FAUNA

Food, Sex and Design

[faunazine]

02/12/2023

I found myself wandering through the car park of Varanasi Airport, searching for my auto driver. I was slightly hungover from a night out at the Leather Bar in Chennai—no, not that kind of bar, sadly. I found the auto but not him. He messaged me, informing that he was at the canteen. I was in a rush to make it to the hotel in time to meet my extended family, but I also felt a sense of confidence that I would make it, probably because I managed to fly out of Chennai amidst the impending Cyclone Michaung.

Opting to cancel the Uber trip and pay in cash, I struck a deal with Dharmendr, the auto driver, agreeing to a fare of Rs 400 in exchange for him driving as fast as possible. "You know Ferrari? This is the Indian Ferrari!" he exclaimed. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face; that just put me in a chirpy mood.

It was foggy, but the sunset was incredible. I sat in the Auto as peak hour traffic build, slowly inhaling this smoky city. Is it the exhaust or the perpetual burning I wondered. I arrived at the hotel just in time to meet the family, hop on a bus, and be stuck in traffic for another hour. We hopped on one of the last little boats to watch the daily Ganga Aarti ceremony along the Ghats of Varanasi.

[faunazine]

Being still with Mother

I went straight from Chennai airport to the Temple of my mother’s குலதெய்வம் (Ancestral God/Goddess) Ammachar in Nallavur, Tamil Nadu. What was meant to be followed by a visit into the village to see the hut my grandfather lived in ended post this sit-down at this temple built in my grandfather’s name by his youngest son.

I am still trying to find the reasons why. The Laddoo we left outside infront of a statue of a guardian Goddess vanished within seconds. “Told you the Gods were hungry and you had to feed them” said the man who brought me there. I agreed with him as I stared into the eyes of the guilty squirrel hiding in the Neem tree above us.

27/11/2023

[faunazine]

[faunazine]

Not

Not Ripped enough to be Masc

Not Masc enough to be Fem

Not Fem enough to be Cool

Not Hot enough to be sexy

Not Fat enough to be a bear

Not Bear enough to be sexy

Not Tall enough

Not Short enough

Not Hung enough to be black

Not White enough

Not Black enough to be in a white

Not Piggy enough

Not Slutty enough

Not High enough

Not Sober enough

Not Sexy enough

Not Happy enough

Not Sad enough

enough.

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Just catching the tube #tube #london #radhalabia

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Mmm coke

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An apple a day they say. Well I thought this was a strange location for an apple. Maybe someone left it up there while their hands were tied up peeing. This was at a public restroom known for cruising, even though it was closed and been inactive for a while.

I saw this apple again a few weeks later, definitely not the same one but in the same location. I wonder if it was meant to signal something or someone. There were one or two cruisers about every now and then. That awkward moment when you bump into a friend who was cruising. 

[faunazine]

 May 2006 by Simryn Gill. 

He looked lost, poor old man I thought and walked across the road to help him as he waved me over. 

“Do you need help with anything?” I asked. 

“No, you’re very handsome”

“Oh, thank you but are you lost or anything?” I replied. 

“No no, have we met? You’re very handsome” 

“I don’t think so, I just moved here yesterday” 

“Oh do you want to come over to my place for a coffee for five minutes” 

“What is your name sir?” 

“Niko” he replied. 

“No thank you Niko, I am in a bit of a hurry, have a lovely day, bye!”

I have seen Niko around a few times in Marrickville where I now live. He occasionally whispers hello as I walk by, I just smile and walk on. I met a fellow friend the other day who shared similar stories of getting hit on by Niko. He said he has seen him with his wife on the bus and Niko was not so friendly then.

Niko appears every now and then and he finds a way to creep me out. He looks like a sweet old man but the tone in his voice however is sinister. You can imagine my shock when I chanced upon this photograph of him in an exhibition in Singapore.

He keeps following me.

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Got ma hair did. 

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Here's a little blurb I wrote about my university experience. Read!

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Internship #2 done. My walk away from Arkhefield brought me past this #Starbucks. It was the first one in the city I went into when I first moved here to ask for directions when I got lost. This would be the last time I walked past it. #manylasts #6days to go.

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My PVC outfit for The Future Beauty Exhibition Opening at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. A week later and my feet is still tingling but it was totally worth it. 

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Final design assignment #siituationist #almostdone #iseethelight #procrastination

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American Apparel Ad Girls with Courtney Act, Alaska 5000 and Willam

ANUS!

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Current groove

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Trying so hard to stay focused and failing oh so badly. #help #design #finalsemester #whatsnext #situationistinternational #interiordesign

[infiniteinterior]

Regarding the dismal fate of urban utopies, one recent case in point: Sou Fujimoto’s House NA as a privatized, fetishized version of Constant Nieuwenhuys’s New Babylon, a utopian skeletal megastructure that would be constantly freely transformable by its residents.

Fujimoto’s version successfully recycles the seductive imagery and retains the vaguely utopian aura while dispensing with the problematic details of free access and participation.

This serves well to illustrate the frustrating problem with revolutionary architecture, imagery, and art in general: it is deceptive and easily hijacked.

I can easily identify with the byzantine and islamic iconoclasts and their fear of representation. The images have a bad habit of taking on a life of their own.

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All this research on situationist international and having to translate that into a fully realised interior project for my final interior design assignment is slowly driving me into insanity/sanity.