Showing only Notes + Links tagged animals
Finally got a chance to check out Paula McCartney’s solo-show Birdwatching at Klompching Gallery in DUMBO tonight. Stacy posted a great write-up of the show earlier this week on the 20x200 blog:
Since 2003, Paula McCartney has been creating a world where the birds sit still for her camera, come when called, and show themselves when asked. The project is a deliberately constructed theater as well as a kind of conceptual landscape photography, and through it she has managed to create a world that even the most die-hard naturalist would envy. What I’m most touched by in viewing these images is that the artifice has become an intrinsic piece of the art itself: she isn’t trying to trick you into thinking that these are anything but craft-store bought fake birds. An even more subtle “inside” joke are her captions that from scene to scene mix real life species with some more fancifully made up common names that are just close enough to real North American Birds to sound legit to the non-birder ear. These images are made with a tender humor, as well as an honest appreciation for what it really takes to be someone who learns to see the seemingly invisible in the natural world.
Lies, deception, and birds? Totally coveting the book.
Sky Mall Kitties by Nina Katchadourian
I didn’t think I could like Nina Katchadourian more than I already did. Then I saw Sky Mall Kitties.
(via maniacalrage)
Research on flipping things inside out leads to bizarre animal birthing books.
Veterinary obstetrics: including the diseases of breeding animals and of the new-born
Untitled work image by Holly Lynton
Yesterday, Jeffrey posted about some work-in-progress by Jen Bekman Gallery artist Holly Lynton and I can’t get this image (a.k.a. The Turkey Madonna) out of my head. Isn’t it wonderful?
(via Jen Bekman Gallery blog » Blog Archive » Holly Lynton Sneak Peak)
Bread Bird by Dayton Castleman
An inquiry as to whether birds would eat bread in the shape of their own. In this case, Chicago pigeons would not.
(via today and tomorrow)
“I came upon twin fawns in the display case of a mom and pop toy and science store in Kansas City, Missouri. It took me two years to win the trust of the shop owner and save the money to buy them. A taxidermist spotted a dead deer by the side of the road. He stopped to properly dispose of the body and realized she was pregnant. He opened her and found near full-term twin fawns, he removed and preserved them.
Deer rarely have twins and the taxidermist retained the uterine gesture of their bodies. I built them a vitrine with a light blue base. Their prematurity exaggerates the delicacy of an incredibly sweet thing. The points of their hooves, the length of their lashes, the spots of their hides, nose to small nose in an ur-cartoonish realism … Viewers’ eyes trick them into believing the fawns are breathing. The tragedy of beauty is its transience.
The twins live forever in their own demise. They are sleeping beauties.They have been muses since I first saw them … We dress death in lilies and bronze the names of our dead sons on walls. We erect altars of toys and hold candlelight vigils to express hope. My twin fawns sleep endlessly on their baby blue block in my studio. The twins never opened their eyes yet their wondrous fatality evokes an acceptable alternative to death.”
I’m not really a sucker for sentimental things, but this just got me.
(via brocatus)
Watch this music video for the song “Triumph of a Heart” by Bjork (directed by Spike Jonze) and you will be rewarded generously with a cat dance sequence. It just might make your day.
If you’ve got a 16 tesla magnetic field, you can levitate a frog.
The levitation trick works because giant magnetic fields slightly distort the orbits of electrons in the frog’s atoms. The resulting electric current generates a magnetic field in the opposite direction to that of the magnet. A field of 16 teslas created an attractive force strong enough to make the frog float until it made its escape.
Best part: it doesn’t kill the frog.
(via kottke)
Sluice is a site specific installation by Kate MccGwire. She used pigeon feathers, felt, glue and polystyrene. (via Sluice - today and tomorrow)
I quickly browsed through Kate’s portfolio and it looks like it’s filled with awesomeness! I’ll have to take a longer look sometime.
The White House - Blog Post - Meet Bo, the First Dog
(The Obamas welcome Bo, a six-month old Portuguese water dog and a gift from
Senator and Mrs. Kennedy to Sasha and Malia, recently at the White House.
White House photos by Pete Souza.)
Kevin Byrd has some great videos of Banksy’s latest: animatronic chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and fish sticks. Horrifying and wonderful.
