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China and India
Website:
www.museudooriente.pt/?lang=en
english
“On the gods, I can affirm neither that they do exist nor that they do not exist: much prevents the acquisition of such knowledge beginning with the obscurity addressed by the question and followed by the brevity of human life.”
Protagoras (5th century BC)
“Gods of Asia” (in contrast to “The Gods of Asia” that would be of ridiculously pretentious scope) is a title that runs of risk of getting mired in equivocation. We are victims of the inappropriateness of a word’s meaning in one language when applied to another and particularly when dealing with the word god. The terms monotheist and polytheist are Western notions that prove rather lacking when considering Hinduism or Taoism. The first Western missionaries reaching Asia referred constantly to idolatry whenever encountering statues in places of worship that seemed strange to them. However, having hardly begun explaining the great Asian religions, we are immediately struck by the sheer similarities that they share with the great Western religions that shock anybody attempting to move on from the prevailing prejudices. The idea of a single God, considered by some to be the great Judaic religious contribution, was already in practice in Asia. The Brahman in Hinduism, the Tao of the Chinese are single, the origin of everything and everything exists in them. It would bizarre for the Hindus and Taoists to depict the almighty as a grizzled old man with a white beard not so much due to the fact that this would be sacrilege, as Islamic believers would hold, but rather because both fall outside the scope of any human understanding and are beyond any means of representation. The concept that “God made man in His image” swiftly becomes “man made God in his image”.
Furthermore, when dealing with Asian religions, there are references to gods when other terms would be used by Western religions. The Hindu gods are, in fact, the diverse manifestations of Brahman acting in the world and only as such susceptible to depiction. The Chinese gods bear a closer relationship with the saints of Christianity. Each serves its own particular function, such as Eloy as patron saint of goldsmiths or Saint Genevieve as the patron saint of Paris, which in the latter case would be known as the goddess of the Parisian earth within a Chinese pantheon.
Some of the similarities existing among all the religions are indeed surprising. The idea of the trinity is central to Hinduism. Given that everything born has to one day die, Brahman becomes creator, conservator and destroyer as reflected in the three manifestations: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Vishnu is incarnate as God was incarnated in Jesus Christ. The Chinese are somewhat more abstract in this area given that their belief system holds that from the Three are born all beings.
Each founder of a religion is inseparable from the surrounding environment in which emerging. Just as the New Testament is not understandable unless its message is situated within the context of the Old Testament, the message of Buddha Shakyamuni was announced within a Hindu society and does not call into question beliefs such as reincarnation or karma. The Taoist religion becomes incomprehensible if stripped of either the Taoist philosophy that preceded it or the beliefs of ancient China.
Another common point is that the original message has been subject to whatever first the disciples or later the faithful decided to do with it given that the founders never actually set it down in writing. Neither Jesus Christ nor Shakyamuni not to mention Zhang Daoling left any written legacy. It was only through witnesses that we gain our awareness of their thinkings and teachings: rather disturbing when considering the general accuracy of such accounts. Just as Jesus Christ would not agree with what Churches have done with his message and in his name down through the centuries, Shakyamuni would not recognise his own thinking in the elaborations of those wishing to spread his message. Many founders of religions sought only to provide an answer to a precise question. Just as Jesus Christ wanted to introduce charity, Shakyamuni wanted to find a means to escape the suffering of existence. Just as Jesus Christ did not call into question the God of the Bible, Shakyamuni made no pronouncement on either Brahman or nirvana to such an extent of stating that Buddhism was a religion without a god.
Despite all that has been written, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not the only book based religions. Buddhism, Jainism and Taoism are based on texts even if quite different to the Bible or the Koran. As regards the mirabilia spreading all the beliefs on either side of the Urals, it should be remembered that Asian thinkers knew how to distinguish between directly reading texts in order to gain the admiration of crowds and their interpretation at the philosophical or theological level and demonstrating a thorough understanding in the meantime.
We may inquire as to the origins of all these similarities between the world’s great religions. Are they due to the very nature of the human spirit? From a shared human story dating back to the beginnings of history? Factual influences for this, however, appear to be extremely limited even if we may recall that the halos of Western saints derive from the aura of light that is depicted around Buddhas in Asia and the concept of Hell complete with boiling cauldrons and devouring fires also originates in the East (with the difference that in the Orient, Hell is not eternal).
May it be said, as an Indian thinker once wrote, that all men worship the same god under different names? No. While the concept of a single god exists in the Asian religions and accepting that all world religions have undergone sometimes less than inspired revisions running counter to their original content, and that there are particularities common to all, it would certainly be fallacious not to see the differences inherent to each. Taoism provides an explanation of the world but each is free to accept it or otherwise and engages in no form of proselytism. Buddhism seeks to end with suffering in the hope that all men may benefit from its message but without ever becoming an imposition and sought to be tolerant regarding long existing local beliefs given its acceptance that spirits exist within living beings. As regards theological differences, these are only too susceptible to generating interminable debates.
However, this is not the intention of this exhibition nor does it involve presenting the gods of India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan with a concern to somehow encapsulate the beliefs of others into the content of picturesque or striking images. It is rather more about setting out why they are worthy of the same respect that we provide our own religions.
The exhibition thus seeks to raise awareness about certain aspects of the religious art of Asia, particularly at the popular level, and introduce the still living mythology underlying the objects on display. Hence, all the great religions of the continent are included: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Shinto. While the Western word “god”, corresponds closest to abstract
Asian concepts such as Brahman in India or Tao in China, the supernatural beings represented here are far more manifestations of the divine in the human world.
português
“Sobre os deuses, nada posso afirmar, nem que existem nem que não existem: muitas coisas o impedem de saber, a começar pelo lado obscuro que envolve a pergunta, e a seguir pela brevidade da vida humana”
Protágoras (século V a.C.)
“Deuses da Ásia” (e não “Os deuses da Ásia”, o que seria uma pretensão ridícula) é um título que corre o risco de gerar grandes equívocos. Somos vítimas da inadequação das palavras de uma língua para a outra, e mais particularmente quando se trata da palavra deus. Os termos monoteísta e politeísta são noções ocidentais muito mal adaptadas quando se trata do hinduísmo ou do taoísmo. Os primeiros missionários ocidentais que chegaram à Ásia falavam dos idólatras sempre que viam em templos estas estátuas que lhes pareciam estranhas. No entanto, mal começamos a informar sobre as grandes religiões asiáticas, são, antes de tudo, as semelhanças com as grandes religiões ocidentais que espantam quem tente abstrair-se dos preconceitos correntes. A ideia do Deus único, que alguns consideram ser a grande contribuição da religião judaica, já vigorava na Ásia. O Brahman do hinduísmo, o Tao dos chineses são o Único, a Origem de tudo, e tudo neles existe. Seria ridículo para os hindus e taoistas verem representados o Brahman ou o Tao sob os traços de um ancião de barba branca, não tanto pelo facto que isto possa ser um sacrilégio, como o pensam os islamitas, mas porque tanto um como o outro escapam ao entendimento humano e situam-se para além de qualquer forma. A ideia de que “Deus fez o homem à sua imagem” transforma-se rapidamente em “o homem fez Deus à sua imagem”. Mas quando se trata de religiões asiáticas, fala-se de deuses quando no Ocidente utilizar-se-ia um outro termo. Os deuses hinduístas são, de facto, manifestações diversas do Brahman actuando no mundo e como tais podem ser representados. Os deuses chineses são mais aparentados aos santos do cristianismo. Cada um deles tem uma função, como Santo Elói é o patrono dos ourives ou Santa Genoveva é a padroeira de Paris, que neste caso, para os chineses, seria conhecida como deusa do Solo de Paris.
Algumas das semelhanças que existem entre todas as religiões são surpreendentes. A ideia da trindade é central no hinduísmo. Visto que tudo o que nasce tem que morrer, o Brahman manifesta-se enquanto criador, conservador e destruidor, o que se traduz pelas suas três manifestações, Brahma, Vishnu e Shiva. Vishnu incarna-se como Deus se incarnou em Jesus Cristo. Os chineses são mais abstractos nesta matéria, já que para eles é do Três que nascem todos os seres.
Cada fundador de religião é inseparável do meio em que apareceu. Tal como o Novo Testamento não é compreensível se a sua mensagem não for situada no contexto do Antigo Testamento, a mensagem do Buda Shakyamuni foi anunciada numa sociedade hinduísta e não põe em causa a crença nas reincarnações e no karma. A religião taoista torna-se incompreensível se for omitida a filosofia taoista que a precedeu e as crenças da antiguidade chinesa.
Um outro ponto comum é que a mensagem original é vítima do que fizeram dela os discípulos ou sobretudo depois, os fiéis, já que os fundadores nunca escreveram uma linha. Nem Jesus Cristo, nem Shakyamuni, nem Zhang Daoling deixaram algum escrito. Foi somente por testemunhos que se pôde conhecer o seu pensamento, o que não deixa de ser assustador quando nos lembramos do que estes valem. Tal como Jesus Cristo não concordaria com o que as Igrejas, ao longo dos séculos, fizeram com a sua mensagem, Shakyamuni não reconheceria o seu pensamento nas elaborações dos que quiseram divulgar o seu contributo. Muitos fundadores de religiões quiseram fornecer apenas uma resposta a uma pergunta precisa. Tal como Jesus Cristo quis introduzir a misericórdia. Shakyamuni quis encontrar uma via para escapar aos sofrimentos da existência. Tal como Jesus Cristo não pôs em causa o Deus da Bíblia, Shakyamuni não se pronunciou sobre o Brahman ou o nirvana, de tal maneira que chegou a dizer-se que o budismo era uma religião sem deus.
Apesar do que se escreveu, o judaísmo, o cristianismo e o Islão não são as únicas religiões do livro. O budismo, o jainismo e o taoísmo têm como base textos que nada devem aos da Bíblia ou do Corão. Quanto às mirabilia que espalham todas as crenças de cada lado dos Urais, é preciso reconhecer que os pensadores asiáticos souberam distinguir entre uma leitura dos textos ao primeiro grau, que suscita a admiração das multidões, e a sua interpretação a um nível filosófico ou teológico, para que seja entendido o sentido profundo.
Donde vêm as semelhanças entre todas as grandes religiões? Da natureza própria do espírito humano? De uma história comum da humanidade que remonta à origem dos tempos? As influências factuais parecem ser, no entanto, limitadas, mesmo que se lembre que a auréola dos nossos santos provém da aura de luz que se põe à volta dos Budas na Ásia e que a ideia do Inferno, com os seus caldeirões fumegantes e os seus fogos devoradores são originários também do Oriente (com a diferença que no Oriente o Inferno não é eterno).
Pode-se dizer, como o escreveu um pensador indiano, que todos os homens veneram o mesmo deus sob nomes diferentes? Não. Se o conceito de um deus único existe nas religiões asiáticas e já que todas as religiões do mundo conheceram reveses por vezes pouco brilhantes e contrárias ao seu pensamento original, e que algumas particularidades se encontram em todas, seria falacioso não ver as diferenças próprias de cada uma. O taoísmo fornece uma explicação do mundo, mas cada um é livre de poder aceitá-la ou não e não desenvolve nenhum tipo de proselitismo. O budismo procura apagar o sofrimento, esperando que todos os homens possam usufruir da sua mensagem, mas sem a impor, e quis-se tolerante no que toca às crenças locais antigas, visto que admite a existência de espíritos no meio dos seres. No que toca às diferenças teológicas, estas poderiam dar lugar a debates intermináveis.
Mas não é esta a intenção da exposição. Nem tão pouco apresentar deuses da Índia, da Indonésia, de Mianmar, da Tailândia, da China, do Vietname, da Coreia e do Japão com a preocupação de limitar as crenças dos outros ao conteúdo de imagens pitorescas ou belas, mas sim de mostrar que elas merecem o mesmo respeito que nós prestamos às nossas.
A exposição procura, isso sim, tornar conhecidos certos aspectos da arte religiosa na Ásia, sobretudo ao nível popular, e introduzir a mitologia ainda viva que está subjacente aos objectos apresentados. Daí estarem representadas as grandes religiões do continente, o hinduísmo, o budismo, o taoísmo, o shintô. Uma vez que a palavra ocidental “deus”, corresponde mais a conceitos asiáticos abstractos como Brama, na Índia, e Tao, na China, os seres sobrenaturais representados são muito mais manifestações do divino no mundo humano.
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english
The Museum of the Orient (Portuguese: Museu do Oriente) in Lisbon, Portugal celebrates the history of Portuguese exploration with a collection of Asian artifacts. The museum opened in May, 2008, and is located in a refurbished industrial building on the Alcântara waterfront. The collection includes Indonesian textiles, Japanese screens, antique snuff bottles, crucifixes made in Asia for Western export, and the Kwok On Collection of masks, costumes, and accessories.
português
O Museu do Oriente está instalado no edifício Pedro Álvares Cabral, antigos armazéns da Comissão Reguladora do Comércio do Bacalhau em Alcântara, Lisboa.
O museu reúne colecções que têm o Oriente como temática principal, nas vertentes histórica, religiosa, antropológica e artística.
A exposição permanente engloba 1400 peças alusivas à presença portuguesa na Ásia e 650 peças pertencentes à colecção Kwok On.
O museu é da responsabilidade da Fundação Oriente e foi inaugurado no dia 8 de Maio de 2008.
A actual directora é Maria Manuela d'Oliveira Martins.
Foi classificado como Monumento de interesse público (MIP) pelo IGESPAR em 15 de junho de 2010.
Screenshot: vark.com
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Obviously. Question: At what point in the camera 5 sec GPS update lag are we in properly geotagging this photo? 1,2,3,4 or 5 sec? Round off the half seconds! You have to run the numbers for distance at approx 87 kts ground speed and track over ground, which accounts for drift. Just by eyeballing this wrong geotag with the photo, you can guesstimate distance at about a 4-5 sec lag. Now, do the simple fix!
"Ask me ANYTHING you want ;)
5 questions. (Not required. Can email me one question, if that's all ya got).
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5 honest answers.
Full confidentiality (Nobody will know what you asked me.)"
I'm thinking up questions for some of you other lovelies too.....
To see answers to question that others have asked me, go here. :-D
What happened to flight 3407 was a horrible tragedy. I just don't think God had anything to do with either event.
Since I often get asked the question "Where do you see all these cars?" presented below is an annual chronological description of the New England's (and surrounding departments') best classic car events, with star rankings denoting levels of awesomeness on a scale of 1 to 5.
Rhinebeck Spring Show (Rhinebeck, NY, 1st weekend of May) ★★ - now in its 42nd year, the annual Rhinebeck spring dustoff show/swap meet is a slightly smaller version of Hershey's spring and fall meets, with American cars and foreign cars spread over two days. Getting there is a bit of a schlep from northeast's major cities, but the drive there is fun and quite purty.
Carlisle Import Nationals (Carlisle, PA, last week of May) ★★★★ - three days and hundreds of rare foreign cars. Carlisle is a little out of the way, depending where you're located, but its perfectly situated to attract classic car owners and fans from the east coast and the midwest. One day is never enough to take it all in, so plan for a couple days if you're going to be making the trip. Perhaps the only event at which one can see scores of Fiats, Citroens, Toyotas, Alfas, and Renaults all in one place.
Newport Concours d'Elegance (Newport, RI, last week of May) ★★★ - a small concours event set in historic Newport (not too far from where The Great Gatsby was filmed), this event brings together a good selection of cars from New England, though it can be a bit uneven from year to year. Held at Fort Adams for the past two years, the stunning views of Newport harbour usually makes up for gaps in the field of cars.
Greenwich Concours d'Elegance & Bonhams Auction (Greenwich, CT, first week of June) ★★★★★ - the premier concours show of the northeast, period! Now in its 16th year, Greenwich Concours is listed in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. This event draws the best cars from the best collections of New England and the entire eastern seaboard, so its not unusual to see cars from Amelia Island and Hilton Head. The visitor parking lot is a show in itself, and should not be passed up. Automobile Magazine is there, Sports Car Market is there, what else does one need?
British by the Sea (Waterford, CT, first week of June) ★★★ - a small event put on by the CT MG club, this show takes place on the grounds of the beautiful Harkness Mansion, which is the single most perfect place for a classic car event on the east coast. As the name suggests, British cars abound, including TVR's, Rovers, Austin-Healeys, and Jaaaaags!!!. The only downside is that most years this event directly (and infuriatingly) conflicts with Greenwich Concours, as well as British Car Day at Larz Anderson, which is a choice that people shouldn't be forced to make in the first place.
Citroen Rendezvous (Saratoga Springs, NY, last week of June) ★★★ - the Citroen Club's yearly meet in upstate NY, this show brings together Citroens, Peugeots, and Renaults (okay, not too many Renaults) from all over the east coast, Atlantic Canada, and the midwest. The only show besides Carlisle Import Natl's where you're going to see the three main French makes, and admission's free.
Hemmings New England Concours d'Elegance (Stratton Mountain, VT, 3rd weekend in July) ★★★★ - Hemmings-sponsored concours event set in the ski resort village of Stratton, this event bring together a well-balanced mix of impeccably restored domestic and foreign classics from all eras. Not too big or too flashy, in a perfect setting and a relaxed atmosphere that's impossible to replicate elsewhere. The drive there is magnificent, even though a bit too long if you're traveling from the northeast's big cities or from the shore.
North Shore Concours d'Elegance (North Shore, MA, last weekend in July) ★★★ a new addition to concours events on the east coast, this small concours takes place on the grounds of Endicott College just north of Boston. 2011 had a great turnout and a nice variety of automobiles, ranging from vintage British cars to Italian scooters, and even a Soviet Volga.
Larz Anderson Lawn Events (Brookline, MA, spring thru fall) ★★★ - The Larz Anderson Auto Museum, situated just southwest of Boston, holds about a dozen different shows from May till October, themed either by marque or by country of manufacture, ranging from Japanese cars to motorcycles. The events are well organized and well attended, and with more than 10 to choose from, there's something for everyone. Or you can go to ALL of them. The top three events, by car and visitor attendance are:
- British Car Day
- German Car Day
- Tutto Italiano (Italian cars, obvs)
Lime Rock Sunday in the Park Concours (Lime Rock, CT, first weekend of September) ★★★★ - tucked away in CT's thoroughly inaccessible (in more ways than one - just try using your cell) northwest corner, a place so remote that not even satellites fly over it, this semi-concours features a tremendous variety of rare, mostly-European automobiles, lined up around the historic Lime Rock race track. A beautiful setting, and a wonderful place to visit for any automotive event. And getting there is an event in itself.
Fairfield County Concours d'Elegance & Bonhams Auction (Westport, CT, third week of September) ★★★★★ - a concours which has established itself in record time, held at the Fairfield County Hunt Club. This event is a bigger, though slightly less glamorous version of Greenwich Concours, and there is a lot of overlap in terms of cars between the two events. It's gotten stupendously good in just a few short years and owing to the large event grounds, there is no shortage of things to see. A very powerful, all-the-right-box-ticking, season ending event.
And here are some major events that I wasn't able to attend this year, as a result of a scheduling conflict or not having a helicopter, but here are a few important ones that are worth a look:
- British Invasion (Stowe, VT, 2nd weekend in Sept) - a massive British car show held in the ski resort town of Stowe.
- The Elegance at Hershey (Hershey, PA, 2nd weekend in June) - exactly what it sounds like. Chocolate not included.
- La Belle Macchine d'Italia (Mt. Pocono, PA, third week of June) - the nation's largest Italian car event
My nephew and cousin told me something about the 'S'-form and the '?'-form. I realized that this green object is a member of the Question Mark family!
Six duocolor craft paper stripes 20x9cm
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New blog celebrating my philosophy of photography with tips, insights, and tutorials!
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Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty Brunette Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens! Lightroom 5.3 ! Pretty Hazel Eyes & Silky Brown / Black Hair!
And here're a couple of HD video movies I shot of the goddess with the 4K Sony:
Enjoy! Be sure to watch in the full 1080P HD!
The epic goddess was tall, thin, fit, tan, and in wonderful shape (as you can see).
Check out my greatest hits compilation, and let me know what you think:
www.elliotmcguckenphotography.com/45surf/45SURF-Heros-Ody...
Epic Goddess Straight Out of Hero's Odyssey Mythology! Pretty Model! :) Tall, thin, fit and beautiful!
Welcome to your epic hero's odyssey! The beautiful 45surf goddess sisters hath called ye to adventure, beckoning ye to read deeply Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, whence ye shall learn of yer own exalted artistic path guided by Hero's Odyssey Mythology. I wouldn't be saying it if it hadn't happened to me.
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Pretty Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! :)
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Nikon D300 Photos of Beautfiul Sexy Hot Brunette!
She was a beauty--a gold 45 goddess for sure! A Gold 45 Goddess exalts the archetypal form of Athena--the Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. A Gold 45 Goddess guards the beauty of dx4/dt=ic and embodies 45SURF's motto "Virtus, Honoris, et Actio Pro Veritas, Amor, et Bellus, (Strength, Honor, and Action for Truth, Love, and Beauty," and she stands ready to inspire and guide you along your epic, heroic journey into art and mythology. It is Athena who descends to call Telemachus to Adventure in the first book of Homer's Odyssey--to man up, find news of his true father Odysseus, and rid his home of the false suitors, and too, it is Athena who descends in the first book of Homer's Iliad, to calm the Rage of Achilles who is about to draw his sword so as to slay his commander who just seized Achilles' prize, thusly robbing Achilles of his Honor--the higher prize Achilles fought for. And now Athena descends once again, assuming the form of a Gold 45 Goddess, to inspire you along your epic journey of heroic endeavour.
ALL THE BEST on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Modeling the Gold 45 Revolver Gold'N'Virtue swimsuit. :)
A laid-back,classic, socal lifestyle shoot!
May the 45surf goddesses inspire you along am artistic journey of your own making!
All 45surf Hero's Odyssey Mythology Photography is shot in the honor of Truth, Beauty, and the Light of Physicist Dr. E's Moving Dimensions Theory's dx4/dt=ic . The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c. Ergo relativity, time, entropy, and entanglement.
All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
New blog celebrating my philosophy of photography with tips, insights, and tutorials!
Ask me any questions! :)
Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty Brunette Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens! Lightroom 5.3 ! Pretty Hazel Eyes & Silky Brown Black Hair!
All the best on your Epic, Homeric, Heroic Odyssey into the Art of Photography from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
So, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
an unanswerable question, unless groundhogs (i.e., woodchucks) learned English
St Ethelbert, Hessett, Suffolk
Hessett is a fairly ordinary kind of village to the east of Bury St Edmunds, but its church is one of the most important in East Anglia for a number of reasons, which will become obvious. Consider for one moment, if you will, the extent to which the beliefs and practices of a religious community affect the architecture of its buildings. Think of a mosque, for instance. Often square, expressing the democracy of Islam, but without any imagery of the human figure, for such things are proscribed. Think of a synagogue, focused towards the Holy Scriptures in the Ark, but designed to enable the proclaiming of the Word, and the way that early non-conformist chapels echo this architecture of Judaism - indeed, those who built the first free churches, like Ipswich's Unitarian Chapel, actually called them synagogues.
The shape of a church, then, is no accident. A typical Suffolk perpendicular church of the 15th century has wide aisles, to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a large nave for devotional and social activities, and wall paintings of the Gospels and hagiographies of Saints, of the catechism and teachings of the Catholic Church. As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a medieval church is a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new church inherited buildings that were quite unsuitable for the new congregational protestant theology, a problem that the Church of England has never entirely solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways. The early reformers celebrated communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocked off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further. A pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the coming to influence of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This is the condition in which we find most of them today, and some Anglican theologians are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
So, let us hasten at once to Hessett. The church sits like a glowing jewel in its wide churchyard, right on the main road through the village. It is pretty well perfect if you are looking for a fine Suffolk exterior. An extensive 15th century rebuilding enwraps the earlier tower, which was crowned by the donor of the rebuilding, John Bacon.The nave and aisles are deliciously decorated, reminding one rather of the church at neighbouring Rougham, although this is a smaller church, and the aisles make it almost square. A dedicatory inscription on the two storey vestry in the north east corner bids us pray for the souls of John and Katherine Hoo, who donated the chancel and paid for the trimmings to the aisles. Their inscription has been damaged by protestant reformers, who obviously did not believe in the efficacy of prayers for the dead.
Although not comparable with that at Woolpit, the dressed stone porch is a grand affair, and a bold statement. You may find the south door locked, but if this is the case then the priest's door into the chancel is usually open. And in a way it is a good church to enter via the chancel, because in this way St Ethelbert unfolds its treasures slowly.You step into relative darkness - or, at least, it seems so in comparison with the nave beyond the rood screen. This is partly a result of the abundance of dark wood, and in truth the chancel seems rather overcrowded. The most striking objects in view are the return stalls, which fill the two westerly corners of the chancel. These are in the style of a college or school of priests, with their backs to the rood screen, but then 'returning' around the walls to the east. They are fine, and are certainly 15th or 16th century. But one of the stalls, that to the north, is different to the others, and seems slightly out of place. It is elaborately carved with faces, birds and foliage.
Mortlock thought that it might have been intended for a private house. The stall in front of it has heads on it that appear to be wearing 18th century wigs. The sanctuary is largely Victorianised, with a great east window depicting Saints. The south windows of the chancel depict a lovely Adoration scene by the O'Connors. The chancel is separated from the nave by the 15th century rood screen, which is elegantly painted and gilt on the west side, the beautifully tracery intricately carved above. The rood screen has been fitted with attractive iron gates, presumably evidence of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm here in the early 20th century, and you step down through them into the light. A first impression is that you are entering a much older space than the one you have left. There is an 18th century mustiness, enhanced by the box pews that line the aisles. And, beyond, on walls and in windows, are wonderful things.
The number of surviving wall paintings in England is a tiny fraction of those which existed before the 15th and 16th centuries. All churches had them, and in profusion. It isn't enough to say that they were a 'teaching aid' of a church of illiterate peasants. In the main, they were devotional, and that is why they were destroyed. However, it is more complicated than that. Research in recent years has indicated that many wall paintings were destroyed before the Reformation, perhaps a century before. In some churches, they have been punched through with Perpendicular windows, which are clearly pre-Reformation. In the decades after the Black Death, there seems to have been a sea change in the liturgical use of these buildings, a move away from an individualistic, devotional usage to a corporate liturgical one. There is a change of emphasis towards more education and exegesis. This is the time that pulpits and benches appear, long before protestantism was on the agenda. What seems to happen is that many buildings were intended now to be full of light, and devotional wall paintings were either whitewashed, or replaced with catechetical ones.
The decoration of the nave was the responsibility of the people of the parish, not of the Priest. The wall paintings of England can be divided into roughly three groups. Roughly speaking, the development of wall paintings over the later medieval period is in terms of these three overlapping emphases.
Firstly, the hagiographies - stories of the Saints. These might have had a local devotion, although some saints were popular over a wide area, and most churches seem to have supported a devotion to St Christopher right up until the Reformation.
Secondly came those which illustrate incidents in the life of Christ and his mother, the Blessed Virgin. Although partly pedagogical, they were also enabling tools, since private devotions often involved a contemplation upon them, and at Mass the larger part of those present would have been involved in private devotions. These scriptural stories were as likely to have been derived from apocryphal texts like the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew as from the actual Gospels themselves.
Lastly, there are catechetical wall paintings, illustrating the teachings of the Catholic church. It should not be assumed that these are dogmatic. Many are simply artistic representations of stories, and others are simplifications of theological ideas, as with the seven deadly sins and the seven cardinal virtues. Some warn against occasions of sin (gossiping, for example) and generally wall paintings provided a local site for discussion and exemplification.
To an extent, all the above is largely true of stained glass, as well, with the caveat that stained glass was more expensive, relied on local patronage, and often has this patronage as a subtext, hence the large number of heraldic devices and images of local worthies. But it was also devotional, and so it was also destroyed.
So - what survives at Hessett? The wall paintings first.
Starting in the south east corner of the nave, we have Suffolk's finest representation of St Barbara, presenting a tower. St Barbara was very popular in medieval times, because she was invoked against strikes by lightning and sudden fires. This resulted from her legend, for her father, on finding her to be a Christian, walled her up in a tower until she repented. As a result, he was struck by lightning, and reduced to ashes. She was also the patron saint of the powerful building trade, and as such her image graced their guild altars - perhaps that was the case here.
Above the south door is another figure, often identified as St Christopher, but I do not think that this can be the case. St Christopher is found nowhere else in Suffolk above a south door. The traditional iconography of this mythical saint is not in place here, and it is hard to see how this figure could ever have been interpreted as such. I suspect it is a result of an early account confusing the two images over the north and south doors, and the mistake being repeated in later accounts.
In fact, digital enhancement seems to suggest that there are two figures above the south door, overlapping each other slightly. The figure on the right is barefoot, that on the left is wearing a white gown. There appears to be water under their feet, and so I think this is an image of the Baptism of Christ. Perhaps it was once part of a sequence.
The wall painting opposite, above the north door, is St Christopher. Although it isn't as clear as himself at, say, nearby Bradfield Combust, he bestrides the river in the customary manner, staff in hand. The Christ child is difficult to discern, but you can see the fish in the water. Also in the water, and rather unusual, are two figures. They are rendered rather crudely, almost like gingerbread men. Could they be the donors of the north aisle, John and Katherine Hoo in person?
Moving along the north aisle, we come to the set of paintings for which Hessett is justifiably famous. They are set one above the other between two windows, at the point where might expect the now-vanished screen to a chapel to have been. The upper section was here first. It shows the seven deadly sins (described wrongly in some text books as a tree of Jesse, or ancestry of Christ). Two devils look on as, from the mouth of hell, a great tree sprouts, ending in seven images. Pride is at the top, and in pairs beneath are Gluttony and Anger, Vanity and Envy, Avarice and Lust. Mortlock suggests that some attempt has been made to erase the image for Lust, which may simply be mid-16th century puritan prurience on the part of some reformer here. This would suggest that this catechetical tool was here right up until the Reformation.
The idea of 'Seven Deadly Sins' was anathema to the reformers, because it is entirely unscriptural. Rather, as a catechetical tool, it is a way of drawing together a multitude of sins into a simplistic aide memoire. This could then be used in confession, taking each of them one at a time and examining ones conscience accordingly. It should not be seen simply as a 'warning' to ignorant peasants, for the evidence is that the ordinary rural people of late medieval England were theologically very articulate. Rather, it was a tool for use, in contemplation and preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation, which may well have ordinarily taken place in the chapel here.
The wall painting beneath the Sins is even more interesting. This is a very rare 'Christ of the Trades', and dates from the early 15th century, about a hundred years after the painting above. It is rather faded, and takes a while to discern, and not all of it is decodable. However, enough is there to be fascinating. The image of the 'Christ of the Trades' is known throughout Christendom, and contemporary versions with this can be found in other parts of Europe. It shows the risen Christ in the centre, and around him a vast array of the tools and symbols of various trades. One theory is that it depicts activities that should not take place on a Sunday, a holy day of obligation to refrain from work, and that these activities are wounding Christ anew.
Perhaps the most fascinating symbol, and the one that everyone notices, is the playing card. It shows the six of diamonds. Does it represent the makers of playing cards? If so, it might suggest a Flemish influence. Or could it be intended to represent something else? Whatever, it is one of the earliest representations of a playing card in England. Why is this here? It may very well be that there was a trades gild chantry chapel at the east end of the north aisle, and this painting was at its entrance.
At the east end of the north aisle now is the church's set of royal arms. Cautley saw it in the vestry in the 1930s, and identified it as a Queen Anne set. Now, with additions stripped away, it is revealed as a Charles II set from the 1660s, and a very fine one. It is fascinating to see it at such close range. Usually, they are set above the south door now, although they would originally have been placed above the chancel arch, in full view of the congregation, a gentle reminder of who was in charge.
And so to the glass, which on its own would be worth coming to Hessett to see. Few Suffolk churches have such an expanse, none have such a variety, or glass of such quality and interest. It consists essentially of two ranges, the life and Passion of Christ in the north aisle (although some glass has been reset across the church), and images and hagiographies of Saints in the south aisle.
In the north aisle, the scourging of Christ stands out, the wicked grins of the persecutors contrasting with the pained nobility of the Christ figure. In the next window, Christ rises from the dead, coming out of his tomb like the corpses in the doom paintings at Stanningfield, North Cove and Wenhaston. The Roman centurion sleeps soundly in the foreground.
The most famous image is in the east window of the south aisle. Apparently, it shows a bishop holding the chain to a bag, with four children playing at his feet. I say apparently, because there is rather more going on here than meets the eye. The reason that this image is so famous is that the small child in the foreground is holding what appears to be a golf club or hockey stick, and this would be the earliest representation of such an object in all Europe. The whole image has been said to represent St Nicholas, who was a Bishop, and whose legends include a bag of gold and a group of children.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. St Nicholas is never symbolised by a bag of gold, and there are three children in the St Nicholas legend, not four. In any case, the hand in the picture is not holding the chain to a bag at all, but a rosary, and the hockey stick is actually a fuller's club, used for dyeing clothes, and the symbol of St James the Less.
What has happened here is that the head of a Bishop has been grafted on to the body of a figure which is probably still in its original location. The three lights of this window contained a set of the Holy Kinship. The light to the north of the 'Bishop' contains two children playing with what ae apparently toys, but when you look closely you can see that one is holding a golden shell, and the other a poisoned chalice. They are the infant St James and St John, and the lost figure above them was their mother, Mary Salome.
This means that the figure with the Bishop's head is actually Mary Cleophas, mother of four children including St James the Less. The third light to the south, of course, would have depicted the Blessed Virgin and child, but she is lost to us.
Not only this, but Hessett has some very good 19th Century glass which complements and does not overly intrude. The best is beneath the tower, the west window in a fully 15th Century style of scenes by Clayton & Bell. The east window, depicting saints, is by William Warrington, and the chancel also has the O'Connor glass already mentioned.
If the windows and wall paintings were all there was, then Hessett would be remarkable enough. But there is something else, two things, actually, that elevate it above all other Suffolk churches, and all the churches of England. For St Ethelbert is the proud owner of two unique survivals. At the back of the church is a chest, no different from those you'll find in many a parish church. In common with those, it has three separate locks, the idea being that the Rector and two Churchwardens would have a key each, and it would be necessary for all three of them to be present for the chest to be opened. It was used for storing parish records and valuables.
At some point, one of the keys was lost. There is an old story about the iconoclast William Dowsing turning up here and demanding the chest be opened, but on account of the missing key it couldn't be. Unfortunately, this story isn't true, for Dowsing never recorded a visit Hessett. The chest was eventually opened in the 19th century. Inside were found two extraordinary pre-Reformation survivals. These are a pyx cloth and a burse. The pyx cloth was draped over the wooden canopy that enclosed the blessed sacrament (one of England's four surviving medieval pyxes is also in Suffolk, at Dennington) before it was raised above the high altar. The burse was used to contain the host before consecration at the Mass. They are England's only surviving examples, and they're both here. Or, more precisely they aren't, for both have been purloined by the British Museum, the kind of theft that no locked church can prevent.
But there are life-size photos of both either side of the tower arch. The burse is basically an envelope, and features the Veronica face of Christ on one side with the four evangelistic symbols in each corner. On the other is an Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. The survival of both is extraordinary. It is one thing to explore the furnishings of lost Catholic England, quite another to come face to face with articles that were actually used in the liturgy.
In front of the pictures stands the font, a relatively good one of the early 15th century, though rather less exciting than everything going on around it. The dedicatory inscription survives, to a pair of Hoos of an earlier generation than the ones on the vestry.Turning east again, the ranks of simple 15th century benches are all of a piece with their church. They have survived the violent transitions of the centuries, and have seated generation after generation of Hessett people. They were new here when this church was alive with coloured light, with the hundreds of candles flickering on the rood beam, the processions, the festivals, and the people's lives totally integrated with the liturgy of the seasons. For the people of Catholic England, their religion was as much a part of them as the air they breathed. They little knew how soon it would all come to an end.
And so, there it is - one of the most fascinating and satisfactory of all East Anglia's churches. And yet, not many people know about it. We are only three miles from the brown-signed honeypot of Woolpit, where a constant stream of visitors come and go. I've visited Hessett many times, and never once encountered another visitor. Still, there you are, I suppose. Perhaps some places are better kept secret. But come here if you can, for here is a medieval worship space with much surviving evidence of what it was actually meant to be, and meant to do.
U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman Leslie Tsou asks a question during the Chiefs of Mission Conference View from the Hill: U.S. Foreign Policy session, attended by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Legislative Affairs Naz Durakoglu, Senator Panelist Ranking Member James Risch (R-ID), and SFRC Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2022. [State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]
World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim answers questions during a press conference with Chile's President, Sebastian Pinera Echenique (right) and Chile's Minister of Finance, Felipe Larraín (left) at the La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago, Chile on July 4, 2013. Photo © Dominic Chavez/World Bank.
Excited and proud to share this with you. Chad from Tin Questions interviewed me about my life and my portrait work. I had such a great time and I think it turned out wonderful. Read the intro in Chad's words:
I recently went camping and got ate up by mosquitos. My next guest on “Tin Questions”, Austrian wetplate photographer Markus Hofstätter, lives in a town known for these pesky insects. Not only is Markus a well known European photographer, he is also a great resource to the wetplate community, sharing his knowledge, doing equipment reviews and similar to "Tin Questions", conducting the occasional interview. Hear how a love of shooting pool with both sticks and cameras eventually turned into a desire to slow down and create beautiful images using a historic process.
Listen to “Tin Questions” on your favorite podcast provider.
open.spotify.com/show/4GtyKMPDLzL9wGIdjXu5do
podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/tin-questions/id1662388680?...
A tiatr by Francis de Tuem released on 27.3.16 Easter Sunday
more on the tiatr here goo.gl/Q7fhXl
Xavier Gomes
WeatherGirl was particularly keen to return to the V&A because she wanted to see their temporary exhibit Out of the ordinary: Spectacular craft. There was some very cool work there a number of different (and very diverse) artists, all of whom share a certain obsessive quality and intense level of detail. (It reminded us a lot of Jess Larson's cool work, especially her wonderful girdles.)
I took quite a few photos of the artworks, but (much to my surprise) this may be my favorite. Naomi Filmer focuses on the human body, but taking unusual views or using unusual techniques. This is from a lenticular image where you see this face in different ways as you move around it; I really like the superposition of these two angles.
I was talking to Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring earlier today. I told him, “Gee, it’d be great to have something to eat with all of this delicious Shiner Bock besides kolaches.” Aggie Ring thought about my comment for a moment or so and replied, “You’re in luck. You asked the question to the right Aggie Ring. I know exactly what we need to eat with all of that delicious Shiner Bock.”
Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring then had me drive him up to the Mexican grocery store in the River City of Red Bank and select a little over 6 pounds of lean Bistec de Cañada that had just been freshly sliced. It reminded me of fajita meat, but it is actually a thinly cut top round. I took it to the checkout counter and Aggie Ring made me pay for it. I’ve tried to get Aggie Ring to pay for some things in the past but he gets irritated at me and says, “You want me to pay? Do you think I’m made of gold or something?”
Once Aggie Ring and I got home, we cut the fresh beef (which has a totally different smell than beef that’s been in the cold case for a couple of days) into sensible 2” by 3” pieces. While I was cutting up the beef, Aggie Ring was at the stove making his special “Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring Marinade.” While Aggie Ring has several varieties of marinade he likes, he decided to go with something traditional this time because Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring is all about tradition. Aggie Ring said, “Perhaps next time we might make the “Angry Waggie” cayenne pepper based marinade.”
After bringing the marinade to a boil to dissolve the brown sugar, honey, etc. Aggie Ring added lots of garlic sauce, Worcestershire sauce, all kinds of dried peppers and a little bit of Aggie Ring “this and that.” Aggie Ring used a “secret” ingredient as one of the liquids in this batch. Aggie Ring says, “If someone can’t figure out what it was from these photos, then they’re a dumbass.” One of the things that Aggie Ring has learned about making jerky over the last couple of decades is that if the marinade doesn’t taste good when you sample it with a spoon, then the jerky (whether it’s beef, pork, chicken, or salmon) won’t taste all that great. Aggie Ring tested his marinade several times as he was adding various things to it until it had the “Aggie Ring Seal of Approval.”
After the marinade had cooled, Aggie Ring put the sliced and cut Bistec de Cañada into a two gallon ziplock bag and poured the marinade into the bag with the beef. Aggie Ring had me put it into the bottom of the refrigerator and reminded me to massage and flip the bag around from time to time so all of the meat makes contact with the marinade. “Not a problem.” I told Aggie Ring, “I can just do that each time I go downstairs for another delicious Shiner Bock.”
“Well,” said Aggie Ring. “I guess this Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring has saved the day yet again. This Aggie Ring truly is “King of Rings.””
Note: I did the math. The six pounds of beef cost $35.00. There was no fat to cut off— so after jerking, I should have slightly less than three pounds of jerky. We probably used about $5.00 of supplies for the marinade. The last time Aggie Ring looked at the prices of jerky at the store (not that we’d ever eat any store-bough jerky), it was anywhere from between $8 to $12 dollars for a few ounces of the high-end jerky.
#AggieRing #TexasAggie
NBC's Andrea Mitchell asks U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a question during his joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2014. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
After finding another McDonald's balloon that originates from a McDonald's restaurant in the UK on the beach of Vlieland, the Netherlands, and after again no reply to my questions, I did some research on the website of McDonald's on this subject.
I found two statements on the McDonald's UK website, one you can find here.
Below you will find the question to, and the answer by McDonald's.
The argument of McDonald's are thin.
I made a close read of the answers of McDonald's, and reacted on the answers of McDonald's, which you will find in bold.
I dare McDonald's to respond to my close reading of the arguments of McDonald's .
Question;
I found one of your balloons on the beach and wanted to know what your policy is on this?
Answer;
As a business we not only take pride in the local communities in which we operate, but we also recognize our wider responsibility to help protect and preserve the environment.
You have to do more than recognize, in case of the balloons, you have to act.
The issue of discarded balloons is one we are conscious of and we have taken steps to address it in recent years.
What steps have you taken, why did you not take the most important step, stop handing out helium filled balloons.
At McDonald’s, we appreciate that clean coastal resorts are vitally important from an environmental, marine wildlife protection and tourism perspective.
Again, you have to do more than appreciate, you have to act. The problem with the balloons can be easily solved, stop handing out helium filled balloons.
This is why we work closely with the franchisees and operators of our coastal stores to ensure they only hand out balloons on sticks, to prevent the immediate impact they can have on the local environment if discarded.
You assume the balloons we find on the beaches of the Netherlands only come from your coastal stores. This is a false assumption, we find other than McDonald’s balloons our coast, and they come from other regions in the UK than just the coastal. This one came from Cockermouth.
You work closely with the franchisees and operators, as if they have anything to say on such important matter. If the management of McDonald’s issues the order to stop using helium filled balloons, the franchisees have to stop handing them out.
We also worked with our suppliers a number of years ago to ensure that all our balloons are made from bio-degradable material.
Natural latex may be biodegradable, but after adding chemicals, plasticizers and artificial dyes, how natural could it be? In fact to make latex suitable for balloon production, curing agents, accelerators, oil, colour and water must be added. It may degrade after several years, but it’s surely not “biodegradable. ”And then there is the plastic plug in the opening of the balloon and the ribbon. Balloons or balloon fragments are eaten by Fulmar’s , balloon ribbons give the risk of entanglement, as pictured here and here.
As well as the measures we have control over as a business, we also have a role to play in working with our customers to encourage the responsible disposal of our products and packaging.
There is a difference between packaging and balloons, if you let go of the packaging, it will fall to the ground, if you let go of a helium filled balloon it will go up in the air. Packaging can still be picked up, a balloon not. I would not be surprised that a lot of balloons go up in the air by accident, they are handed out to kids.
That is why we display an anti-litter message on our balloons as well as our packaging.
See previous remark.
There is of course always more that can be done, however, and together with our stores in coastal locations, we are currently embarking on an assessment to see how the changes made in recent years are working.
There is only one thing to be done, stop handing out helium filled balloons, in all UK based McDonald’s restaurants.
You are currently embarking on an assessment, this notation is of April 2015, we are two years further. You must have had dozens of requests and complaints about your balloons. You must have read the alarming bulletins of the plastic sea. Still you think the promotional power of handing out the helium filled balloons is more important than all the negative aspects of these balloons.
I am sure you will decide at some point in the future to stop handing out helium filled balloons. Why wait, why not now
Thanks for getting in touch.
I get in touch frequently, but don’t get a response.
On another part of the McDonald's UK website I found a question and answer about the balloons, this can be found here.
Below a close read of this statement, bold is my response to the statement of McDonald's UK.
Question;
Do you think it's time McDonald's stopped giving out Balloons?
Do you not consider that it's time McDonalds stopped giving away balloons? There is so much evidence of the damage caused to marine wildlife from balloons and strings. Guernsey doesn't have a McDonalds Restaurant but yesterday one of your balloons advertising The Croods - still inflated, string attached - was picked up during the MCS Big Beach Clean in the Channel Islands organised by the States of Guernsey Environment Department.
Answer;
We are aware of the potential harm that balloons may cause in coastal areas to marine wildlife, as well as the additional litter generated when they are irresponsibly discarded or released.
Balloons do not only cause harm in coastal areas, they do harm to seas and ocean. Apparently you don’t know how far a helium balloon will travel, once up in the air.
You are aware, but you don’t take action to prevent the littering and creation of harmful situations to marine wildlife. Why is this? You give the answer further below.
We have worked with our suppliers to ensure that all balloons are made from bio-degradable material, in order to limit the longer term damage, but unfortunately, this does not prevent the immediate impacts that balloons have on the local environment, and especially beaches.
It is not just the balloon, it is also the ribbon and plastic plug in the opening of the balloon.
The biodegradability is at discussion. Natural latex may be biodegradable, but after adding chemicals, plasticizers and artificial dyes, how natural could it be? In fact to make latex suitable for balloon production, curing agents, accelerators, oil, colour and water must be added. It may degrade after several years, but it’s surely not “biodegradable.
Balloons are valued by families as part of the overall customer experience. Franchisees are therefore reluctant for balloons to be removed from coastal restaurants completely.
With this you finally answer the question why; Balloons are valued by families as part of the overall customer experience. If you have to choose between harm to marine wildlife or your customer experience, you pick the latter.
On your website I find the following statement;
Everyday all around the globe, McDonald's is putting people, processes and practices into place to make better food, more sustainable sourcing, happier people, a stronger community and a healthier planet.
With handing out helium filled balloons McDonald’s is not sustainable, making everybody happy and certainly not make this planet healthier.
However, as it is the discarding of the balloons that causes the issue, we believe that by replacing helium balloons in coastal restaurants with stick balloons will help our customers have greater control over their disposal, and minimise the unplanned environmental consequences of a travelling helium balloon.
As said before, McDonald’s has to replace helium filled balloons at all the restaurants. Helium filled balloons travel great distances, this problem is not solved by just stopping to hand them out in your coastal restaurants.
We are currently going through the process of making that switch, and also increasing the anti-litter messaging printed on the balloons.
Currently, May 2013, is four years ago. Nothing has changed, we still find McDonald’s balloons on our beach. Putting an anti-littering message on your balloons is laughable; when a helium filled balloon is released, it goes up into the air, it can’t be picked up and discarded in a responsible way.
Last updated May 2013
It's September 2017, four years later, and still a big problem.
"Maintenant que tu as casé on frère : quand est-ce que tu maries ?"
La question de la soirée... Tout le monde me l'a posé... au minimum une fois par heure avec des pics de questions dans les moments calmes de la soirée...
Alors pour résumé :
Homme, célibataire
19-février-1979 ; 18H10 ; Avignon (pour les fans de thèmes astraux, c'est à la mode)
Origines : Wisigoth, Sarrasin, Belge et Portugais.
1m75
56 kg (le poids n'est pas du tout contractuel)
Diplômé bac +5, AFPS, permis B
Parlant au moins 3 langues (non contractuel)
atouts : liste à compléter...
défauts : liste à compléter...
caractéristiques de la famille : à compléter...
caractéristiques des amis : à compléter...
HORIZONS-SANCY. Art Nature.
LAC CHAUVET.
LA NATURE A-T-ELLE UN PRIX ?
Oeuvre de
Jérémie RIGAUDEAU
Illustrateur et plasticien, PALEYRAC (24)
L'artiste remet en question la position même du statut d'artiste, celle de ses productions et la méditation auprès de son publique.
Il s'adapte aux environnements, hors des champs d'exposition habituels, réinterrogeant ainsi les codes de compréhension et de perception.
Ici le langage à appréhender est :
L'arbre déraciné calibré, emballé simplement dans un sac plastique et qui git sur le sol.
LA NATURE A-T-ELLE UN PRIX ?
Question de chacun sur la marchandisation.
Quel est aujourd'hui le produit dit consommable ?
Comment l'homme exploite t-il la nature ?
A-t-on franchi les limites de la production.
L'homme a-t-il un droit illimité sur son environnement ?
L'artiste dénonce un monde où la prise en compte écologique reste partielle voire absurde pour mieux en faire ressortir ces problématiques contemporaines.
Une installation prenant tout son sens grâce au contexte et à l'espace dans lequel elle s'inscrit.
Au dépliant de l'office de tourisme.
A vous les amis de réfléchir sur cette oeuvre pour le moins sensible et dépasse l'art classique.
Vous pouvez revenir en arrière pour suivre le petit feuilleton qu'il m'a inspiré.
Merci à tous pour votre intérêt, le suivi dans ma galerie, la lecture, les favoris.
Bien amicalement vôtre sur FLICKR.
The latest subject of my Leading Questions series, pianist, Bill Anschell. The interview can be found here:
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk
Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.
Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.
A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.
In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.
St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?
Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.
You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.
The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.
The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?
Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?
Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.
Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.
In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.
The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.
Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?
Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.
However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.
Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.
One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.
Charlotte Beaudry : Get Drunk
au Wiels, Centre d'Art Contemporain, 354, Avenue Van Volxem, 1190 Bruxelles.
Du 28 mai au 14 août 2011.
Vernissage : vendredi 27 mai 2011.
All I wanna do is get drunk
I prefer the punk to the funk
Losing my time in a bar
That's not the way to be a star
But I don't care
I'm unaware when I get drunk *
Get drunk : c'est par ce titre aux accents punkoïdes que Charlotte Beaudry nous convie sans détour à cette exposition réunissant une trentaine d’oeuvres au premier étage du Wiels.
Issue d'une jeune génération d'artistes contemporains s'exprimant par la peinture et le dessin, Charlotte Beaudry explore depuis une dizaine d'années un large répertoire figuratif traversé simultanément par des questions liées à la révélation et à la dissimulation de la réalité représentée.
Dans un premier ensemble de grands dessins, l’artiste décline la gestualité d'une adolescente semblant éprouver à la fois les limites de l'espace pictural et de son propre corps. Tiraillée entre désir et frustration, elle incarne ce mélange de rage et de vulnérabilité propre à sa jeunesse, coincée entre deux âges. Le visage caché derrière sa chevelure ou dans un brouillard de peinture bombée, elle traduit le trouble d’une identité encore incertaine, d’un corps inachevé.
Le projet « Mademoiselle Nineteen » poursuit cette réflexion sur le portrait. Il s’articule autour d’une interview dans laquelle Charlotte Beaudry réinterprète une scène du film « Masculin Féminin » de Jean-Luc Godard (1966). Dans cette séquence marquante, Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud) interroge une jeune fille dans les locaux du magazine « Mademoiselle Age Tendre » pour le compte d’un institut de sondage. Pour Mademoiselle Nineteen, à la demande de l’artiste, cinq filles ont été soumises au questionnaire du film sous le micro d’un acteur prétendument engagé pour réaliser un sondage d’opinion. Plus de quarante ans après, la similitude de leurs réponses est étonnante.
L'ensemble suivant donne un bel aperçu de la diversité des sujets abordés dans le travail de Charlotte Beaudry. S'agissant le plus souvent d'objets familiers (cabane, couteaux, masque, sacs, mobilier urbain...) isolés de leur contexte ou amplifiés dans des proportions incongrues, leur représentation catégorique et tranchante annule finalement toute narration, pour intensifier l'écart entre le réel et sa représentation peinte.
Un portrait de dos, un grand masque, une cible percée de trous ou une porte de garage suggèrent un « arrière de l’image », un désir de réversibilité provoqué puis aussitôt contrarié par l'artiste. Un rapport dynamique est établi avec le spectateur, frustré de ne pouvoir s’avancer plus loin dans l’image, la manipuler ou la contourner pour découvrir ce qu’elle cache.
Il en va de même des sacs à mains entrouverts sur un fragment d’intimité. Leurs proportions gigantesques en font tour à tour des bouches monstrueuses dont la béance semble vouloir nous happer, ou des cocons où l’on rêverait de pouvoir se lover. Cette perception ambiguë et changeante à mesure que l’on s’approche de la toile, de même que ses connotations sexuelles évidentes, déroutent et fascinent à la fois.
On retrouve cette ambivalence dans la plupart des oeuvres de Charlotte Beaudry. En témoigne encore le « Slip (orange) » agrandi à outrance, dont les formes galbées et la couleur flash évoquent irrésistiblement la carrosserie rutilante d’une voiture de sport. Si ce caleçon n’a ni jambes ni buste, il montre cependant bien davantage qu’il ne cache et concentre l’attention du spectateur précisément sur l’objet qu’il est sensé dissimuler. Allusion à l’hypocrisie médiatique ambiante en matière de sexualité ? Ou tentative effrontée de réduire l’homme à sa plus simple expression, égratignant au passage l’importance exagérée que les mâles accordent à leurs attributs ? Non dépourvue de tendresse, cette peinture tient pourtant davantage du clin d’oeil que de la provocation amère et revancharde, caractéristique d’un certain féminisme.
Empreinte de tension manifeste, la peinture de Charlotte Beaudry est aussi transcendée par une énergie pulsionnelle et une dérision qui lui donnent cette incroyable efficacité. Une ironie espiègle que l’on retrouve dans « Blind Gold », un poster tiré à trois mille exemplaires et mis librement à disposition des visiteurs. Il représente une paire de Ray-Ban bombée à la peinture dorée, symbole du luxe de pacotille d’une certaine culture populaire bling-bling.
Si les grandes toiles invitent à une réflexion sur notre rapport à l’image peinte en tant que traduction du réel, elles questionnent aussi notre place physique par rapport à la peinture et suscitent un dialogue mental autant que corporel. Tout l’oeuvre de Charlotte Beaudry est traversée par cette notion de « distance », propre et figurée, qui fait de ses images des icônes du quotidien, des fragments de réalité, à la fois proches et étranges.
Elles génèrent en nous une sensation paradoxale : tour à tour invitation à un être-au-monde viscéral et rageur, ou à un repli réconfortant aux confins de l’enfance qui s’éloigne.
Charlotte Beaudry est née à Huy (Belgique) en 1968. Elle vit et travaille à Bruxelles.
En 2005, elle remporte le prix de peinture Georges Collignon au Mamac (Liège). En 2007, elle obtient la bourse CERA du programme "Partners in Art". En 2008, elle est nominée en 2008 pour le Prix Ariane de Rothschild. Ses oeuvres figurent aujourd'hui parmi d'importantes collections internationales.
Wiels, Centre d'Art Contemporain
Avenue Van Volxem, 354
1190 Bruxelles.
* "Get Drunk" est le titre d'une chanson de l'album "Dot" (2006) du groupe hutois Showstar, dont la pochette mettait à l'honneur plusieurs images de Charlotte Beaudry. Showstar a par ailleurs joué lors des vernissages des expositions de Charlotte Beaudry à la galerie aliceday (Bruxelles) en 2006 et au STUK (Leuven) en 2008.