In May the Flying Carpet
Zoomed the Lagoon of Venice
and reveled in the GLORY that was Venice
Queen of the Seas
Empress of Palazzos and Fog and Mystery
But wait!
Anachronism reigns supreme in modern Venice...
Gondoliers in full gondolieregalia
texting on cell phones
Mixed media shrines in the labyrinth of alleyways
“The Circus is in Town"
The 56th Venice Biennale
growls and squeaks and yells and gasps its last
in the pavilion fun houses
and locations snatched from ruin
Aliens have surely landed amidst the baroque
And at the Arsenale
A moon-walk space suit
made of defunct Zimbabwean money
hovers amidst the ancient stone walls
Statues are everywhere
For all you animal rights activists,
the pigeons are alive and well in Venice...
but not for long...
(No animals were harmed
in the production of this photograph
by Zachariah.)
Juxtapositions making sense
and nonsense
Environments obliterated
and enhanced
in a style vaguely redolent
of complete confusion
Comte de Lautréamont's
classic definition of surrealism:
“As beautiful as the chance encounter
of a sewing machine
and an umbrella
on an operating table.”
comes to mind in the stage set of Venice
“I have felt the wing of the wind of madness”-- Cy Twombly
Again...Special thanks to the Emily Harvey Foundation
for a month-long residency in Venice
