Footloose in Jamsil

The ten-minute test that I used for Seoul in general, worked well in Jamsil, a district in the South-east of the city:  from the time that your day starts, you need wait only ten minutes before you see something remarkable.  And even before I saw the images for the 1988 OIympics, what was on the pavements assailed me.

I’m not sure when these bronze figures were placed here.  They might have been for the Olympîcs, I don’t know.  But they are fun.

 

These figures too, also in bronze, probably the same artist, might have been for the Olympics.  They depict a community of zest.

This work was part of a series.  I don’t know what they are made of.  It could be some sort of ceramic.  They look as though they might have been cut from a hedge.

I rather liked this wire composition.  I enjoyed playing with the angles.

(c) Will van der Walt

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

September, 2018

 

My photographs

 

 

 

PHALLICISM in South Korea

Dear Reader

If the subject matter of this post has a disturbing effect on you, desist forthwith for what follows is, for the Western temperament, strange, shocking and even obscene.  Travel, of course, expands the mind and so it is that my encounters taught me things I would not hitherto have understood.  The Phallicism of (South) Korea is one of these things.  Should you wish to proceed, I quote the information board next to the objects I photographed, in full.  If you have a sneaking interest, it will not be the worst of your sins.

“Phallicism is interpreted as a cultural meaning of reproductive principles and male-female sexual activities

aiming at good fortune, praying for the birth of a male baby, productiveness, and well-being”

In the Gardens of the Cultural Museum: female genetalia

“Phallicism handed down in Korea, venerates natural stones or geographical features shaped like female-male sexual organs as objects of praying for the birth of a male boy, the protection of villages, and complementary measures against geomantic problems.” 

Cultural Museum Gardens: male genetalia

“Artificial sculptures of sexual organs made of stone, wood and earthernware were also used to worship and enshrine the guardians of the villages.”

In the display area of a factory in Anseong: female genetalia

“Ceci n’est pas une pipe”

The Abrahamic religions in the West have made sure that we are purged of any sexual imagery.  In Hindu temples we also find unashamed sculptures of sexuality.  Interesting too, that what we have in common with the East, according to the above information board, is that males are clearly more valued than females.

Finally an image from Hawe Village, near Andong, where I experienced the Jangseung, the ancient folk art of grostesquerie.  In my previous post on the Jangseung I carefully avoided the more “obscene” ones.  To see phallicism there in the light of the above notes, is interesting.  So, here we go.

(c) Will van der Walt

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

September, 2018

 

Source

Information board on “Phallicism”, Gardens of the Cultural Museum, Seoul.

 

My photographs

 

 

My Pics

Travel exposes me to art, all kinds, styles and histories.  I ask myself, Do I only view it and wonder at it?  Or does the experience push me to try my own hand?  The answer is in the following images, each of them my photographs that I have treated with Picasa graphics.   What the original photographs were is included at the end.

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(c)  Will van der Walt

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes 

September, 2018

 

My Photographs

1  “Banana Story” – I was interested in the “story” suggested by the black banana (cf. sheep) of the family

2  “Black-and-White blues guitar”  –  the hand per kind permission of Donatello

3  “Winter Trees”  –  a random shot in the winter streets of Antibes

4  “Curtain Man”  –  an artist’s wooden model, with curtain 

5  “Ceramic hands”  –  hands used to display rings in shops

6  “Blue god”  –  the metal pattern on the floor of a bus

7  “Winter Tree”  –  a reflection on the windscreen of a car, in those same winter streets

8  “Palais de Congress” at St Raphael  – image tipped on its side

9  “Hand and Tap”  –  a pic I took in the yard at the Ruth Prowse Art School, Cape Town 

10 “Face glow”  –  a polystyrene head to advertise dark glasses in a pharmacy, Les Semboules 

Garage Door Art – Antibes

Another dimension in the world of graffiti is garage door art.  As I feel about the aesthetics of vibracrete fencing, so artists here – and I suppose elsewhere – feel about garage doors:  cover the faceless plainness.  Here are a few that I’ve seen in the streets of Antibes.

Strange and evocative

 

Some intrusion from hiphop design

 

Striking and detailed portrait

 

A remarkable tromp l’oeil

 

Les Remparts

(c) Will van der Walt

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

September, 2018

 

My photographs.  Artists unknown.

Garage Door Geuvara

 

Random images – Table Mountain

Let the poetry of unnamed images work for you, the reader.  If you are interested in the sources, I can provide some of them at the end.

 

(c) Will van der Walt

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

September, 2018

 

Sources 

Etching, W. Stettler 1669, from “Hoerikwaggo”

Table Mountain – source lost

Table Mountain wind – source lost

False Bay sunset – my photograph

Drawing, Gus Ferguson

Etching/Painting, G F Riedel, 1780 – from “Hoerikwaggo”

Sail Ship – source lost

Table Mountain sunset  –  source lost

Table Mountain in wind – source lost

Table Mountain – artist unknown – from “Hoerikwaggo”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The destruction of sacred places

Why do invaders of a country have the need to destroy sacred places, especially?  In Antibes, archaeologists have found the remains of at least five different cultures and I wonder to what extent each layer represented initial destruction.  These diggings have been made in the Chapel of St Esprit, adjoining the Cathedral in Antibes.

The bell tower of Chapelle St Esprit

In 476 a.d., during the huge political ferment of invasions by Northern Europeans – Ostrogoths, Vandals, Visigoths, to mention some — Visigoths occupied Antibes, sacking and destroying the Chapel of St Mary, established mere  decades before, later to be the Cathedral.  I am uncertain as to how many of these invaders might well have been Christian themselves.

Cathedral and Saracen tower

In 1125 the church was once more sacked and destroyed by invading Saracens.  The presence of Saracens in Provence had ended in 973 when William the Liberator destroyed the settlement at Fraxinet.  In the ensuing years the church was rebuilt, restored and given the form of a cathedral it has today.

Cathedral with baroque facade

The Germans occupied Antibes from late-1942 to August, 1944.  The Cathedral was left unharmed.  In the distance, I recall hearing of a German general who delayed the total destruction of Florence, at the express orders of Hitler, until it was too late.

Choir end of Cathedral, considered the oldest part

But Catholics of Antibes need, ironically, to reflect on how their own forebears built this sacred place on the ruins of a pagan temple, probably dedicated to Aphrodite.  Archaeologists in 1860 even found the remains of the pagan altar under the choir section of the Cathedral.  The historian cryptically notes that the altar was “for sacrifices” which would somehow justify destroying that sacred place.

Cathedral of St Mary, Antibes

 

© Will van der Walt

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

September, 2018

 

Sources

Michael Nelson :  The French Riviera A history (Matador, London. 2017)

David Abulafia: The Great Sea (Penguin Books, 2011)

John J. Norwich:  The Middle Sea (Vintage Books, London. 2007)

 

Images

My photographs