Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Like a spider on the ceiling

photo: Le style et la matière

Seen in a waiting room for guided tours at the château of Versailles. 
Did that just happen - or did the designer do it on purpose? The spider is the very symbol of waiting. Happily, not one visitor was wrapped up as a meal before, during or after the tour.

Man Ray
No arachnophobe, but I'm not always completely relaxed around these creatures. 

nusch eluard par man ray
It's largely a question of their size, pilosity and proximity. 


late Victorian brooch from Pinterest

chanel brooch

monster Spider, sometimes called Maman by Louise Bourgeois
source
I can nonetheless appreciate what their form inspires in art 

Gallé vase Pinterest


Woodcut illustrations by GW Dijsselhoffrom
BibliOdyssey

Victorian purse Pinterest


Gareth Pugh
and very definitely, their own woven art form and its imitations.

black sprite flowers
There are spider-like flowers

golden orb spider posing as a flower
and flower-like spiders.

Odilon Redon
What are you, my friend?

odilon redon
"Why, just that, your friend," she grinned.

Bruno Freire ignat
Have you seen?
There seems to be a greater appreciation

Erik Griffioen Ragno
of arachnian geometry recently -

Romain Duclos Mini Ragno

and of the intricacies

© Studio Bouroullec
lighting in the escalier Gabriel
palais de Versailles
and ingenious harmony of their webs.

Friend or foe, it's their season now. They come in to warm their legs.
Everyone tells me that a house with spiders is a healthy house.
Shouldn't we celebrate?!


Pinterest photos here

9 comments:

  1. I'm afraid I have the (normal) distaste of the beasts but don't kill if they are in the house – which they are. Having been bitten by spiders and watched how the poison spread, my flesh eaten, and how ill I was, I wonder sometimes how un-phased I am by them. That all sounds very dramatic but I'm talking about an area of about five centimetres wide.

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    1. I don't think I would have your phlegm with such an experience! Did you have any treatment? This post was actually to prepare me for a week in the country where mes copines (as my husband calls them) are busy at work decorating for Halloween.

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  2. I don't mind spiders as long as they are not venomous. Where I I've there are brown recluse and black widow spiders which gotta go, but I love the little black velvet ones, the orbs and my garden spiders. Haven't seen all the styles and furniture like spiders.

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    1. Help, I realise that I'm not very good in spider identification! Some are fascinating and others are creepy, but their decorative value is solid.

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  3. My house must be very healthy then! We even have black widows and tarantulas. I much prefer them on handbags and in flower forms. Great post tho'!

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    1. Black widows and tarantulas doesn't sound healthy to me!! I agree about the handbags and flowers and the webs - prettiest outside, naturally.

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    2. Our own tarantula is framed with glass over it!

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  4. Well, I must have an extremely healthy house as these little critters are everywhere lately! I dare not destroy them but just trap and carry them to the outside world where they can set up shop there, in a tree. Not only are seemingly everywhere indoors right now, but I'm constantly removing them from the corners of window panes and around the door frames outside, and from under the balcony where they spin huge webs. Just yesterday, I also noticed that there are many more webs appearing almost daily on the bushes by my garage door where it is windy and all manner of little bits of debris is captured within these webs.

    We too enjoyed one of Louise Bourgeois' spiders in San Francisco a couple of years ago, by the ferry building on the waterfront. It was quite a sight I can tell you!

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    1. It's amazing how they are everywhere and how many varieties there are. I - or someone in the family - transfers them outside here in the apt, but in the country house, I admit to vacuuming them. There are just too many in a house that stays empty for 3 weeks at at time.

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