The Travelling Cabinet of Curiosity

  Did  I ever   tell you  AB out
  the   day C oun  t  Muld ivo  ( The Not Quite Right )  sent  his
 ca ca cabinet
ex tra  ord  in airrre on a little trip   to  Schloss  Ambras
T   he  Palatial Pad     of             Ferdinand   of   Tyrol   ,
Charles V' s brother     and    Rudolph's uncle

I   can   hear  the chatt chat chatter of their prognostic lower bites as I type
as if    it    were       only     yesterday   but   it was   in fact  1572

The Holy Roman Emperors were always such a laugh

The Travelling Cabinet

 Just   I M  agine     the sounds the cabinet  made
on such   a long and arduous   jour   ney
The   creak   and clattle   of   skeletal     L e  gs
T H e  W hir  and Tick  ToCk Tic kle  of  CloCk Work
Orchestrated  by  my  g  OOd  friends the Clockwork Moths,
the Prey ing Man tis  and the Little  Monkey  fellow who does
what he doosssses    best

The Clockwork Machinations

the Grumpy grump Grunts of the nippleless Echidna , daughter of Tartarus and  Gaia, keeper of the Crystal Ball of Facial Indiscretion

Echidna By the Sea

and  the No  Nonsense
          chit   chat Chunter  of the Arma Dillo

Distinctly Armadillo

The Fruit Bat skeleton      l oo ks    on  and will reveal her secrets      s   oon   enough
Suffice it to say it involves the Clockwork moths and a jar of strawberry jam


Never Not Almost but    never     to forget

Dapper Sylvester   the dancing Starfish and his troupe

of Moa    Bone     Ball erinas

Sylvester Starfish and the Moa Bones

Ed  itors     Note   to the Assistant Editor  :

Any   illusions  to allusions is  strict ly

Co  inci  dental 

You can see more of The Cabinet of Curiosities

on Paul Biddle's web-site by clicking below

https://paulbiddle.com

 

My New Web-Site is Finished

I      have   to    ad mit

I      am     really    rather        pleased

with   my new   web-site             it    is  at    last    finished

and   I have    tooo say    I am     sooo    proud of it

I    even    get   to   dress as   an   Armadillo when  I  maintrain it

 

My New Armadillo Suit

 You   can   even buy     my    limited  edition prints 

 

a   nd       Posters     toooooo

  

 

Even  a    set   of AR t      Postcards

 

 

A L L    with the     c  li   ck     of      a     M ou se

 

A  RM A di l lo  Ma n     says  in  an     E L V I S   voice

I '  m        al l      E   C o m m erced        U   p

ISN'T  tech no   logy        MA  rve ll ous

https://paulbiddle.com

Biddle Banners exhibited in Seoul, South Korea

I'm    really      pleased to be participating in the Chungmuro Photo Festival in 

Seoul, South Korea.

Here are some of my pictures printed to 2 metres x 3 metres.

 Wish I could be there see them :-)

Such a nice idea to present a photographic exhibition like this outside in the street amongst all the

 hustle and bustle and   Life

Paul Biddle photographs in Seoul

 

https://paulbiddle.com

T h e C a b i n e t o f C u r i o s i t i e s

The C a bin et of Curios ities

C u r    C u r i o     C u r i o u s   C u r i o s i t y

A c c o r d i n g  to  Wikipedia  and  friends

"A cab i net of curio s ities      was an encyclopaedic collection in R e n a i s s a n c e   Europe

 of

 types of objects whose categorial boundaries were yet to be defined.

They were also known by various names such as Cab inet of Wonder, 

 and in German
 Kunstkammer ("art-room") or
Wunderkammer ("wonder-room").  

 Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to N A T U R A L   H i s t o r y - and    r a t h e r    d e l i ciously (sometimes faked), also known as J ennyes 

Paul Biddles' Cabinet of Wonder

 

E N T E R   The  L o a f  of   B r e a d   F r u i t  complete with feathers dog biscuits and replete with Bishops Tu Tu

"The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world,
 and a memory theater.  This I yam very interested by
The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture

The Kunstkammer  provided a solace and retreat for contem plation or a collection, with a special emphasis on paintings of people with interesting deformities - enter The Queen of Nipples in Paul Biddles Cabinet and also Quentin Massys Queen of Tunis or Naples - not to forget Leonardo’s earlier drawing of a Grotesque   - all t h r e e appear to be wearing what I can only describe as a    Bull et Brass iere

The Queen of Nipples

You can see Leonardo's wonderful drawing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grotesque_Head.jpg 

 

wondrously small clock work automata - such as the Do Do you see before your very eyes   ethnographic specimens of delight   strangely reminiscent of tinned fruit on Sunday Afternoons
"antlers,  horns, claws,    feathers and other unmentionable things belonging to

 strange and curious animals"

The Mermaid of Prague

You can    see    more

of the new series  C a b i n e t   o f   C u r i o s i t i e s

https://paulbiddle.com

Showcase of the Fine Art Photography of Paul Biddle

Most years I get a few photography students getting in touch and asking if they can do a critique or presentation of my work as part of their college course.

I received an email from Debra Curran who is a photography student currently studying The History of Photography. One of the course requirements is to create a showcase about the work of a contemporary photographer, and fortunately for me she chose to use my work.

She sent me several questions about my images and I answered them by email.

There have been some great presentations over the years but Debra’s showcase stands head and shoulders over the rest.

You can even make your own comments on the images.

Thanks for the great presentation, Debra. It made me feel like a proper photographer.

Please click on the link and have a look at what she has created.

You can click on an image or text to zoom and see more detail. 

http://voicethread.com/share/3033905/ 

The Dilemma of Florists

The Dilemma of Florists, Flowers and General Shrubbery OBE

Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to my studio today and the following words issued forth as Word Clouds    Cumulus Conundrums

Imagine My Surprise

Angiosperms, Reproductive Organ Grinding, Gymnosperms, and other seed-producing plants, Parthenocarpy, and vegetative means, 

Angiosperms Having Fun

 

I immediately turned to Aunty Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, for some comforting advice :

Aunty Wiki's Book of Tulips

“A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. . Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. 

Mr Mark The Pollinator General

Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.”

The Lobster that mistook herself for a Florist

My initial response was to Blush and Blame

Tick Tock

Seeds doing what they do Best

The Florists of Desire must be responsible for this outrageous trafikking  in 

petals, sepals   Stigmatas and stamens and a few of my favourite things

Floristry is the general term used to describe production, commerce and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design or flower arranging and     unspeakable things with Bouquets

What exactly is the  transfer of pollen  ?

Fig 272.   Insert The Butterfly Boys

The Transfer of Pollen

Editors' Note :

Apologies to the Gymnosperms, and other seed-producing Potentates.

Any reference to Floristry and my friend Madame Lobster is purely Fic  titious 

https://paulbiddle.com

Happy Polaroid Accidents

Quite a few years and possibly many of your Moons ago, this image White Tulips

 won the Polaroid European Final Art Awards - colour print section

White Tulips

I should own up and say, I won it by default 

How it happened - I shot the image on 4”x 5” Polaroid Type 55 film

and to be honest I didn’t rate the image at all and filed it under

 Failures / sub-section - Never to be seen again.

Then I forgot about it.

Luckily an unprocessed Polaroid from the shoot fell down behind a bench in my incredibly damp 

darkroom.

When I say incredibly damp - think Troglodyte existence,

imagine mould spores mutating and meandering up the walls

Geologically, my darkroom provided a tunnel or escape route directly to Hades

Cathedral-like vaults full of stalactites and stalagmites, majestic curtains and surreal rock formations, and even a resident Hermit

In short a damp and smelly darkroom

The Polaroid festered there for a few years

from the Cretaceous Period to the Carboniferous

And then on one of those rare ‘Let’s clean the Darkroom’ days

I found the unprocessed Polaroid deep down in Hades growing and mutating some

unspeakable things

I gingerly picked it up and carried it out to the Light

and promptly forgot about it again

Then I processed it and low and behold the damp of ages had performed a miracle

it had degraded the image and added some interesting blemishes and Serious Stains

I found  myself in a      (position of Quite Liking it)

I scanned the negative, tinted it, made a print and sent it poste haste to Polaroid
and they liked it too.

I do miss Polaroid

https://paulbiddle.com