misarthropod

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sketching at the museum

prints available from June 9-16

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what if the solution to all your problems is to get really into the history of polar exploration. Have you tried that

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i think they shouldve taken me on a polar expedition not because i would be useful or especially resilient but because my preexisting mental health conditions would have made me an interesting wildcard

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there’s nothing wrong with me plus i don’t have any wants or needs plus i don’t feel or think at all

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Victor Frankenstein syndrome aka you spent nights over nights crying and bleeding over this work and now that it's finally done you're just like "nvm. it's trash" and go to bed

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what was i doing in my past lives to end up like this. just curious

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the obsession with twink death is so sad and weird I can't stand it. oh nooo he got fat and hairy... as if those aren't two of the hottest things you can be. get real!!!

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Murmur of Youth (Lin Cheng-sheng, 1997)

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No, Conclave (2024) does not have a train in it

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"i can't benefit from oppressive power structures, i'm literally nice :)" is a disturbingly common sentiment on here and if u express it then i can never trust u again

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museum wrapped 2025 - venice part one!

one of my friends joked about doing a museum wrapped so naturally i took it seriously and i'm gonna be writing down my thoughts about all the museums i visit this year. mainly for myself and for the whimsy, these are basically google maps reviews with some rambling in between

01. natural history museum in venice

i'd be surprised if anything tops this one by the end of the year. everything in this place reflects the endless appreciation and understanding the creator of the displays had for the subjects. in the meticulously arranged compositions of taxidermized organans, in atmospherically lit rooms with ambience and music to complete each one, in the use of shape and texture of the interiors to transport the visitor into a whole new world - i felt seen. the museum doesn't house the most impressive collection, but somebody looked at these objects and saw art. and it's better than anything i've ever seen before. i could spend hours in there sitting, sketching and being absolutely obsessed with the display choices. from organically-shaped labirynths in tan and beige made to house fossils, through framed cabinets full of oddities looking like a still life study, to the giant whale skeleton mounted on the ceiling so you have to pass underneath it - when i said i want immersive, this is what i meant. oh, and they have a sealed biosphere! always extra points for that. well, if we're looking at the cons - it was also unnervingly colonialist

02. ca' pesaro

usually, i'm not one for art museums. as it turns out, this stems from the way most exhibitions are composed of "whatever we have frantically slapped on the wall three centimiteres apart". i think ca' pesaro taught me that less is more when it comes to displaying visual art. the permanent exhibition consists of just a few rooms with no more than a few artpieces in each, and it's more than enough. so many museums oversaturate with tens of paintings crammed on one wall, just to show off everything? i don't know. a few rooms in an you're overstimulated, losing focus and getting vertigo from all the visuals you're bombarded with. here you get to focus on each and every one. at times, the works are displayed thematically rather than by period, or there is emphasis put on a specific aspect of the pieces in a room - shape, light, color, theme. this is something i wish we'd see more of, in terms of accessibility - guiding visitors towards noticing what's notable about a piece, comparing different techniques, viewing art through categories other than chronological. museums are for learning too, not just pretending you're cultured with a thoughtful expression! give people the tools cmon! i kinda ran through the temporary exhibition and the oriental art one since i wanted to catch a street performance, so not much to say on these. i barely even noticed the klimt, there were more interesting things in there.

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serious conclave review whaaaat?

i somehow watched this thing for the fourth time recently so let's get to it. i don't know jackshit about films so this is just me rambling.

the visuals might be my favourite aspect of this whole ordeal. we're currently dealing with an epidemic of washed out beige and fuckass gradients in the colour schemes of hollywood movies so a balanced high contrast palette is such a welcome change. it reminds me of technicolor if it had been put through a few washing cycles, which is surprisingly nice because combined with the static camera work i feel like i'm watching a two hour long fresco (or a caravaggio painting at times with all the chiaroscuro). the overall moodiness and darkness is not excessive and fits in with the intimate, backstage-ish vibes of the movie. the aesthetics of catholicism are utilised to their maximum potential especially with the group scenes making use of the uniform red mass of cardinals. one thing that i'm SO GLAD exists in conclave is the attempts at double-meaning and symbolism through visuals, light, even still shots of artwork, which is something i love but don't really see much in modern mainstream cinema. worth a watch if only because of how beautiful it looks.

i'm still undecided if conclave was /supposed/ to be commentary on a more general political situation (and i certainly hope it was not!) or just the vatican. for me it works better with a more intimate reading, especially if we assume the direct pov of dean lawrence. the characters are not necessarily explored in depth but their humanity shines through and saves them from being flanderised archetypes. well, mostly - the polish bishop being a rambling alcoholic is still not forgiven :p. the movie, despite being a (lukewarm) critique of the church, approaches faith with a degree of nuance and grace but dances around it making it appear vague and ungraspable. i wish they'd gone more vulnerable and personal. the acting is good and the casting is great - all of these men could believably be priests. it never touches on the deeper problems with the whole institution of the church and in my opinion would benefit from focusing less on the big picture and teaching some moral lesson and more on the intricate web of connections within the vatican walls, the story itself presented in a more naturalistic light. the ending could only be heart-warming and hopeful but still paints the catholic church as easily redeemable with systematic solutions. which is not the case.

extremely enjoyable if you watch it as mean girls with priests but has its failures as a "serious" movie. 10/10 would recommend

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song of songs / signorini - la sala delle agitate al bonifacio di firenze / mitski - francis forever / nefretiti and akhenaten / the mountain goats - you or your memory / guidi - cielo antico / the mountain goats - broom people

february clippingns

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i think the misunderstanding with writing bilingual/multilingual people is that we DO mix languages, but not in english. i absolutely will use a horrible mixture of any language i know when talking in polish. however when i speak english i speak english, period.