TOM FURY

This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves...

Wed, 30 May 2012 18:00:52 -0400

This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.

—William Shakespeare. (1613). Henry VIII.

darksilenceinsuburbia: Sergio Cerchi. Rain. Oil on canvas, 40 x...

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:55:04 -0400

darksilenceinsuburbia:

Sergio Cerchi. Rain. Oil on canvas, 40 x 31,5.

Woxys. (2008). “Zebra: Perfect Symmetry.”

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:59:02 -0400

Woxys. (2008). “Zebra: Perfect Symmetry.”

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1878). “The Nymphaeum.”

Sun, 27 May 2012 17:54:37 -0400

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1878). “The Nymphaeum.”

Brandt on form and meaning in art (PDF)

Sun, 27 May 2012 11:57:45 -0400

Brandt on form and meaning in art (PDF):

In this view, beauty resides in the tension between two mental spaces, a presentation and a reference, a tension maintained by the phenomenological impossibility of subordinating one of these to the other. When this conjuncture is obtained, it triggers an acute awareness both of the sensory forms of things and of their emotional meaning—a momentary polarization of attention, a split or crisis that can affect our relations to things, persons, and thoughts very deeply.

In the scope of human evolution, the early cultural presence of artistry in the visual register, and apparently also in the auditory (cf. the early appearance of musical instruments) and the motor registers (dance), may have been of great importance to the emergence of symbolization and abstraction in general. The artistic version of the iconic double-input space network leads our minds toward intentional 2-D graphics as a “scriptural” possibility—that is, the idea of intentionally and systematically producing formal events, thereby calling upon abstract forces to accomplish tasks (cf. spelling and spell-casting) in relation to the idealized referential contents.

If this hypothesis is true, then mental space semantics is an archaic semantic format which gave rise to art—and, through aesthetic semantics, perhaps to primitive mathematics (metrics, numbering, set orderings, classification, calculus) and eventually to verbal language. In the latter, pairings of form and meaning, supported only by a gestural syntax—the “shadow” image of the situational scenario, with its acts, agents, and case morphology constitute grammars and build up of wildly unrealistic, delirious, or poetic utterances as easily as they do concrete accounts of states of affairs.

But if the millennia of human cultural evolution provide the basic temporal perspective necessary to understand what art is about, what would be the role of art history, the historical development of dramatically distinct styles in painting? At a minimum, we will have to consider the dynamic historicity of manners, styles, norms, preferences, and critical discourses intimately related to art, and try to understand their “ontology”: if beauty itself is trans-historical, what is it that makes artists modify their ways of pursuing it?

Brandt, Per Aage (2006). “Form and Meaning in Art,” in Mark Turner, (ed.),
The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Romany WG. (2012). “More Peacock.” Image of the...

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:55:23 -0400

Romany WG. (2012). “More Peacock.” Image of the Castello di Sammezzano in Reggello, Tuscany, Italy.

Frederic Fontenoy. (1988). “M # 17” from...

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:56:33 -0400

Frederic Fontenoy. (1988). “M # 17” from Métamorphose. Slit-scan photographic self-portrait.

Forest Chung. (2007). “Lotus leaf.”

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:56:15 -0400

Forest Chung. (2007). “Lotus leaf.”

Andrei Artemyeff. (n.d.) “Albina.”

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:52:20 -0400

Andrei Artemyeff. (n.d.) “Albina.”

elinka: Sunset in reeds By andrzej bochenski

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:45:51 -0400

elinka:

Sunset in reeds

By andrzej bochenski

Crookhaven. (2007). “The hand that knew too much.” ...

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:52:07 -0400

Crookhaven. (2007). “The hand that knew too much.” Photograph of statue of Socrates in the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.

habitualbliss: Ernesto Gismondi for Artemide.

Sun, 20 May 2012 08:39:09 -0400

habitualbliss:

Ernesto Gismondi for Artemide.

A Gonzo Futurist Manifesto

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:11:38 -0400

Justin Pickard’s “Gonzo Futurist Manifesto” (PDF) is as fun a read as its title would suggest.

“The gonzo futurist is resilient. She works smart, not hard. She has one eye on the ‘adjacent possible’ (Johnson, 2011), switches codes, and contributes to the commons. She may be privileged, but has no time for competition, alpha male dick-waving, or beggar-thy-neighbour. Her success does not come at your expense.”

Image by Victoria Coles.

Jonathan Kitchen. (n.d.). “Floating.”

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:02:22 -0400

Jonathan Kitchen. (n.d.). “Floating.”

Walk Off The Earth covers “Little Boxes,” the 1962...

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:42:01 -0400

Walk Off The Earth covers “Little Boxes,” the 1962 song made famous by Womenfolk and Pete Seeger.

Anthony Scott. (2011). “Rainbow Bubbles (Oil On...

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:21:06 -0400

Anthony Scott. (2011). “Rainbow Bubbles (Oil On Water).”

"Since Nine O'Clock" by C.P. Cavafy

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:41:33 -0400

Half past twelve. Time has gone by quickly
since nine o’clock when I lit the lamp
and sat down here. I’ve been sitting without reading,
without speaking. Completely alone in the house,
whom could I talk to?

Since nine o’clock when I lit the lamp
the shade of my young body
has come to haunt me, to remind me
of shut scented rooms,
of past sensual pleasure—what daring pleasure.
And it’s also brought back to me
streets now unrecognizable,
bustling night clubs now closed,
theatres and cafés no longer there.

The shade of my young body
also brought back the things that make us sad:
family grief, separations,
the feelings of my own people, feelings
of the dead so little acknowledged.

Half past twelve. How the time has gone by.
Half past twelve. How the years have gone by.

* * *

Translated from the original Greek by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard.

C.P. Cavafy. (1863-1933). “Since Nine O’Clock” in Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992.

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John Wayne. c. 1930s. Image reblogged from wehadfacesthen.

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:21:02 -0400

John Wayne. c. 1930s. Image reblogged from wehadfacesthen.

esenecio: Mothers by Martin Creed, London

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:28:41 -0400

esenecio:

Mothers by Martin Creed, London

Magda indigo (2012). “Up Where We Belong…The Orange...

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:41:01 -0400

Magda indigo (2012). “Up Where We Belong…The Orange Ranunculus.”