"A video of dancers twerking in hotpants at … went viral when it emerged on Wednesday. But the music video-style choreography — featuring thumps, thrusts and butt shakes — also came under attack. Conservative lawmakers led the chorus of those calling it 'inappropriate'. Tabloids splashed headlines slamming military standards. But others found offence elsewhere — projecting shame onto...
Nancy Holt was always serious. Her journals show how other artists loved talking through ideas with her. She was very close to Michael Heizer, Richard Serra and Joan Jonas. She exchanged concrete poetry by post with Carl Andre and Sol LeWitt. But when I ask Le Feuvre if the men saw her as a peer, she answers: “Yes, but.”...
Back in 1909, a couple of very prominent German art historians decided, for various reasons, that a wax figurine of the goddess Flora that one of them had picked up at a London antique store simply had to be a genuine Leonardo da Vinci, and announced this with great fanfare. The London Times responded that no, the bust was...
How rigorously will patrons expect to be protected from the dangers of the COVID-19 virus? Have entertainment habits atrophied during a hiatus of more than a year, or has the shutdown only made the hunger for the arts even keener? - San Francisco Chronicle
Deborah Jowitt: "Inevitable distractions occur when filming (or viewing) dances in this climate. Dog walkers may intrude. A pet cat may decide on a star appearance. Are those two dancers barefoot on gravel? Was getting wet necessary or an artistic choice? Watching performers dancing in their apartments encourages thoughts we should probably suppress. Wow, a really tiny space (wonder...
As blockchain technology evolves, transaction speed increases, and transaction fees decrease (all of which are slowly, but surely happening) and more content becomes uniquely identifiable using NFTs, the need for central authorities (aka gatekeepers) will diminish and possibly disappear altogether. Why? Because the creator class will be able to do it by themselves. The concept of an open, honest,...
"Public libraries in the United States started to proliferate in the late 1800s and early 1900s, often founded by women's clubs and other social groups seeking to benefit their communities. Their early focus was on classic literature, which was thought to improve and transform the reader. However, thanks in part to librarianship during the pandemic, a shift occurred...
The anthropologist Elisa Bellato has called this an ‘identity crisis’ for the artistic manufacture of the gondola. While the boat made with cheaper materials may be indistinguishable to the untrained eye, its authenticity – not to mention quality and craftsmanship – has been lost. Bellato suggests that this modern gondola is more of a simulacrum than a true specimen,...
"Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorska, the director of the Watch Docs Film Festival in Belarus, has been released from prison and had charges against her dropped following an international outcry from film festivals and human rights organizations. was arrested in Minsk on April 5, allegedly for her role in organizing an underground photo exhibition celebrating Belarusian health workers." - The Hollywood...
The Freedom Theatre, founded in the Jenin camp in 2006, has as dual missions "to build back Palestinian identity destroyed by years of brutal occupation and tour the often unheard, first-hand experiences of Palestinians to the international community." Ten years ago, the company's co-founder and leader, Juliano Mer-Khamis, was murdered just outside the camp. Director Zoe Lafferty, who has...
"The Substation was founded as Singapore's first independent arts centre in 1990 by theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun. The careers of some of Singapore's most renowned artists … were launched here. The arts venue has always been at the forefront of efforts to push the official boundaries that limit public expression." The closure was supposed to be temporary (its...
Last week the video-rental-service-turned-streaming-giant paid an estimated $1 billion for five-year exclusive U.S. rights to Sony's theatrical releases and right of first refusal for the studio's direct-to-streaming productions. If Netflix is going to spend that kind of money, shouldn't it have just bought Sony outright? It's what many people expected, and all the other major Hollywood studios have been...
"Archaeologists digging in the ancient Canaanite settlement of Lachish have unearthed a 3,500-year-old pottery shard inscribed with what they believe is the oldest text found in Israel that was written using an alphabetic script. Earlier Canaanite texts are known, but they were written using hieroglyphs or cuneiform characters." - Haaretz (Israel)
Gallerists, angry that their competitors at auction houses were allowed to continue operating during France's ongoing pandemic lockdown, and arguing that online sales don't work for their business (collectors want to see the art they're buying in person), sued the French state, the prime minister, and the health minister. France's Council of State has dismissed the suit, ruling that...
The world's oldest opera company (founded in 1669 by Louis XIV) has signed one of the very few living conductors to become a celebrity in popular culture. The 40-year-old Venezuelan, the most famous product of El Sistema, begins a six-year term in his new job on August 1; he will also remain music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic...
