North Korea's Artistic Identity

It's hard to know what kind of art, if any, is being made in North Korea. I would say it's safe to guess that anything being made would be laced with propaganda. Of the little carefully selected by North Korea to be presented to the rest of the world we are usually faced with their Mass Games ceremony. North Korea is careful not to present themselves as impoverished but instead as a country booming with food, enterprise, happy citizens, and art. 

I would classify the artistic identity of North Korea as their large, card flipping, human mosaics. One can barely pay attention to the news and current events and still know that North Korea is into card flipping! 

Here are some images of these enormous human mosaics. 

September 9, 2012

Arirang Mass Game performance in Pyongyang 

Detail of above. 

Photo Credit: Sam Gellman

About 300,000 flip cards at the 2011 Mass Games. 

These cards were manned by children. 

Photo Credit: Sam Gellman

Detail. 

Photo Credit: Sam Gellman

Mass Games, year unknown. 

Photo Credit: Sam Gellman

Mass Games, year unknown. 

Photo Credit: Sam Gellman

Mass Games, year unknown. 

Kim Il-Sung

It's evident that the human mosaics are also a way for the North Korean government to indoctrinate its people with the glory and right of the dictatorship. 

- Grace

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Photo via LiveScience

This past week in southern Turkey this gorgeous floor mosaic was unearthed. Measuring 1600 square feet (that's about the size of all the livable floor space in my house), the floor was in a bath house and exemplifies the influence of Greco-Roman designs and motifs during the 3rd and 4th century AD. 

What I find most fascinating about this new piece is that the motifs are still being used today. This floor looks like it could be supplanted into an expensive bathroom renovation today and would be at the top of high style. 

More information on this exciting discovery can be read here. 

- Grace

Artist of the Week: Henry Dalton

Another gem from the Museum of Jurassic Technology [This is the last one, I swear!], Henry Dalton's (1829-1911) micromosaics were also on view in one of the darkened galleries. Visible only through the peephole of a microscope, his tiny collages are made entirely from dried algae and the scales of butterfly wings. That's right, not even glue is holding these beauties together.  

When I first saw the work I thought they were intricately inlaid stones, which would have been impressive enough. But after discovering they were actually made from butterfly wings—and scales of wings, at that—I was bowled over by his use of the material. THEN I read about his painstakingly precise process on the museum's website, and my brain was totally blown:


"The microscopic creations of Henry Dalton were the fruit of extraordinary skill, remarkable patience and a keen aesthetic eye. After devising a design, Dalton would collect numerous butterfly wings of multiple species from all over the world. Carefully striping off individual scales with a needle, each scale was then sorted by color, size, and shape creating a extensive palette. Boar bristle in hand, Dalton would then transfer each scale to the slide. Positioning a scale was a laborious task, one that required the use of a microscope and a small tube through which he would breathe to gently move each scale over the glass to its appointed position. Once in place, Dalton would crush a small tiny spot of the scale against the slide, allowing internal oils to act as a natural adhesive. Many of Dalton's remarkable micromosaic preparations would require as many as one thousand individual scales."


Wow. 



- Cathleen