Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

It’s a wonderful story of that exposes the mechanisms of modern capitalism: the film slumdog millionaire. A wonderfully convenient piece of feelgood idealism in film format, made by a white british director, with the front message that he wanted to show the world the horrible side of India in order to improve the life of these people. Mr Feelgood Director Danny Boyle used real child actors from these slums to play in his films, who, mysteriously, almost 5 years later, still live in these slum housings. Witness this picture of Rubina Ali, sittingoutside after her slum house was destroyed by fire…

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The idea that Jesus died on a cross is probably a wrong interpretation of Biblical texts. That’s what a Swedish scientist concludes after studying historic texts. Theologian Gunnar Samuelsson of the Göteborg University claims that Jesus never got crucified but instead was hanged unto a pole.

The scientist claims there is no literature that explicitly mentions the crucifiction. In the Bible they write only about the ‘staurus’ Jesus had to carry up the Golgotha mountain, a word which a lot of historians have translated as ‘cross’ but which should be much accurately translated as ‘pole’, the Swedish scientist suggests.

Roman, Greek and Hebrewe literature suggests that executions where people were nailed unto a cross have not been existant in the ancient days of the roman empire at all, says Samuelsson. Hanging prisoners unto a pole, however, was quite common in those days.

Samuelsson thinks the image of Jesus on a cross exists because of the imagination of ancient artists that were made long, long after his death.

‘There are simply no description of Jesus or anyone else in that time being crucified’ Samuelsson says, ‘the whole thing is based upon imagination and myth’.

Samuelsson vermoedt dat het beeld van Jezus aan het kruis is ontstaan door artistieke afbeeldingen die veel later zijn gemaakt.

Will Mel Gibsson remake his rather kitschy torture episode ‘Passion of the Christ’ now? Maybe a bit less dramatic, with a pole instead of a cross? Beyong doubt lack of nails and blood wouldnt fare well with hollywood audiences. And what about all these people wearing crosses around their necks, will they now be replaced with poles? Are we going to hear ‘He poled for your sins’ now when we get lectured?

These are exciting times!

The Open Air Library on the highest mountain of Buyukada is once again open. Kerem aka Argos Libertos managed to open it again after the police forced him to shut it down last year but they were no match to his persistance. Kerem cured well from his jump from 3 high in the centre of Istanbul and could walk well again after being operated, first half year with help of a stick. His library has now signed works of dutch poets Arjen Duinker, Tonnus Oosterhoff, K.Schippers and Alfred Schaffer who by means of Bart van der Pligt were kind enough to donate books. When you’re in Istanbul you should surely stop by and please bring a book or two!

A multi-channel video with immersive sound work, that addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail. Its ten minute duration presents an ethereal sequence of scenes that resonates with the glory of the natural environment. Mink and Scanner captured the idea of silence and human intervention, by creating traces through different areas which addresses the existence of the real and imagined landscapes that they’ve confronted and readjusted throughout their journey…

Atlantida, Installation at 2nd Biennial of the Canaries 2009 from Olga Mink on Vimeo.

One of the most special artists I’ve seen this month is American artist Christian Faur.

Faur is an artist that developed his own colour-code language to communicate with and he also makes works that uses scientific and mathematical formulas. Also special are the portraits he builds out of colour codes with nothing but crayons. Faur proves to be a many-sided and interesting contemporary artist and I got his permission to show some of his works here.

Christian Faur – Just Paper II / 2008

This is the work of Faur that touched me most. It’s made from torn pieces of paper stuck on a foam background. It’s the well known image of the tower of Guantanamo Bay. What makes the work special is that it’s build from the shredded constitution of the United States of America. Marvellous.

Christian Faur – Continuum / 2001

Faur also has a number of paintings based on mathematical and/or scientific formula. They come close to something I would call visual poetry, and very startling visual poetry indeed, that also has a scientific background. That background and fascination for the laws of nature sounds trhough in most of Faur’s work. Some of his work is also strongly conceptual; he has published an essay of Wittgenstein translated into his own colour language:

(original handmade artists book based on the text “Remarks on Color*” by Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Also special are the works that are build from hundreds of coloured crayons, which again contain coloured codes which will probably yield hidden messages when they are translated from the colour language Faur has constructed:

The Wind, the wind, 2007, Hand Cast Encaustic Crayons, 3 Panels at 19.5 in x 19.5 in each

The Wind, the wind, 2007, Hand Cast Encaustic Crayons, Left panel 19.5 in x 19.5 in.

In short, Faur is a fascinating artist that developed his own language and tries to grasp the forces and formula behind our realities. He definatly deserves the attention of a wider audience. Please take a look at his website:

http://www.christianfaur.com/

The Kazakhstan born graphic artist Serik Kulmeshkenov is one of the few artists that keeps the ex Libris craft alive, a special genre within the arts. Ex Libris are special book seals people use to personify their person book collection. The works of Serik Kulmeshkenov are excellent examples of why this craft should never disappear:

Ex libris Natalya Chebotar / size 90mm x 90mm, 2005.

Ex libris Sergey and Irina Khrapov / size 80mm x 105mm, 2008

Ex libris Paul Elliott / size 65mm x 82mm, 2008.

These and many more magnificent Ex libris works you can view at the website of Serik Kulmeshkenov. Every serious book collector should have such an emblem, in my opinion.