The Full Body Project

I can’t believe I’m writing a blog entry extolling the artistic talents of Leonard Nimoy. Who’d have thunk it. But, talent is talent, and intriguing and thought-provoking content is intriguing and thought provoking content. If sales or the lack of ability to track down a copy of his latest book of photography is any indicator, I’m not the only one who finds his latest project entitled The Full Body Project something worth contemplating.

Nimoy has no doubt got a good eye. His Shekhina Project which challenged the use of traditional Jewish garb and the feminine presence of God was striking to say the least. None of these women are conventionally beautiful, but all are utterly striking-but their presence as subjects seems to shout out to the universal form of woman-rather than of the specific subject photographed. His work is about light and angles, of lines and shade. This photograph of a woman crucified is hard to look at-be it male or female, this drawn, taught, exposed body is the essence of vulnerability and it is hard to look at and realize that this is human-this is woman and man.

In his new collection he has once again stretched the envelope of our everyday comfort zones not by striking out at religion, but at our perceptions of the shape of women in our modern society. I’m Rubenesque myself, so I can talk about this-the way you can talk about the African American or Jewish experience only if you are one. So, if you don’t like what I have to say, eat a biscuit, shop in the “Women’s” size section (yeah-I mean over size 16 folks) and then give me a call.

Okay, honest-at first these were not easy to look at. We as a society are so programmed whether we can even admit it or not, to expect a female body to look a certain way. Breasts should be pert, tummies pleasantly flat or mildly rounded, not drooping, thighs smooth and arms certainly not waggly. But, let’s be realistic-go home, get naked and look in the mirror. Think about taking out your camera and having somebody take your snapshot while totally nude. Do you think you’d see on the print what you see in your mind? Probably not.

On second glance when you get past the “oh please don’t let me look like that” (knowing you probably do more than you think) you can look at the work from an artistic perspective. And then look again, and then again. Keep looking. The lines and composition are lovely. Yes, he didn’t do it first. Most of these are classic poses by geniuses like Matisse, Marcel Duchamp and Helmut Newton. But, what a great choice he made by recreating “Dance” How beautiful. Truly-look at that and tell me that is not a beautiful photograph.

There’s a lot of controversy about these pictures. Some are saying Nimoy is glorifying the “fat activist” that’s working to make people accept what they don’t choose to accept-that America is full of fat people. Others say that if he wasn’t who he was that these images would never have seen the light of day with the popular masses (they’re probably right). Above all, I simply ask you to look at these pictures and tell me that they aren’t real. Real representations of the human form in the 21st century.

That is art.
That is creativity.
That is brave.

Mr. Nimoy-you are no longer Spock to me. You are an artist.

Liverpool Will Have a Web of Light

First the Beatles, now a gigantic spiderweb made out of millions of tiny lights. Oooh. I can't wait.
The Tate Liverpool has commissioned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to make an ambitious installation for the Liverpool Biennial, opening next September.

The installation will span the width of the historic former dockyard where the gallery is located. The engineering firm Arup is currently conducting a feasibility study for Web of Light which will be concluded by the end of this month.

The gigantic web will consist of illuminated crystalline strands suspended from steel cables which stretch across the Albert Dock. A spider made out of crystals will hang in the corner nearest to Tate; the entire installation will weigh over eight tons.

The gallery will need to raise around £400,000 to realize the work. So cough up folks.

Ai Weiwei has already made an installation for Tate Liverpool included in the exhibition “The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China” earlier this year. Fountain of Light was a two-ton eight-meter-high steel structure illuminated like a chandelier which floated in the middle of the dock.
Simon Groom, formerly Head of Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool, now director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, says: “Ai Weiwei very much liked the architecture of the Albert Dock, as well as the sense of energy in Liverpool which he compared to Beijing. Given the success and popular appeal of the first work, it seemed only natural to want to pursue something of an even more ambitious and spectacular nature, and Web of Light promises to be the ‘must-see’ landmark public work for Capital of Culture.

The work is incredibly ambitious, and of a scale to dwarf every other major public commission—but this is what happens when the ambitions of a country like China collide with those of a city like Liverpool!”

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Gauguin's Teeth Found in a Well

I'm in training in NYC all day today, but I saw this and couldn't resist. I don't know why, but I love this story. What a cool find.

LONDON- An archaeological dig on the remote Marquesan island of Hiva Oa has uncovered the secrets of the water well used by Paul Gauguin. The buried objects range from a New Zealand beer bottle to four human teeth.

Gauguin lived in the village of Atuona from 1901 until his death two years later. He built his own Maori-style hut, “la Maison du Jouir” (house of pleasure), and dug a well just outside. The Marquesans did not use wells, but springs, and after Gauguin died it was filled with rubbish from his home.

The results of the excavation are revealed in the inaugural issue of Van Gogh Studies, an annual scholarly review from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, out this month. The essay, by Gauguin specialist Caroline Boyle-Turner, is the first report in English on the 2000 dig (a few other details emerged earlier in specialist publications).

Objects from Gauguin’s time were found around 2.7 metres below ground level. There was a Bovril jar from England, and various liquor bottles. Five broken pieces of hand-decorated plate made in Quimper presumably date from when Gauguin was painting in Brittany.

Broken perfume bottles were found, embossed “France”. Dr Boyle-Turner notes that “a way to please women in Polynesia was to offer them perfume”.

Artistic materials found included three chunks of orange and ochre minerals, still smelling of linseed oil, suggesting that Gauguin made his own paint. A broken coconut shell with pigments was probably used as a palette.

Gauguin is likely to have suffered from syphilis, and had serious eczema. A buried syringe and two ampoules which had contained morphine were presumably for pain relief. The four teeth show signs of severe decay, suggesting they are European (the Marquesans did not eat sugar). They are likely to be Gauguin’s, and he may have had them extracted and then saved them.

The finds from the well now belong to the municipality of Atuona, which bought the site and erected a replica of Gauguin’s Maison du Jouir in 2003.