These sculptures and old buildings before the end of the Cold War era look futuristic and alien to western eyes. Some structures demonstrate the unequivocal military might of Russia, they have a real sense of enormity and scope. While others are scintillating, harshly modern, and located in beautiful forested landscapes, sitting comfortably in situ. These monuments…
Continue reading ➞ Otherworldly and Abandoned Soviet Monuments
Like a dodgy acid trip or a Oompa Loompa village, this broken down theme park in New Jersey is enough to give you the shivers. Modelled on a Germanic Village, the candy coloured houses look like something out of a Grimm Fairytale. Fairytale Forest was built built by German Immigrant Paul Woehle in 1957 in…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A creepy theme park to linger in your dreams
It's funny to consider power plants and sewerage plants as beautiful, but these old buildings certainly trump any industrial building built in the last few decades. Relics from the dawn of the industrial age, they were designed with immaculate attention to detail and a timeless aesthetic. Nowadays they either accumulate weeds and cobwebs in obscurity,…
Continue reading ➞ The Most Beautiful Relics From The Industrial Dawn
These photos by Ed Freeman all elicit a deep sense of alienation and a weird sort of fascination. They underline questions that we want answered. What happened here? Who lived here? How did these places fall into disrepair? Through the atrophy of the material world we can get this uncomfortable sense that we're all destined for…
Continue reading ➞ Abandoned Desert Buildings On Creepy Lunar Landscapes
In Bignor, a hamlet close to the ancient Sussex towns of Arundel, Petworth and Pulborough is this grade one listed stone-built medieval Holy Cross church. This church was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The simple chanxcel and arch remain from the 11th century, although the rest of the church was rebuilt in the 13th century. Lovingly…
Banksy's pop up exhibition Dismaland in Weston super-Mare in Somerset this weekend is a dangerous and provocative molotov cocktail of pop culture references, Eurozone politics, rabid consumerism, and Disney fetishism exposed for our bemusement. Graffiti artist Banksy along with fellow art legends Damien Hirst, Jimmy Cauty and Jenny Holzer have taken over a derelict beachside lido…
Continue reading ➞ Dismaland is Banksy’s dangerous molotov cocktail of pop culture rip-offs
Big Biba was an outrageous cornucopia of weird fashion on the London high street in the 60's. Before H&M, Topshop or Harvey Nichols there was Biba. Invented by IT girl of the time, Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki, Biba started out as a mail order store that sold one dress available in one size. Very rapidly it…
Continue reading ➞ Welcome to Big Biba: A Legendary Department Store in London’s Swinging 60’s
Readers of this blog will understand and share my obsession with small-scale buildings, tiny books, paper towns and jewelry boxes and boudoir ornaments for mermaids. These quirky art forms are uncannily beautiful in their falseness. They also make Mini Materials now offers lovers of miniature the unprecedented opportunity to build their own life-like models of…
Continue reading ➞ Tiny building sites: It’s a small world after all
Life is fragile, like the dew hanging delicately on the grass, crystal drops that will be carried away on the first morning breeze. – Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good does it do to brood on the past or anticipate the future? Remain in the simplicity of the…
I love secluded and lonely places where there's nobody around for miles. That's why the Highlands and Islands hold such appeal to me and so here's a couple of lonely places may make you feel in turns melancholy or yearning for a place where nobody can disturb you.
Source: Imgur The Krazy Kat Klub (from Wikipedia) The Krazy Kat Klub (alternatively, Krazy Kat Club, Krazy Kat Klubb, etc.) was a Bohemian cafe, speakeasy and nightclub that operated at No. 3 Green Court near Washington, D.C.'s Thomas Circle during the early decades of the 20th Century. The club was run by portraitist and theatrical…
Continue reading ➞ Every Picture Tells A Story: Krazy Kat Klub, Washington D.C. (1921)
Pete Amachree is a talented British digital painter who created this magnificent and gothic cityscapes of imaginary cities. A big shout out goes to Imaginary Cities who tipped me off about this extraordinary artist and to Pete Amachree himself for creating these gems. According to his DeviantArt profile, Pete is inspired by photographer Man Ray…
Continue reading ➞ Welcome to a Gothic Imaginary City That’s Flint Black, Neon and Rainy
Source: Imgur
The Paris Metro is a beautiful work of art that has been depicted in many films and photographs over the years. Although many daily commuters would argue that it's a stinking cesspit instead! It looks a lot more attractive than many other subways across the world and I enjoyed travelling on it when I was…
One of the more quirky destinations in New Mexico is Carlsbad Caverns. Located 228 metres below the surface is a diner/lunchroom that is frozen in the middle of the 20th century. The eatery sells cold cuts and food stuffs that don't require cooking (as they don't have cooking facilities), along with souvenirs. Over the ensuing…
Continue reading ➞ The Post-Apocalyptic Underground Lunchroom
Sydney has some nefarious and idiosyncratic history. Nowadays it's presented with a shiny, modern patina of progress. Although little more than a century ago the story was less chirpy and cheerful and more like a bad episode of Survivor. 1. Cockatoo Island This island has a somewhat grim intriguing history, matched by its demeanor –…
