The watermelon imagery doubtless goes back into at least the early 19th century, in connection with the southern rural reality in which most black Americans lived. Whites put this mocking imagery into the white racial frame of that era. Articles on racism and popular culture, have commented on how old and pervasive this “watermeloning” of black Americans has been in white popular culture.

Imagine how surprised I was when walking around beautiful Boomerang Beach when the image below caught my eye. And it was quite a catch, through the bush, through a window and hanging on the wall facing the tiny road I walked along. There is a lot of this stuff online as you can see above from a quick google search. Both new and old.
Why the hell is this still going on?

Santaphobia

A quick google search to uncover the name for the phobia of Santa revealed Santaphobia (go figure!).

wiki.answers.com describes Santaphobia as 'an abnormal, persistent fear of Father Christmas' and goes on to say, 'A good way of avoiding the tears that so often ruin photos of kids with Santa is to back the child onto Father Christmas's knee.' This would also be a way of ensuring your child never trusts you ever again and that the nightmares are YOUR fault.

I don't have a Santaphobia as such. It's more of a dislike for the man. He felt up my Mum while my sister and I sat happily on his lap. Many years later I actually worked as a Santa Photographer. It was my birthday and Santa hugged me. His beard smelled like wet wool and I almost burst in to tears trying to hold back my urge to want to crash tackle and punch him in his big fake belly.

Looking through old Santa photos it has occurred to me that the Santa's all look like axe murderers and sadists. It makes sense. Why the hell else would a man wear a fake beard and loads of padding in Summer while parents 'back' their children onto his lap?

Weight loss program

Here's an image from a photographer I only recently discovered. Alec Soth has a curious and slightly melancholic view of the world and captures this view through his camera lens by way of a documentary style investigation. With a working practice similar to Stephen Shore and William Eggleston though much more directly interactive with his subjects.

In 2010 Alec traveled to England to complete a photographic commission for the Brighton Photo Biennial. Told at customs that he had no work visa and that he could face up to two years in prison if he was caught with a camera in his hands, Alec had to think outside of the square. He handed over his camera to his seven year old daughter who took on the commission.

This image taken (and in the spirit of sharing) from the self published 2008 book 'The Last Days of W', which documents the social decay and urban crisis evident by the end of President Bush's two terms in office.

feel like you're being watched?

Late 18th century Eye Miniatures. These are too fabulous for words!

Georgian Eye Jewellery c1790-1820

Family Photographs

A different take on the 'Family of Man' project, photographer Chris Verene takes an honest and loving look at his extended family in the ongoing (since 1984) Galsburg Series. Living in one of the hardest hit areas in the US due to the economic downturn Chris portrays the daily grind in the town in which his folk exist. The images speak for themselves as a family lives life, death and other disasters before the cameras gaze.

I can't help putting this quote from Woody Allen. When asked if he was a glass half full or a glass half empty person Woody replied that he was a glass half full, but that the glass was half full of poison.

Olympics shmmimpics

It's time to consult the Bunnies in a Box, Bunny Suicide Postcard Collection by the talented Mr. Andy Riley. And just in time. The bunny says it all and captures my Olympic sentiments with perfection.

Fetish

at PODspace
 

18 July - 04 August 2012

opening Thursday 19 July 6 - 8 by Artist and Curator Gillean Shaw

everyone welcome

Nine artists respond to Fetish.

A fetish can be many things. It can be an object regarded with awe as the embodiment of a potent spirit or idea, one which elicits reverence, respect or devotion. It can be a course of action to which one has an excessive commitment, or something that causes a habitual erotic response.

The nine artists who accepted the challenge of responding to the theme of Fetish have explored its many permutations in very different ways, resulting in an exciting range of works including sculpture, printmaking, photography, painting and fibre art - Eleanor Jane Robinson, Curator

Leonie Andrews employs long stitch to portray objects she has stumbled across which seem to have a kind of animation about them. In her hands, everything from parking meters to fishing floats might become fetish objects.

Sally Dooner is an avid collector of objects both natural and man-made and suggests that her actual art practice and processes of assemblage and sculpture are themselves a kind of fetish. Her collected material is here displayed in light boxes and photographs.

Sarah Jones likes her work to both hide and reveal at the same time. Her long fascination with the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge results in wonderful layered prints incorporating painting and stitching.

Gina McDonald has responded to a Brancusi quote featuring ‘fetish’ with delicate, sensitive prints.

Sylvia Ray casts body parts in fine clay to create works that are mischievous, provocative and amusing. Using friends and family members as subjects and models, she explores the ideas of pleasure, play and fun in ways that are light-hearted and sometimes profound. Her work for the show is interactive.

Eleanor Jane Robinson has always loved walking at night and seeing glimpses of people’s lives like little lit tableau. She also believes that in an age of surveillance cameras, cctv and reality television we all live complacently in a voyeuristic culture. Her drawings of ‘gazes’ (the lookers) and ‘glimpses’ (what is seen) have been stitched on swathes of cloth reminiscent of curtains.

Daniel Smith, a man with ‘way too many projects and not enough time’, has nevertheless found the space to create quirky little dioramas portraying some of the myriad sexual foibles and fetishes we humans are prone to.

Rose Turner, initially inspired by sci fi film, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, explores a flower/human morph which brings the body and the plant world together in a disturbing union.  Her painting realises the idea of probing and fingering the fine depths of a flower.

Clare Weeks has a fascination for relationships between seemingly disparate co-existing elements. By taking found road kill, placing and photographing it on wallpaper, she creates a new artificial landscape, which portrays man’s impact on nature and the desire to bring the natural world into the domestic environment.

and so it begins...

Use the links at the top if you're curious...

Definition of curious

adjective 

1 eager to know or learn something: 

she was curious to know what had happened

• expressing curiosity: 

a curious stare

 

2 strange; unusual:

a curious sensation overwhelmed her

• euphemistic (of books) erotic or pornographic.  

Definition of cohort

noun

1 [treated as singular or plural] an ancient Roman military unit, comprising six centuries, equal to one tenth of a legion.

2 [treated as singular or plural] a group of people with a shared characteristic: a cohort of civil servants patiently drafting legislation

• a group of people with a common statistical characteristic: the 1940-4 birth cohort of women

3 often derogatory a supporter or companion:

young Jack arrived with three of his cohorts

a long-time cohort of the band