Art

Salman Rushdie: India Is No Longer The Country I Wrote About In ‘Midnight’s Children’

“When I wrote this book I could associate big-nosed Saleem with the elephant-trunked god Ganesh, the patron deity of literature, among other things, and that felt perfectly easy and natural even though Saleem was not a Hindu. All of India belonged to all of us, or so I deeply believed. And still believe, even though the rise of a brutal sectarianism believes otherwise. … Right now, in India, it’s midnight again.” – The Guardian
Tags: Art, India, Words, Ganesh, Salman Rushdie, Saleem, 04.03.21

The Spectacular Golden Parade Of The Mummified Pharaohs

“Crowds gathered on Saturday to witness the multimillion-dollar spectacle of 18 kings and four queens making the 7km journey (four miles) from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to … their new home in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.” – Al Jazeera
Tags: Art, Cairo, Visual, Tahrir Square, 04.03.21

We Can’t Travel Much Now, But Here Are Some Literary Destinations For The Future

To paraphrase Shakespeare, “Work, work your thoughts, and therein see” … anything from Paris to London, Lyme Regis to George Orwell’s final destination. – The Guardian (UK)
Tags: Art, London, George Orwell, Paris, Words, 04.03.21, Shakespeare Work

Arthur Kopit, Playwright Who Shook Up The Theatre, 83

Kopit “thrust Off Broadway into a new era with the absurdist satirical farce Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad and earned Tony Award nominations for two wildly different plays, Indians and Wings, and the musical Nine.” – The New York Times
Tags: Art, People, Wings, Broadway, Arthur Kopit, 04.03.21, Kopit, Poor Dad Mamma

Broadway Reopens For 36 Minutes

The pop-up event, where Nathan Lane and Savion Glover performed (one at a time) “before a masked audience of 150 scattered across an auditorium with 1,700 seats, was the first such experiment since the coronavirus pandemic caused all 41 Broadway houses to close on March 12, 2020, and industry leaders are hoping it will be a promising step on what is sure to be a slow and bumpy road to eventual reopening.” – The New York Times
Tags: Art, Theatre, Broadway, Savion Glover, Nathan Lane, 04.03.21

Ashleigh Gordon Shares the Castle of our Skins

The co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a collective of artists of all kinds dedicated to advancing Black artistry through music, shares the philosophy behind her leadership work furthering the contributions of Black artists. –
Tags: Art, Ajblogs, 04.03.21, Ashleigh Gordon Shares the Castle

The 20th Century Irish Playwright And The Secrets Of Her Green Suitcase

Teresa Deevy wrote plays about young women coming to terms with – and pushing back on – the restrictions of life in Catholic Ireland. After Meuniere’s disease caused her to become deaf, “She moved to London to study lip reading and while there became deeply immersed in theatre, deciding to become a playwright so that she ‘would put the sort of life we have in Ireland into a play.'” And when a particularly patronizing, and patriarchal, artistic director cut off her access to Irish National Theat...
Tags: Art, London, Ireland, Words, Catholic Ireland, Teresa Deevy, 04.03.21, Irish National Theatre

The Young Creators Of A TikTok Viral Dance Speak Out

Mya Johnson is 15 and Chris Cotter is 13 – and they’re Black. A white TikTok influencer took their dance, and other viral dances from the site, to Jimmy Fallon … without any credit for the choreographers. A comparison of the influencer’s “challenge” and the kids’ dance moves went just as viral. Cotter, at 13, is gracious about it all: “I wanted both of us to be getting lifted up and maybe even collabing in the future and just getting together and going up to the top together.” – Slate
Tags: Art, Jimmy Fallon, Dance, Cotter, Chris Cotter, 04.03.21, Mya Johnson

Buildings That Claim To Be ‘Fossil Fuel Free’ Are Anything But

Glass, concrete and steel are far from carbon neutral, says a leading architect working on climate change. “The production of these materials entails burning a huge amount of fossil fuel. … The climate emergency is not a game and we can’t just spin our way through it. We need to think about where our materials come from, how they’re made and interrogate the whole supply chain – from construction to demolition and reuse.” – The Guardian (UK)
Tags: Art, Visual, 04.03.21

Visitors To A South Korea Gallery Defaced A Graffiti Piece

Of course, they didn’t mean to harm it – they believed it was participatory. Extra “Do Not Touch” signs have now been added. – BBC
Tags: Art, South Korea, Audience, Visual, 04.03.21

This Year’s Oscars Might Be The Most Diverse Ever, Thanks To The Pandemic

The diversity is a silver lining of the awards season’s weirdness. “A deeper, post-Covid existential crisis is on the cards. What is the point of awards, after all? Are they about recognising artistic excellence and the importance of culture? Or are they about showbiz glitz and beautiful people? How much impact do they have? And who gets to do the judging, anyway? Covid has given the whole awards game a shake-up, and maybe that’s what it needed.” – The Guardian (UK)
Tags: Art, Media, COVID, 04.03.21