Mad Mark’s Castle is a glorious achievement, a hand-built faerie castle made of scavenged rebar, concrete and plaster that stands proudly atop the Albany Bulb in San Francisco Bay, offering a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Completed in 2000 and adopted ever since as an ever-changing graffiti canvas by the numerous artists haunting the Bulb, it remains a stunning piece of one-man art in itself, and the culmination of ‘Mad’ Mark (Marc)’s life’s work. Mad Mark’s Castle by Peter Merts. Mad Mark’s Castle interior (Great Hall) by Peter Merts. I’ve never been to the Albany Bulb or even …
Kymaerica (Kcymaerxthaere)
Kcymaerxthaere (née Kymaerica, pronounced `ky-MAR-ex-theere`) is an alternate world. It exists over and above our own in a system of 29 `gwomes`, only 4 of which are actually Kymaerica (an early name for the world). It was discovered by Geographer-At-Large Eames Demetrios, who goes around the real world setting up real plaques in real places commemorating events that occurred in this alternate world. It`s a globe-spanning work of intricate complexity. There are histories behind histories. Dip into his site at Kcymaerxthaere.com and you`ll immediately be overwhelmed by a plethora of gwomes, cognates, and words beginning with silent k`s and a`s. …
The Prada store that got left behind
In the Texas desert near the little town of Marfa, on a stretch of Highway known as the loneliest road in America, sits the Prada store that got left behind. No attendants bustle behind its chic white counters, though it’s fully stocked with veblen bags and shoes. The automatic doors don`t open and no one will validate your parking, but the lights do come on at night, making its glowing glass frontage the only illumination for miles around. Photo by Jonathon Percy.
Stonehenge’s little brother: Carhenge
Carhenge is a replica of the 4,500 year old Stonehenge ruin in England. It was built by Jim Reinders in Nebraska, USA, using 38 vintage automobiles spray-painted gray and posed after the original sarsens, lintels, and altar stones of Stonehenge. Now the work is surrounded by a ring of ‘portal’ cars, dinosaurs, and giant fish, spray-painted in gaudy colors and forming a wider ‘Car Art Reserve’. Altar ‘stone’. Photo by Jeremy Burgin. Carhenge consists of 38 automobiles arranged in a circle measuring about 29 metres in diameter. Some are held upright in pits 1.5 metres deep, trunk end down, and arches have …
The half-built ruin of the Dreamer’s Gate
Before you stands a gate. It rears 7 meters high and the fence it bifurcates stretches on for as far as the eye can see. Its walls glisten and seem to move with a life of their own. Across their endless expanses giant figures burrow, retreating behind blankets of spiders webs, emerging again down spiral staircases far off in the distance. Through the gate you can see the Dreamtime. You see the pattern of the land, and the Songlines that have sprung up around it. Gaze into it for long enough and you might even catch a glimpse of the …