The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is according to the book of genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar.

From biblical account, the great flood left a united generation of humanity, all speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar. They decided upon building a city with a tower, which would reach the heavens. God came down to see what the people had built and said “they are one people and have one language, and nothing will be withholden from them which they purpose to do.” So God said, “come, let us go down and confound their speech.” So God scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, and they left the off building the city, which was called Babel “because God there confounded the language of all the Earth.”

The Tower of Babel has often been associated with know structures, like the Etemenanki, a ziggurat which was dedicated to Marduk by Nabopolassar in 610 BC. The base of the great ziggurat was square, and measured 300ft in height, although it was demolished by Alexander the Great before his death in an attempt to rebuild it.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights was painted by the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch (1450 – 1516). The painting has been held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. The age when the painting was painted is between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was around 40 to 50 years of age. This is Bosch’s best know and most ambitious work, a masterpiece that reveals the artist at the height of his powers; in no other painting does he achieve such a complexity of meaning or such vivid imagery.

The triptych is painted in oil and has a square middle panel flanked by two rectangular wings that can close over the centre like shutters. The outer wings, when shut, display a painting of the earth during the creation. The three scenes inside the triptych are intended to be chronological from left to right. The left depicts God presenting Adam and Eve, while the central panel is a panorama of sexually engaged nude figures, animals, fruit and stone formations. The right panel is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation.

Art critics have interpreted this painting as a warning on the perils of life’s temptations. It has also been seen as a moral warning or a panorama of paradise lost.

The tree of knowledge (of good and evil)

In the book of genesis, the tree of knowledge sat in the middle of the Garden of Eden. God told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat the fruit of this tree. One day, a serpent came and tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, telling them that it would bestow them with wisdom. Eve then Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and they become aware of their nakedness, using leaves they covered themselves. After discovering their betrayal, God banished them from the Garden of Eden, making sure that they did not get to the tree of life, which would have made them immortal. God cursed both the snake and the ground, forcing Adam to survive through agriculture, meaning that he would have to work hard. He told Eve that her pains in childbirth would be greatly increased and that man would rule over her. God also placed guards at the east side of the Garden, making sure that the tree of life was protected from Adam and Eve, and their descendants. This left Adam and Eve who had been protected and loved in the Garden, to the harsh reality of the world and all its misgivings.

Lucid Dreams

Aurora Parrabellum was the name that would be whispered all the way through history. Half human, half angel, a product of a war between heaven and hell. A tormented creature that was forced into a life she did not choose, tainting herself to avoid the word of God. A word, which caused her unbelievable pain, acts of evil were the only relief for Aurora, being rewarded is the serenity of quite after committing them.

Aurora was sent to purgatory for her crimes but she finds away of escape. Using the dreams of artists she was able to escape, getting the artist to paint her, allowing her into our world. Returning to the world she decides to cause all sorts of trouble, blaming God for her own crimes and the prison he had given her. She decides that it is her destiny to overthrow Gods reign and destroy the balance between heaven and hell.

In Gage she had found a way to escape forever and to finally shift the balance to her side. He was the link in the chain that would sever her from God’s sight forever. This was the moment she had been waiting for and where my story begins.

The Tree of life

The whole concept of the tree of life is that the many branches illustrate the idea that all life on earth is connected. This has been used in many areas, from science, religion, philosophy and mythology. History has seen many religions and societies use the tree of life in their culture.

The ancient Egyptians called their tree of life Saosis , that they used to explain a tree in which life and death were enclosed. They also held the Sycamore as a holy tree, which stood at the threshold of life and death, connecting the two worlds.

Assyrians tree of life was represented by a series of nodes and criss-crossing lines. It was seen as an important religious symbol.

Baha’I Faith refers to the manifestation of God, a great teacher who appears to humanity from age to age. The concept has God as the roots and trunk of the tree and his followers as the branches and leaves.

In Chinese mythology the tree of life depicts a phoenix and a dragon; the dragon often represents immortality. A taiost story tells of a tree that produces a peach every three thousand years. The one who eats the peach will become immortal.

The Turner Prize 2010

The Turner Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding exhibition. Four artists are shortlisted and they present their work in a three-month exhibition at Tate Britain.

Dexter Dalwood has been nominated for his solo exhibition at Tate St Ives, which revealed the rich depth and range of his approach to making painting that draws upon historical tradition as well as contemporary cultural and political events. He is known for making paintings of famous places he’s never seen, making plausible suggestions of those iconic haunts, Dexter Dalwood pictures his own documentation of history.

Angela de la Cruz has been nominated for her solo exhibition, After at Camden Arts Centre, London. De la Cruz uses the language of painting and sculpture to create striking works that may represent the death of conventional paintings. Her paintings are more like a piece of sculpture escaping the realms of the canvas while braking down its boundaries.

Susan Philipsz has been nominated for the presentations of her work Lowlands at the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and Long Gone in the group exhibition Mirrors at the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Spain. Philipsz uses her own voice to create uniquely evocative sound installations that play upon and extend the poetics of specific, often out-of-the-way spaces.

The Otolith Group have been nominated for their project A Long Time Between Suns, which took the form of exhibitions at Gasworks and The Showroom, London with accompanying publication. The Otolith Group questions the nature of documentary history across time by using material found in its many varieties, in particular the moving image.

The fourth plinth

This year’s exhibition, held in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-fields church in Trafalgar Square has attracted a lot of attention, as the winner will grace the plinth during the 2012 Olympic games in London.

It’s a coveted privilege but it comes at a price. There are demands placed upon the sculpture: two essential criteria for the art is that it is attractive and interesting to look at and that it must convey a universal message which is relevant to contemporary society.

Proposals were shortlisted by judges for the 2012 commission are the best of the best, although almost all of them fulfil only one of the two requirements.

Katharina Frisch’s Hahn/Cock is a sculpture of a cockerel rendered in stunning ultramarine blue. This sculpture would bring vibrancy to the square with its otherwise drab colour scheme. The message for this piece is somewhat vague. It uses the cockerel as a symbol for regeneration, awakening and strength.

To contrast this, Brian Griffiths’ Battenberg is a huge cumbersome brick in the shape of this quintessentially British cake.

The only proposal that seems to fulfil all the criteria for the project is Allora and Calzadila’s untitled a.t.m organ. It’s a replica of an old fashioned pipe organ. If installed on the fourth plinth the organ will be linked to an a.t.m at the ground level, which when used by the general public, will trigger sounds of varying pitch and volume with each press of the a.t.m’s buttons.