hoarfrost

Skipping Robert Rauschenberg’s “Hoarfrost” series of the 1970s is understandable, since the photographic imagery he scattered across yards of ephemeral silk pinned to the wall is largely figurative.

Exhalations seem to suspend in the rarified air, and on sunny days, the atmosphere shimmers with a million microscopic flashes, a hoarfrost with nothing to cling to but exposed skin and hair.

In his low smoky baritone, Yakov would regale me with descriptions of the River Spree at sunset, spangled with purple and gold; or overgrown ruins along the Mediterranean, fragrant with the scent of honeysuckle and dappled in indigo shadows; Paris in midwinter, a white city spired with icicles and sparkling hoarfrost.

Runners were teleporting to the final dungeon in the opening minutes of the game using wrong warp glitches and beating bosses with the massively overpowered Hoarfrost Stomp weapon ability.

When FromSoftware depowered Hoarfrost Stomp in a patch, runners lamented the death of the any% category, believing it’d be a while before glitch hunters and speedrun routers would find a speedy alternative to take down the game’s punishing bosses.