Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Belgian Beer


Was up in Belgium ( or "north" in Belgium if that suits you better than "up") last week for a few days wandering around, out looking at the world. In Ghent the castle of the Counts of Flanders reflected in this beer shop window took on worlds of meaning. I love images that have multiple facets... that are more than the sum of their parts, that cause the viewer to make an effort to see clearly what is going on...
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What is less visible here is the fact that inside the castle there is a room sized exhibit of instruments used for torturing recalcitrants of whatever stripe back in the dim dark reaches of our past history. Funny how in the display were pictures of people tied to a board with a funnel down their throat, and water being poured in... sounds suspiciously like that term we saw so much of in the press a few months back... waterboarding, or some such? Better go drink a good Belgian beer and forget about all that; the things we do to each other... There was a guillotine in the display as well.

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