Abstract Controversy

This painting was commissioned and displayed in a public building in the 1960s. It immediately aroused ire and controversy and disgust. Can you guess why?

Answer after the jump.



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Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 20, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Art, Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Death, Politics, 1960s

Mystery Painting

Hampshire resident Keith Webb received an oil painting of a "horrid old crone" in the mail. Webb has no idea who sent it to him. There was no return address on the package. But an auctioneer tells him the painting is at least 200 years old, and could be worth around £200 or £300. Meanwhile the painting is sitting in his garage because his wife refuses to have it in their house. [BBC News]

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 06, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Art

Eye Painting

This guy's got talent! Argentinian artist Leandro Granato has created an entirely new genre of art, which he calls "eye-painting". It involves snorting paint up his nose and squirting it out his eye. Naturally people are lining up to buy his creations, which fetch around $2400 a piece. [metro.co.uk]

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 04, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Art

Folkicide:  Empire of the Ants

FOLKICIDE: Empire of the Ants from Mikal Shapiro on Vimeo.

As someone who does his own collages, I appreciate the inventiveness of these weird ones.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 03, 2013 - Comments (2)
Category: Art, Surrealism, Insects and Spiders, Music

Too Fat To Fail

Artist Jeremie Maret installed a giant inflatable man inside his Zurich gallery. He calls the thing "Too Fat To Fail." Maret's gallery also doubles as a mini-hotel. He rents out two rooms — for those who want the full giant-inflatable-man experience. [via Dezeen]

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 26, 2013 - Comments (6)
Category: Art

CMYK

CMYK by Marv Newland, National Film Board of Canada

More trippy stuff to start your weekend.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 20, 2013 - Comments (2)
Category: Art, Products, Cartoons

Project Apology

South African artist Paul Roux has launched "Project Apology." This involves him "undertaking to apologize, in person and as a member of humanity, to non-human species on the planet that are being adversely affected by human activity."

In this picture, you see him apologizing to a clam. And in the video below, he apologizes to a flock of birds.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 16, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Art

Time Management by Jonathon Keats

Artist Jonathon Keats, whose career we've been watching for some time here at WU, has sent us a personalized email to let us know of his latest project. Which means he knows we're watching him, and he's watching us back. It's like a closed circle of weirdness!

His latest project involves time management. Traditionally this involves being managed "by corporate decree or motivational techniques." But his idea is to manage time itself using the principles of relativity.

It's known that gravity warps the fabric of time, so that time runs slower for objects near a high-gravity object (such as a star or planet) relative to an object not near such an object. So he's formed a company, Spacetime Industries, which is selling a "time ingot" that can be placed beside your bed or on your desk for "temporal micromanagement."

The ingot is made of a "high-density alloy that warps the four-dimensional fabric of the universe" that slows time for those in its vicinity. How much slower? You'll gain an extra second of time every billion years. And this extra second will only cost you $29.99.

Keats is holding a special event on Sep 26th at the Modernism Gallery in San Francisco to demonstrate the use of time ingots and answer questions. You can read more about his project here [PDF].

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 14, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Art

21 Beach Cells

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 08, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Art

Crucified Chicken

Deborah Sengl's "crucified chicken" is currently on display at the city museum of Wiener Neustadt, in Austria. A lot of catholics don't like it one bit, but Sengl insists she's being misunderstood. It's not about christianity, she says. Instead it's "a statement about the pain inflicted by butchers during food processing."

Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 31, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Animals, Art, Religion