Variations on the birth of venus

Bottichelli's The birth of venus has become a worldwide symbol of feminism, representing the purity and beauty of the female form. Something so widely acknowledged is going to initiate imitations and become kitschified. Here are some photographic representations i have collected together and the Botticelli original.

Heike Gallmeier Photograph 

made from discarded plaster board the shell made from an old ikea box. Part set design and part performance part painting part photography. Interesting concept but visually it feels very uncomfortable to me, although the model looks the part i dont think it represents the ideals of the original image.

Niklas Zimmer Photograph

This image has completely removed the purity and beauty from the orignal and turned Venus into an almost selkie like creature. The makeup also only futher deters from the innocent essence of  the image.  

DeviantArt Digital art 

Aesthetically i do like this image i love its dewy kitschy feel but i think the image is overly sexualized and the presence of an extremely muscular god type man gives the image a story that never existed before. 

Anna Utopia Giordano

Apart from highlighting once again the amazing possibilities of digital technologies applied to art, this job from Anna Giordano is indeed a good cue to reconsider both the subjectivity of cultural standards (in facts, ours are so different from the past ones) and the inclination of modern society and advertising companies to edit most images of  feminine body in order to reach a fake perfection, corresponding to an unreachable reality.

The Posing Of Vivette

Ach Ja, Tannenbaum

''In the 60s millions of Americans in the US set up an aluminum tree at Christmas time in their living room.  The artificial tree became an emblem of the Space Age until charlie brown started its downfall. ''

Exhibition photographs from J. Shimon and J. Lindemann's exhibition in 2004 which coincided with their book:

'Season Gleamings: The art of the Aluminium Christmas Tree'

''Our ambivalence towards seasonal decor helped us resist the trees at first. it took us a while to realise that they were a peculiar form of representational sculpture worth dragging back to our studio. we began seeing them as material rather than holiday discards and the thought of making an aluminium forest occurred to us. we decided to buy as many as we could find at reasonable prices and create an environment of gleaming aluminium.'' 

I find the idea of creating a glimmering forest from items that initially meant so much to people on moment, then was nothing but junk the next so romantic. They have been given a new lease of life and have been allowed to bring joy and wonder to a second generation.

Coolsville » Bob Watt with model, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1996

bob ross

Pierre et Gilles in relation to art history.

Pierre et Gilles are renowned in the art world  for their dewy photographic and painted images. Taking direct inspiration from Religion, Politics and Art History they create an illusion of a time and place that may have existed, simply because their photographs are so convincing. They draw you in. The images themselves hold a renaissance glow. I get the feeling that originally the essence was physical but now is just holds a whisper of mortality and is an almost complete dream, a haze or fantasy.