“Magic happens at Las Pozas. Just like in work by Salvador Dalí, at Las Pozas art portrays one thing as another, invents a reality put in place of conventional, official, socially acceptable reality. More than painting a picture or sculpting an object, they produced an atmosphere, a privileged place.” ~ Irene Herner
Nestled in the thick jungles of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Edward James discovered the perfect setting for staging his life’s masterpiece. A surrealist labyrinth unfolds amid waterfalls and ponds—natural and man-made—that prepare the mind for immersion into a dream world. With buildings that evoke nonsense, doors leading nowhere, stairways to the sky and concrete flowers that sprout beside real ones, one man’s dreams are realized and reality is displaced by fantasy.
A bird explaining to a hedgehog crossing so it doesn’t die.
!!! ok but that’s legitimately what it’s doing!! That’s a corvid right there (looks like a hooded crow, to be precise), which means it’s intelligent enough to recognize, a) cars are dangerous and streets should be treated with a certain degree of caution, b) this car’s slowing down for them–cars do that sometimes–which means they’re not in imminent danger, so it doesn’t have to fly away just yet, c) that hedgehog’s still gonna get killed if it doesn’t MOVE, FAST (cars can change speed very quickly and the hedgehog’s still in the way), and almost certainly also d) if the bird does nothing it gets a free lunch.
Y’all, Y’ALL. This bird is consciously deciding to put itself in danger in order to save the life of a very stupid creature. A creature which, if the bird did nothing, could be free food.
i can’t - look if you follow me you know I have a thing for corvids, but this is - like!!! People are always saying “ah yes they have sub-human intelligence and don’t consider anything that isn’t immediately necessary for their own survival/pleasure,” but! Whether or not it can do philosophy, this crow is clearly demonstratingcompassion. Even if it’s just the kind of compassion a toddler shows to a snail, a social creature that instinctively recognizes the potential for emotion in other beings, that’s still huge and cool and important and corvids!!! are! neat!!!
if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live in the midwest, this is it.
You missed some of the best ones
the best part about it is that the art installation isn’t actually called the Bean. It’s called Cloud Gate, and artist Anish Kapoor (yes, THAT Anish Kapoor) hates that we call it the Bean.
But i mean, look at it. It’s a bean.
How could you forget this one though
I HAD NO FUCKING IDEA THAT THE BEAN WAS CREATED BY ANISH KAPOOR.
someone help me why is anish kapoor important what did he do?
Alright sit down for some Art World Drama bcause this is what I live for.
So, sometime last year (?) science invented Vantablack, which is the darkest possible shade of black. Art world got incredibly excited. But as it needs to be very carefully made in a lab, it’s hard to get a hold of, and is extremely expensive. Enter Anish Kapoor, aka FuckFace McGee. Anish Kapoor buys the rights to Vantablack. He is the only human being on the planet that can legally use it, and he’s kind of a prick about it.
Art world is not thrilled with that.
Enter Stuart Semple.
Stuart Semple is an artist, and also makes pigments to sell in his free time. Stuart Semple is astoundingly pissed about this Vantablack nonsense, and Anish Kapoor’s dickery. Stuart Semple makes a new pigment, the brightest shade of pink ever, called Pinkest Pink, and puts it for sale on the internet. To be bought by everybody except Anish Kapoor. Literally, to purchase, you need to confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, do not associate with him, and will not sell or give the pigment to Anish Kapoor or his associates. Art world has a good laugh, everyone buys Pinkest Pink because it’s awesome, and damn it we deserve something.
Anish Kapoor however is a penis, and will not take this lying down, because HOW DARE he not have literally everything.
Anish Kapoor gets his London associates to buy him a thing of Pinkest Pink, and being such a classy human being, posts a picture to instagram of him with his middle finger covered in Pinkest Pink, captioned with “Up yours. #pink”
Everyone flips shit, because. Y’know. Fuck that guy. Especially Stuart Semple. For context here, Anish Kapoor is one of the richest artists on the planet, and has repeatedly been referred to as everything wrong with the art world, and the epitome of the art worlds elitism problem. He’s a giant douchebag. Meanwhile Stuart Semple makes pigments just to get them out there. He turns 0 profit from his now enourmously popular pigments.
Stuart Semple launches an investigation as to who the fuck leaked Pinkest Pink, and plans to strike back. He does so by releasing two new products. First is Diamond Dust, which is a glitter made from glass, so that a painting is still visible after it’s applied, but glitters like a mofo. It’s the most reflective glitter out there, and is available to everyone who isn’t Anish Kapoor. And it being made of glass, if you stick your finger in there, it’s going to hurt quite a bit, so that was Stuart Semple’s way of saying “shove your middle finger in this, asshole, see what happens”. Except without saying that, because he can get an insult across while still being fucking classy.
He also releases Black 2.0, created with the help of over a thousand artists worldwide.
Black 2.0 is the answer to Vantablack. Black 2.0 is a slightly less black black, but looks functionally the same to the human eye. It’s completely safe, smells like cherries, and costs four pounds. Vantablack is highly toxic, potentially explosive, needs to be applied in a special laboratory and sealed properly, can’t be moved across borders, can reach 300 degrees celsius if you’re not extremely careful, and costs thousands of dollars. Anish Kapoor is the only human being who can use Vantablack. He is the only human being who cannot use Black 2.0.
So I think we can guess who got the better deal.
And thus the feud ends, Kapoor defeated.
…But not quite.
Kapoor, in this entire afair, has made exactly two comments to the public. The first being his charming message about aquiring Pinkest Pink, the second being claiming to Buzzfeed that he and his small army of lawyers will be suing Semple, an extremely poor artist who cannot afford a lawyer.
No lawsuit has been made yet, fyi.
The point is, Kapoor is a prick, and doesn’t like talking to the lower classes. So one day in July 2017, he decides he needs another floor on his London studio apartment, and starts making arrangements to have it built. His neighbors are fucking pissed, because this will ruin the light of their apartments. They call to Semple to save them, or at the very least piss Kapoor off some more.
Semple answers to the call, and releases two new paints, Phaze and Shift, as always, banned to Kapoor. They change colours, Phaze with temperature, and Shift is just iridescent. Shift needs to be painted over Black 2.0 to work, and Phaze just works on its own.
So that’s been the art world for the last two years.
Basically, get fucked Anish Kapoor your bean sucks and so does your vantablack.
Stuart Semple is organising a bean-kissing event for Anish Kapoor’s birthday.
Reblogging for “By attending this event you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated with Anish Kapoor, you are not attending on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information, and belief this event will not be attended by Anish Kapoor.”
ALSO HE JUST POSTED THIS!!!!!! LIGHTEST LIGHT!
I know this isn’t my art blog but this entire post gives me life
im sorry is that man holding a real actual miniature star in his hands
Y’all missed the best part about the lightest light, called aptly ‘Lit’. This is from their product page:
Two things:
1. “Anish Kapoor is however a penis” is the best line in this post.
2. I wish to be half as petty and half as awesome as Stuart Semple
I hope Stuart Semple is making a lot of money. What a good person.
Go support him the paint’s are pretty cheap and you get the added bonus of being one of many to help piss off Anish Kapoor
He is my fucking role model for pettiness oh my god
It got better! I’m also excited because he just released biodegradable glitter in non plastic containers! How amazing is that?! Stuart Semple, good guy for the planet and artists, fighter against the rich elite artist like asshole Kapoor.
Redemption is redemption because you are redeeming someone who has done wrong in their life and acknowledging it so you can let that person atone for their sins.
Sounds like quite the opposite of excusing their actions to me.
“…here, also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: this is precisely what you have to forgive. (This does not mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart– every wish to humiliate or hurt him or pay him out.)”
–CS Lewis, On Forgiveness (From The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)
I grew up with a grandma who quilted, but she’d never been interested in passing along the hobby, so when she finally kicked it I was the grandkid who got all her materials, ‘cause I was the only one who knew how to use a sewing machine. Then, in 2015, a friend had a baby and I figured I’d make her a quilt, ‘cause how hard could it be?
oh
my
god
Luckily I am the stubbornest human alive, ‘cause I never woulda finished otherwise. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know the terms to look up how to do anything, I musta reinvented the wheel like eight times and it took ten months, BUT I DID IT.
Figured I’d suffered enough and would never do it again and now I’m on quilt #9 smdh
————————–
I’m hyperventilating.
Holy shit. Holy SHIT.
This is INCREDIBLE.
Oh my god.
I’ve gotta go lay down holy shit look at this how do we just walk by other human beings every day and live our separate lives when there’s a person sitting next to you on the train or in line for coffee who goes home and makes things like this what even IS being human holy shit.
GOOD FUCKING JOB.
Oh heck I did not expect the notes to blow up on this, UM
Okay so on a purely technical level, this is not that difficult, you just gotta come at it a little sideways.
The background of this sucker is just rows of 1.5″-wide fabric strips. I can’t remember the exact pattern, but I wanna say it was something like one row 6″ strips, one row 4.5″ strips, one row alternating? I don’t remember exactly, it was a while ago. That’s not difficult, you just lay it out and sew it all together one row at a time. It’s not hard, just tedious.
The fish are a lil different.
I can’t draw, there is a disconnect somewhere and my hands are stupid,
so I figured out probably fifteen years ago that tracing was the way to
go. For this, I legit just yanked several photos of fancy-looking goldfish off the internet and traced over ‘em in Photoshop.
Once I had enough, I printed my outlines, laid ‘em out on the background to create the idea of movement, and then traced the outlines out on fabric and pinned the hell out of ‘em.
This woulda been WAY easier with Heat ‘N Bond, but I didn’t know that was a thing at the time. From there I just used just about every fancy stitch on my inherited sewing machine to make the fish STAY WHERE I PUT THEM, and also look good.
I have since learned this is called “raw edge applique” but whatever. It’s fun, it’s neat, you can do it with a bunch of stuff and impress the hell outta people. More recently, it’s how I’ve gone from this:
to this:
(this was another project I SUFFERED over unnecessarily, because I’m the dip that decided to quilt the waves, like a moron)
god that sucked but it looked SO COOL when I was done!
I’m very sorry to tell you that if you thought we would be less impressed with you after this update you were very mistaken. I’ll say again:
Holy. Shit.
I have so much respect for people who go to make something for the first time and are like….. “I’m gonna do a super advanced one.”
I think also, the thing that makes Julian so easy to project onto is that at his core he is simply kind, which is a rare thing to see in male characters. He’s someone who - in Siddig’s words - seems to appeal to the vulnerable people in society, because he in many ways is navigating his outsider-ness too. But he plays that with such a deep kind of empathy for what his character is going through, I think people who do have similar issues in their lives that cause them to be othered can’t help but feel seen. Siddig El Fadil created a character that somehow became a safe space for so many people, and I think that’s really special.
I love how many interpretations of Julian & Garak there are. Julian especially. I love how everyone’s got a slightly different vision of him. Maybe he’s trans, maybe he’s autistic, maybe he’s gay, maybe he’s bi, maybe he’s ace. Maybe he would have always been a doctor, maybe he should have pursued tennis instead. And all these versions get to co-exist. There is no one definite understanding of this character. We all construct him just a little differently, and we all accept all of our interpretations, and support them. I was having a conversation earlier about this and my friend pointed out that they feel like the reason they see Julian the way they do is because they’re projecting on him. But the thing is, we all are. And I absolutely love it. I think it’s so incredibly beautiful how each of us has taken what canon gave us and interpreted it in the way we needed. And when I say “needed” I don’t mean needed for a story or a plot line, I mean things that we in ourselves needed to exist. “It’s not that deep!” I hear someone cry. But you know what? It is. It is absolutely that deep. Because Julian Bashir was not the character the production was invested in, at the start. He barely had a character sketch. And now, coming at it from 20+ years later, he’s become so special to so many people. Because so many of us who write Julian write him in a specific way either because we see parts of ourselves in him, or because he represents something we need. And so by projecting onto Julian a little, or maybe projecting onto Garak, or maybe just writing specific scenarios of personal relevance, we get to write about ourselves. Most of us who are writing fics and constructing headcanons and generally caring a lot about Julian are using him to work through something - either by writing ourselves into the way we write him or writing him saying things that we personally need to hear. It’s so beautiful because he’s such a comfort character for so many of us, something to draw on in writing and imagining for comfort and healing and working through things. And Julian in canon, just that character on paper, without any of the opinions any of us have, IS that. His whole function is to provide comfort and healing. That’s his job. It’s so delightfully meta. We have this fictional character, who’s a provider of healing and comfort in his own universe, and then because of the way he’s written and the choices that were made, everyone’s gotten to latch onto his existence, and now he’s a source of comfort out here, too. It’s like his influence gets to reach through the screen a bit. And that is so, so special.
i have a lot of emotions about Julian Bashir and I will continue to have them until the sun implodes. thank u.
Which USS Enterprise would you rather be quarantined in?
The USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from The Original Series:
Senior officer’s accommodation is nice and spacious. A shared bathroom poses potential issues.
The regular crew have to share which is problematic.
How about on the classic movies refitted USS Enterprise?
Senior officers have it cushy. Lots of floor space, a dining booth, tons of storage and even a bathroom to yourself!
Junior officers get exactly zero space, but a bathroom to ones self is a big plus in times of lockdown. Day one: Bed. Day two: Bathroom. Day three: Closet.
Now how about Picard’s USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D from Next Gen?
Holy shit, single officers get multiple rooms! A living room, work and dining areas, a bedroom, a big toilet. Is that a replicator in the dining area? Yes! And windows! This is a huge step up. I could live here. 10/10.
Living with a significant other? Have even more space! A study, an enormous closet, a dining booth, a kitchen galley/replicator. Wow.
Brought your entire family with you? Have 2 bedrooms, 3 living areas, 2 toilets, a replicator. Your family could live here indefinitely.
Sources:
The Star Fleet Technical Manual (Franz Joseph Schnaubelt, 1975)
Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise (Lora Johnson, 1987)
ST: TNG Officer’s Manual (FASA, 1988)
What about larger families? Do they knock out a wall between quarters?
Clothes that have been inspired by things that Garak makes for Bashir in all the fanfiction I’ve been reading lately, part 3
This time I had a crack at Julian’s “powder blue shirt” from one of my favourite fluff pieces, “The Pick Me Up Party” by @almaasi
There isn’t an elaborate description of this one, but there is a beautiful illustration at the start of the story that I based my design off. I love the contrasting, elbow-length sleeves, and the gold-on-blue combo isn’t one I’ve seen or tried very often but it looks so lovely in the drawing!
The main difference in construction is the front/neckline, which I ended up trying to make a little more Cardassian-looking - not because I thought I could “improve” on the design in any way because the illustration is GORGEOUS, but so I can wear it as a matching set with yesterday’s top that I made for a friend (and also because I haven’t the patience for beading and embroidery)
@neil-gaiman THANK YOU SO MUCH! ❤ Could you please post the script for us non english natives? Youtube automatic subtitles cover most of it but not all. Thank you! ❤ 🐍😊
