Damien's 'Blue' period

How fun is this?

Wow! Damien HIrst! Infamous and famous!

This is Damien HIrst's most infamous artwork to date, the 50,000,000 pound diamond skull. Adorned with real life blood diamonds sourced from Africa, the skull itself is life-sized and was purchased by the artist himself. It is entitled 'For the love of God'a name derived from the artist's own mother, who asked him, 'for the love of God, what are you going to do next?.

Print to Paint, paint, paint, paint...a selection of my own art work

Home By Christmas, a film by Gaylene Preston

This is a documentary style film, and features the director's own father, who speaks directly to the camera. He talks about his experience of World War 2, having enlisted after just getting married. This is interlaced with real life World War 2 footage, which works nicely. There is some back story about Ed Preston's wife and first child, who have to endure three years without him, wondering all the time if he's alright. The handling of the direction is very deft and I like the fact that the director lets herself be in some shots as well. A beautifully lit film, with the cinemaphotographer being Alun Bollinger (of the sublime Heavenly Creatures) fame, so I would expect no less. Well worth a second serve, Home By Christmas makes for insightful fare creamy, unstodgy fare. Other films I've enjoyed by Gaylene Preston have been Bread and Roses and Mr Wrong, both somewhat forgotten, but gems all the same. Mr Wrong is based on a delghtfully spooky short story by the talented writer, Elizabeth Jane Howard. The setting for the film is moved from London to Wellington, with the haunted car being a used Jaguar, rather than an used MG (as in the short story), giviing Preston's take on Elizabeth Jane Howard's story a lovely Kiwi flavour. The overall feel of the film is darkly humorous as well as enticingly spooky, and the quirkiness is a nice touch.

Art Art, Blog Blog, by Tanya Tanya, fruity fruit, loose and fast.

Turbulent by Shirin Neshat, as per post below, re lecture notes,

Notes as below, this was viewed in our Lecture just gone, Art and Identity, gender, feminist art, the role of politics, minorities, men, women in art.

notes from Lecture just gone Art and Identity, women, politics, minorities

The lecture was on art and identity, gender roles in art, women in art, feminist art, politics in art, gender issues, minorities...We looked at the art of Chris Ofili, ...the Youtube Turbulent by Shirin Neshat and discussed this. This work by Shirin Neshat shows an Iranian man singing to a packed audience, as opposed to an Iranian woman singing to an empty theatre. The male singer has an audience, and is fully visible the female singer none, and can't be seen properly.this represents inequality for women, and barriers for women in the art world, especially in a country such as Iran. See the Youtube clip above.