No, it's not my next travel itinerary. Just random bits of interesting things. FILM: We recently watched Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre (2011), a French language film shot in Normandy. Incredibly atmospheric, wonderfully unexpected. Highly recommended.
Jean-Pierre Darroussin and his anana.
Other films recently watched that deal with similar concepts
of underemployment, illegal immigration, and acts of humanity:Rosetta, by the Dardenne
brothers andBiutiful, by Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Actually I couldn't get throughRosetta. Biutiful,while very good, was several hours of low
grade misery. It really made me think closely about the overwhelmingly consumeristic tastes of the world. The cheap mass production and consumption of
goods is so universally depraved. I could hardly enter a retailer
today, jam packed with rabid customers and piles of stuff, without feeling sick. There's just too much being made and usually
by people who are not necessarily regarded ethically. Do we really need all of these things? Of course not. No. But am I helping anyone but
myself if I cut my intake of products (from Old Navy to Apple) newly made-in-China, India, Bangladesh, Tunisia, et cetera? I don't know the conditions under which most things are made, even those made in America or France or Italy. It's a difficult and emotional question. Best plan? Keep object based purchases down to a bare minimum, appreciate what I have, learn to make more things myself, and of course: travel! This must be the best way to spend money I think.
Early Christian Borgund church, Norway, 12th century
was copied by architects in South Dakota! It's well known that the northern states of the Midwest were heavily settled by Scandinavians. It seems that there were plenty of Lutheran Norwegians in South Dakota. These guys were granted the original blueprints of the medieval church and went for it! I have never, ever been inspired to take a trip to that part of the country, but now I find myself puzzling together an adventure that will lead us right there.
In both the original and the modern reproduction, wonderfully carved wooden dragons alternate with crosses, marking the combination of pagan beliefs with Catholicism.
The Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia from Brian De Palma's Blow Out(1981).
Hey. I don't remember seeing the poster for this film at the Philly airport. I guess it's because of the Liberty Bell Strangler. Bummer, because it really captures the essence of the city.
It's always strange revisiting the places of past lives (I was in Philadelphia for five years). The main reason for my somewhat capricious trip was, as I mentioned earlier, to attend the symposium on the reception of medieval sculpture. Two full workdays of lectures on medieval art. In Jamie dialect: magical elixir of happiness.
I left Houston at 4am and went straight to the Penn Museum for immediate immersion. Hours later I emerged with my fellow medievalist, a Tufts colleague and current Penn PhD student. We raced over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for another lecture given by the curator of sculpture at the Louvre. After: well earned drinks at a new Stephen Starr restaurant on N. Broad, Route 6 (maybe a reference to the road through Cape Cod?). It was actually really good, though I usually don't like his style over substance strategy. Check out the gourmet unexpectedness of the fresh fish sandwich and whoopie pies.
I wasn't asleep until well after midnight. I was too delirious, too excited about my bold introduction to a certain senior scholar who did in fact flash Ripoll on the screen during his lecture. I'm still somewhat shocked at my confidence as I waited patiently to introduce myself and my parallel research interests. Professor was very enthusiastic. After our animated chat he handed me his card, wrote his personal e-mail (which enables him to exchange large files), and encouraged me to submit my paper to a conference taking place in Ripoll next year. YES. The next day he remembered my name and introduced me to another student who is writing his thesis on Ripoll. Truly a major moment for this art historian.
Only for art history would I wake up at 7am on a cold Saturday morning. I met with my Tufts friend and her Penn classmates and together we settled in for eight hours of lecturing. Though there were many interesting topics discussed, from performativity in medieval art to the erroneous placement of medieval art in modern museums (looking at you Yale Museum) to 19th century restoration work on a medieval portal, I think everyone in our group agreed that the best all around lecture was by Georg Geml from Vienna. His paper was entitled "C'est un saint qu'on ne fete plus": On Images of John the Baptist's Passion in the 19th and 20th Centuries and it was all about gory Counter-Reformation style Johannesschüssel:
Johannes-Schüssel aka St. John's Head on a Platter.
Oh those Germans.
The best one Geml showed, from a museum in Cologne, had more guts trailing out. I couldn't find it online. Better get back to Germany soon.
TRAVEL NOTES:
I learned from my weekend roommate that the neighborhood around 12th and Callowhill is known as Eraserhood. I never knew about this. Better revisit the Lynch classic.
From our place in West Philly I took the 64 bus to Federal Donuts in South Philly. I love taking the bus around Philadelphia and I love donuts. Especially green tea sesame ones. Sesame!
My last minute attempt to see the revamped Barnes on the "Champs-Élysées" was not rewarded. Apparently you still need to reserve a month in advance. I am slightly outraged by this exclusionary policy. Isn't that why they moved the collection to Center City? I'm an art historian! Without people like me (ok, people much more scholarly than me) no one would understand the value of these works.
The Art of the Steal.
Better to stick with fond memories of the original and forget about the scandal? What about the glowing NYT review? I have mixed feelings over all of this.
After my donuts and a nice tea date with my American Swedish Historical Museum friend (+her two year old and still growing baby-in-belly!), I walked from South Street to Ritz at the Bourse to see The Loneliest Planet. This is the same theater I rushed to post GRE to see The Science of Sleep. I have a crush on Gael Garcia Bernal oh do I. Also, this film takes place in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, near my favorite, Armenia. I was intrigued by the simple, but layered plot, which I won't say much about here. It was an appropriate choice for a solo attendance on a cold and grey afternoon.
The Loneliest Planet, Julia Loktev, 2012. Hani Furstenburg, on the right, is radiant.
She reminds me so much of Bergman muse Liv Ullmann.
Spare and provocative, somewhat flawed, but I appreciated the restraint from indulging in exposition and useless filler dialogue. Without these, the simple events take on an intensity that includes the audience in a dynamic way. This is again a kind of Mona Lisa painting: with little information, you're left to your own unique interpretation. One of the lighter topics that resonated with me was the feeling of traveling.
During our summer adventure I remember when I started feeling homesick. It was in Athens, week 3. A day or so later I was happy to continue traveling on and on to new countries forever. I realized that I thrive on adapting to new environments, which is why I enjoy the small tortures of relocating frequently. Within disorientation the potential for exhilaration increases. Traveling is when you are truly awake, all senses are open and receptive, passive moments are rare. I am especially interested in the way you learn about yourself. Both through the context of others who seem very different from you, but in fact have many similarities of course, and how you negotiate traveling situations, especially crises.
Cultural observations in Turkey by artist extraordinaire Alexander B. Teich.
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. My dream job.
As soon as we returned home I experienced a deep melancholy and desire to be back on the road in Europe. I missed traveling. So I set about planning our next trips. To Los Angeles and another to New York. And there I go to Philadelphia. It's not that I don't like being in Texas, in itself a great new adventure, it's just that I love being a part of the traveling experience; from rushing through the airport toward your departing jet to reunions at arrival (mine or others, I love airport reunions), reading maps, constructing itineraries, getting lost, making new friends from strangers, seeing how people are dressed, learning new words on the spot of necessity, testing personal relationships and communication while constantly negotiating new terrain, trying new food, understanding rituals of all kinds >> cultural explosion. My idea of home must have changed, probably for survival's sake, along the way.
I'm starting a top five in five years travel plan. These selections are based mostly on art history and culture, of course. So far:
-Mexico
-Morocco
-Japan
-India
-Egypt
*if, in the next five years, relations with the Middle East improve, then include one or more:
-Syria
-Iran
-Afghanistan
Big plans.
Imagining that I was in De Palma's Philadelphia or even Lynch's Eraserhead, I marched around with Siouxsie and the Banshees' Kaleidoscope (1980) playing on repeat, loudly. The entire album is cinematically atmospheric, the sounds threatening and seductive. It was the perfect soundtrack for today's Philadelphia, which despite gleaming new developments, retains some of that old grit and menace.
If you're around Houston this weekend and like creative stuff, you should take part in Art Workshop: Dyeing in America at Bayou Bend. Make your own organic pigments with textile expert Katie Knowles! Ever since my short stint at the Fabric Workshop and Museum where I created unique chemical dyes in the dye lab, I've been interested in mixing colors. Our summer adventure included a trip to Ikonium, a felt making workshop, where they also make their own organic dyes for wool and silk. The end results are gorgeous. I'm totally going to start doing this on my own. Look at these colors made from onion skins!
1. January 2012: Paris, Institut national d'histoire de l'art (30-31 January) (with study sessions at the Musée du Louvre)
2. May 2012: Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Annual Conference
3. November 2012: Philadelphia, Phila. Museum of Art & Univ. of Pennsylvania(with study sessions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Glencairn Museum)
I didn't make it to the first two conferences, but the third is the most interesting to me anyway. I'm especially excited about this lecture: They Are All the Work of Artists (Jer. 10, 9): The Romanesque Portal as Liturgical Performance, Manuel Castiñeiras, Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. I can't wait to hear what this Catalonian scholar has to say regarding the expression of liturgical performance in Romanesque portals. I wonder if he will mention my beloved Ripoll, which has sadly been ( temporarily!) abandoned by me. I have very high hopes for this conference as it, in many ways, falls in line with my QP topic from Tufts. Now that my library has arrived from Boston I can get back into inspired research and finally open that major book I actually bought at Ripoll.
¡¡Me at the Ripoll portal!! September, 2011.
To get in the medieval spirit and because it's Halloween, we watched Army of Darkness last night. It's fantastic and Bruce Campbell is dreamy.
Great Mosque at Cordoba, Spain (horseshoe arch: reappropriated from Visigothic architecture in Spain to become emblematic of Islamic architecture, color blocked mosaic mihrab), 8th c.
Early Medieval Book of Durrow, St. Matthew the Evangelist (early example of pagan imagery in Christian books), 7th c.
Combine these three and then...
On either side (left to right):
Beato de Távara (see the scribes working away in a monastic scriptorium) Heavenly Jerusalem, Morgan Beatus, both 10th c.
These are manuscript illustrations from the Book of Revelation by St. John the Evangelist, the fourth Gospel book, which discusses the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment. The original pages were painted by Beatus in Spain around 725. During the 8th century, Christian Spain was occupied by Muslims and Cordoba became the Islamic capital of the West soon after. Despite the commentary of the manuscripts possibly serving as an allied rebellion against religious persecution (in this case Christian practices were limited by the Muslims), the style of the illuminations may have been inspired or influenced by Islamic art and architecture found in Spain, which refers back to the Early Medieval art of the Migration period and early Christian works on paper.
I learned recently that you should not present your "best lesson plan ever" to your students on the day before any kind of holiday break. Ah, my Romanesque presentation. You were beautiful, even if only 70% of my students saw it.
Since there are so many elements of Early Medieval art in both Romanesque and Gothic art, it is necessary to first look at the genesis. The art of the Early Middle Ages was made by pagan migratory tribes throughout modern Europe and Scandinavia.
EARLY MEDIEVAL: Shoulder clasp from Sutton Hoo, found in a ship burial site in England, 7th c.
Detail: Cloisonné with garnet and animal interlace.
The pagan art of the migratory tribes was later assimilated into Christian art in various and interesting ways.
Stave Church, Borgund, Norway, 12th c.
Painted Reproduction of the medieval Jelling Rune Stones, Copenhagen.
Carpet Page, Lindisfarne Gospel Book, 7th or 8th c.
As part of our discussion on Romanesque art, I was able to visually explain why I missed an entire week in September. It was wonderful to be able to talk, even briefly, about my particular area of interest. The students that were in class were very interested and had lots to say. It's a rare treat to discuss one particular style and region at length. And I got to show them Ripoll. Hooray!
One of my many wondrous
experiences in Spain included theMuseu Nacional
d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. Sadly, we arrived just before closing
time, but we did get a chance to run wild in the Romanesque section for
about thirty minutes. It was glorious! Full of frescoes that had been removed
from at risk church walls and lovingly placed inside the museum.
These are all from eleventh and twelfth century.
ROMANESQUE: Frescos from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, SP.
Apse of Santa Maria d'Àneu: Seraphim.
Apse of Sant Climent de Taüll.
"This is one of the masterpieces of the European Romanesque. Its genius lies in the way it combines elements from different Biblical visions (Revelation, Isaiah and Ezekiel) to present the Christ of the Day of Judgement. Christ appears from the background causing a movement outwards from the centre of the composition, which is presided by the ornamental sense of the outlines and the skillful use of colour to create volume. The exceptional nature of this work by the Master of Taüll and its pictorial strength have reached out to modernity and fascinated twentieth-century avant-garde artists like Picasso and Francis Picabia." (MNAC website)
Christ in Majesty.
Ripoll, SP, 12th c. Notice the similarity between the painted Christ in Majesty and the stone one.
To close the discussion on Romanesque art, I shared select clips from the Pillars of the Earth. Especially the scenes that talk about relics, pilgrimage, Abbot Suger, and new technology in the shift from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture. Of course these bits are little gems found in the company of bloody violence, sex, intrigue, torture, and other kinds of HBO material. Oh religion.
It's been two years since I've read a book. Fiction, that is.
Reading a book that fits in your bag and can be easily transported is an amazing thing!
Trading in the Oversize art history books that have turned many trips home from the library into near meltdowns (usually my eyes were bigger than my bookbag). Struggling to carry 10 huge books, for three miles, is never a great idea.
Before I started this crazy grad school adventure, I had several paperback books on my nightstand. They remained there for 24 months. It's taking me a long time to get back into reading these kinds of books. I've only finished two in the last six weeks.
I got one of these books because of a note I had scribbled on a scrap of paper. I have no idea who or what motivated this. I wish I could remember because I loved this book so much and it was the perfect transition from academic art history reading to fun and crazy art history reading. Geraldine Brooks has written a novel based on what medieval art historians do in their attempts to discover the history behind illuminated manuscripts. I'm so excited about this book I can't even describe how much I appreciated it.
The leading lady in this story, Hanna Heath, works internationally as a book conservationist. Heath is asked to examine a Hebrew manuscript, the Sarajevo Haggadah. A Haggadah is a prayer book used during Passover to tell the story of the Hebrews' journey out of slavery in Egypt. Created in medieval Spain, the Sarajevo Haggadah is a lavishly illustrated Hebrew manuscript made at a time when Jewish belief was firmly against illustrations of any kind. However, as we know from Dura Europos, there are Judaic figural paintings (even nude ones!).
3rd century fresco of baby Moses' rescue from the bullrushes in Egypt.
From the Dura Europos synagogue, Damascus, Syria.
The novel follows the migration of the actual manuscript, moving backward from:
Sarajevo in the 1940's, then to 19th century Vienna, 17th century Venice, Catalonia during the Spanish Inquisition and finishing (at the beginning) in 15th century Seville. At each of these stops, an artifact found in or missing from the manuscript is explored: a portion of an insect wing, salt remnants, a wine stain, a white hair, and absent silver clasps.
Awesome map from the book.
A thrilling adventure! Each layer of history is revealed, showing the richness of the manuscript and how a moment in time can affect something permanently, often leaving historians in a perpetual state of mystery and obsession.
Much of the story takes place in Spain, which always got me dreaming of my upcoming trip there (72 days!). Plans are going very well so far, now that I've gotten the green light from Colby-Sawyer and some non-refundable airline tickets. ¡SO EXCITED!
