Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Another Eye


Remember the utility box I blogged a few days ago -- the one with two eyes? Well, I was walking Olga yesterday and realized that the reverse side also features a big single eye. Would I have recognized it as an eye if I hadn't seen the others, though? Being alone, it has no context and seems more like an abstraction.

I'm reminded of that oft-repeated phrase from "The Handmaid's Tale": Under his eye.

Kind of creepy.

A quiet day around here yesterday. I read, I walked the dog. I framed and hung some pictures, including the ones I got for donating to preserve Prospect Cottage, the former home and garden of filmmaker Derek Jarman in Dungeness. (In addition to the pink image of the house I showed you in that post, I have a photo of the garden taken when Jarman was alive, showing his gardening overalls blowing on the clothesline.) I used one of my found Ikea frames from the Morocco pictures, as well as a glass borderless clip frame I found many years ago and tucked away in a closet.

In the clip frame were these:


Eight identical postcards from the V&A Museum featuring a photo by John Cowan taken at Buckingham Palace in 1961. It's a great picture, but it's even more hypnotic reproduced eight times over, isn't it? Anyway, now I have all these postcards. They're in mint condition despite sitting in a closet for the last five years, so if you'd like one drop me an e-mail with your name and address*. First seven people to request one will get a card! (I'm keeping one myself.)

*edited to remove my e-mail address for archival purposes

36 comments:

  1. I see what you mean about the postcards being hypnotic and it slightly sad to separate them.

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    1. They do make a statement as a group, don't they?!

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  2. Those postcards would have been difficult for me to break up. You’re right about the repeated image.

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    1. They've been framed in a closet all this time. Maybe I should have hung them up!

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  3. The more I look at it the stranger it becomes. And I've just spent several minutes examining the precise positions of all the limbs just to make sure it's not a stop motion animation.

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    1. Ha! It DOES look like stop-motion at first glance.

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  4. Nice to share, but I agree, breaking them up seems sad. It's a strange image.

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    1. The shadows are very dramatic, and I love the pattern of the woman's dress against the fencing.

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  5. I'd frame them all together. The repeated image is striking, implying there's movement when there really isn't.

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    1. They were already framed all together and now I've reused the frame. I guess I could buy another one!

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  6. I'd have framed them together too...a bit mesmerizing for me.

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  7. Yes, as per other comments - frame them together perhaps. The eye is interesting - not sure I'd have 'seen' it that way too - but once you have, it can't be changed.

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    1. It's definitely an eye, but better in pairs, I think.

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  8. I wonder how many shots the photographer took before getting THAT one. Wow!

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    1. I wonder if he staged it? Or do you think this woman was just randomly clowning around, mimicking the marching guards? I wonder if he knew her?

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  9. I think I would just use them. Just write a quick note and send them off to family and friends. No one gets personal mail via the post anymore and on the rare occasion it happens it's a fun surprise.

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  10. Post cards are such great ideas and I've enjoyed every single one I ever got but I haven't sent or received one in probably three decades. I wish they would come back in style.

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    1. It's a shame, isn't it? It was always exciting to get a postcard back in the day.

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  11. Why would anyone go around drawing eyes on things. I guess it takes all kinds! Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.

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  12. I would be tempted to rearrange the post cards to prance around the edge of a rectangle.

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    1. Hmmmm...like a border? That's an interesting idea.

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  13. I guessed the 1960's when I first saw that photo(s). It has that look. I also would not have recognized the eye all by itself.

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  14. That is such an interesting photo. Yes, definitely hypnotic.

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    1. Funny how a single image reproduced can have that effect.

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  15. Individually the cars are - striking and cool. together they are dramatic, a statement, wonderfully engaging. Keeping them together is far more interesting than individual cards don't you think?
    Good eye sight, finding Olga's tag!

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    1. Yeah, maybe as others suggested above I'll put them back in their own frame. (No one took me up on the postcard offer so I still have them all, LOL!)

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  16. You Are Still Rocking The AOL Email??? Vintage

    Cheers
    P.S. Olga Girl Is In Need Of An Uncle T Treat Under The Preferred Pink Blanket

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    1. I haven't changed my e-mail address since I got this one in 1995!

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  17. I agree with those who think it's a shame to break them up. It's a great image, but more dramatic as a group.

    It's been decades since I read The Handmaid's Tale. I've forgotten a lot about it.

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    1. I read it recently as a result of watching the TV show. The show is very faithful to the book, at least in the first season.

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  18. I think she's mocking the Beefeaters. Or perhaps she's drunk too much Beefeaters. Or both.

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