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William Mortensen’s Salomés

Joyzelle Joyner as Salomé.

Two undated photographs by William Mortensen (1897–1965) which use the Salomé theme as a possible disguise for motives that have little to do with Biblical storytelling; looking at this collection of Mortensen’s work he evidently had a thing for arty erotica. Joyzelle Joyner was an American actress who appeared in minor roles in a number of silent films. Her lascivious scene in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932) was deemed scandalous enough to later be cut from the film by censors. Watch it here. (Tip via Beautiful Century.)

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Salomé archive

The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello

This animated short by Anthony Lucas isn’t exactly obscure but I’ve only just noticed that the distributor has the whole film available for viewing on YouTube. The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello blends silhouetted characters and decor with elaborate steam-powered machinery in a manner that looks like the kind of thing Lotte Reiniger might have produced if she’d exchanged her fairy tales for Jules Verne. Impossible to watch Lucas’s film now without thinking “steampunk” but Jasper Morello was made in 2005 and so pre-dates the ongoing explosion of interest in Victoriana, dirigibles and coal-powered contraptions. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on two new steampunk projects which is what brought this to mind. More about those projects later.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Three Fragments of a Lost Tale
• Brothers Quay scarcities
• Achilles by Barry JC Purves
• The Torchbearer by Václav Švankmajer

Reverbstorm update

The photo shows a detail of the design embossed on the front board proof of the forthcoming Reverbstorm book, publication of which has been put forward while the printers address some production problems. Without getting overly technical there’s been trouble with the ink causing a number of pages to print far too dark for reasons that still aren’t clear. As a result of this I’ve still no idea when the book will be ready for sale. Be assured that any frustration would-be readers are feeling goes double for the writer and artist. More news will appear here in due course.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• James Joyce in Reverbstorm
• A Reverbstorm jukebox
• Reverbstorm: Bauhaus Horror
• Reverbstorm: an introduction and preview

L’art dans la décoration extérieure des livres

Back at the fin de siècle with this study by Octave Uzanne of book cover design in the 1890s. L’art dans la décoration extérieure des livres is over four hundred pages of very varied designs, from covers for popular novels to the state of the art by usual suspects Aubrey Beardsley, Charles Ricketts et al. Léon Rudnicki provides the cover and some interior illustrations. The examples below include pieces by Symbolist artists Félicien Rops and Franz Stuck, as well as one of Alphonse Mucha’s designs for Judith Gautier’s Mémoires d’un Éléphant blanc. The complete book may be browsed here or downloaded here.

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Silent Engine

Artist/composer Paul Schütze unveiled some new photo prints this weekend, a series he calls Silent Engine. At first glance I thought the view on the left above was indeed an engine interior, with that radial construction being some kind of extractor fan. But these are actually nocturnal views of one of my favourite places in London, Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The photos use only the available light which makes Soane’s collection of ancient sculpture and architectural fragments seem like the components of some antiquarian generator. Anyone familiar with Schütze’s 1997 album Second Site will know that this isn’t the first time he’s applied the word “engine” to architecture.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Paul Schütze online