The second layout in the Menagerie series is Art Farm etc.
Once upon the time, in 2004.
Fellow artist Dan Valenzuela is the author of the ink drawings adorning these Schleich plastic pigs.
COLL.EO, Art Farm etc., 2014, detail
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MENAGERIE
Today, we are introducing our new body of work, Menagerie, a set of layouts made of wood, glass, plexiglass, and Schleich plastic toys.
Each day, we will post a new piece.
We begin with The Physical Impossibility of Death etc..
Once upon the time, in 1991.
COLL.EO, The Physical Impossibility of Death etc., 2014
STREETVIEWS OF SAN FRANCISCO: THE VIDEO
Today we are releasing a video recap of The Streetviews of San Francisco, our latest set of layouts.
IMAGES & VIDEO: COLL.EO
SOUNDTRACK: Carl Orff’s "O Fortuna" (excerpt) performed by SOUNDTRACK: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana performed by Dr. William Cutter, Director and the MIT Concert Choir on December 2, 2006, Kresge Auditorium, MIT.
SOURCE: Royalty Free Music Archive
"O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate and Fortuna, the personification of luck in Roman mythology. In 1935–36, "O Fortuna" was set to music by German composer Carl Orff as a part of "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi", the opening and closing movement of his cantata Carmina Burana." (source: Wikipedia)
LYRICS
LATIN
O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!
O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as the sharp mind takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
ENGLISH
O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as the sharp mind takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.
Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!
COLL.EO, 2014 (detail)
STREETVIEWS #10: THE MISSION FUNERAL
In loving memory,
The Mission District, 1776 - 2014
The Mission District, also commonly called "The Mission", died this year after a long battle against gentrification, hyper-inequality, and income segregation.
The place formerly known as The Mission is survived by thousands of adopted sons wearing tight skinny jeans, drinking expensive caffeinated drinks, carrying shiny displays assembled East of Cupertino, and sporting 1890s facial hair.
They now live in the place that was previously inhabited by Yelamu indians, Spanish missionaries and conquistadores, Ohlone tribes, Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and Mexican immigrants, Chicano, South American, Guatemalan and Salvadorian communities.
A memorial service was held on March 18, 2014 by some long time residents of The Mission, including poets, artists, teachers, and musicians, who were efficiently evicted shortly after the reception.
They will be greatly missed.
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And more.
COLL.EO, Safari Tech, 2014
STREETVIEWS #9: SAFARI TECH
Our latest layout, Safari Tech, alludes to both the practice of observing and photographing wildlife and also sightseeing in foreign, exotic lands. Safaris are overland journeys, taken mostly on buses or trucks, by tourists. The term safari comes from Swahili and means “long journey”. It entered the English language in late 19th century.
Today, many operators throughout the African continent offer various kinds of safari services. Following the African model, many tour operators in the Bay Area began offering specialized drive-through experiences through San Francisco. Since 2011, Google, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Electronic Arts, Genentech and other companies have been providing rides through the most iconic parts of the city, including the Mission and the mysterious, often dangerous, downtown areas such as the Tenderloin Heights, previously known as terra incognita.
These specialized services offer professional guides, safe transportation, certified educational services, opportunities for teaching (a safari is, after all, amission civilisatrice) but also learning and discovery (e.g. first-hand exposure to income segregation, hyper-inequality, the peculiar habits of the natives, and so on), the consolidation and validation of the ruling class, various perks, and plenty of excitement.
As they drive through the urban landscape, tourists and poachers take snapshots of the local fauna and indigenous tribes with their smartphones and instantly post their findings on Instagram, Twitter and other social media because sharing is caring.
There is a peculiar fashion style associated with the upper class safarists, which includes garments produced by brands like Patagonia aka Patagucci, The North Face, Lululemon, Betabrand, Bonobos, Rockports, and Uggs. In short, in San Francisco, Safari Chic has become Safari Tech. Interestingly, safari is also the name of Apple’s browser ("Designed in Cupertino™"), the interface used by million of people, everyday, to access “reality” and to experience “the world”, one screen at the time.
So, where do you want to go, today?
COLL.EO, Google Mooning, 2014
STREETVIEWS #8: GOOGLE MOONING
Our latest layout, Google Mooning, was inspired by an episode that we experienced first hand (no pun intended) on Valencia Street in December of 2013 and dutifully reported by The New York Times. As a Great White Whale appeared on the horizon, making in its way among a swarm of cyclists and silver Priuses, a conspicuous number of pedestrians, with uncanny synchronicity, turned toward the bus and raised their middle finger.
Although one may have suspected that the collective finger wave was staged, choreographed, and orchestrated in advance, à la Improv Everywhere, the salutation was unplanned, liberating, and spontaneous. And if the gesture communicated contempt, there was no discernible resentfulness or reassignment on the face of the impromptu protesters. No morituri te salutant stares.The finger salute was just an innocuous, certainly futile and yet ironic act of defiance against the perceived aggressor. In a sense, there was nothing ironic about flipping the bird at the Great White Whale. There is little doubt that Google, Apple, Facebook and other corporations are the ruling powers of the digital age. If, in fact, these companies are the feudal dukes of the so-called Age of Fingers (the term digital comes from the Latin digitus, number, but also finger), then the gesture of the microserfs could be considered an acknowledgement. Yes, they do fully control those things at the end of our hands. And yes, we greet you with our finger.
But what if the partisans decided to go a step further? What if they opted to moon, instead? What if they lowered their pants and underpants, bent over, and exposed their bare buttocks at the passage of the Great White Whale? Our latest layout, Google Mooning celebrates such playful expression of resistance, scorn, and provocation. After all, as historian Angus McLaren wrote in The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930, "mooning', or exposing one's butt to shame an enemy [...] had a long pedigree in peasant culture" (1997: 186). The verb "mooning" has been in use since 1601 and the first documented act of this nature can be traced back to 66 AD. The practice became widespread in American universities thousand years later, in the turbolent 1960s .
Interestingly, in certain states (e.g. Maryland, 2006), mooning is not always sanctioned as a form of indecent exposure, but rather considered a form of artistic expression, that is, a performance piece. In others, it has become part of the folklore. In Laguna Niguel, California, for example, the mooning of the Amtrak trains has been dutifully performed since 1979.
One question: Now that the honeymoon with high-tech companies is over, will mooning at the Google buses become a new San Francisco rite of passage? A new ritual greeting?
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