Saturday, February 21, 2009

something strange for your Sunday

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"The most celebrated body of work by Lam Qua is the impressive collection of portraits, commissioned by Peter Parker in the 1830's, of patients at the Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities. These startling and somewhat gruesome paintings of pathological subject matter are unsettling to the viewer. One of the most noticeable aspects of each portrait is the expressionless look on the subjects' face. The lack of emotion turns the viewer's eye from the subjects' face to their pathology, or illness. Each subject appears to express neither pain nor sadness and serves as a testament to the human spirit in the face of physical adversity."

You can browse the collection here.

A little Francis Bacon-esque, no?

The placid expressions are not so much a "testament to the human spirit" as they are just inadvertently creepy...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is strange but still beautiful.

in other not strange but still beautiful news, i love your photos for jasmin's hats. so pretty!!

i got a new wig - are you still wearing them? this one would be cute on you. also it's by MOTOWN wigs, haha.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/verhext/3289681632/

sneaky!!!

i hope you are doing better from your posts last week. the world needs more kaylin.

kaylin andres said...

oh yes, still wearing wigs when I feel well enough to go out. I think I have 4 or 5 now, officially making me a master of disguise :)