ON THE QT
Everything You Always Suspected
But Just Couldn't See
Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Publisher and Editor
WELCOME/THE PEEP HEARD ROUND THE WORLD
QT has taken a brief vacation in order to premier PEEP. PEEP will alternate with QT on the usual biweekly publishing schedule beginning May 19th. PEEP will be all eyes. This first PEEP should be considered a brochure. QT and PEEP will soon conjoin at the same website. What will the union produce? Devil or angel? Like everyone else we can't make up our mind. After each synopsis of a PEEP image, a link appears.PEEP
Graphic Peep "cover" in the style of 1950's scandal mags. Screaming headlines and the naked truth about urban corruption. The cover photo is an homage to great tabloid photographer Weegee, done in B&W Polaroid. "Corpse" Jamie Tungston now lives the life of Riley in Boca Raton, Florida. Keeping his assets safe. B&W film is a advantageous medium for special effects, since it tends to emphasize texture. In color movie productions realistic blood can be a problem. Ketchup, anyone? PEEP uses the old b&w monster movie stand-in: chocolate syrup. The photo was taken in 1999. Two violent murders had just taken place nearby. In a city where many practice crime denial. To the point of inhumanity.
VENUS DE MILO SQUARE CITY
In 1980 Venus stands in her Hoboken, New Jersey living room as the sun sets behind Jersey City Heights. The Venetian blinds cast bars of golden light across her classic half naked chassis. On her head, a Maxwell House hat. Is she dangerous tonight? Her expression reveals little. She may be musing on the coming gentrification of Hoboken. Perhaps the stink of burning tenements already drifts to her nose. Or a vision appears of sidewalk drunks and cheap plastic chairs marching up Washington Street. "I see dead people". But then, Venus may only be wondering if her missing arm can be found at Alrocks, or Little Al's, or The Iron Arts, or United Decorating...THAT WAS THEN AND THIS IS CANCER
Stevens Institute in Hoboken wants to gobble up yet more of the Hudson River waterfront and has hired Terminal Construction to do their chewing. Digging into rock with a high asbestos content and then dumping in other people's yards. No permit needed. Mayor Dave Thomas-Roberts sees no evil, hears no evil, etc. More on this story in the next "On The QT". Photo courtesy of Ron Hine.Coalition for a Better Waterfront
RENO JOB/ART 4 ART'S SAKE DEPT.
S. Gustav Haggland sits amidst the rubble of a reno job in New York City circa Big 80's. SGH was very active in the 80's Mail Art scene. Photocopy technology had become very sophisticated and many mail artists explored the medium. Hagglund (who at the time did reno work) was a particularly creative practitioner. One series grew out of this photograph. Hagglund photographed sections of the rubble, then repeatedly photocopied and enlarged the images until grain and distortion turned them abstract. They became x-rays of a hidden world. A dissertation on what lies below...ON THE QT is online at http://mondoqt.com/ontheqt
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