Category: Art

Additively printed and magnetically bound

Today I received Bathsheba‘s Tetrabox: a 3d-printed steel sculpture which is also a puzzle held together with magnets.

At a minimum, it has what I think of as ‘tips forward‘ and ‘tips around‘ solutions. For the first, all three of the asymmetrical pieces have their extended tips pointing toward the one symmetrical piece, allowing the sculpture to rest on them. For the second, the tips circle around the symmetrical piece.

Previously, I got Bathsheba’s hemoglobin laser crystal for Amanda, and later Myshka got me the DNA polymerase crystal as a very generous birthday gift.

Nuit Blanche 2018

Good company but no impressive installations in this year’s Nuit Blanche — old sacks hung around city hall (“a masterfully-sewn patchwork of jute sacks“, apparently), a minimal effort at a 1960s-style dance at St. Joseph’s School, the hot air balloon gin advertisement from last year… It may be that we didn’t know where to go, but there didn’t seem to be much to see specifically because it was Nuit Blanche. Going inside the AGO and ROM at night was worthwhile because their collections are always worth seeing, and it was great to see the friends who didn’t opt instead for an early night.

Overwhelmingly the best artistic part of the evening was the church concert we went to between Bay Street and the U of T campus, but I don’t think it was Nuit Blanche specific. With no words spoken before or after, and a bright white arched structure encompassing the choir and musicians, it provided a peaceful space for contemplation and enjoyment.

Film doesn’t feel

One of the limitations of photography — especially that which eschews unrealistic post-processing — is that it provides limited means for expressing emotions. There is no link between the feelings in your mind and the data your sensor collects, unlike the stroke of a pen in forming a word of brush in making a drawing.

Nonetheless, photography is art-by-doing. An unaltered photo is a credible statement: I was at this place, these things were around me (Exif data can make it especially intimate). In that spirit, I tried to take a walk to express grief and pain photographically. When you’re sick with these feelings — when your brain feels like it’s being pulled apart — one answer is to travel somewhere strange and remote. To listen to the night wind blowing across something enormous and cold.

I’m working on practicing non-self-destructive ways of handling overpowering emotions.