Tag archive for ‘art’ at bioneural.net

Tag archive for 'art'

Down the Nile to ancient Thebes

Published by Bruce + Simone on April 9, 2010 in Travel. 5 responses

Following our visit to Abu Simbel and other temples on the shores of Lake Nasser, the second part of our 2010 Egyptian holiday involved a cruise down the Nile from Philae (Aswan) to Thebes (Luxor).
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Monuments of ancient Nubia

Published by Bruce + Simone on April 3, 2010 in Travel. 2 responses

Bruce determined that he wanted to visit Abu Simbel as a child, when he came across an old National Geographic from May 1966 describing how the temples were saved from drowning. Although the engineering achievement was remarkable, what struck him at the time were the depictions of life in ancient Egypt. While he never did get to reign as Pharaoh, he has at least fulfilled that early ambition to see these magnificent temples for himself. In February 2010 we flew into Luxor (ancient Thebes, in the former Upper Egypt) and travelled south of Aswan (the site of ancient Philae, near the First Cataract) into the northern lands of Nubia (known as the Kingdom of Kush after decolonisation, now mostly in Sudan).
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The incredible dissolution of being

Published by Bruce on May 10, 2008 in Photography. 0 responses

Another former communist-occupied country visited, another monument to the fallen photographed. How did communism's lofty ideal of equality become so twisted and evil, delivering oppression and brutality wherever it was (or is) practised? Having seen the poignant sculpture in Moscow commemorating Stalin's victims, and the collected skulls from the Killing Fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, I wasn't expecting to find a similar memorial in the Czech Republic so moving. But death is only one way you can hurt people: how do you physically capture the dissolution of a man's spirit?
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iPhone features Maori carving wallpaper

Published by Bruce on June 23, 2007 in New Zealand. 8 responses

Apple recently posted a tour of the forthcoming iPhone. Watching the presentation I was surprised to see one of the default wallpapers is the face of a tiki (a wood carving of the human figure).
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Maui's fish and the origin of myth

Published by Bruce on May 12, 2007 in New Zealand. 7 responses

I've always enjoyed the myth concerning the origin of New Zealand's North Island, said to have been hauled out of the Pacific by Maui and his brothers. This story is one of several so wonderfully captured in an illustration by Dittmer, reproduced in a book belonging to my grandmother, which I still have and recently re-discovered. But this myth has become something of a legend in itself, evolving throughout prehistory and during the cultural transition of colonisation to become a story that belongs to all New Zealanders regardless of ethnicity. The modern version was enacted before our eyes in Wellington earlier this week in the show Maui: One man against the gods.
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Uplifting, Uprising

Published by Bruce on May 4, 2007 in New Zealand. 0 responses

MAORI MARKet was recently held at the TSB Arena in Wellington, showcasing contemporary Maori artworks. Many of the works on display were world-class in both execution and price tag, the range including carving in wood, stone and bone, painting, woven cloaks and baskets, jewellery and pottery (the latter not being a traditional Maori art form). On the look-out for a piece to complement our Jeff Thomson wall sculpture, we felt drawn to Whakatikanga (Uprising), a diptych by Hawkes Bay artist Jackie Hawkins.
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