OBSCURE OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Everything about this 1983 First Day Cover from the German Democratic Republic pleases me. The colours are lovely, particularly for a totalitarian state. Part of my enormous collection of things that have no purpose at all but are absolutely essential. 

FLAME ON

 

I have a thing for the Olympic Games, both ancient and modern. I love the dream, I love the reality; I love the variety and the diversity. I love the highs and lows, the humanity, the pomp and the pageantry. 

I also collect 'interesting' postcards (it's all subjective), so these, which feature aspects of the Olympic Flame ceremony, were irresistible. They were also quite cheap,  considering that they look to be about 2,500 years old.

EVERYONE'S A CRITIC

What I like about this sweet, clean seaside postcard is that the couple are not necessarily dismissive of the sculpture, they just don't know what they're looking at or how to engage with it. This may eventually make them angry but, for now, it leaves them perplexed and slightly embarrassed, a not uncommon reaction to the unfamiliar - and one that is infinitely preferable to some of the too cool for school pseudery that can pass for reaction when it comes to art.  

It's my birthday today. I'm fifty six, which seems ridiculously, farcically old. I can no longer tell the front from the backside.

ROUGH SEA @

The Victorians had a thing for depictions of rough seas - not only on these oddly fragile postcards that mix photography and painting, but also in short films. Perhaps it was the allure of the primeval power of the elements being made small and safe and separate by technology, or just a new way of presenting an old obsession. Either way, I collect these odd artefacts in a casual way, and they fascinate me, so I thought I'd share a few from time to time.. The internet is all about sharing, isn't it? Whether you like it or not.

These rough seas @ Bournemouth, Eastbourne and Dover, respectively.

AN EXOTIC INTERLUDE