Marcus Coates

And theres also a good interview about a similar work in Liverpool, "Journey to the Lower World"

Eva Meyer-Keller

A friend introduced me to this performance. I wish Id been able to see it. Though just having it described to me has given me ideas for similar work.

A Call To Arms!!!!!

Have you seen a novelty animal bin? These are just a few images, Ive also seen a penguin and there may be many more animal bins out there. I need to know the locations of as many as possible. If you know the whereabouts of any of these bins please leave a note of what animal the bin is and its location in the comments section linked just below this post. Please help!

Animal terrorism

Today started badly. Still recovering from illness I attempted to press on by gnawing at a piece of wood. I amassed a series of wood splinters at the cost of a lot of effort and a little pain. The hopelessness of using such a small pile of splinters to make something became a spiral into a mild kind of despair. So I did what any mildly despairing person does and went to get lunch. After lunch were tutorials in which my tutor Ken and two fellow students (Stephen and Sinead) discussed my ideas and what I had already. Their insights were so invaluable that I have now formed the majority of an idea for a final piece. Ill try to explain more in further posts but for now I hope it will suffice that I plan on creating a kind of animal terrorist cell. There will be gnawed wood, plans on the wall, crudely crafted tools and partially built novelty bins. At this point Im relying pretty heavily on humour and slightly on a more genuine suspicion of malintent created by a less humourous attention to detail. Itll be interesting to see if I can pull it off sucessfully. I also think some suspicion can come from the fact that there wont be an animal at the work station, leaving the possibility that its actually a humans work station. Again, this might be hard to strike a balance with. Images will be following shortly.

Phineas

Before Easter my friend asked me to help him to create a book as part of his coursework. My job was to create a book cover based on the phrase '2568: the repeat of civilization'. I was looking at all sorts of things to do with telling the future and eyes being a distraction to seeing the future since they always see the present. I was looking at the mythological figure of Phineas, who was gifted with being able to see the future. During this time I happened across an image which, I cant explain why, but it seemed to be just what I was looking for. There is a page dedicated to explaining the phenomena that caused this foetus, but I warn you that its not for the faint of heart. Personally though, I think its got a delicate kind of beauty to it, particularly the x-ray. Im including it here because I think it ties together the x-rays and the photos I took at the anatomy museum.

Kiki Smith

"I found this anthropomorphizing of animals interesting: the human attributes we give to animals, and the animal attributes we take on as humans to construct our identity. Im trying to think about this relationship between nature and human nature, their different objects."

Kiki Smith, 1998

Seeing hidden objects

As a way of suggesting something hidden within something Ive been looking at x-rays.

A mysterious parcel

Tony got the most wonderfully wrapped present today. Can you guess what it is?

Disguises and Trojan Objects

Im getting quite caught up in the idea of making something like Pasiphae's wooden cow. I was looking a while back at the possibility of using novelty bins in the shapes of hippos, frogs and birds as a kind of 'costume' which a human form could be fitted into.


This also seems to fit in with the idea of a kind of trojan horse or a wicker man, both of which have very different meanings, so the context of a wooden cow could easily be confused.



Fitting in with my own images of building a wooden cow using nothing but wood and my hands, I found this rather strange object online.

Something from nothing

Ive been thinking about giving myself animalistic challenges (try to make fire from whats in the room, use whats in the room to try to reach the roof). I considered that in past projects I have at times done things the hard way out of laziness for fetching the right tools. I think this could be a good approach to make work, to start with nothing and have to make something using just my hands, though I can use my hands to make tools that make it easier. Also, how would I use the wood? Would I be sticking it together? What would I stick it together with? Maybe spit would work, which is perhaps also very animalistic; Birds and wasps use spit to make nests. This got me thinking of Tenico Lemos Auad, who made creatures using nothing but carpet fluff in the 2004 becks futures show.

Making quills

I made an attempt to recreate some porcupine quills using fur and cocktail sticks. Im not particularly convinced with the results. I also discovered a piece by Janine Antoni called 'Saddle'. It seems very close to my ideas of what I should be creating.

Furries

And as an antithesis of Goofy theres the Furries.

Two-Gun Goofy

A Comic Break from the Mythology

Still on the subject of animals as humans and humans as animals, as my research seems to have developed into, I started looking at the philosophical debate over Goofy and Pluto existing in the same world. There are actually a few compelling answers here. I couldnt help thinking from the examples put forward that it sounds a little like Goofy evolved to be more human so he could court human girls. If only we could see into their hats.

Burning in the Bull

It seems that one possible explanation to the minotaur myth is that the Greeks and Romans were executing people with a 'brazen bull', creating the fear of a deadly bull character. Click here for more information.

Could You Help Me Seduce This Bull Please?

I remembered a sculpture that I found in a park in Sydney. Its a classical sculpture depicting Theseus slaying the Minotaur. The thing that particularly struck me was the hands of the minotaur. They looked so close to human hands that they made me empathise with the plight of the minotaur at its dying moment. Ill need to bear in mind the importance of details like that. I looked at the minotaur legend and found another few images. The first is from a piece of ceramics which depicts Pasiphae cradling a young minotaur. It was only when the minotaur grew to a certain size that he became so dangerous and was imprisoned in the labyrinth. Theres two things about this myth that i find of interest. The first is that Pasiphae (under the influence of an angry Poseidon) fell in love with a bull. She asked Daedalus, the master craftsman, the create her a wooden cow so that she could make love with the bull. I managed to find this painting of her getting into the cow with Daedalus aiding her. I find this absurd not only because she went to such lengths to make a bull want her, but also because Daedalus went along with this request. The second thing of interest is that Minos (The King of Crete and Pasiphaes husband) asked Daedalus to construct the Labyrinth for its imprisonment. So even though he was not responsible for either, he had a strong part in the minotaurs conception and imprisonment. I think I find this so interesting as Daedalus is such a strong example of the proverbial craftsman, instilled with a special knowledge of the way things function. Another strange twist is that Minos infuriated Poseidon which led to his wife being punished in order to punish him.
The minotaur also appears in the famously christian text of Dantes Inferno. Hes described in the following way:

Such was the downward course of that ravine;
And at the brink over the broken chasm
There lay outspread the infamy of Crete

That was conceived within the bogus cow;
And when he saw us, he bit into himself,
Like someone whom wrath tears up from inside.

My clever guide cried out to him, "Perhaps
You believe that this is the Duke of Athens
Who in the upper world contrived your death?

"Go off, you beast! this man does not approach
Instructed by your sister but comes here
In order to observe your punishments."

Just as the bull breaks loose right at that moment
When he has been dealt the fatal blow
And cannot run but jumps this way and that,

So I saw the Minotaur react —
And my quick guide called out, "Run for the pass!
While he's raging is our chance to get down!"…..

The Price of a Body These Days

Started wondering about trying to buy a real animal skin that could be mounted over a human skeleton. I checked ebay and realised that I was comparing the finacial values of animal bodies with human bodies. Although there were many human skeleton models for around £150, making them equivalently priced to the two bits of deer that I found, I was really shocked to find one with a current price of £10. I just wish I had a car to pick it up from Essex so I could bid.

Jo gets in touch with his animal instincts

I compiled a list of animal similies which Jo very kindly agreed to act out for a series of photographs. 1) Strong as an Ox 2) Cunning as a Fox 3) Like a Headless Chicken 4)Slippery as a Snake 5) Playful as a Chimp 6) Greedy as a Pig 7) Happy as a Cheshire Cat 8) Stupid as an Ass I was thinking of ways to combine these images with images of the animals being portrayed which led me to the idea of animal skeletons within human bodies or vice versa.

Vampires Werewolves and Changelings, Oh My!

Found a questionable book in the GSA library describing monsters. It said that it has been claimed that the genetic condition Porphyria may be responsible for the mythologies of werewolves and vampires. Though the symptoms of porphyria do bear a resemblance to vampire folklore, a little investigation seemed to show that its a pretty groundless theory. This did lead me to think about medical conditions and abnormalities being explained through folklore and myth, so I made a visit to the Glasgow University Anatomy Museum to photograph abnormalities. This brought up a very interesting discussion with my tutor on the ethics of photographing dead bodies or body parts. Most of the abnormalities on display there were in specimins of babies and foetuses. From this I started thinking about changelings, since they are a piece of folklore which was used to explain sudden differences in a child, particularly in their personality or temperament. I tried to research changelings at the Mitchell library but only found fictitious references. One of which was from a play called 'The Changeling'. In it insane people were described as having animalistic qualities.

Tanuki and the beginning of the self initiated project

Started my research looking at animals being blamed for human behaviour, mostly mythological. The subject was instigated by an obsession I had of photographing sculptures of a folk character from Japan by the name of Tanuki, a raccoon normally displayed with a bottle and an enormous set of testicles. Im told hes well known for getting drunk on sake and 'meddling' with women. Hes popular as a very cheeky character. I found a proliferation of his sculptures and souvenirs, which I found odd since I presume his existence is partly to explain very real instances of 'meddling' (and consequently exonerate the real guilty party). This page on Tanuki has some good images, though it doesnt mention Tanuki ever being assosciated with rape.

Organising Myself

I didnt want to do this. I wanted to make a fancy book instead. However, I dont have time for book making at the moment and this will let me list everything Ive been doing (or not doing). I hope its of some interest to others too.