Very interesting - at the very least Thanks for pointing out a new artist for me!
Although, I must say... and hating to be a stick in the mud... but, I did stumble a bit when I read "Now put them in a lush and lavish bedroom fit for Louis Catorze." - we did mean King Louis XIV - as in Louis the 14th as opposed to some guy with the last name 'Cartoze'?
Sorry for being particular about it - but as a history student, I'd rather think that we were being phonetical rather than inaccurate? (I hope?)
Yup, that's the guy I meant. I don't speak French, I only dream in it, so I don't have cause to write in it (ever). But the peculiar thing is that someone somewhere at some point must have decided that because people refer to him often enough in the Numeric, it's ok to Anglicize his numerals. I double checked my sources (linked) and the non-French ones that use that moniker, spell it "Catorze". I've seen it multiple times before this occasion. Of course, that doesn't automatically make it right: reference the correct pronunciation of "nu' klee ar" v. the assinine "nu' kyuh luhr".
I am, however, bothered by the "cesi" v. "ceci", and will have to go back and check *that*.
Thanks for your interesting post on Jeff Koons. I saw this exhibition last month (I'm studying abroad in France for a year) and found it really, really jarring. I can see how he's really innovative with his use of steel and kitsch, but it was so bizarre seeing a stature of the Pink Panther and a half-dressed woman in a 18th century salon...
So I think some of his works are clever and some of them are just ridiculous, but I would probably appreciate them more in another context! It was just rather distracting.
I have no idea why, but I love it! the juxtaposition of the modern and shiny and simple, well, relatively simple, against the ornate and detailed French antiques just tickled my funnybone no end.