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Friday, May 29, 2009
Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks on You?
Image: Doron
What is 13 stories high, has 3,500 steps and is 100 feet deep? Right, this well, but do you believe it exists as shown in the photograph? Or has the symmetry been achieved with a little help from Photoshop? Not sure? We looked at it as if it were one of those wacky 3D-images and still weren’t sure. Read on for more details…
It is real! The image shows Chand Baori, a stepwell in Abhaneri, Rajasthan, close to Jaipur. It was built in the 9th century by Raja Chand, a rajput of the ruling Chamana Dynasty at the time, to solve the water problem of this arid region. Locals had to dig almost 30 m (100 feet) deep to find a dependable water source.
Feel reminded of M.C. Escher’s lithograph “Relativity” (1953)? We did too!
Image: Justin Foote
These kinds of deep, square wells with steps leading down can be found all over India, especially in the dry west. An adjoining temple and often elaborate designs are common, built in honour of the gods who are supposed to protect the crucial water source.
According to a local legend, the well was built in one night by ghosts and contains this many steps so that anyone who throws a coin in the well cannot retrieve it easily. More likely, the legend of the ghosts was created to keep thieves out who wanted to steal the precious water.
The back of Chand Baori with the temple, overlooking the stepwell:
Image: Pablo Nicolás Taibi Cicaré
The stepwell in Abhaneri village is one of the most spectacular ones and featured prominently in the movie The Fall (2008), when actors danced on each platform connecting two sets of steps.
Because water supply is much better and much more reliable now than eleven centuries ago, the well is now defunct, proven by the green mat of algae that has formed on top of the water.
For those who are still not fully convinced that no photoshopping was involved, here’s a 360-degree-view of Chand Baori with the temple:
Top Pedestrian Crosswalk Artworks
Artist Peter Gibson --aka Roadsworth, often referred to as Canada’s own Banksy-- creates fascinating artworks over pedestrian crosswalks. A direct response to what he calls the ‘car culture‘ that has gotten him into trouble with the law --he was arrested and charged with 53 counts of mischief--, he began painting the streets of Montreal in the fall of 2001 and received almost universal praise from the public for questioning the impact of our dependency on automobiles on society. Meet some of his finest works.
Top 10 Fascinating Art Installations
1. Banksy’s Telephone Booth
To parody the decline of the famous LondonTelephone Booths, infamous British guerilla artist Bangksy puts an axe through this one.
2. Reymond's Real Life Transformer
One of the most famous works of french artist Guillaume Reymond, this series of performances, "TRANSFORMERS", brings together different types of vehicles, gathering them according to a precise choreography, and creating what looks from the sky like gigantic robots.
3. Dougherty's Branchworks
4. Havel's Tunnel House
Houston artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck turned them into an art installation known as ‘Inversion.’ Using boards from the outside of the houses they created a large funnel-like vortex running between the two that ends in a small hole in an adjacent courtyard. It’s a cool effect particularly for those who always wanted to experience a black hole without the whole ‘being crushed to a quantum singularity’ end result.
5. Azevedo's Ice Sculptures of Melting Men
6. Mortimer's Public Prayer Booth
Combining a telephone booth and a prayer station, Kansas City-based artist Dylan Mortimer created this installation called "Public Prayer Booth". If you ever came across one, you can pull down the kneeler and pray on the spot.
7. Broecker's Drink Away the Art
Drinking in the name of art... what can be better? On this "interactive art" installation by Hannes Broecker, museum goers are invited to pick up a glass and take a drink of a variety of cocktails in the container.
8. Salcedo's Chair Building
This amazing art installation was made by Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo for the International Instanbul Biennale in 2003. She used over 1,550 chairs stacked on an empty lot between two buildings.
9. Verdonck's Giant Nest
Belgian artist Benjamin Verdonck created a nest on the Rotterdam Weena Tower and stayed there for a while, on an installation called "the Great Swallow".
10. Lerner's Traffic Flow Panels
This interactive art installation in Munich was created by artist Markus Lerner for Osram, Germany. The interactive panels react to the flow of the passing traffic. It is interesting to see how the artist has used the passing traffic as an influencing input of the artwork, but the feedback appears to be very subtle. See video of installation in action below.
10 Misspelled Tattoos
Nothing says forever like a misspelled tattoo
And he'll juge your spelling
Possibly the most famous misspelled tattoo. Instead of Chi-Town as the man requested, he got "Chi-Tonw". He later sued the tattoo artist.
Does he means the spelling system?
You're ambelievable!
Tomarrow never knows how to spell tomorrow right
Can you spot the three misspellings?
ANSWER: freinds, straind, surley
CNN reported that Joseph Beahm paid $100 for this tattoo, which was supposed to read “Why Not, Everyone Else Does”. Instead it came out as, "Why Not, Everyone Elese Does." He sued the tattoo parlor to pay for his laser surgery.
Don't know if this is Comedy or... Tradgey
To bad you don't own a dictionary
Your alive? No, sir, that's my alive. Give it back!
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