#polymer city chronicles | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kudosmyhero · 25 days ago

Text

Transformers: Headmasters #3: Love and Steel!

Read Date: July 31, 2023 Cover Date: November 1987 ● Writer: Bob Budiansky ● Penciler: Frank Springer ● Inker: Ian Akin ◦ Brian Garvey ● Colorist: Nel Yomtov ● Letterer: Pat Brosseau ● Editor: Don Daley ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

● 👏

Synopsis: The city of Splendora is attacked by the Terrorcons, Apeface and Snapdragon, until the Technobots, Brainstorm and Highbrow arrive to turn the tide. Even when the Terrorcons merge into Abominus, they are defeated by the Technobots who merge into Computron. The battle ends with the Decepticons fleeing. When Hardhead and Brainstorm reveal that they are piloted by Nebulan counterparts, a member of the Nebulan Council of Peers demands to witness the Autobots in action in future missions to see if they are a benefit to Nebulos and able to deal with the Decepticon menace.

While at an industrial complex that has become the base of Scorponok and his Decepticons, Scorponok taunts Lord Zarak and forces his followers to be subject to their tests. They test out a new light weight polymer alloy. When Snapdragon and Apeface return to report their failure, Scorponok lashes out. However, Lord Zarak offers a solution: Having no love for Galen or the Autobots and wanting the Transformers off his home world he makes the Decepticons a deal: Use Zarak and his followers to become Headmasters themselves. Scorponok warns Zarak that to be binary bonded to him could twist him to become just as tyrannical as Scorponok.

At the base of Galen and his followers, they are busy examining the weapons left behind by the Autobots when they are visited by the Council of Peers who insist on watching them in action next. When Llyra enters the room she delivers Galen a message from her father begging the Autobots to come and rescue them. Galen and the other Nebulans bond to the Autobot Headmasters and rush to the scene. There to their surprise they find that Lord Zarak and his followers have been converted into Headmasters as well.

As the battle rages on, the Council's hover ship is shot out of the sky, and it's passengers are put under the hypnotic control of Mindwipe who lures them all into the industrial complex and seals them in polymer spheres, and lets them loose into the sky. Although Scorponok falters when he see's Zarak's daughter he allows them to serve their purpose: To distract the Autobots long enough to ambush them. After Fortress Maximus and the other Autobots get the humans to safety, they are all gunned down by the Decepticons. Defeated all the Autobots Headmasters disengage from their Autobot bodies and revert to human form knocked out from the assault. Figuring her father a hero, Llyra is glad that she saved him from the Autobots.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Transformers:_Headmasters_Vol_1_3)

Fan Art: Terrorcons / Abominus teamshot by Dan-the-artguy

Accompanying Podcasts: ● Transformers Chronicles - episode 34

#marvel #marvel comics #my marvel read #transformers #comics #comic books #fan art #podcast recommendation #fanart

1 note · View note

heroesofcrash · 3 months ago

Text

8/10/24 - Titanium Maiden Palette Swaps

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com

Titanium Maiden's first four palettes mirror Belt Boy's from last week, and two resemble famous superheroines. The last two pay homage to other webcomics: C. Morisson's Polymer City Chronicles and MaroonDrops’ Masked.

Polymer City Chronicles was one of the first webcomics I read, but it's no longer updating. Masked is part of the Collective of Heroes, and has a planned reboot at some point in the future.

#webcomics #webcomic #comics #superhero #superheroine #superheroes #comic #the heroes of c.r.a.s.h.#theheroesofcrash #heroesofcrash #the heroes of crash #superheroines #funny #humor #comedy #Titanium Maiden

0 notes

sqinsights · 9 months ago

Text

Chemical Chronicles: Navigating the Billion-Dollar Maze of GCC Specialty Chemicals

The Billion-Dollar Tango:

Picture this: a report valued at a whopping USD 799.4 billion in 2021, teasing us with the promise of reaching USD 1157.64 billion by 2030. It’s the chemical equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster — drama, suspense, and a hint of romance with economic growth. Who said chemicals can’t be fascinating?

Unraveling the Chemical Drama:

Why is the GCC Specialty Chemicals market behaving like a mystery novel protagonist? Blame it on the investments pouring into construction, oil, gas, and automotive sectors. NEOM, the smart city project, is the headline act, and even Henkel AG & Co. KGaA is throwing around millions to make our soap and sanitizer dreams come true. Because, let’s face it, clean hands are the new currency.

The Chemical Cast —

Types and Applications Take Center Stage: Let’s meet the chemical cast — specialty polymers, textile chemicals, dyes, pigments, agrochemicals, and the rest of the gang. Agrochemicals stole the show in 2021, probably because everyone wants a slice of the agro-pie in a world obsessed with chemically-enhanced crops.

Paint & Coatings —

The Chemical Celeb: Hold your chemical horses! The real star of the show is paint & coatings, the Beyoncé of the chemical world, with a CAGR of 5%. It’s on buildings, cars, and everything in between. PPG even decided we need premium-textured surfaces because apparently, plain surfaces are so last season.

Asia Pacific —

Chemical Superpower: In the global chemical arena, Asia Pacific is the undisputed superpower, flaunting a market value of USD 291.2 billion in 2021. China, with its raw materials and cheap labor, is the chemical wizard pulling the strings. Who needs magic when you have a lab coat?

Chemical Dynamics —

Heroes, Villains, and the Toxic Twist: Now, let’s dive into the chemical dynamics — the heroes boosting market growth are construction activities. But, like any good chemical saga, there’s a twist — health and environmental concerns playing the role of villains, putting restrictions on synthetic chemicals. It’s a chemical soap opera with an uncertain ending.

For More Information: https://www.skyquestt.com/report/gcc-specialty-chemicals-market

Competitive Circus —

Heavyweights Steal the Spotlight: The GCC Specialty Chemicals market is a circus, and our star performers include Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Dow Chemical Company, BASF SE, and other heavyweights. They’re juggling acquisitions, embracing new technologies, and ensuring the chemical show goes on.

Recent Developments —

Chemical Soap Opera Unveiled: As the chemical saga continues, Platinum Equity acquires Solenis for a jaw-dropping USD 5.25 billion, creating a chemical powerhouse. SK Capital, the chemical cupid, orchestrates the union of Canlak Inc. and Valentus Specialty Chemicals. It’s a chemical love story with a corporate twist.

Conclusion —

Chemicals Take a Bow: In conclusion, the GCC Specialty Chemicals market is a billion-dollar blockbuster with construction activities in the leading role. Health and environmental concerns add plot twists, and big players steal the spotlight. It’s a chemical drama that keeps us hooked, eagerly anticipating the next chemical revelation.

So, there you have it — the GCC Specialty Chemicals market, a chemical maze demystified with a pinch of humor. Until the next chemical adventure, stay chemical-tastic!

About Us-

SkyQuest Technology Group is a Global Market Intelligence, Innovation Management & Commercialization organization that connects innovation to new markets, networks & collaborators for achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

1 Apache Way,

Westford,

Massachusetts 01886

USA (+1) 617–230–0741

Email- [email protected]

Website: https://www.skyquestt.com

0 notes

joe-england · 6 years ago

Photo

Shades of Sheeri and Andrah by JoeEngland

Just thought I’d post some of my more respectable old sketches to flesh out my gallery.

#sketches #fan art #polymer city chronicles #urusai #muscles

1 note · View note

northoftheroad · 4 years ago

Text

Electric Nightwing

Hi, @sulverselle

I don't know that I have a lot of answers for you... For starters, besides what you've mentioned, there's only one issue I know when Dick's suit gave a taser charge: Nightwing vol 2 # 57.

Nightwing vol 2 # 57. By Chuck Dixon, art Rick Leonardi, Jesse Delperdang and Mark Farmer.

The fingerstripe suit was designed by Brian Stelfreeze for Nightwing volume 1 (1995). In his model sheet, he mentions that the blue is "a controlled photochromic fabric. Nightwing can shift the tone from light blue to navy". (Neat, I wish I had that for my sewing projects. Though I can’t recall any writer using that colour change. But notice that it also says that the two middle fingers extend to a claw - remember that pic you sent me once...? Brian Stelfreeze is one of the artists credited for the cover it's from, which explains why Nightwing has those claws. I don't ever remember a writer using it plotwise.) However, Stelfreeze didn't mention anything about an electric charge.

Brian Stelfreeze's model sheet.

Finger claws on the cover of The Batman Chronicles Gallery #1 (1997)

Enter Nightwing volume 2 in 1996, written by Chuck Dixon for the first 70 issues. Chuck Dixon also wrote Nightwing Secret Files and Origins in 1999, and there it says that his costume "contains a one-use only taser charge." So, Chuck Dixon probably invented that. I can't remember or find any other writer using that particular suit gadget in another title, which is no guarantee it never happened. (Dick used that model of his Nightwing suit for 15 years, after all.)

Nightwing Secret Files and Origins (1999). Profile page on Nightwing, written by Chuck Dixon, art Scott McDaniel and Karl Story.

When it comes to Nightwing's suit being insulated, the answer has to be that it was as early as Nightwing vol 2 # 14 (because otherwise, he would have been affected by Batman's charge, like the baddies were) but not in every story after that. Which means writers change the suit's characteristics to suit their narrative. (I guess they could pretend that the suit's insolation wasn't effective against certain voltage...?) For instance, Dixon also wrote # 28, when Dick was knocked out because Dixon needed Huntress to knock him out...

Nightwing vol 2 # 14. By Chuck Dixon, art Scott McDaniel and Karl Story.

In Rebirth, Dick's suit had a built-in defibrillator and medical sensors in vol 4 # 36. I can't remember him using it as a taser, but an electrical charge is an electrical charge so I would assume that it could be done.

Nightwing vol 4 # 36. By Sam Humphries, art Bernard Chang.

When it comes to his escrimas, as far as I know, they were never equipped with tasers before Flashpoint. (He did have a line in one of them in Outsiders vol 3 # 2 though.) In Nightwing Secret Files and Origins from 1999, the escrima sticks were described as made from a polymer.

Outsiders vol 3 # 2. By Judd Winick, art Tom Raney and Scott Hanna.

Edit – Dick also had a line in his escrima stick in Batman # 638, by Judd Winnick, art Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen.

The first time I can find that Nightwing uses taser-escrimas is in Nightwing vol 3 # 10, though he doesn't turn them on until # 11.

Nightwing vol 3 # 10 (August 2012). By Kyle Higgins, art Eddy Barrows, Geraldo Borges, Eber Ferreira and Ruy José.

Nightwing vol 3 # 11 (September 2012). By Kyle Higgins, art Andres Guinaldo and Mark Irwin.

But, in the game Batman: Arkham City (released October 2011), Nightwing's escrima sticks can deliver "non-lethal short electric bursts". So electrified escrima sticks were, to the best of my knowledge, introduced in the game.

#Nightwing #Dick Grayson #Robin #Batman

216 notes · View notes

jedifighterpilot2727 · 7 years ago

Note

Hi I just finished The Lexington Chronicles (amazing by the way) I’m not sure if you’re taking prompts but I was wondering if you could write something where Lexi has a chance to individually bond with everyone on the family (Cat Grant) included?

I’ve thought about the rest of the fam, but I’ve never played around with Cat Grant, so here you go!

Texas Hold ‘Em

The doorman still recognizes her.

Of course, who would forget her? She used to own the damn place.

Hell, she used to own half the damn city; used to have them all reading her magazines and watching her morning shows.

Things are a little different now, she supposes; although her name still graces the front of the building.

CatCo has added a tech magazine to it’s repertoire, captivating an entirely new audience that Cat was never able to capture when she was in charge. Kara ‘I-can’t-spell-basic-words-but-I’m-definitely-not-an-alien’ Luthor-Danvers is editor-in-chief of CatCo’s news magazine. And probably the most unwelcome change is the sight of high-waisted jeans staring her in the face from the fashion magazine cover displayed in the lobby; and she makes a mental note to ask Lena what the hell she was thinking when she approved that spread.

Her private elevator is apparently no longer private, and interns and reporters whizzing around her as she steps inside. The smell of twenty different cologne palettes makes her nauseous, and she cringes at the thought of how many germs are coating everything.

No one spares her a second glance as she steps off the elevator, and it throws her off a little - she was half expecting Kara to be waiting on her with a lukewarm latte and a ‘Sorry Ms. Grant’.

But Kara is nowhere to be found, and she weaves her way through the people, none of them casting her a second glance.

She finally comes to a stop in front of the assistant’s desk outside Lena’s office. It isn’t Eve, and Cat wonders briefly if Lena fired her in the interim since Cat had left for Washington.

“May I help you?” The new girl asks, bright smile on her face.

“I’m here to see Lena.” Cat says without preamble, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

What else would she be doing here?

“What was your name?”

Cat grinds her teeth.

“Cat Grant? My name is on the building?”

“Ah, I see.” The assistant gives Cat a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Do you have an appointment?”

“Do I have an appointment? No, I don’t have an appointment.”

The nameless assistant holds up a single finger and reaches for the phone on her desk.

“One second.”

Cat stomps her foot, Jimmy Choos tapping out a frenzied beat on the floor.

“Ms. Teschmacher?” The assistant speaks into the phone. “I have a woman here claiming to be a ‘Cat Grant’? Insists she doesn’t need an appointment to speak with Mrs. Luthor-Danvers.”

She pauses, obviously listening to her instructions.

“Yes, but Mrs. Luthor-Danvers is down in photography… Mhmm … Yes… Yes, I understand.”

The assistant hangs up the phone, giving Cat a once over.

“Mrs. Luthor-Danvers is in photography, I can take you down -“

“Does it look like I walked all the way up here only to have a second-rate assistant like yourself tell me I need go back downstairs again?” Cat lets every drop of venom that she has seep into her voice, but the assistant doesn’t even flinch.

“Ms. Teschmacher was afraid you might insist on staying, very well,” She steps around the desk and opens the door to Lena’s office, gesturing Cat inside. “You can wait here, although I’m not sure when Mrs. Luthor-Danvers will be back.”

Cat doesn’t dignify that with a response, instead making her way into the office and discarding her purse in the chair beside the door.

Once the door closes behind her, she takes in the sight of the office she once knew so well. She hasn’t been back since she sold the company over five years ago, and from the looks of things, the status quo is drastically different.

The basic shape is the same, but the resemblance ends there. Once glass walls have been covered in some sort of high security tint, closing off the office from the rest of the bullpen. The television screens on the wall behind the desk are gone, replaced with a giant smart screen, no doubt useful, but entirely less dramatic than Cat would have preferred.

The desk is different too, some sort of synthetic polymer that’s probably resistant to Kryptonian strength.

Cat shudders; she doesn’t want to think about the implications of that particular fact, so instead she turns to the vase of flowers.

They’re white, and beautiful, and no doubt expensive, and Cat can’t resist picking up the card still nestled among the blossoms.

I know you said that I don’t have to buy you flowers for no reason, but what if the reason is that I want to? It’s not my fault that you’re beautiful, and a beautiful woman deserves beautiful flowers. (For the record, I would buy you flowers even if you weren’t beautiful, but as it stands, you’re the most lovely creature on twelve planets.) All my love, K.L-D.

Cat gags before carefully placing the card back and turning to the rest of the room.

The couches have been arranged in a corner of the room so that it almost looks like a living room, with children’s toys scattered on the rug and soft blankets draped over everything. A chess set graces the end table between the couches, and she’s pretty sure she spots a game of monopoly tucked on one of the bookshelves. There’s a giant dog bed in the other corner, and Cat shudders to think of the dog hair and pet dander lingering in the air.

There’s water on the bar, and no M&Ms, so Cat shifts her attention to the mini refrigerator. There are juice boxes, kombucha, and a stack of takeout boxes, but nothing worthy of her interest. The cabinet reveals nothing better - gummy bears, protein bars and cheesy bunnies; and this is certainly not the office Cat Grant left.

The half hidden closet is even more eye-roll inducing, stocked with a few power suits and a spare Supergirl suit.

Really, she expects such indiscretions from Kara, but she thought Lena was better than that - leaving The Suit out where anyone could see it.

Sighing with the weight of responsible adulthood, she takes in the decorations. There are pictures everywhere, Kara’s art hanging on the walls and some shaky photographs of scenery that look like they were taken by a five year-old. There are pictures of the family, too - Lena with Kara, Lena with Lexi, Lexi with Kara, all three of them together, Lexi and Agent Scully.

She feels odd, almost as if she’s back in a house that she used to live in and the current owners aren’t home.

Luckily, she’s saved from the feeling by the familiar sound of boots on the balcony. She isn’t shocked to find Supergirl coming through the door, but she is shocked at what Supergirl is carrying.

Or rather, who.

Lexi is talking animatedly when she and her mother enter, but she immediately shuts up when she spots Cat.

“Ms. Grant!” Supergirl flusters, and Cat can’t help but smile because somethings never change.

“I didn’t expect you to be here!” Kara sets Lexi on her own two feet and reaches for the little girl’s hand instead. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Are you not happy to see me?”

“What? No, no, I just - I heard a fire while I was walking Lexi home from school and I was just going to drop her off with Lena.”

“Hmm, I believe her assistant said something about her being down in photography?” Cat supplies.

Kara’s smacks her palm to her forehead.

“Oh! Right! The spring photo edits! Shoot! I forgot!” Kara glances frantically around the office, and Cat easily picks up her thought process.

“I can watch the child while you go play hero, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Are you sure?”

“She’s just a child, I did raise on of my own, if you remember.”

“Thank you!” Kara kneels down, face to face with Lexi. “Are you okay to stay here with Ms. Grant for a few minutes while I go take care of something?”

Lexi’s eyes turn her direction, and Cat feels herself being scrutinized.

Eventually she nods and Kara breathes a sigh of relief before turning Lexi towards Cat.

"Thank you! I’ll be back as soon as I can!” The last of the sentence is yelled backwards through the balcony door as Kara takes off in flight.

Once Supergirl is out of sight, she turns her attention to the little girl in front of her.

She’s met Lexi before, once or twice, but this is their first time being alone together.

Frankly, Lexi looks just as un-excited about it as she is.

She gives the girl a once over, taking in the dark braids and the smudged glasses. She’s dressed like a mini version of Kara, with her button down shirt and black pants, although the quality of the material looks a thousand times better than what Kara used to wear, and Cat supposes she has Lena to thank for that - at least someone in the Danvers family has taste now.

Turning without a word, she moves to the refrigerator, taking out a juice box for Lexi and a bottle of water for herself. By the time she turns back around, Lexi is settled on one of the couches, socked feet barely reaching the edge of the cushion.

The girl watches carefully as Cat moves to sit beside her, taking the offered juice box without a hint of a smile.

Something else she’s learned from Lena, no doubt.

“So, Lexington, that’s a big name for such a little girl.”

Lexi only continues to stare at her.

“So, how does it feel being Supergirl’s daughter?” she tries again, unable to avoid her reporter tendencies.

Lexi’s eyes narrow.

“Don’t worry, I know the big secret - I knew before most people, and I’m not going to start spilling the beans now.”

Lexi’s only response is to slurp her juice box, although her glare softens considerably.

“This would go a lot easier if you would talk to me.”

“Mama says I don’t have to talk to people if I don’t want to.” Lexis’ voice is strong and clear and it sets Cat back.

“Your mother said that?”

Lexi nods.

“Well, your mother is a very smart woman.”

“Yep, YeYu says that all the time.”

“YeYu? Is that what you call …” Cat’s voice trails off as she gestures towards the balcony door where Supergirl had disappeared.

Lexi nods again.

“Interesting… Kryptonian?”

Another nod.

“Hmm, I bet she loves that. After all she’s lost.”

Lexi is silent, and Cat casts around for some form of distraction, eyes landing on the chess table.

“Do you play?” She asks, gesturing to the white and black pieces.

Lexi nods, and Cat is struck with an idea.

“What about poker?”

* - - - - - - -

Of all the things Lena expected to find on her arrival back at her office; Cat Grant teaching her daughter to play Texas Hold ‘Em was not one of them.

“So remember, this card is called ‘The River’, and it’s your last chance to make a good hand.” Cat explains, and Lexi nods studiously.

“You have to make a bet before the card is revealed though, so you have to do a quick determination of the odds, like in-“

“Catherine Grant.” Lena drawls. “Are you teaching my baby girl how to play poker?” The door snaps shut behind her, and Cat glances up at the noise, wide smile breaking across her face.

“Well, I taught you, didn’t I?”

“Hmm, that you did, and that lesson hasn’t failed me yet.” Lena admits, watching Cat rise for the couch and accepting the hug the older woman offers.

“How’s Lexi?”

“Better than you at that age! If we were playing for real money, she’d probably have me cleaned out by now!”

“That’s my girl!” Lena praises, earning a grin from Lexi. “So what is it that brought you all the way out to CatCo?”

“Oh!”Cat waves her hand, turning back to the game. “Nothing that won’t wait until we run out of gummy bear poker chips!”

#Lexington Luthor-Danvers #the lexington chronicles #cat grant #supergirl #supercorp kid

91 notes · View notes

ruffsficstuffplace · 8 years ago

Text

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 8)

From the foot of the double doors of the Plushie Palace's main doors and past its massive neosteel gates of the Plushie Palace, two security guards dressed like medieval knights rolled out a red carpet, before an employee dressed as a royal herald ran out, who was followed shortly by a cadre of flying drones with fancy hats like the handmaidens, squires, and scribes of yore.

Tony set the cab down right at the edge of the carpet. “Enjoy yourself in there!” he grinned and laughed, before his projector deactivated, and the door swung open.

The herald put her trumpet/megaphone to her lips. “Hear ye, hear ye! Returning to the Plushie Palace, these Hallowed Halls of Imagination, the Fortress of Fun, the Place of Furry Friends for everyone:

“Lady Winter Schnee, and her sister, Lady Weiss Schnee!”

Winter daintily stepped out onto the red carpet, trying and failing to keep composed and dignified as she waved and smiled at the welcoming party and the small crowd that had gathered on the sidewalk. A Handmaiden-Bot floated up to her head, and daintily put a modest white crown on her head, its points shaped like the fractals of a snowflake.

It was made out of sturdy, visually striking, but otherwise cheap polymers, but Winter still squealed and jumped with delight, eyes bright and smile as radiant as the first time she was first there at the age of 3.

A different Handmaiden-Bot hovered over to Weiss, with her own personal crown. She tried to wave it off, but it insistently hovered and beeped beside her, so she sighed, and let it put it on her own head, too.

The other “Servant” Bots floated in formation beside them, flapping their “wings” in unison, the “face” panels on their round bodies all looking as dignified as two dots and a single line could be. Winter took it in stride, holding her head up high in appropriately regal fashion before she sashayed down the red carpet.

Weiss looked at the pedestrians laughing, smiling, shaking their heads, or recording the whole spectacle with their phone, then she turned to her sister, happily soaking up the attention. She sighed playfully, and hurried on after her—in the dignified and proper manner of a fellow Lady of the Court, of course!

The herald put her trumpet/megaphone under her arm and fell in step with them. “Know that even with your long absence, milady, the Plushie Palace still welcomes you as warmly and heartily as it always did!” she said. “The halls may expand and rearrange themselves, the faces of the staff and the guard may change, but all your perks and privileges are forever, as per your lifetime membership and the graces granted by the Lady Scarlatina and her predecessors.”

“Wonderful to hear, my good woman!” Winter said in an exaggeratedly “proper” voice.

Weiss resisted the urge to snicker.

“Are there any orders and requests you wish done for this visit, milady?”

“Yes,” Winter said, “I want every single plushie I have ever ordered from your company or had been gifted to me to be remade, exactly as I got them the day they came off the fabricators, errors and all. Flubber Butter is not Flubber Butter without his one slightly larger than the other eye, and don’t you think that I don’t remember exactly which side it was on!”

The herald put her hand to her chest. “We would never dare, milady! Then, now, and forevermore, we take great pains to make all of our creations exactly to how our loyal patrons wish them to be. I must warn you though, that due to legal constrictions, company policy, and the inevitable passing of some of our artisans, we are unable to reproduce most of the limited edition and/or handmade plushies, for obvious reasons.”

Winter sighed. “It’s no trouble; I’ve made peace with the fact that Dr. Blep belongs to another now...”

The herald nodded sympathetically. “Tis tragic, but take heart: we have far more friends to make new memories with than ever before,” she said, smiling. “Would you like me to lead you to our newest additions, milady?”

“Later,” Winter said as they passed under the gate and into the massive front gardens/courtyard.

She grinned as she watched patrons old and young spread out all over the tables, benches, and gazebos, having tea parties and spirited discussions with their beloved inanimate friends occupying the other seats, all persons and plushies dressed in all manner of outfits and of course, fancy hats.

“I want to explore with just my sister for a while,” she finished as they came to the massive double doors leading into the palace proper.

“Enjoy yourselves, milady,” the herald said. “And if you need any assistance, there is as many willing hands as ever, just waiting to rush to your aid!” she said before bowed out, and disappeared.

Two guards at either side of the door greeted her and pushed open the massive double doors; Weiss and Winter had to shield their eyes as they stepped into the Palace's foyer, with its marble floors and silken banners, the portraits of the Plushie Palace’s former and current CEO’s lining the walls, and the massive, elaborate, and antique chandelier hovering far above their heads, casting it all in a bright, wondrous light.

Just a few centuries ago, the Plushie Palace would have probably just been a massive showcase for PR purposes, with the actual store being in a more discrete area of shelves upon shelves of boxed plushies ready to be plucked and brought to the counter, or a large and expansive warehouse that was kept out of sight and access but to the employees.

But advances in telecommunication, logistics, and automated manufacturing had made it so that comm-crystal shopping made physical stores all but obsolete, if all you needed was the products they offered; C-Commerce was just much faster, infinitely more convenient, and offered a whole host of luxuries and advantages that its counterpart could not.

So the physical stores and locations adapted, offered something their technomagical counterpart could not:

An experience.

Winter and Weiss wandered through elaborate show rooms: grand dining halls, palatial sets, and famous landmarks from Avalon's numerous cultures, both real and fictional; lovingly recreated scenes from pop culture and timeless tales; exciting displays such as plushie pilots flying through the air, trying to gun each other down with harmless balls of charged air, collecting the other team's aviator's caps and scarves for trophies as they flew off their owners' heads and fluttered to the ground.

They marveled at museums that chronicled the history of the company, the evolution of their trademark fabrics that became the de facto choice for premium plush toys, famous owners, interesting anecdotes, lovingly preserved examples of the works of their deceased masters and mistresses of the needle and thread, generously donated items from collectors who wished to inspire and delight a new generation of plush toy lovers.

(Winter sighed as she passed by Leela Lucavi, her limited edition Jasper Lamia toy with actual jasper gems for eyes from an earlier, long-over run of the Monsters and Mythology line. She cast a longing look over her shoulder at her beloved companion now floating in the center of a protective crystal case, until Weiss tugged at her sleeve and they continued on.)

And most importantly, Winter got to handle and see the toys with her own eyes and hands than a virtual simulator, dress them up in all manner of elaborate outfits herself, be the one to rigorously test whatever topper suited her fancy for that particular toy's visage, before finally sitting down with them in tea tables, dens, and meeting rooms, seeing if she would enjoy their presence after she had “a brief chat” with them over actual, excellently brewed tea and freshly baked goods, provided by their food-and-beverage lessees.

(Weiss joined in with her sister's screening process, getting less and less patient with her thorough standards, until she learned that among said lessees was a Fiorina's, and she could enjoy a triple chocolate cake shake in lieu of tea.)

All the while, childhood companions were lovingly recreated, lopsided ears, misshapen eyes, and miscoulored patterns and all, the extremely rare hiccups in an otherwise flawless fabrication process that one could only experience after being so unlucky, or ordering an extremely large number of plushies over a very long period of time.

As the numbers for Winter's bill kept on rising, gaining more commas, and going even further to the left, Weiss suddenly understood why their father had not been as enamored with these ridiculously adorable, soft, and cuddly toys as she, her sister, and their mother were.

Many hours later, Winter visited the last location on her list: the always shifting “Special of the Month” wings. As it was Autumn everywhere else in Avalon (Candela and the Viridian Valley only experienced two seasons: “The Fury and The Flood”), and the Eve of the Ether was coming up in little over a month, the theme was:

“Fun and Frights!”

Winter and Weiss both had second thoughts as they came up to the display at the entrance, showing off the annual return of the Plushie Palace's Keeper of the Grove plushies. In spite of their reputation for making ANYTHING cute, they were still a popular component in mean-spirited pranks this time of the year, if just their glowing red button-eyes in light or darkness. The two of them decided to give it a wide berth as they entered the area and checked out the much less terrifying offerings—Winter casting glances over her shoulder every now and then.

She added a few more plushies, outfits, and hats to her growing collection, until they reached a room-wide set piece, for just one item at the center of it all:

“Eluna, the White Wolf, the Moonlight Huntress, the Protector of the City of Solaris—the Limited Edition version!” Winter cried as she rushed up to its stand, a miniature mountain. “I thought you couldn't see these anymore outside of private collections!”

Weiss stopped. She looked at the plush toy inside the protective crystal casing: a white wolf, with a long, flowing mane that glowed like pale moonlight. Where had she heard that before…?

“She’s the guardian deity of the city, back when it was still a struggling port town, their symbolism for the incredibly dangerous swamp creatures that protected them from foreign invaders and each other alike,” Winter said, seemingly reading her mind as she skirted around the display, leaning down and standing up on the balls of her feet, admiring the toy from every angle. “Kind of like the Keeper of the Grove, except benevolent and infinitely less terrifying!”

Winter stopped at the front of it, leaning forward and gazing into the plush toy's face, admiring the incredibly intricate detail in the stitching and the fabric. “In the promotional cartoon, she was the mentor figure and overall leader of the group, the source of the other Lunar Warriors' powers, their defender from threats both from without and within, striking down foes with her Starlight Spear, and helping her wards overcome their personal demons with her boundless compassion and wisdom.”

Thunk. Winter squished her face into the glass.

“I had the BIGGEST crush on her when I was a kid!” she cried. “Still do, actually! I mean, yes, she’s fictional and a wolf, but her voice actress gives me SHIVERS when she says her battle cry, and when she cosplays humanoid Ellie at cons and public appearances--” she made a noise that made Weiss rather uncomfortable.

She slowly stepped up some distance behind Winter, still thinking. Where had she heard that before…? She blinked. “Wait, didn't you keep talking for like a year about how you mom was getting you one?”

“8 months and 23 days!” Winter replied. “I forgot how much I wanted her...” she said as she put her hand to the glass. “And now I remember just how badly...” she whispered, tearing up. “The review sites that got exclusive copies said it really was objectively the softest, fluffiest, cuddliest plush toy the company has ever produced, and every single lucky person who managed to get one themselves say it's even better than they said!

“They haven't produced a single plushie that's been able to match it in terms of pure softness and cuddling experience—even less likely now that the special secret fabric blend they used died with its inventor...” she moped.

“Why didn't you get it?” Weiss asked.

Winter sighed, slowly pulling away from the crystal case. The smudge mark she'd left disappeared in a wave of energy pulsing up and down the surface. “Mom said we we'd buy it after we got back from our trip...” she frowned. “… You know, that trip.”

Weiss' own face fell. “Ah...”

Winter cast one last longing look at the Eluna plushie, before she turned around. “I suppose that's life: some things just pass you by...”

“… Or maybe they were just waiting for you to come back,” said a third voice.

Winter and Weiss looked up, smiled as they saw a familiar face with the same iconic bunny ears atop her headband:

Velvet Scarlatina, latest of the Scarlatina family and heiress of the Plushie Palace, smiled and bowed.

“Welcome back, Miladies Schnee~!”

#white rose #rwby #the keeper of the grove #fanfic

2 notes · View notes

todaybharatnews · 5 years ago

Link

via Today Bharat There have been no less than 40 industrial mishaps in and around Visakhapatnam in the past six years, claiming at least 32 lives Thick smoke emanates from the LG Polymers factory at Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. At least 11 persons were killed in the industrial accident. Horrific as Thursday morning’s styrene gas leak tragedy in Visakhapatnam was, the port city is no stranger to industrial accidents; in particular, adverse events at chemical factories. Here’s just a top-of-the-mind recall: June 13, 2012: Explosion in Visakhapatnam Steel Plant killed 19 people August 23, 2013: Fire in HPCL refinery claimed 27 lives January 6, 2013: Two killed in fire at Hetero Drugs facility December 27, 2019: Two die in Smilax Laboratories in Pharma City, Visakhapatnam By one count, there have been no less than 40 industrial mishaps in and around Visakhapatnam in the past six years which claimed at least 32 lives. But each time there is a mishap, politicians and power bureaucrats intervene to ensure that business soon goes back to usual. In the process, lakhs of rupees -- sometimes crores, depending on the magnitude of the mishap -- exchange hands. Sources in the Andhra Pradesh government told Deccan Chronicle there have been multiple instances of politicians, bureaucrats and IPS officers rushing to the rescue of a factory or industry found to have been lax with safety precautions. After several such mishaps in the past, there was a proposal by the then TDP regime to constitute an Industrial Safety Council comprising officials from various departments. It was decided that the council would seek periodic reports from all industries and factories. ''But that proposal was made just to calm the tempers of the public. It was never meant to take off,'' said a source, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Citing an example, a senior police officer recalled how, after an industrial mishap a few years ago, a senior minister in the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet called his subordinate official and asked him to go slow on the case. ''He (the managing director of the industry) is close to us,'' was what the politico told the officer. Sources said that every time there is a mishap, the factories/industries pay compensation to the family members of the victims while keeping politicians and bureaucrats, including some in the AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and the Inspectorate of Factories in 'good humour.' ''That is enough to bail them out,'' sources said. The industries, besides maintaining rapport with politicians and bureaucrats, also participate actively in government programmes to strengthen their bonds with those in power. A case in point is that of LG Polymers, where the gas leak claimed close to a dozen lives. As part of AP government's initiative 'Green Visakha, a target of planting 55,000 saplings was given to this firm by the social forestry department. On its part, LG Polymers, a south Korean company operating since 1961, achieved 100 per cent of the target by planting 55,000 saplings in March last year. Another official, who worked in the Inspectorate of Factories till some time ago, stated that if factories and industries do not adhere to the prescribed safety and maintenance norms, it invariably means that there has been political and bureaucratic intervention on their behalf. ''Norms remain mostly on paper. All industries are well-connected. Highly expensive gifts are given. Whenever any industry is in trouble due to a mishap, both parties take care of each other,'' says the official. He added that the axe falls only on those who cannot pay up or are not all that well-connected. ''There have been several instances wherein industries have been served closure notices or asked to stop production for not complying with norms. But most of them manage to get favourable orders from the government after a period of time,'' he says. In fact, outspoken bureaucrat EAS Sarma has been vocal about the nexus between promoters and politicians. Sources further said that complaints are frequently lodged by people residing close to these industries or anonymous letters are written by factory workers to various agencies, detailing the wrongdoings of the company. But no action is taken. While Visakhapatnam has 392 factories/industries in the red zone, there are 439 in orange zone, 132 in the green zone and one in white zone, totalling 964. When it comes to the AP Pollution Control Board, the sanctioned employee strength is 289 but the number of employees at present is merely 124. ...

#IFTTT #Today Bharat

0 notes

shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

Text

The Site of One of the Largest US Oil Refineries Is on Fire

The ExxonMobil complex in Baytown, Texas—home to one of the largest oil refineries in the country—caught fire on Wednesday after a petrochemical unit reportedly exploded.

The City of Baytown warned residents to shelter-in-place at 11:35 a.m., noting a fire had broken out in an area containing polypropylene material, a thermoplastic polymer used in many common items such as plastic piping and laboratory equipment. In a press conference on Wednesday, an ExxonMobil spokesperson said the material on fire is a mixture of propane and propylene, and that staff are working to extinguish the isolated blaze.

Some people in nearby suburbs claimed to have felt an explosion loud enough to “shake windows,” reported the Houston Chronicle .

Massive flames and plumes of smoke could be seen pouring out of the Baytown Olefins plant. The facility is used for converting natural gas into plastics, and is one of the world’s largest ethylene plants according to the company’s website. Six people sustained non-life threatening injuries according to an ExxonMobil spokesperson; earlier, the City of Baytown said that three people with minor injuries had been transported to the hospital, reported CNN.

ExxonMobil hasn’t explained what caused the fire. But Freddie Landry, who works at the facility, told the Laredo Morning Times that he was next to the plant when it happened.

“The crane guys were moving pipe for me so we can proceed and finish our job,” Landry said. “I heard a big boom. The crane went up, and the guys said it exploded. No hesitation. We all turned around and took off.”

ExxonMobil said in a statement on Twitter that industrial hygiene staff are “conducting air quality monitoring” at the site.

A spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) told Motherboard that it dispatched experts at 11:30 a.m. to conduct handheld air monitoring, and “is continuously evaluating the data from these monitors to asses any potential regional air quality impacts.”

It’s unclear whether the fire could release harmful pollutants into the air. The shelter-in-place orders residents to stay indoors, close doors and windows, and shut off any air conditioning units.

ExxonMobil is the city’s largest employer and claims to be developing technologies that will allow it “to operate more safely and reliably.” But Wednesday’s fire is one of many accidents that have occurred at the complex.

In March, a unit that processes motor gasoline caught fire and shrouded the area in noxious smoke. The city issued another shelter-in-place in 2016 when a pipeline began leaking a highly flammable gas called dilute propylene.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, ExxonMobil reported several “emissions events” at Baytown to the TCEQ. One event spewed 57 tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere in just 18 hours. Another released approximately one ton of the carcinogenic compounds benzene and 1,3-butadiene.

In 2017, the company was ordered by a U.S. district court to pay $20 million in fines for violating the Clean Air Act 16,386 times between October 2005 and September 2013. During this period, the ExxonMobil plant spilled an estimated 10 million pounds of pollutants into the atmosphere.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Office of Emergency Management said that “Harris County Pollution Control is responding to the fire at the Exxon refinery in Baytown and will be collecting real-time air-quality information.”

The larger area has witnessed a slew of accidents at other facilities. In March, a fire at a petrochemical storage site burned for several days. And in April, one man died and two were injured after a chemical plant caught fire in Crosby.

The ExxonMobil incident is the latest in a growing list of fossil fuel-related accidents in the U.S. this year. The East Coast notably saw several refinery explosions, including one in June at the “largest refining complex on the Eastern seaboard,” reported Motherboard at the time.

The City of Baytown, located 25 miles east of Houston, was founded after an oil boom in the early 1900s caused an explosion of development in the region. Its main industries are oil, rubber, and chemical plants. The refinery at Baytown can process up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

This story has been updated to include a comment from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The Site of One of the Largest US Oil Refineries Is on Fire syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

0 notes

rosalindclimpson-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Baryte In Azara, Nassarawa Condition Of Nigeria.

Niacinamide, likewise known as vitamin b3, supplies a selection of health and wellness perks when it pertains to skin treatment. I totally coincide the author that the hair colour you opted for should complement your complexion as well as ought to in vogue. The next individual with the exact same eye different colors like you might have a completely various expertise when reading these results.

That's certainly not the case with the 6: As I contrasted my nighttime tries side by side, I observed that the newer version adheres to its own much enhanced main video camera, which manages to make sharp and also correct low-light chances by itself. Lots of people can only view the colours of the Rainbow. We will certainly go into these individuals problems in clear cut detail, but first permits check out at skin layer shade and also what the shade of somebodies skin layer actually indicates. The Agra is actually classed as a normally tinted Preference Illumination Fuchsia and evaluates 32.34 carat weights. Different colors the clubs to match the eye shades when you're ended up. Common functions: KMG 81 or 97 twin-screw magnifying extruder placed over bettor injection system; melt collector permits extruder to run continually. In the 15th century, Violet was actually mostly substituted as the colour of reputation and energy through cardinal, crimson as well as scarlet reds gotten from crushed insects. Our company spent time photographing some birds at yet another meal earthworm nourishing terminal which provided our team beautiful chances of White-tailed Robin as well as a few various other types. Basic attributes: Smart-Mold closed-loop command system; vacuum-assisted venting. This situation may be actually considering that Black individuals background is primarily dental while white folks care about chronicling celebrations. Likewise naphthol red, RT172D and RT170D (PR170s) with bright masstone colorshade for PE and PP; and calcium mineral precipitated monoazo yellowishes, YT362D (PY62) and also YT369D (PY169) for polyolefins as well as styrenics. Peach flush, lipstick, and Http://Newdiet2018.Info/Daruber-Hinaus-Legen-Die-Forscher-Nahe-Dass-Ein-Haufiger-Verzehr-Von-Kiwifruchten-Die-Undichte-Verdauungstraktstorung-Lindern-Kann/ eyeshadow go terrific along with a light gold brown hair colour. @LuckyExplorer: From what I have reviewed they are actually primarily covering the white colored lightings, certainly not other different colors LEDs. Eye shadow tips are actually wonderful for people that like to explore makeup. Developing metaphysical understanding is actually linked with ashen tones and the golden-white lighting that links all shades and also stands for the unity or even Resource of all. For centuries, performers have developed "Illuminated documents" very carefully lettered with perfectly adorned preliminary letters on parchment. And a light neutral colour produces a warm and comfortable, soothing space to accomplish it in. Chalk Blusher 3 is a fragile, muted shade, it is actually not as bare as as strong or even white colored as beige or grey, which makes it calming as well as perfectly soft. Colour matching for polymers like LLDPE, PP, PS, ABS, and SAN in wasted movie, injection molding, piece, profile page extrusion, and also strike creating. It seems I can only right now locate this product in those hair items outlets below in New York City - you know where they sell every sort of hair shampoo, hair colouring, combs, hair gels, wigs, etc

0 notes

colrfulcreations · 7 years ago

Link

~~~Products Used in Tihs Video~~~ Jossu's by Jossu - Prismacolor Colored Pencils 72 - 132 - 150 - Tombow MONO Zeroes - White "School-Style" P207 Hi-Polymer - Caliart Gel Pens (100) - ~~~About Simple Art for Adults~~~ My name is Erin, and I loooove adult coloring! Join me as I new books, mediums, tips and Tricks for Relieving Stressfulness and Self-anxious coloring. I'm not a Proffesional artist, so we'll learn new Tricks together, and I'll SHARE I know you as I go. Feel Free to Cotanct me at [email protected]. My Mailing Address: Erin Jarboe PO Box 708 Tell City, IN 47586 ~~~Links~~~ Amazon List: Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/simpleartforadults Instagram: www.instagram.com/simpleartforadults Twitter: @ErinatSimpleArt Email Address: [email protected] Website: www.simpleartforadults.com Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/simpleartforadults

0 notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years ago

Text

Hyperallergic: The Past and Present of a Syrian-American Artist

Diana Al-Hadid, “South East North West” (2017), polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, plaster, gold leaf, copper leaf, painter’s tape, pigment, diptych: 130 x 168 x 5 inches 330.2 x 426.8 x 14 cm Each panel: 130 x 84 x 5 1/2 inches 330.2 x 213.4 x 14 cm (all photos courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery and © Diana Al-Hadid. All photos by Object Studies)

Full disclosure: Diana Al-Hadid is a cherished former student of mine, exemplary and adventurous. As a second-year MFA candidate in sculpture when I began teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004, she sought me out, requesting to audit my Critical Issues seminar (she couldn’t officially enroll because she had too many credits). I agreed, with one caveat: She had to do the same copious amount of work as the other students — all the eclectic readings and intensive class discussions, all the comprehensive engagement. This she did, with aplomb.

We also had many studio critiques, basically every two weeks for much of one year. I witnessed at close quarters the origins and development of what is sure turning out to be a deeply compelling and strikingly idiosyncratic artistic vision, and I don’t use that word “vision” lightly.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1981, Al-Hadid immigrated as a five-year-old child to Ohio, where she grew up in an Arabic-speaking Muslim family. She has thus long negotiated her way between two vastly different worlds — the West and Islam; heartland America and Syria; box store, fast food, high school football, family car Ohio, and Syria, both ancient and modern, the seat of multiple civilizations with millennia’s worth of historical remnants and architectural traces.

This negotiation is also essential for her art. I recall one studio visit when an in-process sculpture (I think it was largely made of plaster built around some scaffolding) was threatening to overwhelm her entire studio. With its slopes and indentations it suggested rolling hills — akin to parts of the Ohio landscape — but it equally suggested architecture, a brittle archaeological fragment writ large, and the weathered surfaces of ancient structures. Back then it was apparent that Al-Hadid wasn’t intent on making “successful” (an art school word that always makes me cringe) sculptures catering to the endless crits and discussions in grad school, or to the whims and fashions of the art world. Her focus was instead on creating crazily ambitious sculptures that arise from her deepest self and ultimately engage in dialogue with the world — her world — based on her very particular experience.

While at VCU — and this has certainly continued into her professional career —Al Hadid’s favored materials were not high end and splendid but Home Depot(ish) and quotidian, among them plaster, cardboard, aluminum foil, and paint. Even back then it was apparent that she had an extraordinary, almost alchemical ability to coax these bare-bones materials into startling and at times spectacular and enthralling sculptural forms. She also imbued them with acute thought, involving eclectic research.

This ability has only increased through the years. “No ideas but in things,” the great poet William Carlos Williams counsels in his poem “A Sort Of A Song,” thus fusing thought with the material world (or, as he put it in his poem, using “metaphor to reconcile the people and the stones”). This seems very close to what Al-Hadid has long been up to with her thought-filled, heavily material art, and it underpins the various works in her impressive new exhibition, Falcon’s Fortress at Marianne Boesky Gallery.

There is nothing overtly political about this exhibition, which features three decidedly eccentric (to say the least) sculptures; a set of mesmerizing wall panels made by the controlled dripping of polymer gypsum and other sundry materials, which leaves small gaps and wider openings across the surface; and willfully scruffy yet gorgeous mixed media drawings (Conté, charcoal, pastel, and acrylic) on Mylar, but it’s gratifying to witness the way the show subtly turns the tables on the frothing-at-the-mouth, profoundly ignorant, ban-the-Muslims crowd.

Al-Hadid’s inspiration for her new body of work involves two Muslim visionaries, towering figures in the Islamic world but little known in the West. One is Al-Jazari (1136-1206), the Arab polymath and mechanical engineer whose brilliant Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, chronicling (and giving instructions for) his many inventions ranging from water-pumping systems to functional candle clocks, predated Leonardo da Vinci by almost 300 years. The other is Bosnian Matrakçı Nasuh (1480-c. 1564), likewise a genius polymath — mathematician, cartographer, expert swordsman, and painter of gorgeous, intricately detailed miniature panoramas of the cities, villages, fortifications, and landscapes of the far-flung Ottoman empire, notably the cities encountered by the Ottoman army during Suleiman the Magnificent’s Safavid War of 1532-1555, involving a long march between Istanbul and what is now Baghdad, and back.

Diana Al-Hadid, “The Candle Clock of the Swordsman” (2017), modified polymer gypsum, fiberglass, brass, copper, steel, concrete, polyurethane foam, wood, plaster, lead, bronze, metal leaf, pigment 94 x 88 x 88 inches

Al-Hadid’s multi-tiered “The Candle Clock of the Swordsman” (2017) features a candle-like form at the top, with molten candle wax (it’s actually gypsum) spilling down the sides; a gold falcon (tinged with green) perched, wings spread, in the middle; various small balls made of cast plastic and metal leaf and a white base with incisions, so that parts of it seem to be flowing or dripping.

It isn’t at all a faithful reproduction of one of Al-Jazari’s clocks (which kept accurate time via the decreasing weight of burning candles and the release of the small balls). It’s a riff on one of those clocks: essentially, Al-Hadid absorbed Al-Jazari’s design into her distinctive sculptural aesthetic — which is at once exquisite and unruly, graceful and rugged — and the work is a total marvel.

Diana Al-Hadid, “The Candle Clock of the Swordsman” (detail) (2017), modified polymer gypsum, fiberglass, brass, copper, steel, concrete, polyurethane foam, wood, plaster, lead, bronze, metal leaf, pigment

This is the only one of the three sculptures in the show that Al-Hadid intended to actually function, sort of. Prior to the exhibition there was a real candle at the top, which, when lit, and after it burned down for a couple of hours, actually released one of the small balls, then another.

Al-Hadid had timed the working of her clock to coincide with the August 17 total solar eclipse, thus alluding to the Islamic world’s centuries-old engagement with astronomy (this information is in the press release and available to the public). Later, candle and wax were replaced by fabricated versions.

The falcon, which is made of cast polymer gypsum and fiberglass, with additional metal, foam, and metal leaf, is riveting. It’s a version of a bird but it also functions as a powerful and mysterious totemic force. Falcons appear in the other sculptures too, and also in the wall panels, sometimes overtly, sometimes via subtle hints. It’s as if this totemic bird is traversing the different works in the exhibition, but also flashing across a vast expanse of history and time, uniting present and deep past.

A falcon appears near the bottom of “The Candle Clock in the Citadel” (2017), this time with a gold ball issuing from its chest. Way above, there is a candle and cascading gypsum “wax.” Scraps of architecture and a protective outer sheath (also hinting at architecture) are derived from Nasuh’s miniature of Aleppo’s famous citadel — an architectural and historical treasure and long the city’s central landmark—which has been gravely damaged during Syria’s civil war.

Diana Al-Hadid, “The Candle Clock in the Citadel” (2017), modified polymer gypsum, fiberglass, brass, copper, steel, concrete, polyurethane foam, plaster, metal leaf, pigment 117 x 90 x 73 inches

Pouring in a centrifugal whirl toward the floor, Al-Hadid’s absorbing, extraordinarily complex sculpture, while static, feels chock-full of wild motion, poised on a cusp between intricate cohesion and impending decay. Like many of Al-Hadid’s works it is also curiously mobile in time. It’s fresh and eventful, but also seems crusty and precarious, almost like an unearthed archaeological relic. It may well be the case that this sculpture, launched by an exquisite miniature made several centuries ago, responds to Aleppo right now, this renowned city punished by warfare and wantonly wrecked by the brutal Assad regime.

Diana Al-Hadid, “The Candle Clock in the Citadel” (detail) (2017), modified polymer gypsum, fiberglass, brass, copper, steel, concrete, polyurethane foam, plaster, metal leaf, pigment

For a New York audience, the big news from this exhibition is the opportunity to see a generous selection of Al-Hadid’s remarkable wall panels, which are extremely novel variations on paintings. Instead of applying brushstrokes to canvas or wood panels, she orchestrates drips, spindly strands, and other mostly thin shapes made of various materials ( along with polymer gypsum, she has used fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, copper leaf, and pigment). These drips are the brushstrokes, so to speak, for three-dimensional “paintings” sans supports, which you look at but also through, because of their many open spaces The panels seem to almost float on the walls.

Each is based on an image (a reproduction) of one of Nasuh’s miniatures, but not obviously so. Al-Hadid magnified and reoriented the images, often inverting and rotating them, before weaving them, so to speak, into sculpted, hybrid “paintings” that are partially abstract but that also suggest architecture, architectural fragments, landscapes, and maps. Al-Hadid’s process of controlled dripping, during which she rotates the panels, allows for a gravity-defying array of activity: drips that flow up, for example, or sideways; forms that sweep across at an angle, almost like a visible wind.

In “Home Base” (2017) an irregular blue band from top to bottom conjures a river sluicing through the landscape. It’s surrounded by hints of columns and walls, houses and distant hills. Step back to take it all in and this teeming work seems full of ragged splendor. Step up close and you get enthralled by details: luminescent parts abutting subdued, earth-toned ones; little glinting bits of silver and gold; vivid, yet tiny, dabs of russet and ocher.

Diana Al-Hadid, “Home Base” (2017), polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, plaster, aluminum leaf, gold leaf, painter’s tape, pigment, 86 x 120 x 51/2 inches

As with the other wall panels, this one suggests a tapestry, threadbare in parts, as well as a partially eroded fresco or mural. In the large diptych, “South East North West” (2017), blue bands again conjure rivers, while myriad accompanying shapes suggest clustered buildings and fecund vegetation. Even though huge, at 130 by 168 by 5 inches, and presumably weighty, this work, with its many openings, seems diaphanous, almost ethereal.

There is a large oval opening on the left of “The Falcon in the Mirage” (2017) and while it suggests outright damage — a hole in a painting or tapestry, say, or a blank space in an eroded fresco or mural — it equally suggests a portal providing access to some other dimension, a conduit to the remote past. It takes a while (or at least took me a while) to realize that the white, gray, and gold, seemingly abstract form at the bottom of the oval is another falcon, with attenuated vertical gypsum strips jutting from its back and head, endowing it with a sort of magical energy.

Diana Al-Hadid, “The Falcon in the Mirage” (2017), polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, plaster, copper leaf, gold leaf, pigment, 84 x 108 x 5 1/2inches

There is something very dear and touching about this bird, at once powerful and vulnerable, as it surveys a “landscape” that seems both wrecked and wondrous. Here you see how expansive Al-Hadid’s eclectic techniques really are, as they embrace world-shaping forces of cohesion and entropy, regeneration and decay. Also, while Al-Hadid’s wall panels arise from a complex engagement with Nasuh’s miniatures, and by extension with the so-called “golden age” of the Ottoman Empire, it’s likely that her strong feelings for her childhood homeland — especially at this time of utmost distress — are crucial to her new work.

Completing the exhibition are three of Al-Hadid’s drawings on Mylar. Each is a complex, all-over mesh of lines, shapes, and muted, yet still vivid, colors. Although largely abstract, these drawings contain abundant hints and traces of architecture, landscape, and figures, and while quiescent — even meditative — on one level, the more you open yourself to them the more you register how crackling and agitated they really are.

For me, the joy in being a professor is witnessing (and somehow being a part of) an obviously talented young artist’s progress, moving beyond talent into something much deeper and riskier, the kind of questing authenticity that Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay “The Poet” (1844), wonderfully termed, “the science of the real.” (This essay was in fact the introductory and foundational text of the seminar that Al-Hadid audited.) That’s what I experienced with Diana Al-Hadid years ago, and it is what I have experienced again, in droves, with her scintillating and deeply meaningful exhibition.

Diana Al-Hadid Falcon’s Fortress continues at Marianne Boesky Gallery (509 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through October 21.

The post The Past and Present of a Syrian-American Artist appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2gj2nAd via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hyperallergic

0 notes