Steampunk, Skulls, Gulliver's Airship & Eska

Prague architects certainly could be accused of allowing the male gaze to influence their work.

After Chris picked up his Financial Times Saturday morning, we hopped on the No. 6 tram to Holesovice, across the Vltava River.

It's definitely a hipper neighborhood than Vinohrady.  No steampunk parks there.

You could smell Friday night's beer and cigarettes at Kavarna Klubu Cross.

The Dox Center for Contemporary Art was a short walk away.  I added this balcony bicycle to my collection.

Dox reminded me of PS1 in New York.

A colorful installation,  occupying an entire gallery, greeted us.

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Vanitas explored the transience of human life through the work of more than 60  artists. Definitely right up my alley and enough skulls to satisfy even Alexander McQueen!

"Skull" by David Cerny (2015)

"He Who Laughs Last" by Eva Svankmajerova (1993)

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"Diablo" by Josef Bolf (2005)

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"Boat" by Martin Janecky (2017)

Nobody who visits Dox forgets the Gulliver Airship.  Vaclav looks just as tickled by it.

The enormous wood and steel zeppelin, commissioned in 2013, is supposed to be a "parasitic" structure.  It took two years to build.  That's Victor on the staircase at the left.

It's big enough inside to serve as a lecture space during temperate weather.

The gondola is deeper than it looks from the exterior.

In Literature, sculptor Viktor Karlik pays tribute to his favorite authors in what he calls a "three-dimensional encyclopedia."

#Data Maze: Vicious Circle, which explores internet culture, really made us think.

Victor and Chris identified where they fell on a grid with four quadrants:  Authoritarian; Economic-Right; Libertarian; & Economic-Left, clockwise.  They skewed toward the "Normies."

Chris initiated this very meta pair of shots.

Big Brother is watching.  Power to the people!

Earlier in the trip, I described Victor as shambolic. If the background fits, wear it.

Vladimír Skrepl

"Puberty" by Jan Stursa (1905)

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Back across the river, we stopped at the Rudolfinum gallery.

The video installations didn't hold much appeal for me.

 

So many unexpected cool things to see in Prague, like this neon hornblower.

Victor took us to dinner at Eska to celebrate our last night together.  The all-male wait staff definitely looked as if they had shown up for a Bel Ami casting call, although the service was superb.

The pegboard walls reminded me of my own kitchen, if not the fabric wall hangings.

We all ordered the tasting menu which included beef tartare

. . . and this creamy potato dish.

I'd never had a wine pairing before.  I enjoyed the labels as much as the libation.

A salted caramel cream puff climaxed our culinary orgasm.  Thanks again, Victor! And thank YOU, Chris, for hosting us and planning the perfect road trip!

Coffee cups and bread could be purchased on your way out.

Eska's owners probably sourced their meat from the butcher just around the corner.

Service interruptions on the tram had made it difficult for Chris and me to get to Eska so Victor guided us to the efficient, clean & colorful metro which I'd never ridden before. President Biden should put Europeans in charge of infrastructure funding for public transportation.