Super-massive Black Hole

lookslikescience:

Craig Dunne. Behavioural and evolutionary ecology (honours student).

Craig Dunne. Behavioural and evolutionary ecology (honours student).

believermag:

SFMOMA hosts the first Francesca Woodman retrospective in the United States in more than two decades. It runs until February 20th and explores the complex body of work produced by the young artist before her suicide at age 22. Carmen Winant talks with the show’s curator, Corey Keller. The full interview will run online in mid-March, when the show travels to the Guggenheim in New York.
THE BELIEVER: I assume the fact of Woodman’s suicide was impossible for you to avoid, as a curator. Do you feel that her premature death informs the reading of her work as inherently tortured?
COREY KELLER: There is obviously no way to avoid her suicide, but I have chosen not to focus on it. When you write a history, you know how it ends, and it inflects the way you read the beginning. Because of the particulars of this story, and the shortness of it, it has a way of casting a pall over all of the work. I have heard someone describe her images of “Sloan in the Bathtub” as referencing a coffin. But I’ve talked to many of her friends, and the one thing that came across from all of them is is that they don’t recognize the person that people tell those stories about. Each person described Francesca as whimsical, quirky, fragile — and needing taking care of, perhaps — but not depressive or sad. All of them talk about how funny she was, and when she worked, how it was madcap, imaginative flights of fancy.
BLVR: How did she actually take the self-portraits? I don’t think I’ve seen a release in her images; I assume she used a self -timer?
CK: In some cases there is a release, but not very often. Sometimes she had a friend focus and snap the image, and sometimes she used a self-timer. I believe it is a combination of the three.
BLVR: I’ve taught photography to college students, and without fail at least half of the group name Woodman as a towering influence. I’m interesed in her effect on young, contemporary female photographers.
CK: Woodman’s appeal to me seems obvious: Here is a young woman who took the simplest and most available of subjects — herself — and turned it into an incredible body of work. And she received international recognition. That must feel incredibly appealing to an art student. She worked with basic, close-at-hand materials, and to great effect. She has a powerful self-confidence in her work and a maturity in her vision. When speaking to one of her old New York friends, I asked if they went to galleries often together. She replied that they did, but not to look at other people’s art. They went so Francesca could show her work. She was an ambitious young woman and a hard worker with an understanding of self-promotion. Francesca was not naive.

SFMOMA hosts the first Francesca Woodman retrospective in the United States in more than two decades. It runs until February 20th and explores the complex body of work produced by the young artist before her suicide at age 22. Carmen Winant talks with the show’s curator, Corey Keller. The full interview will run online in mid-March, when the show travels to the Guggenheim in New York.

THE BELIEVER: I assume the fact of Woodman’s suicide was impossible for you to avoid, as a curator. Do you feel that her premature death informs the reading of her work as inherently tortured?

COREY KELLER: There is obviously no way to avoid her suicide, but I have chosen not to focus on it. When you write a history, you know how it ends, and it inflects the way you read the beginning. Because of the particulars of this story, and the shortness of it, it has a way of casting a pall over all of the work. I have heard someone describe her images of “Sloan in the Bathtub” as referencing a coffin. But I’ve talked to many of her friends, and the one thing that came across from all of them is is that they don’t recognize the person that people tell those stories about. Each person described Francesca as whimsical, quirky, fragile — and needing taking care of, perhaps — but not depressive or sad. All of them talk about how funny she was, and when she worked, how it was madcap, imaginative flights of fancy.

BLVR: How did she actually take the self-portraits? I don’t think I’ve seen a release in her images; I assume she used a self -timer?

CK: In some cases there is a release, but not very often. Sometimes she had a friend focus and snap the image, and sometimes she used a self-timer. I believe it is a combination of the three.

BLVR: I’ve taught photography to college students, and without fail at least half of the group name Woodman as a towering influence. I’m interesed in her effect on young, contemporary female photographers.

CK: Woodman’s appeal to me seems obvious: Here is a young woman who took the simplest and most available of subjects — herself — and turned it into an incredible body of work. And she received international recognition. That must feel incredibly appealing to an art student. She worked with basic, close-at-hand materials, and to great effect. She has a powerful self-confidence in her work and a maturity in her vision. When speaking to one of her old New York friends, I asked if they went to galleries often together. She replied that they did, but not to look at other people’s art. They went so Francesca could show her work. She was an ambitious young woman and a hard worker with an understanding of self-promotion. Francesca was not naive.

Physics split the atom.

Psychology split the mind.

Philosophy split knowledge.

Politics split society.

Religion split our soul.

Psychonauts explored chaos

and found only patterns.

whenthesongends:

Caddis fly larvae are known to incorporate bits of whatever they can find into their cocoons, be it fish bone or bits of leaves. Hubert Duprat gave them gold, turquoise, gems and pearls.

Ultimate designer pets!

(Source: helendurth, via ill-be-lightning)

I feel this way about my soul and about existence in general.

(Source: modern-loving, via physicsphysics)

rupturetheskin:

but where does it end?

(Source: im1004, via physicsphysics)

“If you were standing at arm’s length from someone and each of you had one percent more electrons than protons, the repelling force would be incredible. […] enough to lift a “weight” equal to that of the entire earth!”

Richard Feynman (via physicsphysics)

currentinspiration:

Christodoulos Panayiotou, “Shredded money”, 2008

The dune-like installation (5 meter hight and 7 meters diameter) consists of shredded bank notes. Following an agreement with the Central Bank of Cyprus, shredded Cypriot pounds were collected in January 2008 when the country entered the Eurozone. The work which represents the whole wealth of the Island at this transitional moment comments on the charged historical moment and the specific symbolic value of the cypriot currency.