“Shobana Jeyasingh has choreographed for some strange and wonderful places. In 1989, her stage was the Champs-Elysées … In 2010, she had her dancers splashing through the serried ranks of fountains in the vast courtyard of London’s Somerset House. But her latest work, which sees her choreographing amid the glorious architecture of Venice, has proved her biggest challenge yet.”
Tag: 06.24.12
Sin, Virtue, And Human Evolution
“Are human beings intrinsically good but corruptible by the forces of evil, or the reverse, innately sinful yet redeemable by the forces of good? … We are all genetic chimeras, at once saints and sinners – not because humanity has failed to reach some foreordained religious or ideological ideal – but because of the way our species originated across millions of years of biological evolution.”
Great Artists And Their Early Reviews
A few samples: Jung on Picasso: “paradoxical, unfeeling, and grotesque unconcern for the beholder.” Breton on Kahlo: “[her art] is a ribbon around a bomb.” The Spectator on Lucian Freud: “the human form defeats him because he does not observe it as he does dead birds.”
Stolen Bust Of Rodin Recovered (Accidentally) 13 Years Later
The work by Rodin’s student, assistant and lover Camille Claudel was taken in 1999 and is worth about 1 million euros.
The Artists Of Penzance
Is Cornwall played out for artists? The Penzance Gathering thinks not.
Oh, That Bright Yellow Bit On The Forum? That Was A Menorah
“The recent discovery that a version of the menorah in a bas-relief on the first-century Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum was originally painted a rich yellow should not come as much of a surprise. But given that the image faded to the color of its underlying stone long ago — like so much else in and around the Forum — precise knowledge of its once-bright pigmentation comes as an exciting revelation to historians and archaeologists.”
Listening To The Sounds Of The Universe (In Alien Movies, We Mean)
“The point is: no music, no communication, no possibility of connection with our alien brethren. But is this all just the workings of Hollywood’s febrile imagination? Not a bit of it. Nasa has recorded the ‘sounds’ the planets make as they orbit; or at least it has turned the radiowaves they emit into an audible format – thus giving us a physical representation of ‘the music of the spheres,’ the celestial harmonies of proportion and geometry that the ancients believed held the universe together.”
Indian Youth Couldn’t Care Less About Indian Dance
Western dance forms have taken over India’s youth culture, says a choreographer/director who wishes that weren’t so.
Time For Books To Go Locavore?
Richard Russo, who has a locally sourced and print-only book coming out, thinks books could go the way of local heritage tomatoes.
What Did Scotland Look Like In 1916? WWI Pilot Photos Tell The Tale
A new website digitizes century-old aerial photos of Scotland (and the rest of Britain as well), and hopes to crowd-source responses as it digitizes thousands more photos in the next year or two.