Category:
Art
Remember that decrepit chipped plaster figure that would artlessly display the latest back-to-school clothes in Sears? Well, those old-style mannequins have been replaced by hot new designer models.
Such as the one you see at right.
Check them all out at the
Ralph Pucci site.
These were sent to me by my Belgian pal Peter Dans-
saert.
Click on the image twice, to get them really big!
See three more videos by Kirsten Lepore
here.

The CasAnus was designed by the Dutch artist
Joep van Lieshout. He
writes:
This house takes its shape from the human digestive system. While CasAnus is anatomically correct, the last part has been inflated to humongous size. CasAnus is made to function as a hotel, including a bed and a bathroom.
If you stayed there, you could say "This place is crap," and not necessarily mean it in a pejorative sense.

Also by van Lieshout, along similar lines, is the
BarRectum (aka Asshole Bar):
The bar takes its shape from the human digestive system: starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestines and exiting through the anus. While BarRectum is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold as many drinking customers at the bar as possible. The anus itself is part of a large door that doubles as an emergency exit.
via
corporeality.net
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Strange Things, by Boris Servais, is a book you won't find for sale on Amazon.
Servais had it "Produced in Italy by a specialized printer for small-size books, it collects odd discoveries and inventions around nostalgic aviation, astronautics, time trips or science fiction warfare." Below is an example of one of the entries. (via
Book By Its Cover)
An unusual hobby: Adrian Leskiw designs fictional cities and nations, and then he draws roadmaps of them. In painstaking detail. He describes himself as a "roadgeek". You can browse through his collection of fictional roadmaps at
The Map Realm. One use I can think of for these would be to sneak them into rental cars. (Mislabel them, of course.) Tourists would spend hours examining them, trying to figure out where they were.
But wait, there's more. Leskiw also collects covers of real roadmaps. He has an
extensive collection of the official Michigan, Ontario and Ohio road maps. In the old days transportation departments apparently hired artists to design these covers. Now they seem to just slap generic photos on them.
Of course you recall the baseball great,
Ted Williams. Decapitated after death and head frozen, once the family quit squabbling in public...?
Well, now many of his possessions are up for sale at auction, including, ironically, a number of severed animal-head trophies. And also some fine "space alien" paintings and drawings by daughter Claudia, like the one at right.
Check out an article and photo gallery
here.
In his
Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre Wilhelm Staehle places silhouettes over Victorian paintings, and adds a subversive caption. Two of my favorites below.
Jason deCaires Taylor has received international acclaim for his
sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies. Though to view it, it helps to be a diver, because it's underwater.
I think it's a swell idea. If I'm ever in Grenada, I'll make sure to sea it.

In honor of election day: the George W. Flush urinal, created by urinal artist
Clark Sorensen:
This piece is a preview of Clark's up coming solo exhibit: "DOWN THE DRAIN - THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH" Clark is holding an election night party to watch the elections results roll in and give George W. what he deserves - a good flush!