Tuesday, November 6, 2007

During World War


Such relates the words struck at the base of this relief I discovered opposite the Spanish synagogue in the centre of Praha. A sphinx with its hand-claw nudges men towards a sword surmounted with branches in its right hand. The men appear encouraged to climb the blade to reach some sort of blossoming. Its eyes , wide, glaring and oriental survey a space beyond its frieze-captured duty.
It represents WW1 and probably dates from the early 1920s

9 comments:

Jake Kotze said...

What do you think are the stripes on the Nemes? Snake markings, Lions Mane, Solar Rays, Zebra Stripes??

realm said...

Creepy, really F-ing creepy.

David said...

Fantastic. And I say that as a man having to live every day in the shadow of the Hyde Park Pyramid.

aferrismoon said...

JK-if the striped design of original nemes was meant to represent something , perhaps a ladder, which were how the gods in early dynasties climbed up to heaven.
yebra stripes, maybe, but they're a herd animal , maybe a night-day representation. Something from another kingdom.or world, binary. Quite like Solar [or Sol-ra] rays.
I didn't know they were called Nemes , is the plural nemesis?
Josh- creepy , yes, also odd, what's it trying to say and who commissioned it.
David - well at least this is fairly discreet, but the whole centre of Prague is dominated by this imagery, ahotch-potch of Catholic victory statues/ massive cathedrals interspersed with Art Nouveau and Deco oddments, and crass advertising.
The frieze made in the 20s reminds me that Art Deco takes heavy influence from Egyptian Art, with the opening of the pyramids, its influence communicating through the designers hands. Opening graves etc,.influential business

aferrismoon said...

Noticing a lot of HPs
Hoi Polloi, Hyde Park, HP Lovecraft, Harry Potter

Newspaceman said...

Houses of Parliament, on 5th.

Guy Fox ?

The skeleton clock photo you showed a while back was on the news last night.

cheers

aferrismoon said...

Cheers News, the Tod Reise - its funny that Tod means death in German but is also another word for Fox
HP Sauce, hot and spicy, Guido Fox
Any chance you remember the story with the Skeleton or Death clock, which comes from the present Pope's hometown , or home diocese
Hewlett Packard

Newspaceman said...

The gun running story on the BBC. We saw some architecture and the clock to start.

sorry about the name drop. Was a poor attempt at humour.

cheers

aferrismoon said...

News [ I was just furthering the name game as in being guided by the fox
All the best