Category: england

Japanese woodblock prints at Blanton reflect ‘Floating World’ values

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Above: “Shadows on the Shoji,” Kikukawa Eizan, 1815

The two fashionably dressed courtesans in the foreground appear to have just stepped away from a lively party and are chatting on a veranda. The drinking and flirting figures inside cast shadows against the shoji (lattice-and-paper screen doors) of the brothel behind them.”

Curatorial notes for “Shadows on the Shoji,” Blanton Museum of Art

1815. The date surprised me, due to my lack of understanding the accepted restrictive roles assigned courtesans and geishas in Japanese culture. The witty social commentary and humor contained in Edo-era (1603-1868) woodblock prints in “The Floating World: Masterpieces from the Edo Period” on display at the Blanton Museum of Art prove captivating.

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Postcard from London, England: Stonehenge to “Pottershire” road trip

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Above: Definitive proof that a family of giants, so advanced they had cellphones, built Stonehenge.

According to folklore, Stonehenge was created by Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian legend, who magically transported the massive stones from Ireland, where giants had assembled them. Another legend says invading Danes put the stones up, and another theory says they were the ruins of a Roman temple. Modern-day interpretations are no less colorful: some argue that Stonehenge is a spacecraft landing area for aliens, and even more say it’s a giant fertility symbol in the shape of female genitalia.”

“Stonehenge,” James Allen, National Geographic

Kate, third from the left in this family of giants, arranged a driver for a road trip from London into Wiltshire and Berkshire so we had no difficulty comfortably working the stops below into a day.

Far be it from me to attempt an explanation of the site of Durrington (“The Farm of the Deer People”) Walls Henge, aside from the archaeologists’ conclusions that the Neolithic Bronze Age settlement of Durotiges Celts dates from about 2,500 B.C. In other words, an extremely long, long time before Mel Gibson’s Wallace of Braveheart.

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Postcard from London, England: From conquer-phobia furniture to man-skirts

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Above: Interior of The Design Museum

A basement space in the Victoria & Albert Museum was the first home to Boilerhouse, a showcase for modern design that outgrew that space and another subsequent one before transforming the 1960s Commonwealth Institute into today’s The Design Museum on Kensington High Street. The most striking feature of the post-war modernism landmark originally designed by RMJM is its tent-like parabolic copper roof. The dramatic interior rehabilitation of it was completed in 2018 under the direction of John Pawson.

Exhibitions change, but I’m going to mention two. The first is “Antifurniture,” handsome wooden sculpture designed by performance artist Fyodor Pavolov-Andreevich and BoND Architecture to engage interaction, to invite one to “inhabit” the works. By “one,” I definitely mean someone other than me. Among the phobias the artist strives to help combat are agoraphobia, atychiphobia, demophobia, gelotophobia, acrophobia and basophobia.

Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we may ignore the problem before us and metaphorically ‘bury our heads in the sand.’ This reaction can cause anxiety and encourage us to avoid the problem; Rock-n’-Desk, however, invites you to confront it.”

Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich
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