Turner Prize Hopefuls

A shortlist of the contenders of this year's Turner Prize. Click here.

Satrun's Moons

"Mimas appears to hover above the colourful rings. The large crater seen on the right side of the moon is named after William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789." From the Daily Mail.

See more images of Saturn and its moons.

Jim Romano: The Tabloid Photographer

"Since 1946, Mr. Romano, now 80, has chased news on Staten Island for The Daily News, The New York Post, and other papers." From the New York Times.

Audio slide show.

Cypriot Mother Goddess

"This simply formed and elaborately decorated nursing female probably represents a Cypriot mother goddess. Her facial features (including ears pierced for added earrings) and her limbs, breasts, and navel (?) are rudimentarily indicated. Bands of incisions suggest necklaces encircling her neck and patterns on her long, sheath-like garment. In her arms she holds an elaborate cradle containing an infant who suckles from her left breast." From The Oriental Institute.

The Oriental Institute.

John Coffer

"THERE are those who, on hearing that the tintype photographer John A. Coffer lives without car, phone or plumbing, might call him a Luddite. This, he insists, is not true — for one thing, he has a computer. He even has a computer room. The walls are bales of hay, the roof is tin, and the power source is a 75-watt solar panel outside in the pasture. Mr. Coffer, who lives on a 48-acre farm in the Finger Lakes, built his computer room in March. It’s lasted nicely through heavy rains and if it falls apart, Mr. Coffer says, no matter: He’s invested all of $15 in it." From the New York Times.

John Coffer's web site.
New York Times article.
YouTube video.

Seeds

"These strange alien structures are among the seeds and pollen conserved at the Kew Millennium Seed Bank. Seeds from more than 10% of the world's flowering plants – around 30,000 species – have been collected in the decade since the bank was established." From the Guardian.

Shown: Seed of Castilleja flower, popularly known as Indian paintbrush or prairie-fire.

More images from the Guardian.
Kew Millennium Seed Bank.

Precolumbian Serpent

"This ornament was probably worn on ceremonial occasions as a pectoral (an ornament worn on the chest). It is carved in wood and covered with turquoise mosaic. The eye sockets were probably inlaid with iron pyrites and shell. Red and white shell was used to add details to the nose and mouth of both serpent heads. The mosaic work covers both sides of the serpents' heads. " From Precolumbian Jade.

More Precolumbian masks and artifacts.

Miyako Festivals

The Miyako Nenju Gyoji Gajo (Picture Album of Annual Festivals in the Miyako) is a 2-volume work, delicately hand-painted on silk by Nakajima Soyo in 1928 and available online [thumbnails] among the Nichibunken databases at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto.

View images.

Andy Goldsworthy

"Goldsworthy regards all his creations as transient, or ephemeral. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever comes to hand: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns." From morning-earth.org.

Images and artist quotes.

Butrint

"Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city and a bishopric. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages after marshes formed in the area. The present archaeological site is a repository of ruins representing each period in the city’s development." From UNESCO.

UNESCO website of Butrint.
BBC article on Butrnt.
Albanian Archaeological website.

Alastair Heseltine

"I am a sculptor working with mixed media relating to the environment. Imagery is guided by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play. I also draw from the full spectrum of routines and activities that support my practice: Design, craft production, farming and rural life. " Artist statement.

Click here for Heseltine's website.

Carol Hummel, "Tree Cozy"

"The focus of my work in recent years has been on personal awareness, potential and choice as well as the forces and situations that attempt to demean, control, manipulate and destroy. Contradictions -- comfort vs. confinement, pain vs. pleasure, freedom vs. restriction – dwell within my pieces as reminders that things are not always as they appear to be and making choices independently of external determining forces is essential to living." Artist statement.

Click here for Hummel's website.