Sunday 16 January 2011

It's all a bit Baltic




Had a whistle-stop tour of Newcastle on Saturday - dropping off son no. 2 to University and spending time in the Baltic Mill galleries - see above.


Two floors of large Anselm Kiefer work - made more understandable having recently seen the film about his work "Over our cities, grass will grow "- strange that they would not let you get close to his 39 paintings that he had produced alongside a massive palm tree laid flat on the gallery floor - with all his textures and materials you really want to get a close up as well as a longer view of each one.





Some rather ghostly large scale photographs of an Icelandic glacier by Dan Holdsworth






and some odd installation work by German artist Dirk Bell - also saw a film about the making of Brian Ferry;s recent album, Olympia together with large scale photographs of Kate Moss that were used in the cover art. Quite taken with his theory that all his female models used for his and Roxy Music's album covers were images of his ideal fan - that or he just used his celebrity position to portray women in art in much the same way men have portrayed them over the centuries.


But the best art show was at The Side photographic gallery featuring a show by Zed Nelson - he had travelled the world looking at the cultural and commercial forces that drive a global obsession with youth and beauty.

Scary photo of a Brazilian plastic surgeon and his wife ...




And this photo next to the fact that Men's Health magazine (USA) hasn't had a hairy chest on it since 1995 ...




Everyone around the world appears to be trying to look the same without realising it - most female nose jobs, reduction of size, in the world are in Iran and at the same time chinese women are having nose inplants to increase the size.

Left for home just as it was getting dark and the new bridge over the Tyne was going through its light show ...






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