Fatma A. Hamada, Doaa M. Elkholy, Rim Hamdy
et al.
Morphological, anatomical, and molecular information facilitates the identification and inference of the relatedness of plant species. In this study, the macromorphological, micromorphological, and anatomical characteristics of nine species from the <i>Brachychiton</i> and <i>Sterculia</i> genera belonging to the Malvaceae family were examined by light and a scanning electron microscope. The study recorded 66 macromorphological, micromorphological, and anatomical characteristics, thus revealing important variations between the studied species in leaf morphology and anatomy. This included variations in leaf complexity, leaf arrangement (phyllotaxy), epidermal cell walls, and their sculpture, as well as in the types of glandular and non-glandular trichomes. The studied species were mostly conserved in shedding patterns, being evergreen only in one out of nine studied species. Similarly, eight species were petiolate. Conversely, leaf arrangement and leaf complexity characteristics were highly divergent among the studied species, though only one species, <i>Sterculia foetida</i>, had compound leaves. The differences in the studied features and the chloroplast genes <i>MaturaseK</i> (<i>MatK</i>) and <i>ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase</i>/<i>oxygenase large subunit</i> (<i>rbcl</i>) were exploited to deduce the relationship between the studied species. While the morphological and anatomical features demonstrated a close relationship between the studied intrageneric species, the DNA barcoding analysis proved very efficient in distinguishing the two neighboring genera. Collectively, the different clustering analyses suggest a close relatedness between <i>Brachychiton acerifolius</i> and <i>B. australis</i>, while only DNA-based clustering demonstrates cladistic monophyly of the <i>Sterculia</i> species. This study, therefore, provides a detailed description of various morphological and anatomical features important for the systematic studies within the Malvaceae family and highlights the value of incorporating morphological, anatomical, and molecular approaches for inferring the evolutionary relationship between closely related plant species.
This paper deals with Yugoslavia in the aftermath of World War II, a time when the preservation of revolutionary tradition and the legacy of the People's Liberation Struggle were elevated to the status of a paramount social imperative. Cultural policy during this era functioned as a heterogeneous and far-reaching system of systematically coordinated actions, extending across both the spiritual and material domains of cultural life-entirely subordinated to the directives of political leadership. Within this framework, state authorities promptly embraced public sculpture as a vital medium for the effective transmission of ideological values and for advancing a broader ideological project: the symbolic reconfiguration of the cultural and political landscape of the New Yugoslavia. This study centers on two sculptural-spatial WWII memorials in Priština, the capital of the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, in order to illuminate their significance within both artistic and commemorative contexts. The first is the Monument to the People's Liberation Struggle of the People of Kosovo and Metohija (1959-1961) by sculptor Miodrag Živković, located in the central square of the "new city center" constructed after the war. The second is the Memorial Cemetery for Fallen Fighters (1960-1961), situated on Matičane Hill in the Velania neighborhood overlooking the city, designed by architect Svetislav Ličina in collaboration with architect Prvoslav Janković. Through the lens of sculptural architectonics and urban memory, the study seeks to underscore the cultural, symbolic, and spatial import of these two significant achievements-situating them not only within the individual artistic trajectories of their respective creators, but also within the broader evolution of post-WWII monumental art in Serbia. These works, produced by artists whose distinctive creative vocabularies transcended the strictures of ideological orthodoxy, are examined as both critical contributions to their respective oeuvres and as emblematic "sites of memory" embedded in the urban fabric of Priština. In this dual capacity, they are essential to understanding the complex commemorative cartography of the former Yugoslavia as it took shape in the ideological and spatial aftermath of the liberation at the end of WWII.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
outdoor sculptural works. Outdoor sculpture serves as a comprehensive means of artistic expression and interaction with daily life. The research problem focuses on studying the design and execution dimensions of establishing monumental sculptural works, presenting a detailed presentation based on artistic and scientific principles. The importance and objectives of the research vary by studying the formative and aesthetic values, systems, and standards influencing the design of public sites, along with reviewing various research elements such as design thinking and presenting general specifications for each monumental sculptural work. The research relies on a descriptive-analytical approach to provide a comprehensive research proposal and study the techniques and aesthetic philosophies of outdoor sculptural works, along with analyzing various elements such as types of outdoor spaces, viewing angles, and maintenance processes. Finally, it presents a detailed overview of the "Space Conquerors" memorial in the Russian Federation, which commemorates the achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration, established on October 4, 1964, in the Ostankino area
Fredrick Boakye-Yiadom, Evans Kwadwo Donkor, Ronald Osei Mensah
Abstract This study explores the integration of Project-Based Learning (PBL) within the higher education context, focusing on sculpture learners’ projects based on Ghanaian Adinkra symbols and their engagement with Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). The primary aim of this research is to examine how PBL enhances sculpture learners' understanding and appreciation of Adinkra symbols while also assessing the broader impact of PBL on their interaction with indigenous knowledge systems. Sculpture learners participating in this study were tasked with developing projects that incorporated Adinkra symbols, thereby connecting their creative practice with the rich cultural narratives embodied in these symbols. Through this process, learners were not only encouraged to produce art but also to interpret, analyse, and engage with the cultural meanings and historical significance of the Adinkra symbols. A qualitative research methodology was employed, using semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and project evaluations to gather data. Findings from the study suggest that PBL significantly enhances learners' appreciation for and understanding of indigenous knowledge systems by providing them with the tools to interpret cultural artefacts within their historical and social contexts. To collaborate with indigenous communities, art educational institutions should build partnerships with local indigenous communities, cultural experts, and artisans to co-create projects and learning experiences for learners.
In her multifaceted work, Simone Leigh (b. 1967, Chicago) explores the history of the African diaspora, examining topics such as the elusive legacy of enslavement, the indelible effects of colonialism and the forced migration of Black people. In this article, I focus primarily on her ceramic and bronze work which I read as a reimagined genealogy of Black subjectivity. In regards to her approach, Leigh addresses history and exposes quotidian, therefore banalized, “scenes of subjection,” to echo Saidiya Hartman’s eponymous book. After delving into the controversy surrounding her main medium of expression, ceramics, I emphasize in this article the use of the archive both as a source of inspiration and a way to redress history. I also provide an analysis of her installation Last Garment (2022) as a therapeutic showcase or a “critical fabulation.”
History (General) and history of Europe, English language
This paper presents an overview of the main semiotic issues surrounding the representation of the inside of the sacred body in Christian-Catholic material culture and art, in particular sculpture. The study of a wide range of artworks and devotional objects provides the grounds for applying, and sometimes questioning, well-consolidated semiotic notions such as Greimasian topologic oppositions and leads to an improved understanding of the strategies regulating the visibility of the sacred body in the culture under consideration. In particular, three representative regimes are identified and discussed. The first, obliteration, consists in making the inner level perceivable, but in an abstract way, deprived of figurativity (as in the case of hollow colossuses, concentric statues and dressable statues); the second, ostension, consists in the representation of the inside through strategies based on either iconicity or indexicality (respectively, for instance, in martyrological iconography and in artworks displaying relics); the third, ostentation, consists in a marked form of ostension, either as a textual strategy deliberately stressing traditional and stereotyped religious iconography or perceived as such by the observer based on moral and aesthetic thresholds culturally determined.
The cultural patrimony preserves the memory and identity of the Banat’s rural area,
defining the personality specific to each locality depending on the colonizing ethnic
group after the liberation from the Turkish yoke. Steadily degrading, this baroque
sculptural patrimony must be saved and integrated into a tourist circuit through the
development of a managerial strategy and the implementation of a total quality
management that cover the widest area possible of issues related to the intact
preservation of monuments and to their conservation. The valorisation of
monumental baroque sculpture in the rural area must be done together with the
development of a managerial strategy of sustainable development thus contributing
to the making up of an emblematic image specific to the Banat village and to the
inclusion into regional, national, and international tourist circuits through such
modern forms of tourism as cultural tourism, rural tourism, heritage tourism, interethnic tourism, religious tourism, and business tourism.
The research dealt with many of the decorative formulations used in ceramic sculpture, as well as the development of technology, its material effect and its role in adding a lot of aesthetic and plastic values to ceramic products, and the role of standards, what and the concept of total quality because of their effects that help improve the quality of artistic or industrial ceramic products, and provide a lot of The rumbling and waste in ceramics. The research also deals with the effect of decoration on the ceramic product before and after the fire. The research also dealt with the aesthetics of the ceramic color "linings", which is clay formed from it and made of colored mineral oxides that are well filtered and then applied by brushing, spraying, gravity, dipping, or any other method, and glazed linings are a type of new linings used in modern ceramic sculpture. The effect of the glass coatings is due to the degree of their transparency or their opacity, there is a translucent glaze, and there is also cracked glaze and others, as for the formulations for surface texture, this is due to the smoothness or roughness of the surface as well as the texture used. The researcher has reached through this research to conclusions, the most important of which is that the modern methods used in the production of the ceramic model depend on high levels of technology for the general standards and foundations for the quality of ceramic products a great impact on enriching the artistic work, and in the end the researcher recommends the necessity to organize workshops in the field of art, Ceramic sculpture between the artists of the West and the artists of the Arab world, doing more research on the role of scientific development in the development of plastic art and the art of ceramics in particular, and the necessity of linking with scientific and technological progress and making use of the data of modern technologies, adapting them for the benefit of artistic work, teaching and training students of the ceramic department on scientific foundations to keep up with the latest developments in science and technology in the production of the ceramic model.
Modern and contemporary artists working in relation to monumentality have sometimes positioned their works in relation to sf, and at other times works of monumental sculpture have been labeled as science-fictional by audiences to whom these monumental forms appear alien or displaced in time. While art history has sometimes examined the influence of sf ideas on modern and contemporary artists, a more sustained consideration of the relationship between monumentality and sf is lacking. One necessary step in advancing this understanding is a consideration of how monuments themselves have been represented in sf literature. This article examines the representations and roles of monuments in a number of sf works, including H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (1936), Robert Charles Wilson’s The Chronoliths (2001), and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Icehenge (1984). The ways in which monuments appear in these and other sf texts foreground a set of questions about the perception of inevitability, the shape of time, and the mutability of history. These works explore how the relationship between past and future can be reconfigured through encounters with monumental forms that create new bridges and chronologies across cosmic and historical scales of time.
This article examines [S]election.pl, an exhibition conceived by Paweł Althamer and Artur Żmijewski at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw in 2005, as a site for enacting radical democracy. The project, organised within a series of retrospective exhibitions entitled At the Very Centre of Attention – and consequently with Polish elections opening the country’s path towards right-wing populism – subverted the framework celebrating the growth of Polish contemporary art world by staging a group show gathering former schoolmates, and in later stage, an on-going process open to anyone. Although the importance and controversial outcome of the exhibition (defined by provocative interventions, withdrawals and destruction of artworks) has been examined in the context of continuing Oskar Hansen’s Open Form model and Grzegorz Kowalski’s pedagogical understanding of sculpture as a participatory medium, its political agency has rarely been discussed. To assess [S]election.pl as a model for democratisation and a political intervention, the paper analyses a range of its ambitions, aspects and outcomes: expanding and complicating the notion of participation, engaging with institutional critique aimed at the role of art institutions in sustaining cognitive capitalism, finally, testing the potential of contemporary art exhibitions as models for radical horizontalization of democratic involvement.
Across many sites in Italy today, wall paintings face particular dangers of damage and destruction. In Pompeii, many extant fragments are open to the air and accessible to tourists. While efforts are underway to preserve the precious few examples that have come down to us today, after excavation even new finds begin to decay from the moment they are exposed to the air. Digital photogrammetry has been used for the documentation, preservation, and reconstruction of archaeological sites, small objects, and sculpture. Photogrammetry is also well-suited to the illustration and reconstruction of Roman wall painting and Roman domestic interiors. Unlike traditional photography, photogrammetry can offer three-dimensional (3D) documentation that captures the seams, cracks, and warps in the structure of the wall. In the case of an entire room, it can also preserve the orientation and visual impression of multiple walls in situ. This paper discusses the results of several photogrammetric campaigns recently undertaken to document the material record in the House of Marcus Lucretius at Pompeii (IX, 3, 5.24). In the process, it explores the combination of visual analysis with digital tools, and the use of 3D models to represent complex relationships between spaces and objects. To conclude, future avenues for research will be discussed, including the creation of an online database that would facilitate visualizing further connections within the material record.
<br />Medium as an interface to convey thoughts and information is a broad concept that has been changed along with the evolutions of each period; therefore, it is difficult to have a comprehensive definition of it. The passage of time and recent developments in art history has transformed the meaning of media. In contemporary art, media have been merged, their borders have been faded, and new forms have been emerged. The question is how the audience communicates with the new types of art, and how the perception of the artwork becomes possible? This paper aimed to explain the developments of art perception in new artistic media with the phenomenological approach of Merleau-Ponty. It tries to examine the meaning and the position of the medium in art and show how dominant art movements in each period have affected the boundaries of media in art. This research represents a descriptive-analytical study of the texts and data about the evolution of art perception in new art media. Different types of art, such as painting, sculpture and photography, have their own territory of expression determined by the media through which the themes of an art form are recognized. Medium demarcation became apparent in modernists’ theories. Against the modernist approaches to achieve pure art, with the express advances in technology in the 20th century, the concept of media in art became meaningless, so that the target audience in the new media art is faced a deformation of media. One of the features of new media art is late understanding which can be interpreted as altering the perception of the audience of the new media art. In the process of changing the concept of medium, several changes occurred in the perception of the target audience. Despite the changes made in the course of art history, explaining the concept of media in the art can be explored with the concept of “perception” by Merleau-Ponty. Husserl's phenomenology impacted Merleau-Ponty's conception of sensory perception. He focuses on immediate and direct contact with the world and strives to interpret it philosophically. In describing perception, for Merleau-Ponty, the evolution of media perception can be examined based on the audience's experience of perception. From his approach, the principle percept has been replaced by experience in understanding the meaning of the media in art. In the new art media, the target audience misplaces its connection with the work of art. In Merleao-ponty’s phenomenology, one must re-discover the perceived world through modern art and philosophy. His doctrine is that the objects of the world emerge to us based on our perceived experience of that phenomenon. He holds this view to be right about artworks as well. In other words, the meaning of an artwork arises through the experience. The meaning of an artwork does not come from the representation of the work, rather, through the process of perception of the work. In art history, various art forms have been instrumental in communicating and perceiving art, however, in contemporary art, the media has been de-materialized and here is the level in which experience -in the concept of “perception”- comes to support the art. In order to understand the multiple and contradictory features of the media, the audience strives to avoid using traditional tools in art. In Merleau-Ponty’s approach, the audience needs exposure: They need experience in order to perceive rather than categorizing and limiting the art, and the meaning of the artwork is what is gained through the audience experience. Descriptive phenomenology as the approach of the article includes the exploration, analysis, and direct description of the medium. This approach disregards previous preconceptions. An approach that is consistent with the characteristic of contemporary art. This research is a descriptive-analytic review of documents and data that explains the process of transformation of the audience's perception of artworks into new artistic media. The results show that by changing the function of media in art, the experience of perceiving the work of art through the media is not possible. The art media, as the communication and artistic perception tool, has been dematerialized in new art media, and the audience with its own perceptive experience completes the work of art. <br />
In the age of enormous technologies and accelerated scientific development, the production of a commodity is no longer an end in itself. The consumer and purchasing requirements and personal aspiration have become the main target. This is why the functional design of any product is primarily aimed at creating a combination of the individual and the producer. Human beings are usually more inclined to organic objects and prefer them to engineering objects that carry decorative values or carry an organic chemical meaning. So the designer works to find a synergy between product design elements and organic proteins. Although it requires more scientific effort combining nature and products, this effort works on the interconnection of the design forms of the product in the abstract forms that lack the artistic characteristic and are away from the natural elements. Therefore, the designer must study the effectiveness of the elements of the organic design and its application in the design of the product, allowing the transition to innovative visual and functional images. This shows the importance of studying the effectiveness of the elements of organic design, and its application in the design of the product, to access innovative visual and functional images. Through the formulation of organic design standards and analysis of different relationships in the design construction, help to achieve the required functions of the product, which contribute to increase and improve the functional structure of the organic design.The research has studied the organic trend, the methods of organic inspiration in the design of the product namely representation of nature, expression, sculpture, and analytical kinetic. Determination of inputs to organic design is anatomical, cellular, engineering and structural. Also, study examples of the interaction between elements of design in the organic direction, form, content, style, idea, character, and organic unity, which helps to develop products and predict future technology. Organic design helps achieving the ergonomic and function aspects of the product using organic direction and taking advantage of aerodynamic studies and energy sciences. The research concluded the criteria for using the organic trend in product design.problem:1- Studying organic systems in nature and showing how it could be used in achieving the ergonometric and functional aspects of the product.2- Analyzing the various potentials of organic design sources and determining their levels in product design.aim: Reach basic standards for using the organic trend in product design.Research Methodology: Descriptive analytical methodology.
The Acanta Caves, which are housing quite amount of precious traces belonging to India, have an important place in amazing Indian history and culture. Acanta caves are divided into two groups in terms of their construction dates and their formal characteristics. Historically, those belonging to prehistory periods are called as the first group whereas those carved in the 4th century AD are called as the second group. In terms of their form, they are divided into two as indigenous to India, viharas and chaityas. The Viharas which are subject to this work carry the feature of being a precious masterpiece, each with its verandah, inner and outer columns, sculpture, relief and wall paintings. In the wall paintings of the caves, there are mostly Buddhist cultural figures; also the scenes of Avadāna and Cātaka texts are depicted skillfully. These colorful wall paintings are thought to be the pioneer of traditional Asian art. In this study, twenty-five vihara-formed caves out of thirty Acanta caves were examined within the mentioned elements. Thus, it is desirable to contribute to the study of the Cultural Heritage of Hindu Tradition Belonging to Buddhist Belief.
В творчестве Огюста Родена большое место занимает тема внутреннего психологического конфликта, который выражается в переживаниях и экспрессивных позах героев. Мотив внутренней несвободы человека, унаследованный скульптором от Микеланджело, выразился, прежде всего, во «Вратах Ада», с фигурами мятущихся душ, «Тремя тенями» и «Бронзовым веком». Антитезой этой темы был гармоничный, уходящий от рефлексии образный мир Майоля. Александр Терентьевич Матвеев во время своей учебы у П.П. Трубецкого и позже во Франции изучил обе эти творческие системы, создавая на их основе собственный метод. В 1910-е годы одним из главных ресурсов для поисков своей темы для Матвеева был заказ на скульптурное оформление усадьбы Новый Кучук-Кой в Крыму. К этому времени скульптор уже входил в объединение «Голубая роза» и принимал эстетику задумчивой медитации, мотив вещего сна, которые живописец Павел Кузнецов применил в оформлении зданий и мостов Кучук-Коя. Результатом этого творческого содружества стала большая сюита фигур – групп и отдельно стоящих статуй на постаментах. Роденовская тема отчаяния и трагических переживаний взрослых героев превращается в скульптурах Кучук-Коя в тему жизни-сна, в меланхолическую поэзию жизненного и творческого созревания.
The article investigates the problem of the attitude of the Russian authorities to the “Greek” migration. The author tracks the general and specific features of the Orthodox christians’ migration from the Ottoman Empire and from its vassal states. It was revealed that the “Greeks”, like other foreigners, were willingly turned to the Russian citizenship. However, in peacetime the need for foreigners sharply decreased. The admission of military and other experts to Russia who provoked doubts concerning their allegiance was banned. These prohibitions referred mainly to the immigrants from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, not the “Greeks”. The authorities had always been ready to engage the “Greeks” in the service. The precedent effort of the migration of Greek jeweler Alexander Dmitriev changed the situation for a short period. All the “Creeks” were allowed to cross the border without coordination with Moscow departments (Diplomatic or Internal Affair). But then the master asked a too large sum for his services. The authorities were extremely disappointed and refused to employ him in the Royal workshops. This was the only example during the first half of the 17th century when a “Greek” was rejected from the Russian citizenship. However, the incident of Alexandr Dmitriev had not changed the authorities’ politics, he became the reason for moving back to the old rules of coordination before allowing the “Greeks” to cross the Russian border. Besides, it was forbidden to hire foreigners, including the “Greeks”, who had violated the oath and fled from Russia. After that they had no chance to return.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations
The current interest in how museums display sculpture forms part of a wider set of questions about how sculpture has been displayed and viewed historically. This paper surveys developments over the past thirty years or so and outlines some questions about the display and viewing of sculpture that we are addressing now. One central issue for any curator of sculpture is this: how should works of sculpture which were created for specific settings – often public settings – be shown meaningfully in gallery displays which impose their own new viewing conditions and lock these sculptures into a new set of narratives? How do both curators and spectators engage with sculptures which were once site-specific but which are now decontextualized or rather re-contextualised as gallery sculptures? These questions are examined here in terms of changing approaches within the discipline of art history as well as the options open to the curator.
This paper shows that sculptors attracted much of the attention that was paid to emerging British artists during the 1980s. The group of young artists represented by the Lisson Gallery and collectively referred to at the time as the “New British Sculptors” were particularly successful in gaining coverage.