"Bus Stop", by Roderick Chen - A foggy morning, across a street,
a small shelter/bus stop at curbside. A segmented yellow striped crosswalk leads our eye across the street. Behind the shelter, a trio of trees, rendered ghostly by the fog. My first impression is that this
place gets cold in winter for government to have provided shelters
for bus riders. This formalist image relies strongly on design for its
appeal (as opposed to content). The relatively huge expanse of pavement on the lower right does not work for me. It overwhelms everything else. With more tension from the crosswalk stripe it
might have worked. I think a little lower viewpoint and to the
left a few feet ?
Lausanne, May 2002, by Christiane Roh - Two mannequins in a store window overlooking the street. They are naked, revealing the artifice and physical ideals/standards of the age, looking like a parody of
Classical Greek sculptures, sans arms. But this picture is deceptively
simple (or I've gone bonkers yet again)...I see CHristiane's Dystopic, Magical Mystery Tour has made another stop. Today, Ladies and gentlemen, our Tourguide has brought us to Paradise.
.
[From "Paradizzo" , a small, walled enclosure.]
Here are the Post-Millenial Adam and Eve, like pheasants under glass. Perfect Grotesques, naked, anatomically incorrect, and without arms, unable to hold each other, or do anything about their environment. This Paradise is not about the beginning of the world, but about its present wasteland condition -- or the end. Anorectic Eve whispers into Adam's ear like a character from TS Eliot, and he looks away from her, preacher-hair permanently in place, muscles taut, and impotent. But Christiane has brought more to this tableau: Look below, right below Eve's feet...my God, there are mounds of APPLES, forbidden apples ! Tons of them, but this Eve can't get to them because of the glass, and even if she could, she couldn't pick one up to eat...
Our tour guide glances at our ashen faces, smiles knowingly a little too long, and directs the driver of the Blue Bus to the nearest bar. He mashes the accelerator, and no one complains. If the bar isn't open, we'll break in. Time for a little Dionysian revelry....
[Not much reviewing energy left....]
"Pattern", by Bob Talbot - White on red patterns. What are the colors due to ? No matter, for this human eye immediatelt leaps to
the forms, and while a pattern is just a pattern, this is like lying on your back and looking at clouds. Yeah, just clouds, but the human mind
rarely rests, and often confabulates shapes and stories in a waking dream, at least for dreamers, who need very little prompting to
launch...and this pattern is asymmetrical in a spontaneous manner,
the moment I saw it, Finnish Reindeer came to mind, walking like
a giant centipede in the snow-carpeted dark forests...then I am
reminded of the gigantic chalk figures of England....particularly a
series of horses (Uffington ?), back from the day when people could see the stamp of the Divine everywhere, or flickering in a cave wall, illuminated by torchlight. Thank you for illuminating, Bob.
--- Luis
Thanks to all who allowed us the privilege of seeing their pictures.
If I find more energy and time, I'll come back for more.
