ON THE STREET WHEY SHE LIVED

omash












Jays Winter Tour 2012


Olympus Mons - Submitted by Ryan Lynn






Freddie Mercury


The Beat Girl Project - Submitted by Philip Hew

THE BLACK KEYS

TO SEE WHAT REMAINS

Described as a “conceptual documentary photographer, Irish-born, David Creedon, offers the world a haunting and unique view into the effects of the massive emigration from Ireland between 1949 and 1989 in his dramatic photographic collection, Ghosts of the Faithful Departed. Depicted in these evocative photographs are the dilapidated homes and possessions left behind by many Irish emigrants. The 1950s saw the majority of the departure of these Irish, who were in desperate poverty from their homeland. Like the homes left behind, often one family member would remain to care for the elderly and maintain the farms. Now long passed away, those who stayed behind, have left pieces of themselves and glimpses of their lives in the crumbling ruins of their long abandoned homes.

By examining these photographs, those of us untouched by this long ago time, can almost feel the seclusion and isolation of the family members who did not emigrate and see the decaying remains from those who forsook their country for opportunities elsewhere. In Creedon’s words “these people have passed on and their homes stand as a monument to a bygone age.”

You can watch a video of David Creedon’s haunting images of the past after the jump or on Vimeo, and he can be contacted via email.

Ghosts of the Faithful Departed from David Creedon Photography on Vimeo.

A SURVEY OF TERRIBLE PARENTS IN ART HISTORY

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We know that some kids just aren’t alright, but this time, we’re focusing on their folks. From ghastly, painterly scenes of classic filicide to controversial contemporary photographers who use their children as muses, here are a few examples of questionable, problematic and plain terrible parenting through the ages. Are we being too harsh? Did we miss someone? Feel free to tsk-tsk in the comment section.

Ilya Repin, Ivan the Terrible And His Son Ivan, 16 November 1581, 1885. Courtesy of Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Russia’s Czar Ivan IV Vasilyevich or Ivan the Terrible was very apt at the whole ruling and conquering thing, devout, intelligent, but he was also prone to episodic bouts of mental illness and violent rage. This classic painting shows a mad-eyed Ivan cradling his son and heir after he beat him to death with a pointed staff on the head. His son had confronted him about an earlier outburst over his daughter-in-law’s immodest clothing, whom Ivan beat and caused to miscarry. Hence, “The Terrible.”

Richard Kern, You Killed Me First, 1985

Richard Kern’s video art piece stars the pin-up girl of the ’80s transgressive movement, Lung Leg (yes, that one). It’s all about a misunderstood teenager, whose religious parents resent and shun her in favor of her sorority perfect sister. What did she do when her parents disapprove of everything she does, wears, listens to, dates, etc.? What the title says.

Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, c. 1819–1823. Oil mural transferred to canvas, 143cm x 81cm. Courtesy Museo del Prado, Madrid

One of Goya’s “Black Paintings” that he painted directly onto the wall of his house and never meant to display publicly, this one’s a horrifying vision of the Greek myth of Titan Cronus, who, fearing competition, devoured each of his sons at birth. Here is the Peter Paul Rubens version. Grisly!

Sally Mann, Immediate Family, 1992

This one’s debatable. The majority of Sally Mann’s irrefutably compelling work features her three young children, with some relatively bothersome precocious bits. It was the 1992 “suicide tableaux” series featuring the kids, nude and battered, that caused the most stir. If your little boy’s nose is bleeding and you run to grab the large-format camera for a long portrait session, does that make you a bad mother or a brilliant artist?

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Photo credit: Irina Ionesco

The case of photographer Irina Ionesco and her very young child/muse Eva in the '70s is less debatable. Since Eva was five, her mother took hundreds of portraits, which we probably can't show here. Aesthetically, these were also quite compelling, but a lot more disturbing than Mann's, featuring Eva, fully nude, suggestively posed and startlingly precocious. At as Eva was making her mother's career, Irina allegedly grew distant and removed. Eva appeared in the Italian edition of Playboy at 11. She has sued Irina for emotional distress three times and the trial’s still going on in France.

Miranda July, Eleven Heavy Things, 2009

Consider this an opinionated pick. While Miranda July’s public sculpture series of Eleven Heavy Things are all characteristically full of warmth and whimsy, for the sake of argument: Take this pedestal literately. That’s a lot to live up to. Projecting much? Unrealistic, idealistic pressure much? You better be very, very clever, girl!

Gabriel von Max, The Child-murderer, 1877

OK, OK. Maybe that’s too harsh. Here’s another classic painting of filicide, creepy as can be, and from the looks of it, indisputable bad parenting.

William Hogarth, Gin Lane, 1751. Engraving. Courtesy of Wikipedia

This is just 1/2 of a moralizing diptych. The infanticide here is the result of gin — an evil foreign spirit that causes chaos, addiction, starvation, suicide and parental carelessness, as depicted. The other 1/2 is called Beer Street, a celebration of chugging England’s own booze, free of any such problems and full of merriment — clearly, the drinking choice of a superior hard drinking parent.

Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley, Heidi, 1992. Film still

This collaborative video work from Paul McCarthy and the late Mike Kelley was shot with full-size rubber figures and body doubles on a set fabricated at the Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna. Paul McCarthy describes it so: “The intention was to create convoluted associations between Heidi, the purity myth in America and Europe and the media view of family life, horror movies and ornamentation — the grandfather, Heidi and Peter, a rural family. Grandfather is abusive and senile. Peter is retarded. Heidi is Madonna and the sick girl is a vision.” The result is innovative and potent, but for some it’s something to be endured rather than watched. There’s some pretty icky stuff going on with the grocery products and rubber props.

Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1603. Oil on canvas

We all know this one. Abraham was going to do it, too. God told him to! Oh, well, so much to say… that’s better said by Louis CK:

THE THING

EARTHLINGS

ALIENS AMONG US

Since the beginning of civilization, people have looked out to the sky wondering if there could be anything else like us out there. Scientists, novelists, and filmmakers have hypothesized what these creatures might look like and now artist Francisco Sambo presents his interpretation in his Aliens Collection. His gallery of manipulated photos on Behance is accompanied by an out-of-this-world Soundcloud soundtrack that brings the photos to life. Sambo’s alien children look peaceful, yet alluring and scary at the same time. The 45 year old artist from Venice, Italy describes his philosophy for art as follows:

The work is understood as the organization of atoms and elementary signs of infinitesimal elements grouped in a single design and complex at the same time. The details all blend together…and the artist’s work lives as a moment of meditation around him.

Check out more of Francisco Sambo’s incredibly dark and striking collections, like human-animal morphs, eerie self portraits, and more on his Tumblr, Behance, Quaz-Art, and Art-Limited portfolios, and follow him onTwitter to get his latest updates.

CYBERWAR

LAST EXTINCTION

BOILING POINT 15

Political correctness is the bane of the artistic community, or so it would seem. It appears as though you can’t do anything in this world without upsetting anyone, and once they’re upset you must do backflips to appease them. Well, I’m here to say: fuck the blind.

Just kidding, I’ve got nothing against the blind. But a recent news articledoes have me up in a furor. Aardman Animation, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and the upcoming feature The Pirates! Band of Misfits, are ditching already completed work on a joke about lepers because some people might feel bad. Are you serious?

The ‘claymated’ film features the acting chops of Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, and hottieSalma Hayek and is the story of ‘Pirate Captain’ as he attempts to win the coveted “Pirate of the Year” award. The challenge? He must compete with several other, seemingly more impressive pirates with more competent crews.

In the trailer, Pirate Captain boards a boat he intends to pillage, demanding their gold. A man replies “Afraid we don’t have any gold old man, this is a leper boat. See?” Then his arm falls off.

Hold the presses, apparently.

Leprosy is a disease caused by bacteria that has been around since biblical times. Surely you’ve heard of “leper colonies,” places where lepers were sent to live and die out of sight. Leprosy is a disfiguring disease, categorized by skin lesions, which led to the ostracization of sufferers throughout history.

It’s understandable that two leprosy groups, Lepra Health In Action and the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, would object to a negative portrayal of leprosy. After all, we don’t want people blindly hating those with leprosy or laughing at their expense.

Which might actually be true if this were the 12th century. Leprosy may have been a big problem for some of the past 4,000 years, but today leprosy is almost non-existent in much of the world. It’s present in some quantity in around 120 countries, but basically only a small handful of countries have a ‘problem’ with leprosy, and that problem is rapidly declining thanks to effective treatment.

So on one hand, we have a small percentage of the entire population of the world suffering from leprosy, while on the other hand we have the vast majority of those suffering from leprosy in areas that don’t watch a ton of movies. Who is going to get offended here? Also, is the scene even offensive? All we see is a goddamn clay cartoon man have his arm drop cleanly off. It’s not a disgusting gag or even a mean spirited slight. Further, it’s a period-correct gag! While leprosy isn’t much in the public conscience today, hundreds of years ago lepers were still treated poorly and put on ships and sent off to go deal with it somewhere else.

It’s dumbfounding why a studio, who spent time, money, and effort making this scene, thought it was funny enough to put into the trailer, and is now going to fold in and remove it based on the objections of two tiny groups representing a small amount of people.

That’s all reasonable justification for keeping the scene. Very few people who could even remotely be offended by it are even going to see it, and the pool of people who would find it offensive is very small. But here’s the thing – I don’t even need that justification. It’s a fucking movie. Movies can say and do whatever they want. Movies can offend people. Call me a bastard, but I’d take the hit of losing the leper crowd and keep the joke in the film. Bowing to political correctness is always bullshit, whether you’re talking about going Full Special or including a ten second scene with a minor leprosy punchline.

The groups think that this joke could create more stigma against people who suffer from leprosy. I really don’t think the target audience for this movie, kids, are going to grow up hating lepers. They probably won’t even remember the joke after a few minutes. They’ll probably only think “Haha, his arm fell off!” and move on to the next flashing colors and sounds.

It’s hard to believe in most of the world people are going to have a lowered view of leprosy sufferers because of a kid’s movie. Sure, in places where people already hate lepers (it’s a problem in India), it’s not going to help, but again, I don’t think a 10 second gag in a cartoon is going to dictate how people behave.

Aardman Animation, you’re acting like a bunch of pussies, and I’m past my boiling point on this one. Stick to your cannons. Keep the joke.

ALIEN SPECIES