Incremental Oddity

In an unusual take on the Mediterranean tendency to incrementally develop its houses -concrete columns on the roofs of houses, with reinforcement sprouting out of them, is a common site from Nazareth to Corinth- this house spotted from the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem appears to have resolved the endemic regional desire for a 'western style' pitch roof, and the need for things to at least appear tidy, somehow not-of-the-region-where-they-are-actually-located, with the fact that they are still basically building in the region's venerable, ad-hoc tradition. So the pitch roof hovers a good 3metres or so above the current roof, waiting to be turned into bedrooms, looking very precarious on its slender steel columns (considering its weight and being located in a geologically active zone) and perhaps more perversely, totally blocking any sunlight from reaching its two solar-powered water heaters, which can be seen silhouetted underneath it in almost complete darkness. Hot water, or an absurd image of western suburbia refracted through the lens of Jerusalem planning law?

Two Medieval Men Kissing & Other Delights

This is a round encaustic tile from a medieval English pavement. The sequence of images tell a story (apologies but I cannot remember which story... it involved a king. Duh), and are the earliest set of surviving figural tiles from the British Isles. Although the men appear to be, and are indeed kissing on the lips, this was a way of passing on luck, and wishing well, for a journey rather than any more Hellenic form of younger-older male bonding.

Rather more appropriate to ambivalent European depictions of love is this delicate, but morbid, depiction by a Flemish painter from the fifteenth century, of a knight courting his object of desire. Pallid and gaunt, looking as if they have a cold, red-tinged flesh flaring at their nostrils and the sides of their mouths, the pair are watched by a disconcertingly over-eager figure of Death, who is either a reminder of the folly of earthly passions, or a stark description of what will be awaiting the man should his entreaties be rejected by the fair damsel. Fittingly the whole thing is painted on the bowing shape of a ceremonial shield.

Above is a scene from an object tenuously named "The Standard of Ur" that has survived from the ancient Sumerian town of the same name, and was recovered from a large Royal tomb. Its surface is decorated in minute mosaics, and show on one side an image of "War" and on the other "Peace", the photo here being from the side of Peace, cattle, goats, harvest and all.

Also from near Ur is this 4500 year old mosaic encrusted column, one of several found at the site of a temple dedicated to the god Ninhursag. At its heart were palm logs, covered in Bitumen, and around which were attached pieces of mother-of-pearl, pink limestone, and black shale.  Each tessera had a copper wire passed through a loop at the back of it and the ends twisted into a ring. The wire was then sunk into the bitumen for attachment. When discovered in 1919, the archaeologists found that the columns were exactly the same diameter as modern petrol drums and so during reconstruction, sections of tesserae, held in place by bandages dipped in wax, were wrapped around empty drums to restore their original shape.


All these items are on public display, free of charge, at the British Museum

Three Flourishes From Paris

^Man altercating with his drum on a Moving Walkway in (i think) Chatelet metro station

^box of eyes in a dolls parts stall in the Marché aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt



^ Painting in the Gustave Moreau Museum