[onlywhatshere]

[glitterhandpompom]

"Sleeping Hermaphroditus" Roman copy, 2nd century AD (after a Greek oriqinal of the 2nd centurv BC) Musée du Louvre. Paris

Mattress: Carrara marble; made in 1619 bv Gian Lorenzc Bernini at the request of Scipione Borghese

[loumargi]

Gian Lorenzo Bernini-Sleeping Hermaphroditus Louvre

[theprinceofsnark]

Hold up. I love Bernini, and while he did do part of this, the actual focus of the statue is not a Bernini. The actual figure of Hermaphroditus is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. The mattress is the only thing sculpted by Bernini. And in truth, the statue would not have rested on the original, but on a rocky outcrop as this statue was meant to evoke a natural setting. This isn’t even the nicest example of this particular statue type (which was very common, and is a textbook example of Hellenistic playfulness). The best example is in the Palazzo Massimo in Rome.

It is also important to note that Hermaphroditus is an intersex individual, and this series of photos makes the statue rather one dimensional. In reality, this piece was designed to be approached as viewed in the photos, and then walked around. At which point the combination of both male and female sexual characteristics was meant to surprise and titillate the viewer.

[teatitty]

If there's one statue that always evokes emotion out of me it's "Sleeping Hermaphroditus" a statue from ancient rome by an unknown artist that has at least 3 copies and the mattress was done by Bernini in 1620. I can't describe why this statue makes me emotional but I think it has something to do with how tenderly the person is sleeping. I don't have it on hand but you can find other angles of it that show the person's face and how their eyes are softly closed, arms folded beneath their head

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Sleeping Hermaphroditus, 1620

[robertbrook]

London January 2025

[divorce-enjoyer]

i didnt know you were allowed to do things for the sake of wanting to do things. i thought you were just supposed to keep that locked inside your ribcage and let it rot you inside out until youre limping around as the desiccated corpse of who you could have been

[divorce-enjoyer]

this post is about TRANSITIONING and CHANGING YOUR MAJOR

[gougeddoll]

jennifer cantwell, 2011

[seriial]

“the recording is of a blackbird in my garden in the north of scotland. the idea of the piece is that it's a letter home from a migrated bird, telling the family of its new life and making the connection between the migrant and the homeland.” - jennifer cantwell

[toxelsparks]

while you guys are fighting each other and complaining over getting lost media that wasn’t going to see the light of day anyway im having the time of my life having an out of body experience to probably one of the most potential-heavy group of demos ive heard it a long while. i really wish we would get full studio recordings of some of these because they fuck HARD

[horrorlandthings]

“Killer slugs on the rampage in a rural community.” Slugs (1988) VHS cover is a right mouthfull

[enchantedbook]

'Bats with Umbrella and Fan', Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, c.1880s.

[keirametzbrassknuckles]

RIP Richard Serra. You made so many people so so so mad

[keirametzbrassknuckles]

In honor of this guy's passing let me once again tell the story of my favorite piece of art ever - Tilted Arc.

Commissioned by the US government in 1979 the work was made up of a 12x120 foot sheet of cor-ten steel which bisected Foley federal plaza in Manhattan. That's it. Just a sheet of metal in a plaza between several government buildings. It doesnt do anything. But it made people So Angry and also made the best argument I've ever seen for the worth of public art.

Foley square is the sqare around which the NY County courthouse, US Court of appeals, and several international ans national seats of law are positioned, which makes it a very important governmental spot in the US. These are the courts that don't send billionaires to jail and rule in class action suits against the prosecution.

The sculpture was installed after a lengthy period during which Serra carefully watched the way people interacted with and moved through the space. His artwork was as much a piece of participatory performance as it was a piece of sculpture, using the general public as part of the piece itself.

Of course everyone fucking hated it.

Because of the way the structure was positioned, lawyers and government employees had to walk around the structure, not only disrupting their habitual path of movement and allowing time for contemplation, but also making them contend directly with the people they were supposed to be working in the best interest of. The sculpture became a site of impromptu games of soccer between neighborhood kids, a makeshift arena for buskers because of the accoustics, and a windbreak under which the homeless could take shelter. It was a sculpture which made one intensely aware of their trajectory in space and thereby the world. While, granted, not as good as the park which had been initially considered (and which is there today) it did function as a living community space in ways it previously had not.

There were multiple hearings at which artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Joan Jonas, and Keith Harring argued in support of keeping the piece. But to no avail. After a protracted legal battle -- during which Serra stated his right to free speech and that the government itself had greenlit the commission and the government argued that the curvature of the piece would cause bomb blasts to ricochet into the courthouse (what?)-- the piece was dismantled in 1989 and is stored in a warehouse somewhere in Brooklyn to this day.

Ultimately the commission and subsequent censorship of the piece triggered long running debates over Institution vs. Public, general poor urban planning, public perception of art, and the creation of environments as art which continue to rage within sectors from public policy to architecture to art. It really shifted the discourse and formed the basis of a lot of my own academic inquiry.

Public art should not (and arguably can not) be just pure aesthetic frosting on the cake of life. It needs to activate a space, and, more importantly, activate people within that space. Contemporary art should make you uncomfortable, should make you think, and this piece really speaks to the general societal fear of anything that disrupts our routines or makes us think about our environment too much. It was a wakeup call and a community space and a free speech argument and an example of the stupidity of the US government all wrapped up in one thing and I love it so so so very much.

Anyway, RIP Richard. You made so many people so mad and so many people so happy. Hope you're frolicking in a field of rusty steel monoliths as was your happy place.

[jetix]

Snail photography by Zheng Yi Liu, 2020

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Not a dream

And in some positive news, my good friend’s husband is a conductor at the Croatian National Theater (he is seriously so talented, and so is she) and she took me to watch the first showing of Cabaret and I cried the whole evening 🥺🥹 the show is amazing!!!

Everyone is amazing, but especially the Emcee for the 1st cast

If you are in Zagreb, I highly recommend you watch it!

CABARET

Hrvatsko Narodno Kazalište

[emmaklee]

Hannah Streefkerk

crocheted & embroidered lichen installation

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Semi-Slugs: these are actual gastropods that are in the process of evolving from snails into slugs, with their shells gradually reducing and receding into their bodies

Above: Fastosarion brazieri, commonly known as the chameleon semi-slug, and an unidentified species of semi-slug from the genus Sheldonia

The term "semi-slug" is used to describe an intermediate stage of evolution as snails evolve into slugs. Nearly 1,000 different species of semi-slugs are known to exist, and these bizarre little creatures can be found on at least four continents.

Above: Fastosarion brazieri and Varadia amboliensis

Each species of semi-slug is technically still classified as a snail, but its shell is noticeably reduced, becoming more internalized as the species evolves. A semi-slug officially becomes a regular-slug once its shell is no longer visible at all.

As this article explains:

If life were simple, there would be snails and slugs. Snails carry their homes on their backs; slugs are naked and embarrassed. But life isn’t simple, so of course there’s secret option #3 – the semi-slug, a bizarre creature that sits exactly between the snail and the slug.

Above: genus Satiella and genus Euaustenia

This article also adds:

In contrast to snails that have an external shell large enough to accommodate the body, or slugs in which the shell is completely internal or absent, semi-slugs have an external shell, but the shell is too small to accommodate the animal’s entire body.

Above: Megaustenia siamensis

This process is known as limacization, and it's especially common in moist, low-calcium environments where a snail's shell may be more of a burden than a benefit:

Terrestrial slugs are not a monophyletic group, but a case of convergent evolution in which the slug form evolved from different lineages of land snails that gradually lost their shell through a process called limacization. Limacization resulted in adaptive radiation in land snail lineages, as slugs became adapted to diverse moist and protected spaces, such as crevices in rocks and wood debris. The loss of the shell also allowed for more movement and less calcium dependence, making slugs more successful as pests.

Above: Gaeotis nigrolineata, also known as the Puerto Rican semi-slug, has a neon green shell that is almost completely internalized, but the shell is clearly visible through the semi-slug's translucent body

Some semi-slugs have shells that are still opaque and largely visible, with the mantle (a patch of flesh) covering only the outer edges of the shell, while others have shells that are more significantly reduced, transparent, and/or concealed.

Above: Ibycus rachelae, commonly known as the green-shelled semi-slug, and a species of semi-slug from the genus Durgella

This topic was mentioned in my previous post about Ibycus rachelae, but I wanted to write a more detailed post about semi-slugs, because they're just so fascinating and weird.

Above: a black-and-white semi-slug from subfamily Sheldoniinae

Sources & More Info:

Australian Geographic: Meet the Semi-Slug, a Snail without a Home

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: What's So Good about Being a Slug?

Frontiers: Terrestrial Slugs in Neotropical Agroecosystems (PDF)

iNaturalist: Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, & 13

The Shell-Makers (Introducing Molluscs): On Becoming Sluggish

Land Snails and Slugs of Sabah and Labuan, Malaysia: Semi-Slugs

Contributions to Zoology: Phylogeny and Systematic Revision of the Helicarionid Semislugs of Eastern Queensland

[2022dirt]

Snow shadows can happen when objects block sunlight, keeping certain areas cooler while the rest begins to melt. It leaves behind a clear outline where the snow lingers longer.