Controversy over Adolf Hitler statue in Warsaw ghetto

Photograph: Czarek Sokolowski/AP

I´m pretty sure when an artist´s work is so controversial, that´s why because the artist is looking for FAME.  So many themes, beginning with Jesus....

Chocolate Jesus. 2007

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262602,00.html

And for the following link, of course, no picture:

Controversial statue of Jesus with an erection offends gallery visitors

This one is funny:

You climb a ladder and stick your head in the sculpture’s arse to see a video of two Czech politicians feeding each other slop to a soundtrack of ‘We are the Champions."  Year 2003

http://villageofjoy.com/controversial-art-by-david-cerny/

But a statue of Adolf Hitler praying in Warsaw, well, that´s another story. Though it seems there are no bad intentions, it looks like disrespect to me. For the deceased and suffering....

" A statue of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees has sparked controversy after going on display in the former Warsaw ghetto. The artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, titled Him, has been installed in the Polish capital where thousands of Jews were killed or sent to their deaths by the Nazi regime. 

 The statue has attracted large numbers of visitors since its installation last month, but some organisations have criticised the decision to erect it in such a sensitive area. One Jewish advocacy group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, described the statue's placement as "a senseless provocation which insults the memory of the Nazis' Jewish victims". "As far as the Jews were concerned, Hitler's only 'prayer' was that they be wiped off the face of the earth," the group's Israel director, Efraim Zuroff, said in a statement. 

 The Hitler statue is visible from a hole in a wooden gate and viewers can only see the back of the small figure praying in a courtyard. Cattelan has not made it clear what Hitler is praying for, although organisers of the exhibition in which it features claim the statue is meant to make people reflect on the nature of evil. 

Fabio Cavallucci, director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, which oversaw the installation, said: "There is no intention from the side of the artist or the centre to insult Jewish memory. "It's an artwork that tries to speak about the situation of hidden evil everywhere." It is estimated that about 300,000 Jews who lived in the ghetto either died from hunger or disease or were sent to their deaths in concentration camps under the Nazi rule. Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said he was consulted on the installation's placement but did not oppose it because it conveyed a strong moral question by provoking the audience. He said he was reassured by the organisers who told him the statue did not aim to rehabilitate Hitler but instead show that evil can present itself in the guise of a "sweet praying child". "I felt there could be educational value to it," Schudrich added." 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/28/adolf-hitler-statue-warsaw-ghetto

Flesh and blood. Carne y sangre

 This is a tri tip, in my country we call it ¨colita de cuadril.¨ I was removing the fat from it and found these horrible blood clots, there were too much of them. I decided to take a couple of pictures, though I hadn´t good light, to use the filters and analyze the structure of fat and clots.

 I´ve got an abstract with nice colors and the texture of fat is emphasize by sharpening the edges. The last one reminds me somehow of one of the monsters in ¨Hellraiser,¨  the fat one with the round dark glasses.

I refer to the one on the right side, ¨Butterball¨

Picture from slashingthrough.com

Flesh and blood. Carne y sangre by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Germination of a sweet potato. Germinación de una batata

This is a germination of a sweet potato I made myself. I took pictures till the roots were filling the glass and here are my digital interventions for all the steps.

Germination of a sweet potato. Germinación de una batata by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Cuando el arte surge de la ciencia II

HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus Ashburn, Virginia, USA Specimen: East-coast US fern, Polypodium virginianum, showing a cluster of spore-filled sporangia and specialized protective hairs called paraphyses. Technique: Confocal microscopy

He contemplado absorta la maravillosa galería de imágenes del concurso internacional de imágenes digitales de Olympus 2012, desde la página de Olympus BioScapes.

http://www.olympusbioscapes.com/gallery/2012/index.html

Animales, plantas, vistos a través del microscopio y plasmados a través de fotografías artísticas. 

Dejo otras dos imágenes, que junto con la primera son mis preferidas.

Carrollton, Texas, USA Specimen: Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) stamens anthers and filaments. Technique: Phase contrast

Dr. Janet Rollins College of Mount Saint Vincent Bronx, New York, USA Specimen: Drosophila sperm stained for beta tubulin (green), nuclei (blue) and SUMO (red). Technique: Confocal imaging

Thoughts on Afghanistan

The events at Afghanistan have a special meaning for me, as the son of a friend of mine is at the German Army, already there. Sometimes I follow the news at Guardian.co.UK and this weekend I´ve come across with the pictures of the market on fire at Kabul.

Regardless the sadness of the destruction, and objectively, I have to say that the photographs of buildings in ruins are amazing, specially two of them that I consider ¨artistic.¨ In the eyes of an architect, the ruins have a certain kind of beauty.

If you look at the last image, you´d think it´s an architectural installation, but not. I´ve cut out one of the pictures I´ve selected and passed it through filters.

The same I´ve done with the previous one, to emphasize the structure of steel lines. The first one, I prefer to leave it as an ¨abstract;¨  I´ve added the red stains like candles, as symbols of the dead.

Here is the link for the gallery and the original pictures:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/dec/23/kabul-fire-destroys-market-pictures#/?picture=401528722&index=4

Thoughts on Afghanistan by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Cuando el arte surge de la ciencia

Untitled, (colectivo de artistas). “Umbilical” (detalle).

Soy investigadora desde hace años y mi formación incluye la interdisciplina, de allí que muchas de mis imágenes digitales pertenecen al mundo de la matemática y del arte, también a la arquitectura. No obstante no conocía del arte literalmente científico, surgido de los laboratorios. Cuando leí la nota de Mercedes P. Bergliaffa, me asombré gratamente con el término ¨Laboratorio de Bioarte.¨ Felicitaciones a la universidad Maimónides por el emprendimiento!

Mariela Yeregui. "Entreveros (Darwin dixit)", 2013, detalle.

¨Umbilical”: el arte tiene ahora forma de cordón animal, de órgano manipulado. Y se trata de un órgano humano. Teñido de rojo por las proyecciones, esta vez el cordón umbilical es la materia prima de la obra. Retorcido, en hélice, adquiere la forma de un ADN de escala media gracias a su despliegue prácticamente escultórico en el formol que lo contiene. Se lo puede ver actualmente en la Sala Cronopios del Centro Cultural Recoleta, espiando por entre los agujeros de esa caja-relicario plantada en el espacio: no es uno, sino dos, cuatro, muchos fragmentos unidos de cordones umbilicales, hasta sumar, en total, 26 pedacitos formando un “collage” de información genética y arterias… Son parte de la muestra Recorridos , curada por Graciela Taquini y Rodrigo Alonso. La exposición reúne un conjunto particular de trabajos, relacionados con el arte, la ciencia y la tecnología. Sobre todo esas obras vinculadas al bioarte, un área aún poco desarrollada en nuestro país. 

 Organizada por la Universidad Maimónides –donde funciona un laboratorio de bioarte perteneciente a la Escuela de Comunicación Multimedial– la muestra clarifica un poco el panorama de la relación entre arte, ciencia y tecnología. Es en ese laboratorio donde se realizó “Umbilical”, a través del colectivo de artistas Untitled, formado por docentes y directivos de la carrera, como Facundo Colantonio, Romina Flores, Guido Gardini, Alejandra Marinaro, Iván Moschcovich, María Eugenia Rodríguez, Robinson Soria, Alberto Varela y Daniel Wolkowickz. “El laboratorio de bioarte se creó hace tres años, y el colectivo artístico, hace ocho”, explica Alejandra Marinaro, docente de Maimónides e integrante de Untitled. “Dentro del laboratorio desarrollamos obras en colaboración con otras áreas de la universidad. Por ejemplo, los cordones umbilicales que usamos para la obra los sacamos del laboratorio de Anatomía. Habitualmente se usan para investigación.” 

La exhibición comprende además una sección de obras históricas que dialogan con otras contemporáneas. Algunos diálogos son claros, como el que se establece entre “Umbilical” y “Hábitat para caracoles”, ese trabajo pionero –año 1970– de Luis Fernando Benedit, en el que investigaba el comportamiento animal a través de espacios construidos artificialmente. Volviendo del futuro, su “Biotrón”, de 1970, fue el envío de nuestro país a la Bienal de Venecia de ese año, el “Fitotrón”, de 1972, actualmente expuesto en comodato en el Malba, y el “Laberinto para ratones”, también de 1972, fueron primeros gestos en nuestro país de una acción rotunda en pro de unir arte y ciencia. Por su lado, en “Invasión instantánea”, fabulosa obra de Marta Minujín del año 1966 –que formó parte de la experiencia Simultaneidad en simultaneidad –, el espectador entra en la sala e inmediatamente es invadido por toda suerte de consecuencias de los medios de comunicación de masas: comienza a recibir llamados en teléfonos instalados allí, faxes (¡esa antigüedad!), mails, es filmado, le sacan fotos, su retrato es impreso, su voz es grabada y reproducida… “Velocidad, instantaneidad y demanda”, mencionan los curadores como características de esta obra, recreada ahora, en 2012, como contraposición a un mundo sereno y pausado.¨

Lea la nota completa:

http://www.revistaenie.clarin.com/arte/Artistas-laboratorio-arte-ciencia-universidad-maimonides_0_824917550.html

Three versions of my Christmas tree. Tres versiones de mi arbolito de Navidad

Three versions of my Christmas tree. Tres versiones de mi arbolito de Navidad by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A planet of solitude. Un planeta de soledad

A planet of solitude. Un planeta de soledad by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Concept of a landscape structure

This is a concept of a landscape structure or a digital painting that I see as landscape. The terraces of greens, a structure of rows of blue flowers and on top of this hill, the landscape is covered by yellow flowers, as those who  I can see on the 5 freeway, to San Francisco, in summer. And lakes as oasis among the yellow flowers.

The funfair after the storm. El parque de diversiones después de la tormenta

This is an exercise of form and color, a digital intervention of a photograph by Jo Hendley, downloaded from the nationalgeographic.com

I think this picture is like an illustration of Ray Bradbury's stories. " The collapsed pier at Seaside Park, New Jersey. Torn apart by Superstorm Sandy. The complete devastation of the shore leaves months of work ahead." 

See the work of Jo Hendley:

http://www.johendleyphotography.com/Journalism/Seaside-Park-Heights/26658531_PNw3Rs#!i=2229983498&k=RwN4brG

Bowls with sticks. Bols con palillos 2

Bowls with sticks. Bols con palillos 2 by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Siluetas en colores. Silhouettes in color

Three silhouettes pretty  much different from the definition in wiki:

A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black, its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is basically featureless, and the whole is typically presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. The silhouette differs from an outline which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic media.[1]

 [1] McClard, Peggy. "History of Silhouette". History of Silhouette. www.PeggyMcClard.com. Retrieved 12 September 2011.

Siluetas en colores. Silhouettes in color by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Structure of ribbons. Estructura de costillas

This is an exercise based on the picture below, by Filip Dujardin. If I rotate the image and change the colors, maybe it looks like a ship's womb.

It's from an art landscape installation in Belgium designed by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh  archs.

Read more:

http://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-church-or-landscape-installation.html

Flowers and leaves 1. Flores y hojas 1

Flowers and leaves 1. Flores y hojas 1 by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Seno geométrico. Geometric breast

Seno geométrico. Geometric breast by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Cerdo 1. Hog 1

Cerdo 1. Hog 1 by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Basket with fruits and flowers. Canasta con frutas y flores

Basket with fruits and flowers. Canasta con frutas y flores by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Duende en la foresta. Elf in the forest

Duende en la foresta. Elf in the forest by Myriam B. Mahiques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

From " The strange art of death"

I've always felt this fascination with the art of death, I enjoy watching the death costumes, people dancing for their dead, eating Mexican sugar skulls, burritos and tacos on the ¨Día de los muertos¨. I have my own -humble- collection of skeletons stamps and folk art that I buy at Olvera St in Downtown Los Angeles in the November events.

Today I´m sharing the article ¨The strange art of death¨ published at BBC News Magazine, and leave the link to watch the video of the exhibition in London. The illustrations are my screen shots from the video.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20309171

¨Dying is a fact of life. The very last fact, in fact. But the way in which people have prepared for death, and a possible afterlife, has been complex and contradictory through the centuries.

Hundreds of works from a unique personal collection devoted to the iconography of death are now on show at the Wellcome Collection in London. Take a look at some of the artefacts and artwork amassed by American Richard Harris - with Wellcome Collection curator Kate Forde.¨