Today was spent out in London, just walking and joking. And, of course, eating. I was encouraged into the National Portrait Gallery by the fading light (and lack of companionship) to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhitibion 2008 and I'm glad I went. The breadth of issues covered were amazing - from unknown everyday people to movers and shakers in the world. There were myriad range of emotions captured, and stories behind the faces told as well. Two stood out for me:
this one entitled "Bag", by Hendrik Kerstens, taken in the style of the Dutch masters of old (I didn't realise that it was a bag at first!), and the sitter is his daughter who has been his subject and muse for all her 21 years of life;and
Little Novice, by Peter Arnold. It doesn't look particularly striking here, but in real life (or real photo life) everything about the owl and the boy's body seems to just be nuances of the background, and what stands out is the boy's piercing eyes.
A good outing, and there was also a display entitled "Champions" - tasteful nude portraits of past Olympic champions. Alright for them, as they've got the bodies to show, and boy do the pictures do them justice. One of the portraits actually looks like a sculpture in high-definition detail, and the rest come very close. All those defined muscles! Still waiting for someone to come with me to see Annie Leibowitz's photo collection, and that amazing nature photography exhibit at the Natural History Museum! Great times for cold days.
Another amazing find today was a section of a paper on the tube, which held an article about probably the most astounding book ever! Christian Bok, Canadian, took 7 years of his life to write "Eunoia", full of univocal lipograms. What, you say? He basically wrote 5 stories, each only containing one vowel, and one vowel only. For example, and I quote:
"Hassan balks at all sacral tasks - a mass at Sabbath, a fast at Ramadan: "what Kabbalah and Brahmana can match blackjack and baccarat?" Hassan brags that a crackajack champ at cards lacks what knack Hassan has at craps. A cardsharp, smart at canasta, has a scam: mark a pack, palm a jack. ... A rascal salaams and thanks Allah that a bank can award a man a stash that dwarfs what alms a raj can amass."
The "i" story looks mind-boggling:
"Writing is inhibiting. Sighing, I sit, scribbling in ink this pidgin script. I sing with nihilistic witticism, disciplining signs with trifling gimmicks - impish hijinks which highlight stick sigils. Isn't it glib? Isn't it chic? I fit childish insights within rigid limits, writing shtick which might instill priggish misgivings in critics blind with hindsight. I dismiss nitpicking criticism which flirts with philistinism. I bitch; I kibitz - griping whilst criticizing dimwits, sniping whilst indicting nitwits, dismissing simplistic thinkking, in which philippic wit is still illicit."
The one-vowel-a-story is not the only rule he imposed on himself - others included no use of "y", there should be minimal repetition and use 98% of relevant vocabulary, etc. And he read through the English dictionary FIVE times, once for each of the vowels, developing a system of identifying and manipulating relevant words to make a story that was both coherent and a delight to read.
I've got to get my hand of this book to delight in the amazing art of it all! Incidentally, "eunoia" is the shortest word in the English language that uses all 5 vowels, and means "beautiful thinking". How apt.
Next week, if all goes well, the art of saving people (a week in A&E) and the art of embalming people, courtesy of Dr Gunther and the Bodyworlds exhibition.
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