Gothic Art in Spotlight: The Fallen Angels

Since I visited about 10 art museums on my vacation in New York, there is a lot of material for a few Gothic Art in Spotlight -posts. Lucky for me it is not like these artworks get outdated, even if I post about them two months later! Today's spotlight is reserved for biblical characters.

This statue was made by Salvatore Albano, an Italian sculptor from the 19th century. The title of the work is The Fallen Angels and it was done in two parts; the base is from 1883 and the marble part is from 1893. This statue is owned by the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It is one of the biggest art museums in the United States along with MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

These fallen angels are situated in the main lobby of the museum. They are surrounded by vast emptiness and light that comes from the windows high up in the ceiling. In the sign that tells a little about the artwork it says the next:

"At the apex of this sculptural group, a sword-wielding Satan struggles alongside his rebel angels against God and his army (both absent) in heaven. -- " 

I am quite confident that the Brooklyn Museum has situated this statue intentionally in the lobby under those windows that are letting the light from sky (heaven) to descend on The Fallen Angels, simulating the army of heaven and their power over this small group of rebels.

In the base is a defeated angel and according to the museum's sign it is probably Satan again. I am not arguing against it, especially since the sign also points out that having a continuing narrative in a sculpture was common in the ancient Roman sculptures that were the source of inspiration for the artist Salvatore Albano. As you can see from this photo, the defeated Satan no longer has wings, though the one still trying to fight has a handsome pair of feathery appendage.

These close-ups show how vivid and full of emotion these characters are. According to the little sign, there are snakes squirming in their hair but for me it was hard to spot with those hairs being a bit curly.

 In this next photo one snake is visible, it is on Satan's head and looks a bit like a horn sticking up. It is in fact a snake's head. The characters are otherwise classically beautiful and without knowing the name of this work and hence not knowing these are fallen angels, the snakes are the only clue for it in the actual statue. Without the snakes this could be a graceful group of angels fighting something else than God of Christians.

Hope you enjoyed my post, next time it is time for a Creepy Reads Review!

Gothic Art in Spotlight: Horned self portrait of Rona Pondick

I am back from New York! Well, have been for more than a week but unfortunately I have been terribly busy. I really liked that city! Not sure if I have the need to go there again anytime soon but still my vacation was very successful and enjoyable. I am going to make some posts of the creepy or disturbing artwork I saw there during these few weeks. The first is a sculpture that was in the exhibition Self: Portraits of Artists in Their Absence at the National Academy's Museum.

The National Academy was established 1825 by a group of distinguished American artists. The Royal Academy in London gave inspiration to them to form their own Academy. The mission is simple: “promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition.” Each member of the National Academy is asked to produce a self portrait for the Academy's records and the exhibition Self was created from those works.

In the stairway to the next floor of the exhibition was an interactive artwork. The visitors were allowed to write and draw on the walls and leave an imprint of themselves to the Self exhibition. This was my favorite quote on the wall:

There were many beautiful paintings and emotionally rich video installations and breathtakingly gorgeous sculptures but I feel one especially fits the idea of contemporary art that appeals goths, which is the point of my Gothic Art in Spotlight posts. At least most of the time. :D

The sculpture I am about to introduce is made by Rona Pondick years 2000-2001. Pondick has a unique style in making sculptures and many of them are hybrids of humans and animals or humans and trees. They are grotesque in the old sense of the word. During the Renaissance the word grotesque used to refer mainly to artwork that depicted hybrids with qualities from humans, animals, and plants.

I went to Pondick's website and fell in love with her work! The use of metal in the trees especially gives them this eerie extraterrestrial feeling. Still, this post is about Ram's Head, so let's concentrate on that one. Since it was presented in the exhibition of self portraits, I believe I am safe to assume the face of the head is depicting the artist herself. Either metaphorically or more like actually resembling the artist. You can see from this photo that the lighting of the statue has its own meaning. The shape of the shadow is long and actually resembles a real ram's head.

The material used is yellow blue stainless steel. I am amazed how many different textures there are in this work! The expression of the sculpture is interesting, I can't decide whether it is sullen, or annoyed or what else.

The horns are massive and I found the earrings made out of little heads delightfully creepy. They seem to reach out to traditions of voodoo and shrunken heads. The shiny part of the top of the head looks to me like it is the actual skull beneath the less shiny skin. And because the skull has been exposed, the facial expression has hints of pain in it. Do you see what I mean? There are of coarse numerous ways to interpret this work of art but that is one of them.

Thanks for reading and my next post will be in two weeks!

Picturesque greetings from New York!

I am currently in New York City on a holiday and I wanted to share some of the things I've seen so far. I will do more posts about art I'll see here but these are some goth-y or pretty things I've seen so far!

These remains of a sticker graffiti are super cute, so sad that we do not know how it continued! Altough I quite like the combination now, with the reading person spray painted through a template.

 Yesterday I visited The Merchant's House Museum. It is a Row House from the 19th century and it is perfectly preserved with all furniture, clothes etc. Victorian aesthetics are close to many a goths heart.

Here is another picture, showing one of the gowns the lady of the house owned.

Enjoy your weekend, I am now off to explore NYC some more!

Gothic Art in Spotlight: Disturbing portraits of kids from the National Gallery of Art

Last weekend I met once again with Goth Gardener. We went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and saw an animation movie, which Goth Gardener has written a marvelous post about, check it here! Before the movie started we had some time to browse through some of the exhibition rooms.

We had a splendid time trying to figure out the stories behind portraits or just making them up. This magnificent portrait of Lady Elizabeth Delmé and her children by British Sir Joshua Reynolds was intriguing to the both of us. Lady Elizabeth has a strong gaze and her pose is relaxed but clearly she is awere of her position and the power she has. We were quite certain she had a very interesting life with a few secret lovers! Her daughter seems like she is a little minx too, certainly going to cause some trouble. ;)

Since this is a post about art that is appealing to goths, I shall now introduce three paintings I found disturbing and funny at the same time. There were actually three paintings by three different artists in one room. They all have some similarities in style and they all depict children in a creepy and a bit distorted way.

Little Girl in Lavender was painted by American John Bradley circa 1840. That little kitty in the lower corner looks like it died and is actually a taxidermy. For some reason this painting also reminds me of Frida Kahlo and some of her works. Kahlo's paintings are not at all similar with this, though maybe this connection spurts into my mind because both have a slightly 2D look with a lot of symbolic connotations.

The Hobby Horse by American Robert Peckham was painted circa 1840 too. Even though some aspects of this painting are close to photo realistic, everything seems a bit off. The portions are not right and the dimensions are twisted like in some illustrations in Alice's adventures in Wonderland. The child on the horse has a some sort of a children's version of a bullwhip and the one behind looks like he/she is about to throw the other one off the horse. Not disturbing at all...

I am not familiar with this mode of painting from that era, but it is clear it was some sort of a fashionable way at that time. It reminds me of the art from 14th to 16th century. Especially the art that had baby Jesus or some royal infant. During the Middle Ages children were depicted as miniature adults because childlike features would have signified that the person was retarded, or a fool. Have you seen those paintings of Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus, who has a face of an adult? Those are really creepy!

Unfortunately the photo I took of the third one was out of focus. I guess it was just too disturbing for my camera! This painting is called The Westwood Children and it was painted by American Joshua Johnson circa 1807. All Westwood children have disturbing facial expressions and weird overalls.

From a close-up you can see the family's dog has smeared its lips in blood.

I think creepy portraits like these are quite gothic. If you think about films where there are haunted houses or gothic mansions, they are always filled with distorted and disturbing portraits and other pictures of creepy relatives. Appalling and sinister family pictures are a gothic motive in literature and in films.

Thanks for reading, my next post is most likely going to be a Creepy Reads Review!

What I think about the word Feminism

A little while ago N. Finsternis told that she would like to read more about what I have to say about feminism. This post is inspired by her and answers the question what I think about feminism, especially as a term and why it is still relevant. On Sunday it is Gothic Art in Spotlight time!

Many people I've talked with ask why I or somebody else insists on using the terms feminism and feminist instead of talking about wanting equality between sexes. There are a couple of reasons.

First of all a word in itself has no meaning. People make that meaning in different contexts. Feminism is a term created in a place and time where a woman had no right to vote, she could not work or if she was allowed to do that, she would have to give the money she earned to her husband or male relative. This was less than 200 years ago. I think it should not be forgotten and a term feminism reminds how new a thing equality among sexes is and that in many cultures the gender equality is not in a good state.  Even in Finland, which is one of the most gender equal countries in the world, a woman could not go to a restaurant by herself in the 1960’s! Some restaurants would not even allow them to come and have lunch and this was just 60 years ago! It was not against the law to rape your wife in Finland till 1994. There had to be signs of physical violence so that the raping spouse could be prosecuted of something.

It worries me that the word feminism always has and still gets negative connotations attached to it. During this term's short existence it has been marginalized and filled with negative connotations instead of pointing out why this word was used in the first place and calmly reflect why it is still used. If you google “anti-suffrage posters”, you are going to see some disturbing propaganda made by some men to keep women from equal rights. Nowadays some people I know have told me, that they think feminism is trying to rise women to a better position than men. Well, that has never been on any agenda of any big or significant group of feminists. Of course there are extremists in every field of human existence, but those are usually a very small minority. Let’s compare this to other things: most Christians are quite normal but then there are small cults and branches of religion that have this need to convert everyone else to their own religion and babble that the others are going to eternal damnation unless they succumb. Terrorist attacks in a name of a god by a group of extremist individuals damages the whole population that peacefully practices their religion. But nobody is insisting that Muslims or Christians should start to call themselves with some other name because their current name is contaminated! Why are they then insisting that on feminists? I am repeating but I want to emphasize this: people make the meanings of a word.

Feminism is about equality and that means no one is better than the other one just because they might have been born with certain genitalia. Studies show that better equality between sexes improves the economy of a country, because then 50% of the population is not forced to stay home and be baby machines and instead they can work. The same thing when both women and men have the access to education. Feminism was a boosting power for gender studies and those have revealed injustice and violence men encounter but are by this day forced to not talk about it. The amount of men who are victims of sexual violence has been a taboo, because “oh, but a man is strong, he can’t be violated like that”. An individual never benefits, if the social structures and gender roles are strict. Nobody fits into narrow categories 100%.

I was watching The Munsters again because I visited the starring actor’s grave last week with Goth Gardener and in the fort episode of the first season Herman Munster eavesdrops and misunderstands that he and his wife are going to have a baby. He gets excited and asks from Grandpa, the other eavesdropper, “What do you think, is it a boy or a girl?” Grandpa answers; “Probably.” I think it is sad that that is the first question every time. That the sex of an infant is the most important thing, before asking is it healthy for example. I love Grandpa’s answer, it is a really sensible one.

Have you noticed that even today things that are labeled as “masculine” are somehow more approved than things that are “feminine”? A simple example of this is that in a Western society a female can wear pants but if a male wears a mid-length or even a short skirt, most people feel the need to comment on that or they get disturbed by it. Also it seems that a boy who is interested of cars is more acceptable than a boy who likes to play with Bratz dolls. The other reason I want to use the terms feminism and feminist is because I want to question this bizarre idea that “feminine” and “female” things are things that are not suitable for men and are somehow of lesser value. As if only masculine things can be neutral and feminine is always the Other (see Freud for example). I believe that a word that is derived from a word female instead of the word man is just as ok to be used when talking about all humans and equality. The italics probably show you how twisted English is when it comes to deriving words…

In conclusion; my personal opinion is that for some reason people are unnecessarily fixated with what may or may not hang in the groins of other people and themselves. And I think it is a high time we get over it.

Thanks for reading!

Goth bloggers visiting the grave of Fred Gwynne aka Herman Munster

On Thursday I and Goth Gardener visited Carroll County, Maryland. She had spring break and I had a day off, so we decided to make a goth pilgrimage to a nearby cemetery and the grave of Fred Gwynne, who is well known for his role as Herman Munster in The Munsters TV show from the sixties. It was a heartwarming satire of both the old monster movies and the everyday American family. The Family of Munsters was rather dysfunctional sometimes and Herman and Lily Munster were the first ever fictive married couple in American television to be shown in bed together. Of course they were not doing anything more upsetting than talking.

Goth Gardener drove to DC and we met at the campus of the university she teaches at. We took off and drove about an hour to reach the cemetery in Maryland. We had bought flowers in order to pay our respect for an astonishing actor (he was also in the film version of Stephen King’s Pet Cemetary!) who for some reason is buried in an unmarked grave. The Goth Gardener said she is going to try to find out why it is so, so I am not going to do any research on that. So go check her post!

It was a pleasant drive and we chatted away the whole time. My partner in crime had searched out the place of the grave and I had searched other activities for us for the afternoon. The place Mr. Gwynne is buried is a small and silent graveyard. When we got there, a murder of crows flew past, it was beautiful but it passed so quickly one could not even try to reach a camera. We just stood and watched.

The Place was surrounded by fields. And there were suspiciously many graves of people called Caple. SOme of the stones were beautifully worn, like this one.

It was lovely and sunny, so bright we could not manage without sunglasses. So we looked even more suspicious and unsettling, laying flowers to an unmarked grave.

I did not know before this trip that Fred Gwynne also wrote children’s books. I am determined to read some of them, or as many as I can get my hands on.

After the visit of Fred Gwynne we got into the car and drove to a shop that sold antiques and other oddities. Some vintage jewelry was beautiful but nothing on the selves screamed at me take me, take me! Though there were many a peculiar objects.

There were a surprising amount of things related to the Wizard of Oz, the books and the movie. There were a lot of collectibles of all kinds, from Betty Boops to Barbie dolls and traffic signs. Here I am pointing at the OZ poster with a quote "Now, you don't have to be a genius to look brilliant."

I guess we spent nearly an hour ogling all curiosities and finally decided it was time to eat. We drove to the center of the nearby town and found this lovely place called CUP Tea Bar & Cafe. The atmosphere was tranquil, the waiters were super nice, their iced tea was delicious and food was excellent. If you ever find yourselves in Carroll County, Maryland, do visit this place!

I do not normally take pictures of things I am about to eat but here is the delicious salad I had. Goth Gardener made me take a photo! And I really like to show how delicious it looks like and thus emphasize my review of CUP.

I do not know if you are familiar with the concept Women laughing alone with salad but what I am doing in the next photo is pretty borderline.

The gravy is not well seen but it is blood red raspberry sauce. Since I am a bit dorky with macabre sense of humor, I joked that if I smear the sauce on my lips, I am a vampire, if on the nostril I look like I have a cocaine addiction and if I smudge it by my ear I might have a brain tumor. Did not try it though, it was too delicious! Goth Gardener bravely laughed at me (or with me). ;)

After our late lunch we strolled to the local museum but their shop was closed. Too bad since in their internet page they mention they sell books about haunted houses in Maryland! Next door was the tourist information and boldly we entered. We found a leaflet of a Haunted House tour in the town! So, off we went and naturally we would snicker and giggle and read out loud the texts from the brochure with ominous voices.

As you can see from the photos, we are really mature individuals.  In the photos we are in front of The Acension Church, where an evil Legh Master is buried. According to the brochure Legh was a cruel and awful individual and is said to be haunting the area as an evil spirit. Some of the sights had tabloid journalism kind of headlines, like Headless Jailbird. In 1844 Christmas Eve a horrid criminal Big Tom slit his throat in jail. The staff summoned a doctor Zollickhoffer, who was very into Phrenology. That is the study of bumps on the head in comparison to character and mental disorders. He got very excited of Big Tom's head and asked if he could take it with him, without the rest of the body, which at its decomposing state was of no use to Dr. Zollickhoffer. The staff of the jail agreed and today people claim to have seen a headless figure roaming around in the vicinity of the old jail. Could that be Big Tom they've seen?? as they asked in the leaflet.

On our escapade in Carroll County we saw an advertisement of “Peep Show”in the local Art Center. Now, I did not know Americans call these little marzipan Easter candy as Peeps so I assumed it was some sort of an Easter striptease show and I was amused, until Goth Gardener revealed the true meaning. Here is her post straightening it all! ;)  After that we both laughed at my misapprehension! It was not even on the day we were there and according to a brochure there were Disney character statues made out of Peeps. I guess I was a little disappointed. :D

We spend another day together on this week too, so next week I'll be posting about the things we did in DC on the Spring Equinox!

Flashing my personality. And my Instagram.

A fair warning: Instead of usual posts about art or books this is a more personal post, about me and should I change my blog's name.

I just added an Instagram widget to my blog. I had an Instagram account for some time now but for some reason I had kept it separate from all other social media accounts I have. I have never been so much into different aliases and I was sort of fascinated by the anonymity of an Instagram account, when I kept it in its own little bubble. Sort of like an alter ego or something.

All photos are from my Instagram

I found it peculiar to make public posts about random things that were meaningless, when considering the big picture and the massive amount of posts and information that is created in Instagram (or any other social media) every second. But then I got tired of it. It started to be indeed too meaningless. I changed my Instagram accounts name to mach this blog, and while doing that I started to wonder if I should rename my blog.

There are three reasons why I named my blog to be Daughter of the Jaded Era. First of all I am or at least was a sucker for a cheesy pun with words and my real name being Jade I thought it was amusing in a dry humor sort of way. The second reason is that sometimes I feel pretty jaded myself. I guess that does not show in this blog almost at all, since my posts are mostly about objects of culture and things that I like. People are seldom very jaded about things they find important. The third reason is that I find this era we live to be pretty jaded most of the time and I am a product of the time and the culture I live in.

Now I am seriously pondering, if I would like to change my blog's name. And if I would, what would it be? I've had this blog for three years now and this in not (at least I am not aware that it would be) an identity crisis. I have this possibly delusional impression that I nowadays know myself quite well. I might be biased on how much about me and my personal life I would want to show in this blog. After all this blog has evolved more into reviews about art and books.

What do you think, you lovely people I've met through blogs, what name would suit this blog?