Marina Abramovic and Doug Aitkin “are not the only visual artists making complex musical theatre out of solo performance art, and doing it on a spectacular scale closer to opera. … Over the past ten years, [Matthew Barney] has turned to one-off, live presentations that unfold over many hours in several locations, employ large casts and crews, and require the planning and precision of an army mobilising for war.”
Tag: 07.05.11
Rare Example Of 18th-Century Egyptomania Uncovered In Italy
“Strange hieroglyphs and representations of Egyptian gods and goddesses have been found in the middle of the Po valley in northern Italy, revealing a unique example of Egyptomania.”
Simian Photographers: Macaques Discover Camera And Take Self-Portraits
“Visiting a national park in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, award-winning photographer [David] Slater left his camera unattended for a while. It soon attracted the attention of an inquisitive female from a local group of crested black macaque monkeys, known for their intelligence and dexterity.”
How Opera North Opera Cancellation Story Went Viral
“Whatever else this story says about the behaviour of Opera North and the primary school in question, it clearly touched a nerve with many people, both performers and audiences.”
The Battered Brain Of Ernest Hemingway
“[His] decline began at 18, with a wound suffered on the Italian front in World War I. He took over 200 pieces of shrapnel in his body and endured a massive concussion that rearranged his brain. The concussive wounds continued at an alarming rate. … His biographers count six major brain traumas, with others suspected.”
Horror Movies Should Quit Trying To Be High Art
Jason Zinoman: “Horror isn’t just for perverts and lowbrows anymore. Whether the undead pose a threat to serious art is unclear. What I’m more concerned about is the danger serious art poses to the undead.”
High-Tech Glasses That Let You See What People Are Thinking But Not Saying (Uh-Oh)
“By sensing emotions that we would otherwise miss, these technologies can thwart disastrous social gaffes and help us understand each other better. … Our emotional intelligence is about to be boosted, but are we ready to broadcast feelings we might rather keep private?”
Remembering Cy Twombly
“Almost perversely, as soon as the American art world exploded in the sixties, with Twombly positioned near the center of it all, he left America for good. By the turn of the millennium, he hadn’t had a New York gallery show in almost 30 years. His work grew to seem exotic and once-removed.”
New Jersey Public Television Goes Dark; Public TV Threatened Nationwide
“New Jersey’s public television network signed off for the last time and many other PBS stations around the US may soon follow suit. The reason: cuts in funding from state governments across the country.”
What’s The Value Of Art?
“Society has long debated how to assess the arts: What is their role? How do you know if a work is good and who chooses? Admittedly, deciding that a work is excellent is difficult, at times controversial and far from a science. But the absence of certainty had not been a problem with consequences for public funding, until recently.”