Sculpture of the Week - The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1992

Collection of Steven A. Cohen, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
(Image source)

Keeping on with the theme of Modern Art and the Saatchi Gallery this is one work that has definitely left the collection. This iconic piece made Damien Hirst world (in)famous with this piece that was commissioned by Charles Saatchi in 1991 and became a symbol of the "Young British Artists" of the 1990s. There's no trickery here, it really is a tiger shark embalmed in a tank of formaldehyde. I remember a lecturer describing it as everything that he loved and hated in Modern Art. An interesting subject matter with a bizarre title and makes you think How The Hell Did Someone Come Up With This and Why The Hell Would Someone Pay For It?

When Saatchi sold this in 2004, the shark was famously deteriorating so Hirst organised for another shark to be captured to replace the original shark (the pictures are of the original shark). Questions arose about whether it was therefore the *same* work. Hirst said that since he comes from a Conceptual background, the idea behind the work was more important. I normally hate that kind of art but I will say I like this because of when I saw this piece just before it left the Saatchi Collection. Being what I am and where I work, seeing things preserved jars are kinda everyday objects nor are the people around me particularly phased by them. But the reaction of the ordinary crowd to the piece - to see how people were alternately fascinated and repelled by the sight of a giant dead shark floating in formalin - now THAT was interesting. And in my mind it is that reaction that makes sense of that grandiose title.

(Image source)

Stop Press!!!

Just after I pressed *post!* on the last entry saying nothing was happening, my office was stormed by The Pom who told me in disgust to go look at the BBC website, go to their news headlines and to click on the article about a study that has drawn links between drinking hot water and cancer. Well I figured that's very important - after all, we all drink a lot of tea and its part of our professional interest. What I saw reduced me to peals of laughter and him to splutter loudly.

(Click to embiggen!)

Yes indeed, the BBC has been reduced to describing the oesophagus as "food tube". I wish I could remember the entertaining ranting that happened while I was laughing. There were statements of worry about the state of education in the United Kingdom and dumbing-down of the BBC. I suppose I shouldn't laugh too much - who knows if one day the retina (my organ of specialty) might be called "that thing in your eye that helps you see"...

Not much going on

This has been a pretty sedate week. I haven't exploded at anyone (for the best) and I've been just quietly sitting around doing analysis and writing (for the even better). I think I've got a cold though, that's not good. This weekend looks pretty quiet as well - I'm already planning to be in the lab on Sunday. Ho-hum.

Hopefully next week will be more exciting and opinionated!

Wedding!

So I journeyed on interstate to Adelaide to spend the weekend celebrating the nuptials of a high school chum. She moved on interstate after the first year of uni and since her hubby is from there while most of her family is OS, it made sense to hold it there. Okay, it had been a while I had to share one bathroom between four females but I'm not complaining - it was actually really fun to catch up with school friends and share a room with them again! Like going on school camp!

Here are some pics from the ceremony and reception:

Approaching the Chapel

The groom waits nervously inside the Chapel. I had a more nervous pic but its all blurry.

Exchanging vows and rings...

and then embarking on their new life as man and wife!

Bridesmaids D and J

Posing with the girls in front of the vintage Jag

We had a few hours for ourselves in between the ceremony and reception so we did the Asian thing and had yumcha followed by shopping. But seeing as this town is only a 55 minute flight from Mel-town, the shopping was the same but slightly less. So we went back to the hotel and slept for a bit before the reception.

With the groom - you know what they say about wedding rings being chick magnets...

Oriental lillies as the centrepieces - fragrant!

The GIANT and absolutely delicious cake!

Us with the Bride in dress change number 1

A fun weekend and congrats to my chums and enjoy your beautiful lives together!

Sculpture of the Week - Angel by Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck, Angel, 1997

Saatchi Collection (I think, it could have been sold by now), London
(Image sources)

Ron Mueck (1958-) is a hyperrealistic sculptor who makes extremely detailed works of human-esque subjects. With a background as a model maker and puppeteer, Mueck uses silicone, hair, fibreglass, etc to simulate human form. This can often be quite jarring when you look at his works - to see a giant newborn baby or a miniature old woman and how real they seem.

The 1/3 lifesized Angel is a somewhat rough-looking and greying middle-aged man sitting on a stool, looking thoughtful - maybe even dejected. The realistic body with his hairy arms and legs and saggy gut contrasts with his beautiful spread wings made from real goose feathers, and the typical representations of angels in Western Art. Is this what happens when those little cherubs grow up? It also makes you wonder what's happened to make him so sad.

For other images of his incredible work, see here and here.

Aeroporto issues

I'm about to head off to Isolation Town for a wedding - yay! - when I got hit up by issues at the airport - boo! They're not really big issues but I'm looking to kill some time before I have to go board.

I understand that aviation security is a Big Issue what with airborne terrorists nowadays. It's about 30 degrees in Mel-town and where I'm about to fly is also in the 30s. Naturally I'm wearing weather appropriate clothing - a black kookai singlet, denim half-thigh miniskirt, some sandals. And I get asked to get checked for the explosives test! WHAT?!?! Exactly where on my outfit would I be hiding those damn explosives?! And why didn't they ask the dodgy-looking guys who went ahead of me?! *huff huff huff*

Yes I know they're looking for explosive residue because I could have been fiddling with the chemicals elsewhere...but I remembered this article which pretty much says airport safety measures are useless in this country anyway.

David + Teddy = Win!

Last night, Laulita and I went total fangirl to see David Hobson and Teddy Tahu Rhodes perform a combination of opera, showtunes, and traditional songs together! The night started off well with dinner in a cafe where I had trifle. Yum! I haven't had trifle in years and it was a wonderful confection of rhubarb, cake, custard and cream. It was so good, I recommended it to the strangers we were sharing our table with - and they enjoyed theirs too!

Of the performance itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it although somethings became apparent during it, some good and some bad.
Good:

• David is a natural performer. Cracking jokes, dancing, playing the guitar - thumbs up all around!
• Teddy's voice is so wonderful and thick and gooey and dramatic! It's just....yeah :D
• The two had such a wonderful rapport together. Very nice to see how friendly they are with each other!
• Their 'people' are so nice! But more on that later!

Bad:

• David's voice during the opera pieces bothered me. I can't say this without sounding super-pretentious but it lacked...body. I don't know if it was an aural illusion but compared to Teddy's singing, David's operatic voice sounded 'thinner'. His voice is smooth and he hit all the notes with ease but I kept waiting to be blown away and I wasn't :(. Having said that though, he sang the non-operatic pieces absolutely wonderfully with so much more power so Laulita wondered whether he was concentrating too much on his French and Italian diction that it affected his singing? I don't know. But their Pearlfishers duet was beautiful :D
• Teddy's voice does not lend itself well to the trads. The bass notes in particular sounded a little bit like he was taking the piss. But when it worked, it was gorgeous!
• Their black suits looked kinda cheap and Blues-brothersy.
  
• Their photos in those suits in the programme (above) - both are so much better looking in person!
  

Anyway, during the intermission, there was an announcement saying that they would be signing their new CD in the foyer after the performance. We turned to each other and gasped - *gasp!* - because I had already purchased the programme but we weren't sure if that would be enough for them to sign. We raced upstairs to buy the CD and then as soon as the show finished (after 2 encores), we rushed out to join the queue which was already quite long.

But once we got to the head of the queue, the and their handlers were completely obliging! Not only did they sign the CD and the programme (with personalised messages) but the handlers took a photo of all four of us. Laulita got to hug Teddy! Unforch I was next to David who was busily signing away so he's not looking at the camera but as he gave me the items he rubbed my arm and said thanks to me very nicely :D And so Laulita and I stumbled off into the night giggling about our run in with the opera stars. Win!

Weekend roundup!

Well this was a busy weekend and I cbb making different entries for it.

Friday night kicked off the manic nature by QQ having her bday party that night. Things happen at QQ's parties and this year's was no exception. I decided to love the new dress and wore it out. Good decision!

Some of the funtimes:

We also saw this kid who looks barely legal in the bar hugging this stuff toy. Naturally we had to get a pic.

I had to crawl out of bed the next day with barely any sleep and a hangover to go dress shopping on behalf of Pooey who is in Meldon. Luckily much wasn't required of me other than to get undressed and then dressed and put on shoes and allow myself to be photographed in said dress. Anyway a decision was made and it's a very nice dress indeed! *thumbs up*

After a fitful night's sleep, I was up bright and early for a road trip to Goldrush Country to go see the Golden Age of Couture exhibition. It's only open for another week but take my word for it and try to go because it's awesome. I'm heading back there with a glass cutter to take some of the dresses ;). Photography is not allowed so click on the link for images of the dresses. We also climbed the tower behind the gallery and got some nice pics of aVictorian Era architecture.

Town Hall

Footie field

Church

Trying to take photos through the fencing on the tower that'd clearly been erected to stop people from jumping off.

Sculpture of the Week - Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche, 1787-93

Musee du Louvre, Paris
(Image source)

This week's Piece of the Week was chosen after I read Sarah's entry about her trip to Paris. Cupid and Psyche is one of those sculptures that people either love immediately (usually girls), or don't like it because of its super-sentimentality (usually boys).

Originally from Venice but active in Rome, Antonio Canova (1757-1822) had a distinguished career producing monuments, sculptures, and tombs. He developed an international reputation and you can find examples of his work in most of the main museums throughout the world. A practitioner of Neoclassical style, Canova's work is characterised by a delicacy of form and smooth finish. The *sigh* factor in Cupid is created by the interlocking arms and gaze of the two lovers. Admit it, it made you sigh as well.

Impulse buy regrets?

So if you've seen me in real life or are privvy to my stalkbook profile, you may be aware that I wanted a new dress and that I went out and bought one. This desire for a dress stemmed from my sudden dissatisfaction that all my nighttime dresses are dark-coloured, poufy, and/or are all strapless. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I felt like a change.

Yesterday, Mischka and I decided to play hooky from work and went to the nearby shopping joint where, wonder of wonders, I found a dress that fit most of the criteria I was looking for - it's bright coloured, it's not a design I'd normally wear, it's actually quite interesting. We really liked it in the shop, and here's a pic of it on a mannequin.
I tried it on again tonight with shoes and accessories and I didn't feel the love again. I don't know why. It still looks the same as it did in the shop. Here are some pics as proof.
Please tell me I'm crazy for not loving this dress as much as I did 12 hours ago.

Blog challenge - Who would you choose to...?

THE RULES:
You have to choose one footballer to do each of the following activities with.
You can't choose the same person for more than two answers.
You have to explain your reasons behind each answer.
Bonus lolz for being specific with certain questions!

Who would you choose to...

1) Go backpacking across Europe with?
Hroje Vejic. I've always wasnted to go to Russia. He's the only guy I can think of who can speak Russian who's not Russian. Or Marat but he's not a baller.

2) Teach you their language?
Kaka and Ronaldinho for the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. Kaka is so pure that while I might get distracted, he would make sure I pass the exams. Plus, he looks really hot in glasses.
Ronaldinho is so ugly I'll study really hard so I can prove that I don't need two tutors.

3) Go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with?
Niko Kranjcar or Frank Lampard. Both are apparently smart and I like to win.

4) Bake a chocolate carrot cake with?
Cesc Fabregas. Cesc would be really into making the cake - enthusiasm and willingness to learn is important in cookery. Then we'd have a really good reason to go visit Xabi and make him eat it.

5) Get drunk and sing karaoke with?
Iker Casillas. He can't sing for crap but he's got enthusiasm and that's what's really important in karaoke.

6) Go on an extreme sports holiday with?
Christoph Metzelder. He's made of glass. 'Nuff said.

7) Raise money for underprivileged kids with?
Fabio Cannavaro. He loves kids, kids love him, plus he seems like the kind of guy who people would just give money to. That last bit is really important.
8) Marry and have lots of sex and babies with?
Iker Casillas. We'd have the most beautiful babies - the sons would look like David Silva, the girls would look like other halfie girls.

9) Play an embarrassingly tabloid-worthy prank on?
Cesc! He seems like he'd take a joke really well if this is any example.

10) Have a short but wholly satisfying sordid affair with?
Yoann Gourcuff. And it would only be short because Iker would get so upset at how quickly Lashes and I bonded over fromage, galettes, crepes, la langue francaise...

11) Go to a fancy dress event with?
Again, people have said Fernando Torres and really, with evidence like this, why wouldn't you want to go to a costume party with him?
My other option would be Crouchie after seeing this pic that Ven posted.
Seriously, he looks so happy in that parrot suit its worth seeing again.

12) Have a drunken hook up that you may regret with?
The dirty hot David Villa. But thinking of his cutie-pie daughter Boo/Zaida would mean it's never happening again. And Gina might have a few choice words too.

13) Go ballroom dancing with?
Niko K. All gentleman - he's 6'1, looks great in a suit, and probably knows how to waltz without stepping on my feet.
14) Pull off an Ocean's Eleven style heist with?
Becks, Cronaldo, or someone else equally famous. He can go in and distract everyone while I carry out The Heist.

15) Go on a secret mission with?
See number 14.

Painting of the Week - The Fake Dome by Andrea Pozzo

Andrea Pozzo, The Fake Dome (I don't know if it has a formal name), 1685

The Church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, Rome

This post stems from various conversations I've had with people about Rome the City. Personally, I love Rome. I think it's an absolutely beautiful city with its own personality and populated by somewhat interesting people. Sure, it's got a fair share of dodgy characters, gypsies, beggars, and thieves but that's pretty much the same in any old, large and crowded European city. It is absolutely packed to the rafters with amazing art reflecting its history, particularly the Ancient pieces (natch) and the glorious Baroque period.

One of the things that came to its peak in the Baroque is illusionistic painting, known as quadratura. Quadratura, or troemp l'oeil, basically used perspective tricks to 'extend' the architecture of a building to reveal a scene in 'real' space. It is most commonly seen on church ceilings opening up to Heaven. The Church of St. Ignazio di Loyola (St. Ignatius) has two of the best examples of quadratura, executed by the Master of the style, Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709).

Pozzo had been hired by the Jesuits to paint a fresco in the nave of St. Ignazio which was built to be the church connected to their teaching academy, the Collegio Romano. Baroque architectural style of the day meant churches had a dome but, horror of horrors, it turned out they didn't have enough money allocated to build one. So instead, they PAID Pozzo to paint the ceiling as if there was a dome. And you know, he did a pretty nifty job. Of course, if you look very carefully at it, you'll realise the architectural elements are completely wrong and impossible, but the perspective holds up really well. It is not until you get to certain angles that the painting stops working, as seen below.

It's actually quite fun to stand at the wrong angle and have your brain to try figure out why it's so screwy when it was perfectly fine before. But then, I am a power nerd.

Shit Week

I'd just like to take the time to write a really whiney post for a bit because the title pretty much says it all. I'm currently writing this on the machine attached to Pascal. Pascal whom I've spent over 20 hours with this week alone - it's almost as if he really is my bf! But the week got off to a shit start on Saturday when I fell down the stairs of my house while rushing to get to Pascal! This meant I went and crippled my *good* ankle. And then I followed that up by spending six hours with the machine on Saturday and another six on Sunday.

Here's a pic I took. It's a z-stack of microglia cells.

So I was pretty exhausted when I rocked up to the Lab meeting on Monday morning and found out that I have to give the meeting on this coming Monday! Crud! As a result, I've been working like a machine to try and get some interesting results to present. I have been stuck in a cycle of photographing the experiments (about 100 pics/day), going home and processing the figures, analysing them at night and morning, then going back on Pascal, pumping out another 100 pics, and then doing it again. Then some punk kid had the nerve to try and joke that I didn't do any work. You can imagine how entertainingly apeshit I went off.

Then I got stung by a bee on Wednesday and my arm went funny in reaction. Here's a photo that Pooey requested.

Because there's two sting marks, we think the bee and I must have run into each other, then when I accidentally hit him with my arm, resulting in the small sting mark, and he retaliated, resulting in the big sting.

It was pretty painful and I had a moderate non-fatal reaction. This means I will probably have a larger reaction next time I get stung. But the really stupid thing was I refused it ice it until I managed to pump some photos out of Pascal. Yes people, I really am that sad.

And I haven't even talked about how shit week the other Bears (namely Yodabear, Caramelbear, Vanillabear, Bluebear, Pinabear, Gingerbear and Chocolatebear) have been having as a collective!

*EDIT* There was an earthquake but my mum didn't feel it so I thought was crazy for a while thinking that the house was shaking when no one would confirm it to me. I'm glad the week is over!

Movie review - Slumdog Millionaire

So I finally managed to watch this year's Best Picture Winner. So do I rate it like The Godfather (I & II!) or hate it like The Departed (okay I didn't hate The Departed but I don't think it was Best Picture worthy) or REALLY hate it like Shakespeare in Love? Anyway read on with abounding spoilers!

Jamal Malik is a child of the slums - a slumdog to use the vernacular. He is also one question away from winning 20 million rupees on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. Naturally, people are suspicious - after all, how does someone with minimal education manage to get that far in a general knowledge quiz? As the police question him somewhat forcefully, it turns out he knew most of the answers coincidentally through the various adventures he had in the slums and travelling around India with his brother Salim - because Jamal is fated to win the competition in order to get the girl of his dreams, childhood playmate Latika. I liked this story. For all it is, it's actually a sweet story about fated love but with more violence and less sugar.

The acting and direction in this movie was excellent. The ensemble award it got from the SAG was completely justified and deserving. I particularly liked the casting for Salim - each of those three actors were consistently excellent at showing him as more opportunistic and hardened than the dreamer brother Jamal. If I had a cast complaint it's that after junking a lot of Bollywood lead actors for being too good-looking, Freida Pinto is way too good-looking to be a slumchild! Her teeth are so straight and white! The direction could have made the love story mushier, thumped how poverty, crime, and lots of different things are bad mmkay, but instead of being a morality, it sticks to the love story, which is never a bad thing.

In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say something controversial. A lot of people told me that they found this movie absolutely harrowing with the scenes of the slum life, I didn't feel that while I was watching it. Maybe it's because the scenes are filtered through the perspectives of the kids but I didn't feel it was *terrible* - it just happens to be the conditions that they live in. Sure, I thought *I'm never going to India* but I didn't think *Oh. that's terrible!* That's not to say that I think people should live in such conditions but I think people look at it from a comfortable Western perspective and they can't believe such things happen. Well they do. Kids are maimed in order to be *better* beggars, rifling through garbage is a source of income, random violence happens, gangsters and prostitutes are present. My thoughts can be summed up by a line after Jamal and Salim orchestrate for the Merc of some American tourists to be stripped while the other takes them on a *tour* of the slums: 'You wanted to see the real India? This is the real India.' The real question of course is whether or not you think the use of the slum background helped the movie acquire the kudos it has garnered. Think about it - if this movie was set in a white-trash trailer park, it would probably be turned into a comedy, diluting the hard-life anecdotes, and critically treated with derision. But those are just my thoughts.

In anycase, I did find Slumdog is a sweet story of love, luck, and triumph over adversity backed up by some good acting. It was probably helped along by the extreme poverty setting but it certainly didn't hurt. I haven't seen the other best nominees but I can see why this won the big prize

7.5 - 8/10

Crimes against Fashion

This was spotted on a Return To Form Friday but for some reason, the computer won't let me upload the pic - possibly because it was so heinous - so please make do with this Paint recreation.

I'm not sure if you can tell what it's meant to be but basically a girl was wearing a backless dress where her bra was fully visible. Looking at the photo, the bra was a bright colour completely different to that of her dress. In my mind, it then looks as though she wanted her bra to be some sort of feature item/accessory.

NONONONONONONONONO.

On the other hand, good one for spotting this Lydia!