Skip to main content

Posts

Melanie Willhide, The Disquieting Muses Again @ Elizabeth Houston

Glitchy scanner images of visual ephemera on the walls of a closed down factory. collectordaily review .

25th November

It's the 25th of November : ) 'Youth' I was gone, but not my love You were clearly meant for more Than a life lost in the war I want you to be happy Free to run, get dizzy on caffeine Funny friends that make you laugh And maybe you're just a little bit dappy Fly

Drone warfare is forever

Star Trek, A Taste of Armageddon (1967); an episode that depicts an immense 500 year long war between two highly civilised planets that has been systematically perfected. War is no longer recognisable as such. It has become unobtrusive, there is no sudden attack or desperate defence, no physical exposure to danger, fear or harm In fact there is no longer any discernible military engagement of any kind - except that millions still die each year. Instead each side's computers efficiently calculate the potential number of casualties of the ongoing conflict and the requisite quota of citizens dutifully report within 24 hours to be painlessly disintegrated at facilities constructed specifically for the purpose on each world. Barbaric violence has been replaced by a superior technical methodology. Kirk observes when war has become this easy and remote from terror it can be maintained forever . RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, 13 Squadron MQ-9 Reaper drones operations centre. (Perimet...

An English landscape in the autumn; the chemistry.

I cycled out to the drone airbase this morning, wanting to make the most of the sunshine. The frost from last night was just melting away off the fields. As expected most of the leaves on the hedgerows that surround the perimeter security fence have dropped but still there were some around, with pigments of yellow, reds and gold, those colours of fire and burning. The leaf colours of autumn are carotenoids, consisting of molecules of isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. A phosphate is a salt containing phosphorus, a key element of weapons' explosives. S trangely then these hot colours are not only a visual simile but have an associated chemistry.

hedgerow, leaf shapes,colours, nov 17

hedgerow, nov 17

Oil and Gas

Uncredited stock photo from an article on the oil and gas industry firm Petrofac.

Lydia Flem

collectordaily: Galerie Françoise Paviot ( here ): This provocative triptych by Lydia Flem introduces scissors into famous paintings by Vermeer, Michelangelo, and Ingres. The implied mutilation effect is boldly violent and anti-female, the sharp edges cutting off ears and gouging out eyes. Priced at €4400

Sonja Braas

Collectordaily: Galerie Tanit ( here ): This large scale color work by Sonja Braas is actually a meticulous in-studio construction. The endless piles of shipping containers were constructed on her floor, the overwhelming mass of commerce filling the frame. Priced at €15000.

Noémie Goudal

collectordaily : Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire ( here ): This large work by Noémie Goudal interrupts a flat desert landscape with a jumbled tower of wooden cubes. The effect is something like reinventing a mountain form, introducing hard-edged geometries into a natural setting. Priced at €19000.

Marguerite Yourcenar