Opus – Page 89 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Ndebele housing painting

In the 18th century the Ndzundza Ndebele people of South Africa created their own tradition and style of house painting. These Nguni people are very fierce warriors and large land owners. In the autumn of 1883, the Ndebele people went to war with the neighboring Boer farmers. The loss of the war brought on a harsh life and horrible punishments for the Ndebele. Through those hard times expressive symbols were generated by the suffering people expressing their grief. These symbols were the beginning of the African art known as Ndebele house paintings.

Piotr Kamler

Beginning in the 1960s, Polish-born animator Piotr Kamler created 10 films combining techniques of animation, stop-motion, and early CGI.

Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean. Several groups claim that the military base on Diego Garcia has been used by the U.S. government for transport of prisoners involved in the controversial extraordinary rendition program.

Carmine

Carmine is a pigment of a bright red color obtained from the carminic acid produced by some scale insects, such as the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for a particularly deep red color of the same name. Carmine is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, crimson ink, rouge, and other cosmetics, and is routinely added to food products such as yoghurt and certain brands of juice, most notably those of the ruby-red variety.

Julie d’Aubigny

Julie d'Aubigny was a 17th century swordswoman and opera singer. Her tumultuous career and flamboyant life were the subject of gossip and colorful stories in her own time, and inspired romances and novels afterwards. In the following years, d'Aubigny gathered a reputation as a wild woman who hit shopkeepers and fought duels with young aristocrats. She became involved with an assistant fencing master named Serannes. In about 1688, when lieutenant-general of the police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie tried to apprehend Serannes for killing a man in an illegal duel, the pair fled the city to Marseille. In Villeperdue she fought a victorious duel against three squires and drove her blade through the shoulder of one of them. Next day she asked for his health and found out he was Louis-Joseph d'Albert Luynes, son of the Duke of Luynes. Next evening one of his companions came to offer his apologies and she appeared in his room in female clothing. They became lovers.

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas is a painter.

Slaves of New York

Slaves of New York is a Merchant-Ivory movie. The film follows the lives of struggling artists in New York City during the mid-1980s.

El Croquis

El Croquis is one of the most prestigious architectural magazines in the world

Terra Australis

Terra Australis was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century.

Ed van der Elsken

Even though his cameras were ever-present, van der Elsken’s photos didn’t contain the least tinge of solipsism. It didn’t explore his personal identity - he was far more concerned with using his camera for documenting the social culture around him, especially the counterculture. His lenses captured the reckless, drug-taking bohemians in postwar Paris, the gruesome slaughter of hunted elephants in Africa, the demolition of Amsterdam’s looted and destroyed Jewish Quarter, segregation in South Africa under apartheid, jazz musicians onstage, and all forms of love - gender-bending, interracial and otherwise. He’s most famous for pictures shot in grainy, high-contrast black and white.