Free Trade...

Here is part of another piece of work by the street artist Levalet - this time taking the form of an extensive installation set in the former chateau of Rouen business school. Called Libre Echange, it offers a nightmarish vision of aspects of our modern-day existence which is given over to procurement, served by globalized supply chains and fed and fuelled by 'fulfillment centres'. This might be Free Trade, but these delivery men are caught up in a cycle that is worthy of M.C Escher's staircase, and reflects the illusion of progress that has ensnared us all.

Relativity, by M. C. Escher. Lithograph, 1953.

Goods are being shipped around a closed circuit in a tidal ebb and flow that is gaining momentum as we consume ever more yet get nowhere. With this relentless, unprecedented movement of parcels and packages, it is Xmas everyday and yet the whole process has become somewhat meaningless.






    Gradually, the idea of something – anything – being delivered comes to have more importance than the actual contents of these cardboard boxes. The need to reach an elusive point of fulfilment forces us onto the hedonistic treadmill which speeds up and grows in size as the supply chain becomes a global loop. This in turn becomes a shackle or noose, holding us back while slowly asphyxiating us. Amazon meanwhile, looks on with that enigmatic smile - or smirk - and we should indeed die laughing from the irony, as the company laughs all the way to the bank alongside its stable mates; Google, Apple and Facebook.


Although initially set up as an online dealer of books in the mid-90s, Amazon was never destined to be a one-trick pony. More than merely spreading its wings into other areas of retail as an ‘everything’ store, Amazon has duly branched out into virtually every conceivable domain. It has long turned the page on the plodding, physical world of paper – to the point that few people even know the company was first built on books.

Amazon has turned to domains that would once have been the realm of pure sci-fi prior to the massive breakthrough in internet accessibility and usage in the mid 2000s; e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming and artificial intelligence. But even this was not enough...

It has taken on the the biggest and the best in all fields, given all competitors a wild run for their money, and generally won every game, through the sheer scope and scale of its activities. Now the 21st century titan wants to go far further still. Size provides leverage, and Amazon has already demonstrated how it can wield its power and authority in order to transform live on Earth. Today, much like a latter-day Captain Kirk, Bezos wants to steer his travel company, Blue Origin, to boldly go where no man has gone before. With his sights set on the Cosmos, he is investing billions to conquer the final frontier; Space.

Back on the Blue Planet, where is this vision of a Brave New World leading the average terrestrial ? This vast multinational tech company has transformed the dynamics of the marketplace, the highstreet, our consumer expectations and more importantly our habits in the most exciting ways. But I can’t help but wonder if that smiley Amazonian arrow has not just shot us through the heart.
Between them, the giant GAFA has brought about a seachange on every possible level of human activity and behaviour. From cradle to grave, from to A to Z, our lives are being facilitated by the Triple A Triumivirate; Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon. We all benefit from the supply of revolutionary goods and services that tech companies offer. Amazon has put customer satisfaction before profit, understanding that loyalty means growth, and scale yields power. Power means that you are accountable to no one. Amazon fights to charge less, ensuring that the ‘price is right’ and that the purchase conditions are hugely attractive. Nurturing our addiction to knock-down prices, speed and convenience, Amazon offers a deal that is simply too good to refuse. Yet ultimately these companies will get far more than they give - profitting hugely from our custom, now and in the long term. The game has already changed and powerful influences shape account-holders on every level in a world that is ever-more connected but increasingly disconnected from the basics. Most of us are now wholly or largely reliant on the internet and the tech companies behind it for the smooth running of daily life. Could that herald our making or our undoing ?

At a click, we have access to everything. Surely this should make us more more content than at any other moment in human history? The doors are open to a wealth of information, education and entertainment that was inconceivable in the past and yet we do not seem to consider ourselves any richer for it. We have the most perfect tools that seem to have been delivered into imperfect, untrained hands.This, in turn, is corrupting minds that are ill-prepared for such an onslaught of high tech and this is making us vulnerable, not invincible. Even children born with a smart device seem to pay a price that no amount of slick online thrills will ever compensate. While trying to perfect human experience through technology, mere humans are losing what has always separated man from beast, and man from automaton The thirst for convenient, cheap consumption is permeating everything – material and immaterial. Creativity, critical thinking, consciousness are being imperceptibly modified, so that our rough 3D vision of life and ourselves is being smoothed down to arrive at a flatter, photoshopped face-value, Facebook version.
Of course, the positives in this high-tech world are innumerable, offering magical possibilities. And yet, I do not envy anyone born ‘connected’. We have tripped ourselves up and tumbled on this new step of human evolution; momentarily at least….

I have occasionally used Amazon to buy second-hand books  – to my great satisfaction - but the realisation that its business model has rung the death knell for many physical book shops has soured the experience. Worse still, the fact that reading literature – physical or electronic -  has lost out all round in modern-day life is truly saddening. Ironically, it was Amazon - the trail-blazing bookseller offering their wares dirt-cheap- that set much of that process in place. Their innovative business model helped change our vision, on and off-line. Now, our all-consuming devotion to consumption and commodification in the connected universe has left us with little time for Amazon’s initial golden goose; books.

When something is sold cheap, it is ultimately perceived as worth little or nothing.

Outside the amphitheatre at the business school

Poppies along the Canals and Concrete...

Last day of the month again, and yet again a rush to finish off a few posts before midnight...
I have such a backlog of blog material - none of which has taken any form which is even vaguely 'postable'  - so I won't be respecting any real chronological order.

 As I was rowing a few weeks ago, I saw all these beautiful flowers and grasses along the paths and cycle tracks that run parallel to the canal. I went back to photograph them from the safety of dry land!

I was particularly thrilled to see some magical pavots pharmaceutiques which appear to have escaped from the industrial fields scattered around the region. These cultivated poppies are quite hard to locate so this made this encounter all the more special.

The mauve petals were offset by the more common-place red poppies, of course, and their colour was picked up by the violet vetch too. The final effect was even more striking due to the bright green of the canal water in the sunlight. The last yellow flags of Spring were still holding in there, before this week's raging temperatures set in.

Finally, a stunning wildflower field (albeit artificially sown) near the concrete complex that has grown in the most pervasive manner all around the TGV train station. Ironically, just a few years ago the whole area was just simple fields before this ambitious development project took off. Nevertheless, this vast stretch of flowers really was a beautiful sight...

Hexagon Wall-Hanging finished... At last!

Someone has been helping me throughout my crochet sessions on the wall-hanging that kicked off last autumn. This has been a long process and yet someone has taken great pleasure in settling on the wool in its various states, over the many months.

Sometimes alert...

At other moments less so...

Quite hard work, it must be said...  It now just needs to be hung correctly, in its completed state. Here's hoping that neither of the cats try to escalate it once it is finally up!

Strange Beasts...

A brooding beast to mark the end of the month. In fact, this is was one of a collection of curious creatures to be found in different exhibitions around town by the artist Mauro Corda.

Some of the sculptures are of imaginary hybrid creatures such as this snaky -headed 'cobra tiger', above, which looks as if it is preparing to strike.

Or this rather more docile camel-unicorn...

Or the 'walrus bear', above, with its impressive pair of ivory tusks, roaring at passers-by from its bank of shale.

Other figures are of real-life species, albeit in danger of extinction. Take this enormous sculpture of a perched fruit bat, hanging from an imposing stand of at least two metres in height...

Or this cluster of oil-coated mischievous meerkats that huddle together on an upturned barrel...
One of the key features of the show are the numerous sportive bas-reliefs to highlight the 2024 Olympic Games, to be held in Paris...

The following black and white portraits were part of the Chambres exhibition – Positif/Négatif – Noir/Blanc. Whilst the portraits were classic bas-reliefs, rather like traditional death masks, the white versions were concave – as if the faces were molded into the bed pillows.

The masks that I preferred were the ones of the most interesting facial traits, with less regular features. Prettiness never seems to highlight character in art in the same way that rugged, striking expressions do. All those prominent noses, craggy jaws and brows, hooded eyelids and etched skin seem to tell a story where the conventionally attractive features simply fail. Pity life cannot follow along the same aesthetic lines!

I have often noticed that modern figures in ultra-realistic sculpture do not always seem to convey an appropriate tone and mood and often look like Disneyfied pieces of work.

I didn’t initially appreciate all the Corda portraits for this reason of ‘blandness’. Many just seemed to be 3D print-outs rather than real artistic portrayals. However, once I had just focused on the more interesting faces, I really did start to enjoy the exhibition. The white portraits look better in photo than reality, I noticed, but the optical effect is lost.

Corda is a contemporary sculptor, born in 1960, who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Reims.

I am off to see an exhibition of the street artist Levalet in Rouen tomorrow! Update to follow!

After the Rain, the Sun....

The month has been taken up by extremes of the pleasant and not so pleasant... Fortunately, troublesome legal formalities, tax declarations and hassle at work have all been offset by trips, visits and concerts. These all seem to alternate with a certain reliability, yet their rate and rhythm are difficult to foresee.

Meanwhile, as unseasonably cold weather gives way to warmer temperatures, a new passionflower plant is growing up, sending out a collection of tendrils, shoots and striking flowers. The honeysuckle that had to be cut back last year is about to burst out in bloom too... However, the vine weevil beetles are also back on the balcony, readily devouring foliage with voracious appetite, presumably priming themselves for another onslaught on my flowering treasures whilst I prepare myself..... for war.

It all seems to be swings and roundabouts and the other day I actually found myself humming this funny old school-assembly hymn which is quite soothing in its simplicity. Right, off for some nocturnal beetle-bashing!

                Glad that I live am I
                That the sky is blue;
                Glad for the country lanes,
                And the fall of dew.
                After the sun, the rain,
                After the rain the sun;
                This is the way of life,
                Till the work be done.

                     Lizette W. Reese (1856–1935)

Street Activity

Last week I came across another work by the street artist Levalet. Stuck in an otherwise unoccupied alcove on the grimy façade of a building that houses a law firm stands a rather jaded Lady Justice. She looks down below, cigarette nonchalently perched on her lips, clasping her Iphone as she props a drooping set of scales over her arm. Her blindfold has slipped down from her eyes, to be worn bandana-style around her neck. There is no limb to grasp onto the sword by her side...
Is this an illicit tobacco break or is she about to throw the towel in?

This is Iustitia, the Roman goddess, who, alongside Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance, was of the four cardinal Virtues in mythology. Her Greek counterpart is known as Themis, the personification of 'divine order, law, natural law and custom'. She was also mother to the three Fates, who literally weaved the destinies of men on the loom that laid out the threads of life's tapestry. Through this divine female frontline, mere mortals were assessed, judged with reason and rationality, and finally  punishment was meted where due.

On numerous law courts around the world, Iustitia is traditionally dressed in a Greco-Roman toga, as worn by classical figures of philosphy and mythology, thus highlighting the ancient Roman adage "Cedant arma togae" (meaning "Let war give way to the civil power.") Justice is presented as 'blind' (hence the eye-covering) since justice is objective and unbiased. It does not pass judgement based on mere appearance but the weight of fact. Likewise, the scales of justice measure both sides of the story at hand with fairness. The wronged and the alleged wrong-doer, the opposing parties are treated with objectivity and the final outcome - the rightful verdict - is governed by the weight of evidence. Justice symbolically keeps the double-sided sword by her side, ready to strike a blow and deliver a binding decision. Physical might is thus led by justice alone and wielded with logic and reason, keeping corruption at bay, symbolized by the serpent under the left foot of Justice. Sadly there is no snake in this image of a worn-down provincial French Lady Justice, perhaps not all that surprising in view of the present social/political climate.

While vast parts of the country regard the future of France in the bleakest, blackest of lights, seeing red with every measure of action or inactivity n the government's part, the vision of this rage is bright yellow in colour; les gilets jaunes. Shortly after noticing this rémoise Justice, I encountered crowds of demonstrators and wreckers going on the smash around the town - breaking and burning, slicing and shattering. Initially, they seemed to have taken aim at affluent commercial institutions such as banks, insurance and estate agencies, and the odd jewellery store, but as they headed up my street, any old glass window, item of street furniture, fencing, railing, traffic light and humble wheelie rubbish bin became fair target.
No wonder Justice has laid down her sword and turned to her fags and phone!

A shattered glass 'spider's web' on a street sign.

The Cats About Town....

The odd occasion that I encounter a cat out and about the city centre is not usually a happy event since invariably the poor creature in question has escaped from some building and got lost in the streets. However, there are a few other feline forms to be encountered around town.

I wonder who commissioned these features in the reconstruction years after World War 1 and why we no longer see anything even vaguely comparable today.

The majority of these beautiful details are well above the eyeline so it really is worth looking up as you wander around the streets and notice the Art Déco architecture.

Not only are there sculpted forms to decorate building façades, a wide variety of mozaics serve the same purpose. You just have to know where to find them, but it is not always that easy!

These mozaics just capture the antics of prowling cats perfectly...

I wonder whose cats were the inspiration for these works....

And if the individual who ordered such architectural features chose cats out of personal preference...

These days, there are a few feline references to be found around town in the form of street art. The following is the work of C215, a French artist who also held an exhibition here in 2016.

C215 in Reims

All of these mischievous cats remind me of the poem my Dad used to read us...

C215

Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town by T. S. Eliot

Bustopher Jones is not skin and bones--
In fact, he's remarkably fat.
He doesn't haunt pubs--he has eight or nine clubs,
For he's the St. James's Street Cat!
He's the Cat we all greet as he walks down the street
In his coat of fastidious black:
No commonplace mousers have such well-cut trousers
Or such an impreccable back.
In the whole of St. James's the smartest of names is
The name of this Brummell of Cats;
And we're all of us proud to be nodded or bowed to
By Bustopher Jones in white spats!

His visits are occasional to the Senior Educational
And it is against the rules
For any one Cat to belong both to that
And the Joint Superior Schools.

For a similar reason, when game is in season
He is found, not at Fox's, but Blimpy's;
He is frequently seen at the gay Stage and Screen
Which is famous for winkles and shrimps.
In the season of venison he gives his ben'son
To the Pothunter's succulent bones;
And just before noon's not a moment too soon
To drop in for a drink at the Drones.
When he's seen in a hurry there's probably curry
At the Siamese--or at the Glutton;
If he looks full of gloom then he's lunched at the Tomb
On cabbage, rice pudding and mutton.

So, much in this way, passes Bustopher's day-
At one club or another he's found.
It can be no surprise that under our eyes
He has grown unmistakably round.
He's a twenty-five pounder, or I am a bounder,
And he's putting on weight every day:
But he's so well preserved because he's observed
All his life a routine, so he'll say.
Or, to put it in rhyme: "I shall last out my time"
Is the word of this stoutest of Cats.
It must and it shall be Spring in Pall Mall
While Bustopher Jones wears white spats!

From the exhibition of C215