Visuology visits the Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life themed 2015 Milan Expo and discovers what visitors should know in advance: The Negatives 1. Queuing to get into the pavilions If you can walk quickly through an area that offers clear explanation, where what’s on display is easy to understand and interpret then you are on to a […]
In anticipation of the British Museum’s forthcoming Indigenous Australia exhibition, we look at the rise of Aboriginal textile designs in fashion and interiors. Indigenous Australians’ oral tradition and spiritual values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime – a sacred era when ancestral totemic spirit beings created the world. […]
“We don’t have codpieces now, but we have pretty tight jeans,” says Tim Knox, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. There is now a noticeable interest in romantic male accessories and man-bags – a trend we pointed to in Tudor-themed Visuology Issue 1. These are the sorts of items mentioned by Matthäus Schwarz in a Renaissance […]
The oldest art ever discovered is now available for public viewing. But the cave paintings to be seen in the Ardèche region of France are in fact recent reproductions of the originals. The Chauvet cave, named after Jean-Marie Chauvet, one of the three people who found the treasure trove of Paleolithic paintings, is open rarely, to just a […]
No, it’s not a load of bollards, though there is one in the V&A’s latest exhibition, All of This Belongs to You. The stainless steel bollard in question (SP 400 by ATG Access), located amongst the railings and public signs of the ironwork gallery, is the type used in many of our public spaces, including […]
A far cry from bespectacled, retro-inspired geek chic – or the homogenized normcore look, is the trend for increasingly extreme tattooing and body piercing. Although tattoos have been around since Neolithic times, and 5000-year old mummified humans have been found with body piercings, the relatively recent association of such body adornments with sailors and criminal gangs has […]
Ancient tribal crafts were based upon the faith of Animism – the worship of nature, and the belief that natural physical entities possess a spiritual essence. Traditional tribes hunted for food, then used every last piece of the animals they slaughtered to create useful products. They were resourceful and respected the natural world. We may […]
Having a joke at the expense of the art buyer, or even the portrait sitter, is something of a tradition with artists. But what about the tax payer? The Gift Horse, a skeletal sculpture by German artist Hans Haacke, with live Stock Exchange feed ticker tape, is the latest expensive addition to the London public art scene. […]