no ears to prick up, no mouth to utter

No ears to prick up, no mouth to utter

Designs for bird balaclavas, preventing the wearer from both hearing and speaking properly.

cast all your care upon god

Ring for tagging a goose's foot. Created by Jack Miner in the early 20th C.

Keep yourselves in the love of God — Jude 1-21
With God all things are possible — Mark 10-27
I walk among you — Lev. 26:12
Ye must obey God — Acts 5:29
Let us consider one another — Heb. 10:24
Have faith in God — Mark 11:22

black light

Claude Glass. Photo: V & A

The gloomy Claude glass is a convex blackened mirror designed in the 18th century to aid artists and tourists to create landscape paintings. They would turn their back away from the landscape and instead view it in the mirror, which would present a vast scene in a more manageable size whilst also subtly harmonising the tonal values of the view.

Claude Lorrain (1600-82) was a leading 17th-century landscape painter who worked in Rome and became famous for drawings and paintings displaying a subtle gradation of tones. His work became immensely popular in England in the 18th century. The Reverend William Gilpin, an amateur artist, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, 'they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master'.

birds eye drawings

From our apartment window. Photos by SB.

i wish i had seen this but i was lying on the sofa in the warm

More good work from my Berlin partner, SB. This boy takes nice photos.

bleakly, darkly, romanticly berlin

New Year's dual effort: LR & SB

characterless

'The whisper is essential, because the full human voice is too idiosyncratic, too marked with its own history. I'm looking for anonymity so the purity of the object won't be blocked from coming through, from displaying itself in its nakedness. A whisper has no character.'

Siri Hustvedt, The Blindfold

the owl and the birds

Barn owl flying upwards into darkness. Still from video © RSPB

'An Owl, in her wisdom, counseled the Birds that when the acorn first began to sprout, to pull it all up out of the ground and not allow it to grow. She said acorns would produce mistletoe, from which an irremediable poison, the bird- lime, would be extracted and by which they would be captured. The Owl next advised them to pluck up the seed of the flax, which men had sown, as it was a plant which boded no good to them. And, lastly, the Owl, seeing an archer approach, predicted that this man, being on foot, would contrive darts armed with feathers which would fly faster than the wings of the Birds themselves. The Birds gave no credence to these warning words, but considered the Owl to be beside herself and said that she was mad. But afterwards, finding her words were true, they wondered at her knowledge and deemed her to be the wisest of birds. Hence it is that when she appears they look to her as knowing all things, while she no longer gives them advice, but in solitude laments their past folly.'

An Aesop's Fable, translated by George Fyler Townsend

of silent flight

African eagle owl feather, magnified x 150. Image © Paolo Taranto

'Some of our birds fly in a way which makes them unmistakable. One of them is the Lapwing or Green Plover, whose flapping quickly identifies it. The silent flight of the owl is almost always a clue; their extremely soft feathers make them silent as they wing their way through the air. In contrast to the owls the swans beat through the air with a whistling sound you can never forget. Once you've heard a swan in flight you will always remember it.'

Spotting Birds, Jaroslav Spirhanzl Duris & Edmund Burke, Hamlyn, 1975.

There seem to be some links back to this post…

postscript

Skirr has been ear-marked to be removed from the dictionary. As Rebecca, one of the organisers of The Art of Lost Words says: 'it has a special significance - like a threatened species - your work might help save it.'

Somehow, this seems significant.

the art of lost words

I've been invited to make some work for a show at text/gallery.

My word is:

skirr
n. a whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight.

See below for more information.

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The Art of Lost Words
6-10 March 2009 at The German Gymnasium, London

What happens to forgotten words - lost in language's landfill while the world sweeps on in pursuit of new phrases? For the space of one week they'll be exhumed, recycled into objects of beauty and sold off in a charity exhibition.

We're inviting graphic designers and illustrators to choose from a set of the dictionary's most intriguing but forgotten words and produce a work inspired by their choice.

All proceeds from the sale of work will go towards the National Literacy Trust, helping to enable disadvantaged children to choose and keep free books.

Participants:Tim Garnham / Angus Hyland / Andy Altmann / Geoff Grandfield / Sue Doggett / Calum Storrie / Jonathan Ellery / Andreas Pohancenik / Mark Webber / Ceri Amphlett / NB: Studio / Freda Sack / Daniel Pudles / Anja Fink + Thomas Manss / Marian Bantjes / Lisa Sjukur / Lara Harwood / Lila Szagun / Michael Johnson / Sam Winston / Andy Smith / No Days Off / David Pearson / Spyros Zevelakis / Mike Dempsey / Henk Lamers + Jeanne de Bont / Viviane Schwartz / Audrey Niffenegger / Tony Brook / Kate Gibb / Marion Deuchars / Michael C Place + Build / Roger Fawcett Tang / David Quay / Alan Kitching / Lizzie Ridout / Hyperkit / Sam Messenger