Tag: ephemera

08/11/25

the blank stare & the trout pout. a centuries-old phenomenon.

Over a century ago, she sat at her ‘toilette’, gazing into the mirror.
Today, the mirror would be replaced by a camera.
Her hands, awkwardly folded on her head, today would be awkwardly holding a phone.
But the pose?—the puckered lips?, the mindless gaze?—That remains the same – then, now and probably will remain the same in the ‘selfie’ moments of the future.

The medium has changed. The performance has not.

08/10/25

The bedroom door of a cake-eater.

Once upon a time, everyone ate cake, according to Marie Antoinette. Or so it was said.

Bedroom of Marie Antoinette, Palace of Fontainebleau, France. Section of wall. Smithsonian/Cooper Hewitt. public domain
Many historians believe that she never said 'Let them eat cake.' when she saw the multitude of hungry peasants ready to storm the palace- representing a whole social class of citizens who didn't even have bread to eat. But what if it's true? What if she did say that? Cluelessness served on fine porcelain? Could she have even fathomed hunger? Was she capable of comprehending what it meant to be living in squalor and barely surviving?