Gold

[poliphilo]

And then there's gold.

I don't hate gold. I can see why it's mythical and mysterious and special. Used in conjuction with other materials it can be very beautiful. I love medieval miniatures with their complement of gold leaf, and high status Anglo-Saxon metal work with its combination of gold and garnet but a little goes a long way. By itself its a hard, unnuanced, inhuman substance- shiny with no depth to it- even a little repulsive. There's nothing particularly lovely about a bar of the stuff. Artefacts like Tutankhamen's death mask seem excessive to me. And I loathe Versailles.

As for the propensity of the modern plutocrat to stick it on everything, on taps, toilets, the insides of lifts...words fail me...

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Gold can be a wonderful accent with its warm glow, but generally I prefer silver - preferably not completely polished. I guess I just like things that tarnish and age; what the Japanese call wabi-sabi.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm very partial to a nice piece of silver too.

Gold is eternal, silver has history.