buddhism. Unlike many Buddhists of the time, however, the Neo-Confucianists did not separate the physical world from the spiritual.

For more information on “Drama and Desire”: http://www.asianart.org/pressroom/dramadesirepress.htm

Unrelated to the floating world, though painted during the same period, the hanging scroll to the left is displayed outside the exhibit. Entitled, Two Gibbons Reaching for the Moon, it plays an important role in coming to terms with the human condition. If you notice, the two gibbons are not reaching for the moon itself, but its reflection. Of course, many other philosophers have alluded to this phenomenon; cf., Plato, with his allegory of the cave in the Republic. As human beings, we naturally see things in a narrowing point-of-view. Some of us attempt to see the world as objectively as possible, given our human condition and the limitations of the body, but many seem quite satisfied viewing the world with blinders on. This scroll represents all the best in Zen Buddhism, and really, all the best in most of western philosophy as well. As human beings, we will always have a limited ability to know anything empirically. But if we truly attempt to view the physical world, objectively, we may see the moon.

Filed under: Philosophy, Visual Arts & Photography, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Neo-Confucionsim, Plato, Two Gibbons Reaching for the Moon, ukiyo-e

Matthew Schreiber's Platonic Solids

The above installation–located at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art–embraces the holographic light shows of the sixties and seventies. Set in a dark room, the structure of the light appears in polyhedral form, the foundation of which is pyramidal, and atop, an inversion of the same model.

Filed under: Visual Arts & Photography, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, light shows, Platonic Solids

Frank Lloyd Wright's "Organic Architecture"

To celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday, I went to Florida Southern College to check out the largest collection of buildings Frank Lloyd Wright designed. More pictures are available and have been edited for your viewing pleasure.

References:

• Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
• Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust
• Frank Lloyd Wright article on Wikipedia

Filed under: Visual Arts & Photography, Frank Lloyd Wright

Robbers Urged to Care for 'Scream'

The New York Times > International > Europe > Robbers Urged to Care for ‘Scream’

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch

When I first heard this news yesterday morning, I would assumed the thieves would have been caught momentarily. However, that is not the case. Apparently, they have little or no leads as to who the gentlemen are that stole Edvard Munch’s ‘Scream’ and ‘Madonna.’

I remember buying a $10 gray-scale version of the famous painting in poster format during my sophomore year in high school. It really is a shame–the painting means a lot to me and I assume more to many other people.

Filed under: Visual Arts & Photography, Edvard Munich, The Scream