history

“History” – Robert Lowell

History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had—
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic,
his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire,
his baby crying all night like a new machine.
As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory,
the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter’s moon ascends—
a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes,
my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull’s no-nose—
O there’s a terrifying innocence in my face
drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost.

25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

25th years ago on 9th November 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. It had been one of the icons of the Cold War, the barrier that divided the socialism of East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin for nearly 40 years!

Take a look at a collection of photographs documents the Berlin Wall and its art before and after it’s fall.

Red Dope on Rabbits, 1984

Elephant Key on the Berlin Wall, 1984.

View from the West Berlin side of graffiti art on the wall in 1986.

A view of a section of the Berlin Wall in 1988 showing an abandoned building on the East Berlin side, 1988.

Graffiti art on Berlin Wall by Thierry Noir, 1980s

Thierry Noir at work on the Berlin Wall, 1980s.

Section of Keith Haring’s mural Berlin Wall 1986 Photograph: http://www.kuzdas.eu © Heinz J. Kuzdas

Days before the Berlin Wall is torn down, Germans gather at the wall, 1989.

November 9, 1989: Celebration at the Brandenburg Gate

Demonstrators pull down a segment of the Berlin wall at Brandenburg gate in November 1989

Fall of the Berlin Wall. West Berlin, November 9, 1989.

West Germans celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 11, 1989.

Graffiti art on Berlin Wall after the fall.

Graffiti on Berlin Wall by Banksy

To mark the 25th anniversary of the fall the Berlin Wall, the border between East and West has been lit up by 8,000 luminous white balloons. The art project named ‘Lichtgrenze 2014’ (border of light) is created by artist Christopher Bauder and his film-maker brother Marc.

Inside Bankside Power Station

Bankside Power Station is a former oil-fired power station, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. It generated electricity from 1952 to 1981. Since 2000, this amazing industrial structure has been used to house the Tate Modern art museum.

Bankside Power Station in the late 1950s.

The interior of Bankside Power Station, now Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall

Frank Paulin

Frank Paulin is an American artist and photographer, best known for his street photography in NYC taken in the late 1950s.

Fifth Avenue Coach Line Bus, pedestrians and a Corvette, 1956

Phonecall, New York, 1970

Grant’s Bar, New York City, 1956

Flower Messenger, Times Square, 1955

 Doll, New York, 1956

Mourning John Lennon, New York, 1980

Lost City Shi Cheng Found Underwater In China

The ancient city Shi Cheng (Lion City) has been buried beneath Qiandao Lake (Thousand Island Lake), the man-made lake for 53 years.  Shi Cheng was built more than 1300 years ago but was submerged underwater in 1959, when the new hydroelectric power station and reservoir was built.  The lost city was ‘rediscovered’ in 2001 and it’s now suggested that the underwater city be opened up for tourist.

Qiandao Lake

A restoration picture of Shi Cheng city