fuku mame

Literally seasonal division and more properly denoted as Risshun, today marks the festival of Setsubun (節分) the eve of the beginning of Spring in Japan and a signal to perform ritual cleaning of one’s household to drive out the misfortune of the past year and welcome in good luck for the year to come.
Originally associated with the Lunar New Year, its date has now been fixed and the chief ceremony involves the scattering of the titular luck beans called makemaki (豆撒き) where a family member born in the corresponding zodiacal year is charged with roasting soybeans and tossing them out of the threshold of the home (a variation includes another family member discharging the duties of a loitering demon and being pelted with the beans)—shouting “Demons out—luck in!” Like the New Year’s custom of eating black-eyed peas, people will also eat a number of soybeans for each year that they have been alive plus one extra for good luck.

automatonophilia

Here photographed by the eminent Alfred Eisenstaedt for LIFE magazine at the Stork Club in 1937, via the always excellent Everlasting Blört, we are graced with the presence of New York socialite Cynthia the Mannequin, created by sculptor and window-dressing professional Lester Gaba (*1907 - †1987).
Cynthia retained many of the realistic imperfection found in the individual that she was modelled off of as did all of the many Gaba Girls displays to follow. Although fully aware of the ludicrous nature of his performance art and the attention it was receiving, Gaba’s contribution were pioneering and had influence on other artist including Andy Warhol and Roy Liechtenstein and killing off Cynthia with his conscription into the war effort, Gaba was willing to once again humour fans in 1953 television interview before retiring her for good while continuing work in fashion and marketing.

the ghost of pinterest future

Akin to séance through automatic writing or speaking in tongues albeit much more refined and practised, we appreciated the primer in “mediumistic art” through one of the more prepossessing partakers, Maude Ethel (née Eades) Gill of East Ham, known as Madge to her friends (*1882 – †1961) whom after recovery from an illness in 1920 was suddenly taken with drawing—prolific and guided by a spirit she called “Myrninerest”—that is, my inner rest, having never demonstrated a talent beforehand.
Despite her claim of mediumship, later scholars of her body of work detect a biographical narrative across her portfolio and count Gill among the self-taught outsider artists (see previously here, here and here) regardless of what supernatural help she might have been the recipient of. Rarely exhibiting and never selling her work out of fear of angering Myrninerest, no one had any idea of the extent of her nearly four decades of sketching. Learn more about Art Brut and Madge Gill at Messy Nessy Chic at the link up top.

burolandschap

As part of a larger project rehabilitating and restoring its lake district and wetlands in Bokrijk National Park in Limburg, authorities have commissioned landscapers to replace some of the traditional plank bridges with unique, submerged, sunken trails to allow hikers and cyclists to experience the ponds and lakes from a periscope’s perspective. More at designboom at the link up top.

bassins de lumiéres

Mid-April in Bordeaux will see the public opening of the world’s largest digital art centre in the bunkers and U-boot berths constructed in the city’s harbour during World War II. The art space’s first exhibition features the work of Gustav Klimt and Paul Klee with many others to follow.  Get more of a preview with Plain Magazine at the link above.

bennifer

Nag on the Lake introduces us to the sometimes frightening canny realm of synthetic celebrities. Each is the product of a generative adversarial network (see previously) and display their dominant and recessive influences. While these chimeric twins are well-matched, most turn out a bit monstrous with uncompromising hairlines though their pre-combination traits show through. The offspring of Jeff Bezos and Eminem isn’t awful and neither is the Emmanuel-Macron-Sandra-Bullock hybrid. Who are your favourites? Much more to explore at the links above.

the princess and the pea

At the risk of alienating potential sponsors (though we all ought to aspire to playing the long-game in all our endeavours and not be enticed with fly-by-night operations), we found this collection of sources deconstructing the mail-order mattress field—a very over-crowded one, and how that bubble may soon burst from Things Magazine to be a fascinating and cautionary one.
The anecdotal expertise is strong in this business, trying to positions oneself above the fray and margins for profit vanishingly small and made worse with returns, refunds and compelling competition. I wonder what other commodities might be stealthily following the same doomed business model that escape our recognition by dint of persuasive cheerleading. Though there’s much appeal to be found in an inject of convenience, discharging our obligations and buyer and seller by closing a transaction as quickly and seamlessly as possible is not the overarching principle of commerce and exchange.