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Art

Desert Modernism 2025 Exhibition at Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week

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DECEMBER, 2024– Scottsdale, Ariz. Diné Artist, Dealer, Curator and Antiques Roadshow Appraiser Tony Abeyta to Curate Special Exhibition, “Desert Modernism,” at Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week Exhibition to Showcase Rare Works by Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma, Lloyd Kiva New, Frank Lloyd Wright, Phillip Curtis and Paolo Soleri.


 Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week Fair is pleased to announce that Diné artist, dealer, curator and Antiques Roadshow Appraiser, Tony Abeyta, will curate a special exhibition, “Desert Modernism,” which will show the convergence and progression of Phoenix artists of Native, Anglo and Hispanic descent, from approximately 1930-1980. The exhibition will feature rare and hard-to-find works by artists, architects and designers such as Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma, Lloyd Kiva New, Frank Lloyd Wright, Phillip Curtis and Paolo Soleri.

Abeyta is also serving as an Advisory Committee member for the Fair. The Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week Fair is a unique event at the historical and cultural crossroads of the American Southwest. Set in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities with an ascendent contemporary Indigenous culture, the fair will showcase over a hundred leading international galleries at Westworld, March 20-23, 2025.”We are absolutely thrilled to have Tony participate in Scottsdale Art Week,” says Trey Brennen, co-owner of the inaugural Fair.



“We are set to become the leading art fair in the West and that requires a strong Indigenous representation among our dealers and curators. Tony approaches art and art history with a deep understanding of the region and the contemporary work being produced at this moment. He has worked at many of the major museums in the area and has a wonderful reputation across the Southwest.”About his curation of a special for sale exhibition at the inaugural Fair, Abeyta says, “This has given me a chance to do a deep dive into one of my favorite subjects, the evolution of Modernism through the disparate art communities that converged in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in the middle portions of the twentieth century. I’ve long been fascinated by the work Native artists were doing in the area and I want to show how they worked, showed and created alongside great artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Phillip Curtis and Paolo Soleri.”


Preston Singletary, “A Canoe Entered a Dream” – courtesy of Blue Rain Gallery

As a curator, Abeyta co-organized the exhibition New Terrains: Contemporary Native Art which was held at Phillips Auctions January 5-23, 2024. The watershed selling exhibition explored the influences of modernism, post-war and pop influences on work by 50 contemporary Indigenous artists including Fritz Scholder, Preston Singletary, TC Cannon, Cara Romero, Diego Romero, Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith, Virgil Ortiz, Jamie Okuma, Kent Monkman, Michael Kabotie, Oscar Howe, Allan Houser, Cannupa Hanska Luger and others.

The recently closed show, Abeyta\ To’Hajiilee K’e’, at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, featured the paintings of Tony and his father, Narciso Abeyta (Ha-So-De), and the ceramic works of his sisters, Pablita and Elizabeth. Abeyta is represented by Owings Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.scottsdaleartweek.com. For the Silo, Jennifer Parks-Sturgeon.



About Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week             Scottsdale Art Week (SAW) is situated at the historical and cultural crossroads of the American Southwest. It is a reflection of today’s more dynamic and contemporary community, but is rooted in our unique landscape and history. Visionary art figures from Georgia O’Keeffe to Max Ernst and James Turrell were so inspired by the local landscape that they either settled here or created monumental land art. Today the art of the Indigenous Navajo, Apache and Hopi tribes who first occupied this land to Spanish colonialism and centuries of settlement is recognized alongside them. SAW is an exciting combination of historical American Art, contemporary art and design, with a special focus on contemporary art from Indigenous and Latinx, who often blur the lines between what constitutes art and design.

About ASU, SAW Gala Benefit Partner ASU Art Museum centers art and artists in the service of community well-being and social good. The Museum is a learning-centered teaching institution, providing interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students from across the university ranging from the sciences, humanities, journalism, sociology and schools of arts and design. A teaching museum, much like a teaching hospital, is responsible for training the next generation of arts professionals and are the frontrunners in research in art history and museum studies while delivering the highest possible level of artistic standards through collection teaching, exhibition making, research and audience engagement. The museum is different from other non-profit art museums in the region because of its unique ability to leverage the resources of the largest public research university in the country for community good. ASUAM fulfills ASU’s Design Principles by serving as a bridge connecting the breadth and scope of scholarly research and learning to the experience, knowledge and needs of our local communities, thereby co-creating and creating arts and culture opportunities available for all.

Article featured image- Horseworld, 1989 by Snellen Johnson (gift of Howard E. Kleim).
This bronze sculpture, signaling the entrance to Westworld, shows a group of three horses which represent an Arabian, Thoroughbred, and a Quarter Horse each representing a different behavior: the Quarter Horse is cutting, the Thoroughbred is racing, and the Arabian is showing.
Snell Johnson, a self-taught artist and his sculptures are known world-wide including the MGM Lion in Las Vegas and Caesar in Johannesburg, South Africa.

With over 100 galleries displaying a curated selection of fine art and design, guests will also enjoy cultural performances, fashion shows, pop-up displays and immersive experience throughout each day.

Fashion

Daily fashion shows will be produced by Phoenix Fashion Week. All clothing is provided by select Phoenix Fashion Week designers and boutiques.

“Our ultimate mission is to garner global exposure to Arizona’s fashion industry, and this event is the perfect way to do so,” said Brian Hill, Executive Director of Phoenix Fashion Week. “It’s a great, innovative way to find emerging models while showcasing top brands and fashion in Arizona.”

For more information on Phoenix Fashion Week, visit phoenixfashionweek.com

Luxury Cars

From utility to showpiece, cars are a unique art form. Guests can celebrate clean lines and smooth curves while enjoying our extensive display of luxury and collector automobiles. Enjoy a special Ferrari showcase onsite at the event. Check out their entire inventory here >

Performances

Set in one of the country’s fastest growing cities with an ascendant contemporary Indigenous art culture, the fair will showcase over a hundred leading galleries at the scenic Westworld alongside cultural performances, sculptural installations, and innovative programming including collaborations with institutions, galleries, artists, and prominent collectors.

Special Events

Guests looking to explore the best the city has to offer can attend their choice of multiple off-site events during the week. From guided tours to VIP invite-only receptions. There is something for everyone at the event and throughout this great city.

Art

Mecella: Bridging Technology and Tradition to Revolutionize Poetry

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Poetry, an art form rooted in tradition and centuries of human expression, is experiencing a renaissance in the digital age. Thanks to innovative platforms like Mecella, poetry is no longer confined to printed anthologies or academic journals. Mecella is bridging the gap between technology and tradition, creating a dynamic space where poets and readers connect, share, and celebrate the transformative power of words.

Founded by poet and U.S. Army veteran Brandon Mecella Carey Walker, Mecella was born from a desire to make poetry accessible to everyone. Walker’s journey as a writer and his experiences with traditional publishing inspired him to create a platform that embraced inclusivity and innovation. He envisioned a space where poetry could thrive in the modern world, unburdened by the constraints of outdated systems.

At its core, Mecella is a digital anthology with a groundbreaking mission: to publish one million poems. This ambitious goal reflects the platform’s dedication to fostering a diverse and inclusive community. Every poem added to Mecella enriches a living archive of human expression, showcasing the breadth of emotions, cultures, and perspectives from across the globe.

What sets Mecella apart is its seamless integration of technology into the poetry experience. The platform offers features like multimedia enhancements, allowing poets to pair their work with visuals, music, or voice recordings.

Mecella | A Home For Poets

These tools provide new dimensions to traditional poetry, making it more engaging and accessible to contemporary audiences. Readers, in turn, can explore poems interactively, deepening their appreciation for the art form.

Mecella’s commitment to accessibility extends beyond its technological features. The platform’s open submission process ensures that poets of all levels, from novices to professionals, can share their work without fear of rejection or gatekeeping. By removing financial and logistical barriers, Mecella empowers creators to focus on what truly matters: their words.

As poetry becomes more accessible through digital platforms, Mecella is fostering a global community of poets and readers. It’s a space where individuals can connect over shared experiences, discover new voices, and engage in meaningful dialogue. This emphasis on connection reflects Mecella’s belief that poetry has the power to unite people, transcending borders, languages, and cultural differences.

Mecella also serves as a hub for innovation within the poetry world. By embracing experimental forms, hybrid styles, and nontraditional themes, the platform challenges conventional notions of poetry. This openness encourages poets to push boundaries and explore new ways of storytelling, ensuring that the art form remains vibrant and relevant.

Education and outreach are integral to Mecella’s mission. Through workshops, partnerships with schools, and community initiatives, the platform introduces poetry to new audiences, inspiring a love for language and creativity. By reaching younger generations, Mecella ensures that poetry continues to thrive as a vital part of human expression.

Looking ahead, Mecella’s journey is one of continuous growth and transformation. Its goal to publish one million poems is not just a milestone but a movement—an ongoing effort to make poetry a central part of everyday life. As the platform evolves, it remains steadfast in its commitment to accessibility, diversity, and innovation.

In a world where technology often accelerates communication at the expense of depth, Mecella reminds us of the enduring power of poetry to slow us down, make us reflect, and connect us with our shared humanity. By blending the timeless art of poetry with the possibilities of modern technology, Mecella is not only preserving tradition but also redefining it for future generations.

Mecella is proof that poetry is far from a dying art—it is alive, evolving, and more accessible than ever. Whether you’re a poet, a reader, or someone discovering the magic of poetry for the first time, Mecella invites you to join its mission. Together, we can celebrate the beauty of words and create a world where every voice is heard, one poem at a time. For the Silo, Kat Fleischman.

Art

Artist Torkwase Dyson Uses Black Compositional Thought In Latest Exhibit At Gray

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 , Installation view of Torkwase Dyson, Errantry, 2024, at Art Basel Unlimited. Image courtesy Gary Yeh / ArtDrunk.

Installation view of Torkwase Dyson, Errantry, 2024, at Art Basel Unlimited. Image courtesy Gary Yeh / ArtDrunk.

Chicago Gallery

GRAY is pleased to present Torkwase Dyson: Of Line and Memory, the artist’s first solo exhibition in GRAY’s Chicago gallery. Installed over three distinct spaces, the exhibition debuts a monumental sculpture in steel and painted wood, an immersive installation of new paintings, and new cast glass and wood constructions. Of Line and Memory opens at GRAY Chicago with a public reception for the artist on November 8 and remains on view through January 25, 2025.

Dyson works across the disciplines of painting, drawing, installation, and sculpture, distilling the spatial and affective residues of diasporic histories to envision new modes of environmental liberation. Through an improvisational process of mindful abstraction, which she calls “Black Compositional Thought,” Dyson seeks to create work that is fluid, abstract, poetic, and open to possibility. “If there is systemic oppression, there must be systemic liberation,” says the artist, “and I am in that zone… trying to condition myself in this relationship of a transhistorical liberation practice.”1

Of Line and Memory draws from years of research and Dyson’s own spatial memory of navigating the waterways and urban architecture of Chicago. Using the South Shore Cultural Center, a lakeshore landmark with rich historical and architectural significance, as a point of departure, Dyson extracts, reduces, and refines architectural and visual cues into geometric shapes and painterly abstractions. According to the artist, “Of Line and Memory asks, as we move through dramatic and ever-changing geographies, what memories are stored in these new and improvisational choreographies?”

Down-down, 2018
Exhibited inTorkwase Dyson, 2021-22 Hall Art Foundation
Schloss Derneberg Museum, Holle, Germany

An immersive, dynamic interplay of materials emerges throughout the exhibition. The Clearing, a cantilevered steel, wood, and graphite sculpture in two parts, balances monumental, curved shapes upon the weight of rectangular steel bases. Dyson’s new paintings unlock a sense of “state change” between thinly poured layers of deep blues and reds, opaque blacks, and the shapes and lines of geometric abstraction. Likewise, her Hypershape constructions in glass and graphite-coated wood balance the solidity of wood and graphite with the translucence of cast glass.

Of Line and Memory underscores Torkwase Dyson’s deep commitment to transforming complex histories of diasporic and urban landscapes into powerful abstractions. The artist states: “the topography echoes familiar and enigmatic ecologies in my consciousness without the promise of stability. Embracing this indeterminacy, I think through how the transhistorical ethos of infrastructure space, both visible and invisible, resonates in liberation and world-building.”

ABOUT TORKWASE DYSON


American interdisciplinary artist Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973 Chicago) combines expressive mark-making and geometric abstraction to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Working across the disciplines of painting, sculpture and architecture, Dyson deconstructs, distills, and interrogates the built environment, exploring how individuals, particularly black and brown people, negotiate, negate, and transform systems and spatial order. Throughout her work and research, Dyson confronts issues of environmental liberation and envisions a path toward a more equitable future. 

One of today’s most innovative artists, Dyson’s work has been the focus of solo exhibitions at ‘T’ Space Rhinebeck, New York; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; Colby College Museum of Art, Maine; Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois; Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington, Vermont; Hall Art Foundation, Derneburg, Germany; and Serpentine Galleries, London, UK.  

Group exhibitions and biennials include the Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK; Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; Desert X, California; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Drawing Center, New York; Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Washington DC; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, among others. Her architectural sculpture Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground), commissioned for the 2024 Whitney Biennial, is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s fifth floor terrace through February 9, 2025. Torkwase Dyson will create the conceptual design for The Costume Institute’s Spring 2025 exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Public collections include the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Long Museum, Shanghai, China; Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington, DC; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts. Dyson studied sociology and social work at Tougaloo College, Mississippi, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Yale School of Art. Dyson lives and works in Beacon, New York.

PUBLICATION
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, to be published in 2025.


ABOUT GRAY


GRAY is a globally recognized team of art professionals devoted to fostering the development of historically important artists’ careers and to building outstanding art collections. Founded in 1963, GRAY has established its reputation as a resource for Modern, Postwar, and Contemporary art with prominent private and institutional clients worldwide. Known for producing critically acclaimed exhibitions and programming from its galleries in Chicago and New York, GRAY represents a roster of internationally recognized artists such
as McArthur Binion, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates, David Hockney, Rashid Johnson, Alex Katz, Ellen Lanyon, Jaume Plensa, Leon Polk Smith, and Evelyn Statsinger.

1 Torkwase Dyson, lecture, SAIC Visiting Artists Program, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, March 7, 2023.

Featured image- Tuning (Hypershape, 311-520), 2018, exhibited in Torkwase Dyson 2022 Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneberg Museum, Holle, Germany

Art

Alex Katz Receives United States National Medal Of Arts

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President Biden awards National Medal of Arts to Alex Katz

Alex Katz has been awarded the 2023 National Medal of Arts. Katz received the award from President Joseph Biden in a private ceremony at the White House. 

For a good Canadian analogy- The National Medal of Arts is to art what the President’s Trophy is to NHL hockey teams- it is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the American federal government. It is awarded by the President of the United States to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States. 

Red Hat (Renee), 2013

Oil on linen

84 x 60 inches

213.4 x 152.4 cm

Past recipients of the National Medal of Arts include Mark Bradford, Ken Burns, Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ruth Asawa.

Alex Katz © 2011 Vivien Bittencourt

Alex Katz (American, b.1927) is one of the most recognized and widely-exhibited artists of his generation.

Coming of age between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, Katz began exhibiting his work in 1954, and since that time he has produced a celebrated body of work that includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. His earliest work took inspiration from various aspects of mid-century American culture and society, including television, film, and advertising, and over the past five and a half decades he has established himself as a preeminent painter of modern life, whose distinctive portraits and lyrical landscapes bear a flattened surface and consistent economy of line. Utilizing characteristically wide brushstrokes, large swathes of color, and refined compositions, Katz created what art historian Robert Storr called “a new and distinctive type of realism in American art which combines aspects of both abstraction and representation.”

Tracy, 2008
Oil on linen
48 x 66 inches
121.92 x 167.6 cm

Since the 1950s, Alex Katz’s work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions around the world.

Katz early student work included a series of drawings made on his subway commute from Queen’s to his downtown art classes. These drawings were later painted and have been acclaimed as being proto proto pop art.

His work can be found in nearly 100 public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others. This story courtesy of friends at the Richard Gray Gallery.

Featured image- Thunderstruck Sunset 1 2007

Art

British Contemporary Artist Paints Nuke Blasts

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Kirsty Harris depicts the most iconic man-made event that might take place in a landscape: the detonation of the atom bomb.

Often working at scale, Harris confronts her audience with a vision of awe and beauty. Mushroom clouds hang over desolate expanses of the Nevada desert, provoking contemplation at the intersection of humanity, brutality, technology and nature.

Harris’s practice is steadfast; her paintings are informed by deep research, and this arduous process is echoed in depictions of a split-second event painted over a period of several months.

– Zavier Ellis for the Saatchi exhibition 2023

Buster Jangle, Easy, 50 x 60 inches, 2016

CBP: Your paintings reconstruct photographic documents of the atomic bomb tests, often in the Nevada desert, in a range of exhibition display formats. Can you introduce the core themes of your work?

KH: I am interested in the way these events from history disrupt and scar those barren landscapes. These swirling, bubbling apparitions are like curses or spells that we’ve cast on ourselves, so violent. 

My work might feel confrontational, maybe abrupt at first, then hopefully unravelling into something more. I am also drawn in by the stories and myths that run alongside the scientific nature of the subject. We all know that beauty doesn’t have a moral duty to be inherently good. It’s something I think about, the push and pull of awe. The tests made in the desert are so fascinating, the photographs are very rich, colourful, and vivid, due to the way the light refracts and the type of film used. These practice runs at annihilation are so beautiful – it’s unreal. It’s dark.

Georg, oil on un-stretched linen, 59 x 79 inches, 2023

CBP: You talk about early memories and family history in attending CND rallies as a child. Can you discuss this influence on the subject of your painting today?

KH: As I was becoming more and more interested in landscape painting I noticed they all have something occurring, could be farmers, the sun setting, a stormy sky, a battle, a tiny stream. Alone at Tate Modern I was looking at a painting of a single cloud by Richter and then suddenly something clicked in my head. I was walking around, eyes wide with a slack jaw, thinking “oh wow this is what I must do. Paint mushroom clouds.”

The anticipation of piling onto a coach and ending up somewhere waving my homemade banner and singing and chanting at CND protests are evocative memories from my childhood. In our doorway at home, visitors were welcomed by a massive poster of Thatcher & Reagan parodied in a Gone With The Wind movie-style poster, complete with a billowing mushroom cloud in the background. We collected protest badges and leaflets and the atmosphere was potent and thrilling, but I didn’t catch on to what we were shouting about until later. So it was always there in me. A weird relationship with the subject matter. 

Plowshare, oil on linen, 80cm x 60cm, 2024

CBP: Many years ago I visited a small museum in the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, New Mexico near the atomic bomb test sites. The original photographs of the test bombs were shown alongside reportage photographs of the real bombs and their impact (I think). Also displayed was a fascinating comic book type narrative depicting the daily life of the factory workers who built the bomb and their families. I recall being quietly absorbed by the experience, though I questioned what it was I was looking at, in terms of archive material, as a museum display, and how it made me feel. 

When you research and paint your subject, how do you negotiate what you feel about the source material and its transition into you what you are painting? Has it changed over time?

KH: It feels like science fiction. 

Through the extensive documentation of nuclear detonations, I can view how these expansive entities change millisecond to millisecond, from the fireball to the pure white cloud left hanging at the end. In my publication, Completely er, unfolding itself (2019), I transcribed the first live official television broadcast of an atomic explosion – given the code name ‘Charlie’ – in 1942. The reporters struggle, grasping for the language to describe the mushroom cloud in front of them – and I get where they were coming from. 

We are in such close proximity right now to digital versions of war. Scrolling through instagram you have temu trying to sell you some shitty plastic drawers and then 1 second later a mother holding her tiny dead child wrapped in tarpaulin, and worse. It’s so brutal. 

I keep thinking how can we be doing that to ourselves, can they never see themselves in the faces of the people they kill and torture. Nothing is worth this brutality. 

I guess my brain is always negotiating how much to watch in order to feel informed but not go reeling into despair, like all of us.

Blue Danube, Oil paint on lightbox tondo, 80cm x 80cm x 11cm, 2023

CBP: In 2007 Mark Wallinger created ‘State Britain’, for the Tate, a meticulous recreation of real-life antiwar demonstrator Brian Haw’s banned protest camp outside the Houses of Parliament. Rather than importing elements of the real camp as a readymade, Wallinger chose to painstakingly recreate it as a painted facsimile. This solitary studio activity would have given him time to reflect on its impact, the life sacrifice Brian Haw made, and what he as an artist was recreating. 

How does time and the meticulous process of painting your subject impact on the meaning of the work for you?

KH: Like the women at Greenham Common, Brian Haw was the artwork, the awesome spectacle. Inconvenient clutter. The resilience is truly remarkable. Wallinger’s piece pays tribute to this but, a little like the fake Lascaux caves. Good if you can never see the real thing, but there’s no point looking up close. I found the political implications of it very interesting.

Large paintings take me such a long time, it’s ridiculous.

I have to continually change my vantage point. If it’s possible I turn the painting upside down, take photos of it and desaturate it. Stand up painting, sit down painting. Up the ladder, sat on the floor. I always imagine the next one will be more straightforward but in 25 years, that has never happened, so why would it now? But while there is much anxiety balled up in the action of painting, it is also a hypnotic and calming process. Studying a millisecond of time for so long. I don’t know if it matters to anyone else how long I’ve looked at the painting or the source material, but the act of looking is so important to me. Displaying a painting on your wall at home, you might not realise it but with so much flashing and moving imagery invading our lives (with invitation) a semi-permanent, static, image has a big impact. I love it when there are different layers of meaning to dive into, even if they are not explicit your subconscious will identify them. Looking at an artwork every day builds up a special relationship and enriches the way my mind moves. 

Buster Dog,oil on glass, 25cm x 20cm x 4cm, 2021

CBP: Scale feels important both in terms of the impact of your subject for the viewer and your immersion into it when painting it. Can you talk about this aspect of the work?

KH: When you start a painting, there are near unlimited decisions to make. One I used to have trouble with was how big it should be. So I started to use data to construct systems that help me decide. In my paintings, often each square inch (or centimetre) of linen represents a certain number of tons of TNT. This in turn is the unit of measurement chosen, by the military, to denote the yield of the detonation.

These hidden codes might reward an inquisitive viewer.

Really, what I want to do is make paintings so vast that that’s all they see and think about for a moment. 

Investigating ideas of scale in a different way: Since 2013 I have been adding to and updating an audio composition entitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying (1945-2024). It is a musical account of every officially recorded nuclear explosion detonated between 1945 and the present day: each different instrument represents a country that partook; each month in history lasts a second on the recording; each note played depicts a single bomb. Eight musicians contributed to the piece and it was quite an epic translation of data to plot out the notes.

Grapple, oil paint on glass, table, 75cm x 50cm x 60cm, 2023

CBP: Can you reveal some of the mark making techniques and tools you use in your painting. 

KH: On my larger paintings I staple the linen flat to the wall and then prime it with clear primer. This enables me to really push on the canvas without worrying if I will hit the crossbar. I would love to be laying down decisive, thick, final brush marks, but what comes out is me dabbing layers and layers of thin oil paint, leaving it to evaporate and then repeating the process. My paintings are usually very matt which somehow feels right given that I’m painting dust clouds and sand half the time. 

I painted a lot of small paintings on glass during lockdown.

There was something comforting about the contained nature of those pieces. It is quite a different process but still I am basically dabbing on paint until it gets thick enough to create some depth. In a development from these smaller pieces I created a much larger light box piece, Blue Danube, 2023. It plays with the notions of nuclear tourism, emitting its own light in a kind of perverse advert.

Nevada, oil on board, 30cm x 40cm, 2024

CBP: Your titles are short but ranging from factual to enigmatic, how do title your work?

KH: Hard to explain how some titles come to me. A lot of the detonations use people’s names for code names, a bit like cyclones. 

Some of my favourites:

“The instrument is not the Music” is the title of a tapestry where the image is a female scientist inspecting and testing a metal instrument. A still from a British documentary it shows the intricate process in a factory where workers unknowingly fabricate the components that will eventually be assembled to create an atomic bomb. tbf my boyfriend came up with that one. He is great at titles if I get stuck.

“Blue Danube” I liked because it is a river (starting in the Black Forest and ending in the Black Sea) a piece of classical music and a bomb. All the Bs, the Beautiful Blue Danube.

Always noting potential titles down in my phone notes, I also dedicate time to skim reading when I need quite a few titles at once. They always come!

Installation shot at Saatchi Gallery 2023, Charlie, oil on un-stretched linen, 112 x 69 inches, 2017

CBP: Can you talk about your studio practice routine when carrying out archival research?

KH: There is the National Archives (UK) and Internet archives (USA) which I find very useful. I trawl through images via the normal channels and in addition watch out for vintage postcards on ebay, old photographs that people have sent me from their Uncle or Grandad’s collection. Declassified documents made into pdfs. We have a decent projector at home now so it’s great to watch documentaries on a large screen. Sometimes I take screenshots from military footage so the freeze-frame I choose may not have been studied widely. It’s interesting how in some images, due to the way the camera has responded, the sky looks black and the clouds are bright white. I have some exciting opportunities coming up, some top secret documents that someone is going to let me look through. And I’d like to work out ways to access small archives. There is one in particular in Germany that looks amazing.

At the moment I’m looking for glow. 

Teapot HA, oil on un-stretched linen, 64cm x 51cm, 2019

CBP: What projects are you working on at the moment?

KH: I have time to settle into the studio right now and test out some things I have been thinking through. Last year was a busy one with a solo show at Studio KIND and a big group show at Saatchi Gallery. I am looking forward to a group show in London with some top painters (heroes) next year. Plus a possible group show in New York, just waiting to find out. I also have a soft focus vision of a show in the UK in a massive derelict space. It will be nice to hibernate like a little bear in my studio this winter and come back with new energies.

Sanctuary II, oil on un-stretched linen, 302cm x 217cm, 2018

Kirsty Harris b. 1978 Raised in Yorkshire, artist and curator based in east London.

Co-founder of Come Quick Disaster and on the steering committee for Mental Health Arts organisation – Broken Grey Wires.

Recent solo and 2 person shows include; 2023  THAT LETHAL CLOUD, StudioKIND, Braunton, Devon, UK., HEAVY WEATHER, Splice, Perseverance Works, London, UK.    2022  INTERVENTION, DIY performances during the 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

Recent group exhibitions include; 2024 LATRINE’S HAUS OF ART, Vane Gallery, Gateshead, UK. SEX SELLS – BEYOND THE HISTORICAL MATRIX, Semjon Contemporary, Berlin, Germany, HOW LONG IS FOREVER, Galerie 37, Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany. BEYOND THE GAZE – RECLAIMING THE LANDSCAPE, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK. Curated by Zavier Ellis. 2023   A GENEROUS SPACE 3, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Yorkshire, UK. Invited by Karl Bielik, TWO PLUS TWO MAKES FOUR, Auxiliary Warehouse, Middlesbrough, UK. Curated by Broken Grey Wires, THE SUBVERSIVE LANDSCAPE, Tremenheere Gallery, Cornwall, UK. Curated by Hugh Mendes. X – Contemporary British Painting, Newcastle Contemporary Art, UK. Curated by Narbi Price. 2022 ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION, Royal Academy, London, UK.

@kirsty_harris_art

Featured image- Charlie. by Kirsty Harris.

Art

Mandalas- Buddhist Art Of Tibet Coming To The Met

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A mandala is a diagram of the universe—a map of true reality that in Tibet is used to conceptualize a rapid path to enlightenment.

September 19, 2024–January 12, 2025

Upcoming at The Met Fifth Avenue in Galleries 963–965

This exhibition explores the imagery of the Himalayan Buddhist devotional art through over 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles, instruments, and an array of ritual objects, mostly dating between the 12th and 15th centuries.

“Tibetan Dharma drum, one of the eight dharma instruments of Tibetan Buddhism, is one of the dharma instruments in Tibetan Buddhism. There are many kinds of dharma instruments, such as big drum, bronze drum, waist drum, crank drum, jie drum and gapala drum. Mainly used in buddhist celebrations, religious festivals, living Buddha sitting on the bed, kaiguang ceremony and other major festive activities. The drum hammer of a crank drum is bent, like a bow.

The drum is about one meter in diameter. When chanting, the lama holds the drum handle in his left hand and hits the accompaniment with a crank drum hammer in his right hand. Kala drum, also known as “zama ru” in Tibetan, is made of wood, ivory and human skulls. The falbala is played with the diamond bell.” rugrabbit.com

This dazzling visual experience provides a roadmap for understanding Himalayan Buddhist worship through early masterworks, juxtaposed with a newly commissioned contemporary installation by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol.

From emmanuelgallery.org- “Tenzing Rigdol’s imposing buddha silhouettes greet the viewer in their recognizable cross-legged seated positions—a posture often associated with meditation and peace—and with a stunning visual effect enhanced by the use of silks and fire imagery. The work brings vivid colors and interesting patterns to the eye, but the fires seemingly emerging from the bodies of the buddhas are also direct acknowledgements of the 155 Tibetans who have self-immolated since February 27, 2009.

In an ultimate act of sacrifice, these Tibetans set themselves on fire with the hope of bringing attention to the oppression currently faced by their society under the laws of the Chinese government. And yet, the buddhas seem peaceful, even welcoming in their balanced postures, their calming presences perfectly harmonized by an artist well-versed in representing both destruction and construction.

The contradictions on display are meant to challenge the viewer. They are simultaneously safe and subversive: beautiful to look at, devastating to comprehend. They are emblematic of this ambitious imagery created by Tenzing Rigdol, a Tibetan artist who has never set foot in Tibet.”

The Met exhibition is made possible by the Placido Arango Fund and Lilly Endowment Inc.

Additional support is provided by the Florence and Herbert Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Art

Clement Greenberg’s The Avant-garde And Kitsch

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Art is, or it should be, about more than simply making marks on a surface or manipulating materials into pleasing–or indeed displeasing–shapes…. perhaps the avant-garde or kitsch. A true artist benefits immeasurably by knowing about the history that has created the universe they traverse.

Ever wonder what all that academic talk is that curators like to use so much? Do you find it pretentious or worse?

Art Theory informs in so many ways, tracing the paths that have led to a particular moment or movement. A foundational understanding of the schools of thought, the histories, the thinkers who have wrought the ground you stand on as an artist today enriches not only your own mind but your work as well.

One such thinker who made a significant impact on the art world in the 1940s was Clement Greenberg. In 1939, Greenberg published one of his seminal works Avant-Garde and Kitsch. The essay not only launched Greenberg to nearly overnight notoriety, it also sparked a major development in the art world as a whole.

The essay begins with the following statement:

“One and the same civilization produces simultaneously two such different things as a poem by T.S. Eliot, and a Tin Pan Alley song, or a painting by Braque and a Saturday Evening Post cover. “

Click on the following scan to open the full essay in PDF form-

PDF Greenburg Essay Avante-Garde and Kitsch
Click me to read full essay.

Greenberg goes on to classify Avant-Garde as those things that are untouched by the decline of taste and meaning in a society (a poem by T.S. Eliot or a painting by Braque) while Kitsch is the title bestowed on the rest of the clutter that appeals to the masses and asks nothing in return other than their money (a Tin Pan Alley song or a Saturday Evening Post cover).

The Portuguese-Georges Braque-1911.

For Greenberg, Avant-Garde situated itself outside the influences of both capitalist and communist influences that were gradually dampening society’s ability to appreciate any depth of meaning.

Greenberg wrote several other important essays over the course of his life and career. He was a strong proponent of Modernism being the last best hope for the preservation of integrity in art. Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were among those he deemed the saviors of art in their time.

Understanding who Clement Greenberg was and why his influence matters is just one piece of the complex puzzle of being a well-rounded artist. There are libraries worth of books out there that will break down every bit of art theory and history you ever need to know.

Of course, who has time to read all that? How can you know where to begin? Who and what are some of the most important influences that have shaped the art world as it stands today and how are you meant to sort them out from the crowd? For the Silo, Brainard Carey. 

Art

Inuit Artwork On Display At South Korean Art Biennale

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Six Inuit and three Korean artists have been selected to share their drawings as part of a Canadian pavilion during the 15th annual Gwangju Biennale in Korea. It’s the first Canada-Korea collaboration of its kind and is a feature of the 2024-2025 Year of Cultural Exchanges between the two nations.

It’s the second time Inuit artists from West Baffin Cooperative have shared their artwork at the biennale, and builds on the growing relationship between Kinngait Studios and its counterparts in Gwangju, Korea.

Kinngait Studios

Earlier this year, West Baffin Cooperative hosted two Korean cultural delegations in Toronto, Ottawa, Iqaluit, and Kinngait. During the visits they learned more about each other’s cultural practices and found a genuine fascination about the places in which each other respectively live.

Those preliminary cross-cultural exchanges served to inform this year’s pavilion, which ultimately led to the exhibition’s main theme that explores definitions of home.

In some cases, interactions between the artists were observational, about landscape, climate, or traditional attire. Other conversations were more nuanced, about linguistics and speculations around ancient Asia-Arctic migration. There were also intimate moments between the two groups, including demonstrations of identity through cuisine; exchanges of maktaaq and kimchi, palauga, and soju.

Maktaaq- a traditional food of Inuit and other circumpolar peoples, consisting of whale skin and blubber.

There were also political discussions about the still complex and often strained relationship between the government of Canada and Inuit people and those paralleled histories in Korea.

The exhibit features a set of six framed drawings taken from the 2023 pavilion, as a nod to the previous exhibition and a collaborative lithography commissioned for this project. 

Seol-a Kim Art Installation (via instagram )

The six Kinngait artists include: Saimaiyu Akesuk, Shuvinai Ashoona, Qavavau Manumie, Pitseolak Qimirpik, Ooloosie Saila and Ningiukulu Teevee. The three participating Korean artists are Sae-woong Ju, Joheum Lee and Seol-a Kim. For the Silo, Paul Clarke. Featured image- 핏설악 퀴미르픽, 무제(고향과 또 다른 장소들), 2024, 종이에 잉크 Pitseolak Qimirpik, Untitled (Home and Other Places) 2024, ink on paper.

Culture

Commodifying Art -Damien Hirst

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All of modern life is a spectacle. Much of what contemporary man experiences in Western society is a false social construct mediated by images.

These mediated images create desires that can never be fulfilled; they create false needs that can never be met. “Many of our daily decisions are governed by motivations over which we have no control and of which we are quite unaware” (Berger 41). The constant spector of the mediated image creates an endless cycle of desire, consumption, and disinterest, fueling a banality in life that feeds the commodification of life.

Increasingly life itself becomes a commodity and the image more important than the reality it represents. This commodification infiltrates every aspect of human production, including the arts, and finds its pinnacle expression in the work of Damien Hirst. Hirst has carefully crafted a brand identity that has far surpassed the value of his art work in importance and worth. Working in tandem with former advertising executive turned art dealer Charles Saatchi, the spectacle of the Hirst image becomes the commodity. “Reality unfolds in a new generality as a pseudo-world apart, solely as an object of contemplation. The tendency towards the specialization of images-of-the-world finds its highest expression in the world of the autonomous image, where deceit deceives itself” (Debord
143).

No longer is the work of art itself a commodity, but rather the image of the artist (his/her/cis brand) that becomes the commodity.

It is this spectacle that drives the consumer to identify with a particular artist or brand. “The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be
traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products” (Klein 4). The image has increasingly infiltrated and dominated the culture and the whole of society and has become “an immense accumulation of spectacles” (Debord 142).

Butterfly by Damien Hirst
Butterfly by Damien Hirst

Where once the products of labor were the commodity, now it is the spectacle that has become the commodity.

A prime example of this spectacle is Damien Hirst’s sculpture, “For the Love of God.” The sculpture consists of a platinum skull covered with 8,601 diamonds. The sculpture valued at over $100 million usd/ $129.361,000 cad [exchange rate at time of publication] is clearly out of the reach of almost any collector. The sculpture itself is not the art product, rather it is the spectacle that is the product. “Mr. Hirst is a shining symbol of our times, a man who perhaps more than any artist since Andy Warhol has used marketing to turn his fertile imagination into an extraordinary business” (Riding, nytimes.com). Acknowledging that the sculpture is out of reach for the majority of collectors, Hirst offered screen prints costing $2000 usd/ $2,587 cad to $20,000 usd/ $25,870 cad ; the most expensive prints were sold with a sprinkling of diamond dust.

Karl Marx Capital Is Money Meme

Karl Marx argued that the value of the commodity arose from its relationship with other commodities; its ability to be exchanged for other commodities. Marx used the the production of a table to illustrate his thesis:
“…by his activity, man changes the materials of nature in such a way as to make them useful to him. The form of wood, for instance, is altered if a table is made out of it. Nevertheless the table continues to be wood, an ordinary, sensuous thing. But as soon as it emerges as a commodity, it changes into a thing which transcends sensuousness.” (Marx 122)

Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull remains mere diamonds, valuable yes, but still diamonds. However, when coupled with the spectacle of Damien Hirst’s identity, the skull becomes a fetishized commodity capable of selling screen-prints valued in the thousands. The argument can be made that diamonds on their own carry value, and could be commodities themselves, however that doesn’t account for the fact the Hirst was able to sell prints of the skull for over $2000 usd/ $2,587 cad. Nor do the diamonds alone account for the spectacle surrounding the art work; it is Hirst’s brand, his image that creates the spectacle.

“The mystical character of the commodity does not therefore arise from its use-value. Just as little does it proceed from the nature of the determinants of value” (Marx 123). The value of a commodity arises from its spectacle, its ability to be desired. In Marx’s day that desire was its ability to be traded for other commodities; today that value is derived from its association to a brand, an identity, a spectacle. “Art reflects the illusory way in which society sees itself, it reflects the bourgeoisie’s aesthetic ideas as if they were universal” (Osborne 79).

The spectacle feeds itself through the mediating of the image to create desire for status and recognition, through associations.

“The ends are nothing and development is all – though the only thing into which the spectacle plans to develop is itself” (Debord 144). The spectacle’s main objective is self perpetuation. Its aim is totality. It must be noted that Hirst himself did not even create the work of art, but rather employed a studio full of jewelers to execute the sculpture, and printers to produce the prints.

Hirst exemplifies the bourgeoisie capitalist employer who retains ownership over the fruit of the employees’ labor. He is in many ways more akin to a captain of industry than he is to the romantic notion of an artist. “In the early twenties, the legendary adman Bruce Barton turned General Motors into a metaphor for the American family, something personal, warm and human” (Klein 7). Hirst has also turned himself into a metaphor, however, metaphors aren’t always true. This falsehod is at the heart of the issue. The spectacle isn’t concerned with what is true, rather it is concerned with what can be made to appear true. It is this appearance of truth that makes a commodity valuable. This fetishism of the commodity is why gold and silver have value, it is because people gave them value. It is the reason Damien Hirst, or any other brand, has value, because people gave it value.

Damien Hirst Greatest Currency on Earth Gold Diamonds and Art CNN

Damien Hirst cannot be blamed for commodifying art, he is simply following a long tradition of turning objects and products into commodities. The fact that his commodity is his own image doesn’t seem to matter. “Hirst is just playing the game. It is a game played by collectors and dealers at art fairs throughout the year; it is a game finessed as never before by Sotheby’s and Christie’s; it is a game in which, in the words of Nick Cohen, a rare British journalist to trash Mr. Hirst’s publicity coup, ‘the price tag is the art’ ” (Riding .nytimes.com).

That final statement beautifully summarizes the commodification of art, ‘the price tag is the art.’ The fact that the art is obscenely priced, and out of the reach for the majority of collectors, the fact that it is made of diamonds, a precious stone known as the blood stone because of its association with brutal and oppressive regimes, merely adds to its allure, to its spectacle. Damien Hirst is merely playing the game, like many before him. He is a part of the growing culture
industry that sells image. Images are the new commodity fetish. Images are the new mysterious commodities exchanged for more the more durable and enduring commodities. The bourgiousie sell their images, which have no real value, to the public which consumes them, in exchange for goods of real value.

“The $200 billion usd/ $270 billion cad culture industry – now North America’s biggest export – needs an every-changing, uninterrupted supply of street styles, edgy music videos and rainbows of colors. And the radical critics of the media clamoring to be ‘represented’ in the early nineties virtually handed over their colorful identities to the brand masters to be shrink-wrapped.” (Klein 115)

Nick Cohen said of Hirst, “[he] isn’t criticizing the excess, not even ironically … but rolling in it and loving it. The sooner he goes out of fashion, the better.” What Cohen fails to realize is that the spectacle is a fashion. And when one image goes out of fashion, another takes its place. Hirst may indeed go out of fashion, but another art brand will take his place, perpetuating the commodification of the arts in increasingly bombastic ways.

Equestrian Statue Of Marcus Aurelius

Perhaps art has always been a commodity?

In the past patrons would hire artists to paint them into scenes from the gospels. Patrons could be seen on the outskirts of paintings piously praying, thus creating an image of themselves as good and pious Christians. By association with the sacred art, the patron was creating a mediated image. Rulers did this all the time. The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is a perfect example. Its a mediating image that communicates power and authority.

But none of these examples reach the level of spectacle and fetishism that is Damien Hirst. While art may have been a commodity in the past, it was never commodified. In other words, while the art itself may have been exchanged for other goods, the artist himself was not treated as a commodity. The art of the past may have served a purpose, it may have contained a mediated message, but it was still a product, and it was the product that was valued, not its brand identity.

The commodification of art creates a unique problem in history. If it is the spectacle that matters, and the artist’s identity that has value, then what value is left in the art itself?

What then separates art from ordinary objects? Is there any aesthetic emotion that remains in the work of art itself, or does the aesthetic emotion dwell completely within the spectacle? These are questions that cannot easily be answered, and ultimately will require the lens of history to answer completely. But they are a pressing concern, for when art is commodified, it may cease to be art and instead become celebrity, product, or worse, advertising. For the Silo, Vasilios Avramidis

Works Cited
Berger, Arthur Asa. Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual
Communication. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
Debor, Guy. “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture.” The Visual Culture
Reader. Ed.Nicholas Mirzoeff. New York, NY: Routelage, 1998. 142-144. Print.
Klein, Naomi. No Logo, No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. New York, NY: Picador, 2000.
Print.
Marx, Karl. “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture.” The Visual Culture
Reader. Ed.Nicholas Mirzoeff. New York, NY: Routelage, 1998. 122-123. Print.
Riding, Alan. Alas, Poor Art Market: ‘A Multimillion Dollar Headcase.’ The New York
Times. June 2007, Damien Hirst and the Commodification of Art http://www.visual-studies.com/interviews/moxey.htm

Art

World Record Price For French Photographer’s Ferrari Print

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Monaco, French Riviera – A couple of months ago on Saturday, June 8th, artworld history was made during the prestigious auction “L’Astarossa” organized by Monaco Car Auction at the Grimaldi Forum.

A photographic work by artist Philippe Shangti reached a new peak.

The photograph, a unique piece titled “Luxury Pollution Car, Signature Masterpiece,” was sold for the hammer price of €290,000 / $435,000 CAD, a world record- making Philippe Shangti the highest valued contemporary French photographer.

The event “L’Astarossa” was primarily dedicated to Ferrari collector cars but also featured artworks related to the Ferrari theme.

The centerpiece of this artistic sale, “Luxury Pollution Car,” is a composition featuring the La Ferrari car with models in Shangti’s inimitable style. The print, called “Signature Masterpiece” by the artist, is printed on museum certified paper and traced with a hologram, signed, and numbered 1/1 on the back by Shangti himself. It measures 259 x 110 cm, and 267 x 128.5 cm with its baroque wood frame and molding.

This record comes just a few months after Shangti had already broken his own record.

Indeed, on March 8th, one of his photographs titled “Luxury Fifth Dinner,” a
print numbered in an edition of 7, sold for €54,000 / $81,000 CAD at Drouot Paris.
The auction of the photograph “Luxury Pollution Car” marks a historic milestone,
being the highest ever recorded for a living French photographer, held before by
Gerard Rancinan. This recognition strengthens Philippe Shangti’s position on the
international art scene and highlights the growing appeal of his works among
collectors and art enthusiasts.

Gaming

Videogame Battle For The Donkey Kong Crown

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It may be hard for you to believe, but a very passionate group of game players are still contesting video game records, new and old, and vying to become champion in their particular game of skill in  order to be immortalized in the on-line video game record bible “Twin Galaxies”.

Go check it out.

Maybe it’s time to limber up those fingers and go for the record. Every great wrestling match is predicated on a simple concept that holds for the ages: A ‘babyface’ (good guy’) with a seemingly overwhelming challenge vs. a ‘heel’ (bad guy), who has the cards stacked, usually unfairly,  in his favor.  As humans, we have an innate need to create an emotional investment in our favorite character, which in turn makes the outcome of the contest be something that we care about seeing.

That tried and true formula is fully rendered in a great documentary that I regularly watch  called  “The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters”.  Instead of wrestlers though, we’re dealing with elite-level, arcade-version Donkey Kong players facing off for the world record.  As well, and unlike a wrestling match, our outcome is not predetermined and this reality adds oh-so deliciously to the drama as it unfolds.

Now, bring in the chief combatants in our story: social pushover Steve Wiebe, a stuck in second place, life-long loser that just can’t seem to get a break in life vs. chicken-wing sauce kingpin Billy Mitchell; he of the hypnotizing mullet and Charlie Sheen-type zeal.

Here we’ve got classic good guy vs. bad guy at its finest!

Watch how Wiebe finds great difficulty becoming accepted into the ranks of high level players even though his skill and scores are right up there with the best of the best.  Billy Mitchell and his team of disciples manage to cheapen and disrespect Wiebe throughout, holding him back, and in turn making the viewer desperate for a little ass-kicking payback.  Can Wiebe come through?  The answer will surprise you.  The climax is better than any made for Hollywood movie, and will keep you on the edge of your seats.

It doesn’t matter if you like video games or not, the emotional pull of this story cannot be denied, and I guarantee that you will dig it.  “King of Kong” gets my five silo rating.  There’s the full movie up above but the DVD has some great extras that get right to the root of some true video game nerd-dom. For the Silo, John McIntosh.

Reviews

Why I’m Still Here Is Still Such An Amazing, Quirky Film

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It’s been almost a decade and a half since Casey Affleck’s I’m Still Here perplexed us all. On reflection, it is a piece of modern motion picture history and a masterpiece.

I say history because this just might be a first. Not even Borat with its pseudo-documentary style challenged moviegoers to discern whether what they were seeing was real or scripted. One thing is certain, Affleck’s film had us all believing that what we are witnessing on screen was in fact real. That’s because the film I’m Still Here was pitched, produced, filmed and shown worldwide as a documentary when in fact it wasn’t one. Or was it?

Plot Arc

A famous Hollywood actor will act no more and wants only to pursue his dream of becoming a rap music artist.

The Caper

While this film was being made- many people in Joaquin Phoenix’ circle including David Letterman, Ben Stiller and rap artist-producer Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs believed that Phoenix was going critical mass and turning his life away from cinema for good.

Stylistically, this film is a voyeur’s dream come true.

The camera follows him everywhere. Nothing seems set up or imagined. There isn’t much humor in this film unless you enjoy seeing a man seemingly self–implode and wreak havoc around insular members of his posse. (I laughed more than once.) Or, unless you cynically enjoyed David Letterman interviewing Joaquin and failing miserably in front of millions of live viewers.  (I laughed more than once.)

How about watching Joaquin stalk Puff Daddy with his demo CD only to be told “we ain’t working together”?

Whatever hidden meanings are to be found, this is a dark, dark film that impacts so forcefully because Affleck’s vision peels away the layers of Phoenix’ psyche. To an unsuspecting viewer it might all be real and that allows the movie to offer two legitimate yet different meanings. If this pre-AI mockumentary/documentary can seem so believably real, then we need to question everything that we see and read because it proves that the recipes available for cinema are indeed powerfully manipulative.

No One Is Safe From The Brute Force Of Introspection

Joaquin’s best friend appears as loyal manservant and tragically flawed aspiring musician who feeds Joaquin’s desires and takes a bastion of abuse (you’ll have to see it to believe it). The story revolves and evolves around these types of  dysfunctional connections and we are meant to endure it all. While doing so a powerfully subconscious investment in the characters is formed- it’s almost the same effect as slowing down at an accident scene and not being able to take your eyes off the situation.

Before watching this film I did not fully comprehend the impacts that media, fandom and an expectant audience have on a celebrity: Joaquin is mocked and misunderstood.  And for what? For establishing a new persona and a new artistic goal. For example, after a filmed rejection by Phoenix and perhaps believing Joaquin’s behavior to be real,  Ben Stiller wears a long hair wig, unruly beard and glasses for an Academy Award night schlock presentation. Hey, wasn’t that Steven Spielberg in the audience belly laughing along?

This movie’s effect is profound.

It’s a bag of emotional extremism, sympathy, repulsion, sorrow, and a dash of joy. It’s biblical in theme and it might not be such a stretch to suggest that Phoenix’ story mirrors aspects of The Mocking Of Jesus.

There are never enough positives to really help us feel good while trying to understand the point of it all.  Even if Joaquin manages to discard his former celebrity actor self and transform we wonder if he will be any happier as a rap artist. He seems like he’s incapable of happiness, unless of course it’s all an act.

Is the film a cautionary tale about the ramifications of an a-list celebrity actor that turns their back on the Hollywood establishment? Does it suggest that we take inventory of our expectations and of our blind trust in the media complex? Should we now question what we think, see and believe? Watch this film and find out for yourself. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Culture

Ancient Energy- Art Of Tai Chi Is Growing Fitness Trend

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What will the next fitness trend be? Has it already arrived? 

Master Moy Lin shin

 

According to Bruce Frantzis, it is Tai Chi. Frantzis, called one of the Westʼs greatest living masters, holds authentic lineages in Taoist energy arts.

He calls Tai Chi an über-exercise because you can do it for health, healing, martial arts and meditation. In China they say, “Tai chi (a Qigong form) can be done by anyone, male and female, young and old, strong and weak, intelligent and slow, healthy or ill.”

An über-exercise for everyone.

Studies show that Tai Chi Qigong reduces stress, heals illnesses, increases mental and physical performance, and is an effective tool for aging well. This is of particular interest to Baby Boomers as they enter their 60s. It enables them to heal or prevent the aching joints, sore muscles, memory lapses, and many other issues that come after middle age.

This evidence is what is powering the surge of interest in the Chi arts. In my own experience, typical aches and pains related to aging disappeared when I resumed my Tai Chi practice after a lapse of years: achy sore knees are almost restored to normal; lower back pain is easily managed; migraines are rarer and deflected in minutes; sleep is deeper; eating properly is easier; and I have more energy. In fact, I have almost no physical complaints at all, and when something minor does arise I am more effective at self-healing.

Shoot-Hawk-with-Bow- the author demonstrating Tai Chi

These things are significant; but, even more important to me is the pure joy I feel from the movement, the rhythm, the flow, as I practice my set. And the fun and satisfaction I get in teaching others.

Many people try Tai Chi, enjoy it, but quit in frustration complaining that it is complex and hard to remember. It is complex. There are many subtle skills to remember and perform all at the same time: slow, relaxed, smooth, continuous, movements performed in a state of mental relaxation with slow, deep breathing; careful attention to the alignment of all joints; proper foot placement and and weight shifting; outer and inner focus.

In traditional teaching the student tries their best to follow along with the teacher, soaking up like a sponge all that the teacher has to offer. The teacherʼs curriculum is more important than students goals and needs. For some people this ‘teacher led’ style works well. But for many it does not.

As Tai Chi enters the mainstream this method is giving way to new learner friendly approaches. Older students respond with enthusiasm to methods which take into account their life experience and individual needs. Trained teachers are developing systematic ways to teach these subtle skills so that students know exactly what they are aiming for and when they achieve it. Students gain competency sooner and nearly every one notices benefits even from their first class. For the Silo, Jackie Davies. 

 

Art

“Rhythm and Resilience: The Artistry of Sam Middleton” Exhibition

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If you are able to travel to Georgia this Spring, the Hammonds House Museum located at 503 Peeples St SW Atlanta, GA continues its 2024 exhibition season with “RHYTHM AND RESILIENCE: THE ARTISTRY OF SAM MIDDLETON”. Curated by Halima Taha.

About the Exhibition

You’re invited to embark on a mesmerizing journey through the life and works of Sam Middleton, a pioneering mixed-media artist whose vibrant creations echoed the rhythms of Harlem jazz and the landscapes of Europe’s Low Countries. Born in New York in 1927, Middleton’s artistic odyssey transcended borders and he left an indelible mark on both sides of the Atlantic. Rhythm of Resilience: The Artistry of Sam Middleton opens at Hammonds House Museum on May 17 and runs through August 18, 2024.

In Rhythm of Resilience, Middleton’s artistic evolution unfolds, tracing his self-taught beginnings amidst the vibrant culture and pulsating beats of jazz and classical music in Harlem. His encounters with creativity at the Savoy Ballroom ignited a lifelong passion for self-expression.

Venturing beyond his hometown, Middleton’s voyages with the US Merchant Marines provided him with inspiration, infusing his art with a global perspective. From the sun-soaked shores of Mexico to the tranquil landscapes of Sweden, each destination left an imprint on his ever-evolving aesthetic. Moving to the Netherlands in 1961, Middleton, joined a wave of African American artists drawn to its creative environment. Settling in Schagen, amidst the serene North Holland polder landscape, Middleton’s work blossomed, blending the vibrancy of jazz with the tranquility of his surroundings.

A master of collage, Middleton’s compositions pulsate with energy, weaving together musical scores, photographs, and graphic elements in a dance of color and form.

His art is a testament to the enduring influence of jazz, intertwining with the visual influence of his adopted homeland.

Through teaching positions at esteemed institutions Atelier 63 in Harlem and the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, Middleton’s legacy extended beyond his own creations, nurturing a new generation of artistic talent.

Featured Image: Newport by Sam Middleton, 1992.

Art

MODERNISM ADORED: 20th Century Art A New Online Exhibition Now Open

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“Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal.” Egon Schiele 

New York City, New York, April 2024. Our friends at Helicline Fine Art proudly announces the opening of its new online exhibition, Modernism Adored: 20th Century Art, a celebration of the revolutionary artistic movements that defined the 20th century. The exhibition runs through June 30 and features a curated selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures from important to rediscovered artists, Modernism Adored explores essential movements that shaped the artistic landscape during the 20th century from ashcan, cubism, art deco, Vorticism, WPA, abstraction, abstract expressionism, caricature and outsider art. It brings together a diverse range of artwork that reflects the spirit of innovation and creativity that defined these pivotal periods in art history. As we are a NYC based gallery, the history of New York inspires us to include art that glorifies our great city.

“We are thrilled to present Modernism Adored: 20th Century Art. This is stuff in our hearts and we are honored to share it with collectors and curators throughout America and worldwide,” said Helicline proprietors Keith Sherman and Roy Goldberg. They continued, “This exhibition is our “eye,” it exemplifies the enduring impact of modernism in art and provides a unique opportunity to witness the evolution of artistic expression over the course of the 20th century.” 

Highlights of Modernism Adored: 20th Century Art include three early Stuart Davis drawings, Vorticist linocuts by Sybil Andrews and Lill Tschudi, Maurice Guiraud-Riviere’s breathtaking “La Comete” silvered bronze, several works by Al Hirschfeld, abstracts by Florence Henri and O. Louis Guglielmi, a Charles Demuth drawing of bathers, an early Daniel Celentano oil, a precisionist industrial scene by Simon Wachtel, and much more. 

Artists in the exhibition include: Sybil Andrews, Maurice Becker, A. Aubrey Bodine, Jo Cain, Staats Cotsworth, Daniel Celentano, Robert Cronbach, James Daugherty, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Donald Deskey, George Pearse Ennis, William Gropper, O. Louis Guglielmi, Harold Haydon, Florence Henri, Al Hirschfeld, Mervyn Jules, Max Kalish, William Kienbusch, Georgina Klitgaard, Henry Koerner, Leon Kroll, Vladimir Lebedev, Carlos Lopez, James McCracken, Alfred Mira, Irene Rice Periera, Antonio Petruccelli, Arthur Rosenman Ross, Hilla Rebay, Maurice Guiraud-Riviere, Joseph Solman, Lill Tschudi, Gerrit Van Sinclair, Samuel Wachtel, Katherine Wiggins, John Winters and Purvis Young. 
Florence Henri (1893 – 1982)Composition18 ½ x 12 ½ inchesGouache on paper Monogrammed F.H. and dated 1926 lower rightGeorge Pearse Ennis (1884 – 1936)Forging a Gun Tube #146 x 37 inches, 1918 Signed lower right
There is great debate about what modern art is.
Numerous descriptions abound. It is a series of genres from the mid-19th century to the present that challenged the Western standards of fine art and embraced new forms of expression. It is often seen as beginning with realism, which rejected the traditional subjects of art and focused on common people. 

Others say modernism was a movement in the arts in the first half of the 20th Century that rejected traditional values and techniques and emphasized the importance of individual experience. A broader perspective, which we at Helicline embrace, modernism was a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression. It is in fact, constant reinvention, and it’s significant because it fundamentally asks us to change our perspectives as time passes.  

“The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meaning in modern art.”  Jackson Pollock
Daniel Ralph Celantano (1902-1980)Long Beach8 x 10 inchesOil on artist boardSigned lower leftTitled in pencil, versoHarold Haydon (1909 – 1994)History of the US Postal Service21 x 25 inchesoil on canvas, c. 1938

Why Modern Art Continues To Influence Contemporary Artists

The 20th century distinguished itself from the previous century with a new form of industrial revolution- one tied much more intimately to an advancing technology that propelled society into a state of speed and frenzy. Not just the streamlining of railway trains and automobiles or the advancements in transcontinental travel brought on by first lighter than airships, then seaplanes and jet airliners- the motion of advancement and relocation had a seminal effect on culture and thought. The skyscraper and new vertical constructions created its own influence and metamorphosis: hundreds of families could now be housed in a singular structure adding a homogeneity and imposing bold linear designs and influences. Two world wars and a multitude of others pushed existentialism into the minds of many academics and thus filtered into other areas of discipline such as literature, music and design. The development of the transistor created miniaturization and gadgetry that became an essential component to living spaces and personal effects. Television became a manifestation of any imaginable visual image and transfixed society into another state of readiness- a state ready for instant and dense media served quickly and directly. All of these things (and more) gave rise to new forms of art- most often recognized by the general public in modern abstract paintings. The ‘sense’ of all the above was captured by artists using new ways of communicating through their work: immediacy (action painting) and abstraction were more aligned with the zeitgeist then earlier classical forms of artwork.

Untitled abstract 11 Jarrod Barker 2024

The 21st century has seen many parallel and analogous developments. Though we are ‘only 24 years’ into this latest age, the concept of quick advancement and speed is in full effect. From the maturation of the digital age (the internet) and digital communication (email) to rapidly advancing personal communication (smartphones) and powerful and inexpensive computers to today’s exhilarating advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics. These ‘re-mapped’ and repeated driving forces from the last century continue and their effects most readily recognized are still key components of contemporary ‘neo-modern’ artwork.

MORE ABOUT HELICLINE FINE ART:
Helicline Fine Art, founded in 2008 by Roy Goldberg and Keith Sherman, specializes in American and European modernism. The gallery’s core offerings are works from the WPA period. Additionally, Helicline offers American scene, social realism, mural studies, industrial landscapes, regionalism, abstracts, and other artwork. Located in a private space in midtown Manhattan, Helicline is open by appointment. The artworks on the site represent a sampling of available works. Helicline’s offerings are also available on artsy.net and 1stDibs.com.
Caption for image at the top of this article: Simon Wachtel (1900 – 1965)Factory Yards N. 336 x 24 inchesOil on canvas, c.1930s Signed lower right
Sci-Tech

A New Poetic Role Of Technology In Our Homes

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Digital Domestic Dialogues 

“Digital Domestic Dialogues” stages a near future in which technology has acquired an emotional and sensitive intelligence: it is capable of exciting itself and others through everyday gestures as an analog and primordial archive of human communication, culture and social dynamics. 

Robots and users interact with a range of seemingly familiar objects through simple and natural gestures, triggering scenarios of everyday wonder. The collection, born out of a design exploration within the Habits Design Studio team, is a reflection on the poetic role of technology in the digital evolution of the domestic scenario.  Technical Partners: Laminam, Giovanardi 

COSMO 

“Cosmo” is a lamp born from the desire to infuse new life into the act of lighting; the idea is to return to the primordial concept of fire, which through propagating from one body to another expands the quantity and at the same time transfers the luminous qualities of the flame. 

“Cosmo” is able to learn the characteristics of the light source placed below it, detecting its intensity, color, movement, returning the effect to the environment and creating dynamic light scenarios.  

The user is called upon to create the desired atmosphere himself by experimenting with direct sources, such as a candle flame or telephone flashlight; or by showing the lamp a video of a sunset, or another special moment he can evoke a light scenario. Turning it on thus becomes once again an exciting moment of awe and wonder. 

The design of the lamp draws inspiration from scientific representations of black holes, the only phenomenon found in nature able to absorb light radiation. The captured light, is then returned to the environment dynamically and three-dimensionally by the spherical diffuser, allowing the creation of a 360° light scene, similar to HDRI images used in digital rendering software. 

“Cosmo” redefines the boundaries of properties normally attributed to lighting fixtures with its ability to learn, imitate and stage emotions through light. Project by Selma Antonellini, Habits Design 

RITO 

The coat rack, a familiar but often overlooked object, is the subject of this project, which offers a contemporary reinterpretation of it with the product “Rito”; no longer just a support point, but an active companion that enriches the daily routine and transforms the experience of entering the home. 

Thanks to artificial intelligence, “Rito” reacts to the presence of inhabitants, and recognizes when clothes and objects are hung or removed, interpreting the situation and animating the entrance area with dynamic projections on the wall. 

The name “Rito” stems from a reflection on the fact that moments of entry and return home, though fleeting and temporary, are precious fragments of our lives, each with its own unique meaning and value. While some may be more ordinary and repetitive, such as returning after a day’s work or a morning walk with the dog, others can be more special and emotional, like returning after a long journey. 

Regardless of the nature of the return, “Rito” aims to transform every entry and departure from home into a moment of warmth and hospitality. Its projections bring the wall to life, animating it with contextual content.  

Before leaving the dwelling, “Rito” transforms the wall into a dynamic and inspiring space, offering motivational content, helpful tips, and personalized reminders. Upon return, it welcomes with tailor-made evocative scenarios, reigniting the surrounding environment and making the return even more pleasant and familiar.  Project by Ilaria Tarozzi and Ilaria Vitali, Habits Design 

VISIONARIA 

VISIONARIA is a digital device that combines literary tradition with artificial intelligence, offering an innovative reading experience. Digital integration enhances the potential of printed material and opens up new imaginative horizons, transforming reading into a visual and artistic experience. 

By swiping across the lines of a page in a book, similarly to how we would underline a beloved or noteworthy phrase, VISIONARIA recognizes the text. The selected phrase is then instantly input as a prompt into a dedicated AI generator, aiming to create an image of the book scene that can be viewed in real-time. 

This mode of consumption, aided by the product’s pencil-like shape, introduces a new dimension to the reading experience, encouraging increased engagement that can be intimate and profound or shared on larger devices such as smartphones, TVs, and more, ensuring flexibility depending on the context – be it at home for relaxation and entertainment, in education, enhancing the consumption of educational content, or in public settings, stimulating imagination in artistic installations. 

With VISIONARIA, literature evolves and broadens the spectrum of an age-old activity through an extremely accessible mode, towards unexplored scenarios in the world of culture and entertainment. Project by Alberto Milano, Michele Poggi, Marco Rissetto, Habits Design 

1g1lm 

1g1lm represents the unusual marriage of two seemingly incompatible units of measurement: “g” for weight in grams and “lm” for luminous flux in lumens. This lamp was born from a simple but fascinating question, “What would be the effect if light had a tangible weight?” 

To visualize the weight, the lamp uses an elastic fabric on top. By placing an object on top of it, the fabric deforms, generating a unique and unrepeatable aesthetic because it is shaped directly by the weight, not predetermined by the designer. In addition, as the deformation increases, so does the intensity of light. Due to the light diffusion of the fabric, the light seems to take shape and weight. In the act of placing and taking objects, an impossible interaction with the very essence of light is realized, made solid and tangible for a moment. 

1g1lm writes a new equation between light and matter, giving birth to a new ritual rich in poetry and at the same time exploring new alternative scenarios: proposing, in contrast to the digitization of the real, to make, through technology, concrete experiences that were once ephemeral and intangible. 

Habits Design 

Habits is a multidisciplinary industrial design studio, founded in 2004 by Innocenzo Rifino and Diego Rossi in Milan. 
The work of the studio is focused on technological and interactive projects of international relevance, partnering with companies to design timeless products and experiences. 

Habits-Portfolio-Design-Stories-2024Download


The team is composed of industrial designers, electronic and mechanical engineers, model makers, interaction and visual designers, and interior designers with a global point of view.  Recognizing the unique Asian technological know-how, Habits started a branch in Bangkok in 2021.  With over 20 years of experience in a wide range of industries, today Habits mainly covers digital products, home appliances, automation, lighting, UX/UI, and phygital interfaces. 

The team awarded more than 180 international design prizes such as Red Dot, IF, Compasso d’Oro, Design Plus, Good Design, and German Design Award. 
“We study science and art. We design new habits. Prototyping our ideas, embedding electronics, we reduce the gap between physical and digital.” 

Laminam 

Pioneers since the beginning. 

Laminam was born in the early 2000s, following the invention of production technologies to create ultra- thin ceramic surfaces of large dimensions. A pioneering company, it was the first to revolutionize the ceramics market, giving new impetus to a mature sector, betting on the intuition of creating large architectural surfaces and launching innovative sizes and thicknesses on the market. Over the years, the company has developed a production process characterized by innovative methods and highly automated technologies typical of Industry 4.0 such as digital decoration systems, dry cutting systems and internal logistics managed by automatic laser-guided vehicles. These are methods and technologies that increase energy efficiency while reducing environmental impact. 

Today Laminam produces and offers a range of eclectic and versatile large ceramic surfaces used in many applications – from traditional and advanced architecture to furniture and design – distributed in over 100 countries worldwide. Over the years, the series have been enriched with new textures and finishes to enhance the creativity of designers, architects and anyone who wants to give a new connotation to their spaces. 

Giovanardi 

Giovanardi designs, industrializes and manufactures supports for in-store communication (displays, merchandising, shop windows, shop in shop, technical packaging) and for art.  

Giovanardi’s history began in 1919 as a manufacturer of plaques and dials: today Giovanardi SpA is an advanced, certified company, structured to process projects of increasing complexity, according to up-to-date technologies, with a network of accredited partners and an attentive, flexible, punctual client-service.  For 100 years it has been shaping ideas.  For the Silo, Elena Assante.

Art

Genius Works Of Calder On Display At Gray Gallery

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For each of them Calder establishes a general fated course of movement, then abandons them to it: time, sun, heat and wind will determine each individual dance… Each of its twists and turns is an inspiration of the moment… It is a little hot-jazz tune, unique and ephemeral, like the sky, like the morning.

-Jean-Paul Sartre, 1947

[NEW YORK -April, 2024] — GRAY is pleased to announce Calder, an exhibition of sculptures by Alexander Calder from the 1950s and 60s. The decades at mid-twentieth century were especially significant for the artist, whose objective to create space and movement at ever more immersive scales is expressed by the range of work in the exhibition. From the intimate interplay of color seen at a small scale in Contrepoids jaune, c. 1953 to the monumental statement in black and white of Clouds over Mountains, 1962, one experiences the breadth of Calder’s invention in color, volume, form, gesture, and motion. 

Calder is the twelfth exhibition at GRAY to include works by the artist, whose 1966 solo show at Richard Gray Gallery was installed at the gallery’s very first location in Chicago. The exhibition opens at GRAY New York (1018 Madison Avenue) on April 18 and will be on view through June 21, 2024. 

Clouds over Mountains.

At the center of the exhibition is the large-scale sculpture Clouds over Mountains, which combines a series of angular black silhouettes with four curved white forms that hover above. Celebrated in the year it was made by leading critics such as John Canaday and Donald Judd, Clouds over Mountains is a seminal work, representing a milestone in Calder’s development of expansive standing mobiles.

The exhibition also features two important mobiles: Horizontal Red Moon Gong, 1957 and The Two Yellows, 1962. Both hanging mobiles, the works are key examples of Calder’s ability to find harmonic balance in an orchestra of counterweighted elements created in painted sheet metal, and brass in the case of the former work.

The exhibition takes place in GRAY’s New York gallery on the Upper East Side, the entrance of which is framed by a terrazzo sidewalk designed by Calder in 1970. The sidewalk, a cunning pattern of arcs and rectangles, was commissioned by three galleries then located on the block–including Calder’s long-time gallery Perls Galleries–and stretches from 1014-1018 Madison Avenue.

Calder at GRAY reactivates the physical location of the gallery. From the dynamic sculptures installed within the gallery to the geometric forms fixed in terrazzo outside, Calder’s eye for kinetic potential endures.

ABOUT ALEXANDER CALDER

Alexander Calder (b. 1898, Lawnton, Pennsylvania–d. 1976, New York City), whose illustrious career spanned much of the twentieth century, is the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time. Born in a family of celebrated, though more classically trained artists, Calder utilized his innovative genius to profoundly change the course of modern art. He began in the 1920s by developing a new method of sculpting: by bending and twisting wire, he essentially “drew” three-dimensional figures in space. He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. From the 1950s onward, Calder increasingly devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted steel plate. Today, these stately titans grace public plazas in cities throughout the world. 

Calder’s 1966 inaugural solo presentation at GRAY was the first of a number of exhibitions to feature the artist across the decades, including Sculpture Works on Paper, 1974; Contemporary Masters, 1987; Forty Years, 2003; Fun House, 2013; GRAY at 60, 2023; and most recently Calder, 2024.

Featured image: Alexander Calder, The Two Yellows, 1962.
© 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New Yor

Earth

Ontario Storm Chasers Warn Public Through Photography

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Photo shot in London, Ontario. Shot during a tornado warning for Middlesex county. photo: S. Sills

Did you know on average 12 tornadoes strike Ontario each year? That’s why David Chapman (@northof44pics) and I (@wxspencersills) commit our springs and summers to capturing severe thunderstorms on video and through photography.

My name is Spencer Sills and I am a chaser located in South Western Ontario. I have been chasing storms for about 20 years. I became obsessed with the weather and more specifically severe weather in 1996. On April 20, 1996 a tornado had hit Williamsford, Ontario. This was my first experience with a tornado and it has become a permanent fixture in my mind, partially due to the fact there was still snow on the ground the day it had hit.

Then in the summer of 2011, there were fourteen confirmed tornadoes including  the Goderich F3 tornado as well as three tornadoes during the August 24th severe weather outbreak during the late afternoon and evening. I was unable to be out during either of these days but what I was able to do was keep the public informed of the current severe weather as well as help give warning for the tornadoes.

Photo shot in South West London, Ontario. A waterspout advisory was in effect for Lake Huron and Erie, while on the way to Lake Huron I came across this Cold Core Funnel off of a early morning thunder shower. image: S. Sills

A Summer from years ago was…interesting.  I witnessed more than  my fair share of active weather. I encountered five funnel clouds, several gust fronts or more commonly known as squall lines here in Ontario, and hail from pea size to golf ball sized  in Seaforth. I’ve also encountered strong wind storms which included a storm in Birr, Ontario which uprooted several large trees.

My personal worst storm occurred on June 7, 2011 in Elora, Ontario. A large and intense cell came through late at night bringing with it 80-90 km/h winds, heavy downpours, frequent lightning and quarter-coin size hail. I was fortunate to not be injured during this storm because I was in a tent at the time and had no warning beforehand other than a loud lightning strike before it hit. There was a severe thunder storm warning with the cell but our campground chose not to relay that information to campers and I only found out about the warning once I put on my portable radio after the storm came.  That same storm went on to produce a tornado warning over Hamilton but did not spawn a tornado that night. It did however cause extensive wind damage in the city.

Cloud to Ground Lightning: photographed by D. Chapman

My chase partner is David Chapman.  David and I both grew up within minutes of each other but never met until recently due to the power of twitter.  From twitter I was able to glean that we both have similar interests and goals which will allow us to mesh well together. [ Check the hashtage #WX on twitter for tweets related to extreme weather CP ]

Hello Silo readers. My name is David T. Chapman and I am a professional photographer with a passion for storm photography. I developed an interest in weather when lightning hit my house in Guelph, Ontario, years ago. The thunder was terrifying and the rain was so heavy that even though I was only three years old at the time, I have clear, vivid memories of the storm. My interest in weather was rekindled in the late 1990’s when I spotted my first multi-vortex tornadoes with my dad and brother. Since then, I have followed the weather every day to determine the best time for photography in all kinds of conditions.

Waaaay back in 2011 , the Ontario storm season was an active one. It allowed me to get a personal record number of lightning photographs in one season with 105, not including sheet lightning shots. My first storm was in April, when a very weak storm pushed into the Niagara region. Something that you don’t see very often is a thunderstorm with snow on the ground, but that night I had both. But the storm chasing season  really didn’t start seriously until the end of May when an evening storm rolled through Southwestern Ontario right into my area. The squall line formed directly to our west and there was no way around it. We had to puncture the core of the storm to try to find a dry slot. We were hit hard with heavy rains, strong winds and continuous lightning.

Anvil Crawler: photographed  Southeast of Hamilton, Ontario image: D. Chapman

One of the hardest things to get is a lightning photograph when there is a downpour because it blurs the image. The first line of storms went through when we crossed an open field area and then we were hit by a strong second line of storms. Extremely strong straight lines came at us with winds easily in excess of 90 km/hr. We got into position, but unfortunately, with the rain still pounding our photography team, it made it impossible to get crisp, clear lightning shots. It wasn’t until after the storm had passed that the back end of it lit up and we were able to capture some very beautiful lightning.

The summer carried on with sporadic thunderstorm activity consisting of small thunderstorm cells with intense lightning and hail. Generally, with smaller storms, you only get 4 to 5 lightning shots. I’ve come back after chasing a storm perfectly with only 1 or 2 lightning shots to show for it. It wasn’t until the outbreak of thunderstorms that our team had a very successful night of shooting. On that night, Faith Beni and I ended up in St. Mary’s, Ontario. There were tornado watches all across Ontario, the most I had ever seen. The thunderstorm cell that we were interested in was towards Nairn, Ontario. We left the Niagara region at 5:30 p.m. and got to St. Mary’s around 7:45 p.m.

Without daylight left, the thoughts of getting a tornado quickly changed to an opportunity for lightning photographs instead. One of the most dangerous things to do is to chase a tornadic thunderstorm in the dark, which is why our team has a policy to not chase these types of storms at night. We tend to focus on weaker storm cells that don’t have the tornadic potential but still have lots of lightning. The night of the 24th, though, was different. It seemed that any storm cell had the potential to drop a tornado. We pulled back to St. Mary’s and then we started getting reports of rotation heading to St. Mary’s.

In just under 2 minutes, I saw 4 reports of rotation for St. Mary’s. We started to get pounded with large hail and the the hydro went out. We left St. Mary’s and pushed north towards what looked to be some late evening twilight. We got to the back of the storm and were able to photograph the lightning that was in it. We got some of the best anvil-crawlers that I have ever seen. Anvil-crawlers are a particular type of lightning that can either go for short distances or for distances over 100 km.

This year for the first time, Spencer Sills and I will be working together to get some very powerful images. Our biggest goal is to get a photograph of a tornado. Last year, I was close 3 times. The first was in Grimsby, where an EF0 hit and damaged a small gazebo. Eric Chapman and I were right on the storm but unfortunately we could not see the tornado because of heavy precipitation. The second was the Nairn tornado and the third was a rotating wall-cloud that I photographed towards Bryson, Quebec.

Spencer and I often hear about how tornadoes don’t happen here. We want to let the public know that they can and do occur here, in South Western Ontario so that watches and warnings should always be taken seriously. The Goderich tornado in 2011, in which one person died, is a grim reminder of just how intense tornadoes can be and that they do, in fact, affect Ontario residents.

Photo shot in Nairn, Ontario. Tornado damage in Shady Pines Campground in Nairn. A tornado touched down the previous night and bent these pine trees in half, the tornado also caused extensive tree damage in the area as well as damaged a house and destroyed a metal silo. image: S. Sills

David and I both have experience in chasing storms, and take safety very seriously. We will be travelling with a First Aid kit just as well as weather alert radios and radar to help us along our way, we hope that we don’t ever need the kit but it’s always a great idea especially if others are in need of help, we could very well be the first people on the scene of a possible tragedy so we must be prepared. We will be posting pictures and videos throughout the season but do not recommend that anyone attempt to recreate either of them and place themselves in danger.

I will be working with David Chapman in hopes to help warn others as well as capture these storms through video and photography to share with others who may not get to experience them. We are ready to combine our passion for storms to get the best results possible and share those results with others.

Art

Marshmello (@cryptocup) NFT Makes History With Lunaprise Launch on SpaceX

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Marshmello the artic pup, also known on instagram as @cryptopup, made history last week, as the first pet digital collectible art project selected for the lunar museum (“Lunaprise”) on the moon. The project was conceived by Dallas Santana, a well-known film director, web 3.0 innovator and Founder of Space Blue, the company that oversees curation of the Lunaprise Museum. Santana first introduced Marshmello the artic pup,  to the world as an digital collectable art project in 2018.

Marshmello To The Moon. NFT by Space Blue

The super rare digital collectible art of Marshmello To the Moon, selling for $950K usd / $1.3M cad each, took off from from Cape Canaveral on  a ride on SpaceX Falcon 9 and landed on the moon February 22nd , becoming the first pet dog character to land on the moon since the legendary Snoopy, who traveled with Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon back in 1969. The artwork will be auctioned off with 100% of the proceeds donated towards impactful projects for humanity and animals.

Artwork of the popular adorable pet also made history as the first bitcoin art project to land on the moon and is inscribed as a very popular digital art form called bitcoin ordinals. 

The Lunaprise Museum on the moon will house  digital inscribed twin etched  nickel and nanofiche system of the earth based digital collectibles, along with 222 other curated art projects which will last over 1 billion years on the moon. Marshmello the artic pup character has also already confirmed her official NASA boarding pass to be included in the NASA Mars missions, and other space programs coming up.

The twin images of Marshmello’s artwork will be engraved on metallic lunar plates and digital archives which will last over 1 billion years on the moon. Marshmello’s story and her mission set many space and art history records, including the first pet art project selected for this NASA-administered project, and became the first pet dog character to land on the moon since the legendary Snoopy, who traveled with Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon back in 1969. Conceived by a well-known film director and NFT Innovator (Dallas Santana), Marshmello was first introduced to the world as an NFT art project in 2018, long before the term NFT gained widespread recognition.

The Real-life Dog

Marshmello, the real-life dog, is known for many collaborations with top celebrities, movie stars, models from “America’s Top Models”, and “Deal or No Deal” models, all who babysat the adorable pet. Marshmello found fame without even trying, went viral “peeing” on an Oscar Event Red Carpet ( getting millions of views), got over 50 million views while dating Logan Paul’s Pomeranian “Kong”, and appeared in the NFT movie The 9th Raider and many music videos.

As this pioneering canine character prepares for its historic lunar landing, fans can soon explore the captivating Marshmello furry universe through an engaging book series, with an animation series also in development- also all sent to the moon for archiving as digital twin artwork preserved on the moon. This lovable pet dog character is on the brink of capturing hearts and minds across the globe as it embarks on its groundbreaking journey to the final frontier in art history. As mentioned above, Marshmello the character has also confirmed her official NASA boarding pass to be included in the NASA Mars missions, and other space programs coming up. For the Silo, Tiffannie Ramos.

Art

Rice University Art Exhibition Focuses On Human Body & Land Connections

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Resonant Earth: Contemporary Perspectives on Land and Body features works from Kelly Akashi, Lisa Alvarado, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Andrea Chung, Sky Hopinka, and Anna Mayer On view through August 17, 2024.
Kelly Akashi, Life Forms, 2022. Collection of Barbara and Michael Gamson. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Paul Salveson.
March, 2024 [Houston, TX]— The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University announces the exhibition Resonant Earth: Contemporary Perspectives on Land and Body opening May 31 and on view through August 17, 2024. Bringing together new and recent work by six contemporary artists based in the United States, the exhibition explores vital connections between the human body and the land. This focused presentation emphasizes how art and artists can build awareness toward integrated ecosystems in the face of intergenerational trauma, continued exploitation of the Earth’s resources, and climate change. 

Featured artists include Kelly Akashi, Lisa Alvarado, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Andrea Chung, Sky Hopinka, and Anna Mayer. Spanning a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, ceramics, collage, photography, video, and sound, the presentation also features two site-specific interventions commissioned by the Moody. Lisa Alvarado will create a monumental wall mural and Anna Mayer will mount an installation with locally sourced clay consisting of more than fifty new objects. The diverse practices presented in Resonant Earth demonstrate a critical engagement with histories of the land, primarily in the Western and Southern United States. Collectively, the exhibition addresses the local environment while considering the forced migration and displacement of people and plants across geographies.  

Executive Director Alison Weaver notes, “This project foregrounds artworks that speak to our lived experience in the United States, highlighting how personal and social histories shape our natural surroundings and our individual bodies. This summer we look forward to welcoming visitors who bring their own experiences to the galleries.” 
Sky Hopinka, Mnemonics of Shape and Reason,2022. Still. Courtesy of the artist.
About the Exhibition Resonant Earth: Contemporary Perspectives on Land and Body seeks to illuminate the intertwined social and material histories of specific ecologies, ranging from farms along the US-Mexico border, to former Japanese American internment camps in Arizona, to the extraction of land in and around Houston. With geographical references that privilege biological memory and somatically inherited knowledge over a dominant linear history, these artists highlight the intergenerational pain of displacement and the healing power of reconnection to our place on the planet.
The artworks on view echo our fraught engagement with the environment, while implying webs of interdependence in which the natural and the cultural are inseparable. The six selected artists draw on Indigenous and diasporic forms of knowledge, culture, and materials to envision modes of transformation and regeneration in relation to ongoing struggles for environmental and social justice. 
A selection of new and recent work by Kelly Akashi underscores the artist’s interest in temporality and memory as contained in the land and the body. Her sculptural work incorporates a range of material processes and is installed spatially as a constellation of objects that reference her personal and family history as well as the passage of time, the ephemerality of the human body, and the impermanence of the natural world. For example, in Conjoined Tumbleweeds, Akashi cast entangled plants growing at the site of a Japanese American incarceration camp in Poston, AZ. The bronze sculpture refers to her father’s imprisonment there during World War II.
A cast of the artist’s own body, fragmented, appears as a blue crystal hand in Inheritance. Adorned with Akashi’s grandmother’s ring, the fingers wrap around a stone from Poston, invoking the biological memory of the body as well as geological time.  Through double-sided hanging paintings, and a major site-specific wall mural accompanied by a sound installation, artist and musician 

Lisa Alvarado explores social histories of the land, including the Chicana/o Movement and her own family’s experience along the US-Mexico border. Her free-hanging abstract paintings allude to generations of migrant farmers in the region, while referencing textile traditions and muralism of the Americas.

Compositionally anchored at the corner of the gallery space and expanding outward along horizontal and vertical planes, Alvarado’s site-specific mural suggests “being in-between,” both spatially and conceptually. In the monumental painting that encompasses the viewer, Alvarado also considers meridians—both celestial, in relation to one’s position on Earth and the sky, and those used in traditional non-Western medicine to trace the pathways within one’s own body. Cast from the trunks of non-native trees in Los Angeles, large-scale sculptural works from Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio’s Caucho (Rubber) series reference intertwined histories of plants and people. The artist, whose family is from El Salvador, considers experiences of migration, solidarity, and civil war that resonate with some Central American communities in Los Angeles.
Deeply invested in the social histories of materials, Aparicio’s artistic media suggests layers of meaning and the inseparability of the natural and the cultural. For instance, his use of rubber, which is made from the bloodlike sap of trees, recalls its importance as an Indigenous Mesoamerican technology and subsequent exploitation by colonialist extraction and trade. An immersive planetarium installation together with collages by Andrea Chung reflect the interconnected histories of materials, processes, and places of the island nations in the Caribbean Sea and Indian Ocean. In her research-based practice, Chung often subverts tools of European colonialism while considering the multiplicity of the relationships that enslaved people had with the Earth. Inspired by star charts, and seeking to invert colonial maps, The Westerlies: Prevailing the Winds is a dome structure shrouded in cyanotype canvas that invites the viewer to be surrounded by the night sky and ocean as both expanse and enclosure.
In collages featuring late-nineteenth-century ethnographic photographs of African women, Chung adorns the images with intricate beadwork, gold ink, and reproductions of delicate flora atop traditional birthing cloth, exploring the relationship between the people depicted and the land. Videos by filmmaker, photographer, and poet Sky Hopinka portray landscapes traversed by the artist, interweaving personal and collective memory. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Hopinka explores Indigenous homeland and language through rhythmic and poetic accounts. In the selected videos, the artist layers visual and audio recordings, music, and text, to consider intergenerational connections to a place as well as the ongoing effects of colonialism while prompting the viewer to consider one’s own relationship to landscape and memory. 
Twenty-five pairs of newly created wall-mounted ceramic vessels and sculptures will be part of a site-specific installation by Houston-based artist Anna Mayer, who engages with the land locally. Known for her social and sculptural practice, Mayer’s process involves analog firing techniques while critically engaging pre- and post-petroculture. In her hand-built ceramics, the artist incorporates what she calls “gleaned clay” (available as a by-product of other processes such as flooding, drought, or construction), sourced from the Houston area. 
Described as “implements” by the artist, the shapes of the wall-mounted objects reference drill bits and hammers as well as body parts and geological sediment. The series will be installed over photographic wallpaper depicting damp cement, suggesting water seeping up from the ground into the gallery. Additionally, Mayer is making new large-scale ceramic vessels that will be positioned among existing furniture at the Moody, underscoring their corporeal presence and connection. 
This new body of work examines how tools function as an extension of the body, commonly used to excavate earth, while reflecting a polyvalent approach to the land. Resonant Earth is curated by Molly Everett, Assistant Curator, Moody Center for the Arts. The exhibition is made possible by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, the Brad and Leslie Bucher Artist Endowment, the Tamara de Kuffner Fund, the Kilgore Endowment Fund, and the Sewall Endowment. 
Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Ruta de las flores, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles
About the Artists Kelly Akashi’s (b. 1983, Los Angeles, CA) major solo exhibition, Kelly Akashi: Formations, originated at the San José Museum of Art (2022–23), and traveled to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (2023), and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2023–24). Her work is currently the subject of a solo presentation at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2023–24) and has been included in several group exhibitions internationally. Akashi is based in Los Angeles, CA. 

Lisa Alvarado (b. 1982, San Antonio, TX) has exhibited and performed widely, with recent solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (2023) and at REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA (2023). Originally from San Antonio, TX, Alvarado now lives and works in Chicago, IL. 

Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio’s (b. 1990, Los Angeles, CA) work is the subject of a solo exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, on view until June 16, 2024. His work is featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial in New York, NY, and Prospect.6 in New Orleans, LA. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles. 

Andrea Chung (b. 1978, Newark, NJ) has received solo presentations at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI (2023), the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2022), and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA (2017). Her work has been exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA (2021), the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL (2019), and in Prospect.4, New Orleans, LA (2017). Chung grew up in Sugar Land, TX, and is now based in San Diego, CA. 

Sky Hopinka’s (b. 1984, Ferndale, WA) work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, including at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil (2023), LUMA Arles, France (2022), Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (2022), and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2020). He is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. Hopinka recently joined the faculty at Harvard University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, and is currently based in Cambridge, MA. 

Anna Mayer’s (b. 1974, Macomb, IL) practice spans Los Angeles and Houston. Her recent solo presentation at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (2021) was preceded by exhibitions at Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX (2016–17), and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2012). She lives in Houston, TX, and is an Associate Professor of sculpture at the University of Houston. 
Lisa Alvarado, Spinning Echo, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York.
Special EventsFriday, May 31, 6–8 p.m. Opening Reception for Resonant Earth: Contemporary Perspectives on Land and Body Celebrate the start of the exhibition with the artists.Saturday, June 1, 4–6 p.m. Dimensions Variable: National Information Society Together with her band National Information Society, featured artist Lisa Alvarado will activate the gallery space with a special musical performance.Fridays, June 7, 14, 21, and 28 at 12 p.m.

The Moody Wellness Series Join us on Fridays in June for meditation and yoga in the galleries, offered through a collaboration with the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. Saturdays, June 8, 15, 22, 29, 2–4 p.m.

Moody ArtLab Guests of all ages are invited to create a hands-on craft inspired by artwork featured in the summer exhibition at our self-guided activity station on Saturdays in June. Materials and instructions provided. Saturday, July 20, 12–5 p.m.

Summer Jam Community Day Celebrate summer at this all-day, family-friendly event featuring an indoor farmer’s market, art activities, and local food vendors. 
Featured image: Mnemonics. Sky Hopinka
About the Moody Center for the Arts Inaugurated in February 2017, the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University is a state-of-the-art, non-collecting institution dedicated to transdisciplinary collaboration among the arts, sciences, and humanities. The 50,000-square-foot facility, designed by acclaimed Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan, serves as an experimental platform for creating and presenting works in all disciplines, a flexible teaching space to encourage new modes of making, and a forum for creative partnerships with visiting national and international artists. The Moody is free and open to the public year-round.

Website: moody.rice.edu

Social Media: @theMoodyArtsPhone: +1 713.348.ARTSAddress: Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University6100 Main Street, MS-480, Houston, TX 77005(University Entrance 8, at University Boulevard and Stockton Street)

Hours & Admission Exhibition spaces are open to the public and free of charge Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Events and programs are open to the public. For schedule, tickets, and prices as applicable, visit moody.rice.edu.

Directions & Parking The Moody Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Rice University and is best reached by using Campus Entrance 8 at the intersection of University Boulevard and Stockton Street. As you enter campus, the building is on the right, just past the Media Center. There is a dedicated parking lot adjacent to the building. Payment for the Moody Lot is by credit card only.
For campus maps, visit www.rice.edu/maps.

About Rice University Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as the best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
Art

Inuk Artist, Shuvinai Ashoona Wins Governor General’s Award in the Arts

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Inuk artist becomes the second person from the West Baffin Cooperative to receive prestigious award.


Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut – Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona has been named a recipient of the Governor General’s Awards in the Arts for her dedication to the expression and practice of Inuit art and her contribution to Canada’s larger contemporary art community.

ᓱᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓱᓇ
SHUVINAI ASHOONA


For more than two decades, Ashoona has been changing the face of Inuit art. Working from her home base in Kinngait, Nunavut, Ashoona’s ever-evolving drawing practice has resulted in a still growing body of work that stands as a unique contribution to the artistic expression of her time. Ashoona’s innovative drawings, many of which are ambitiously scaled, freely mix elements drawn from historic Inuit culture with contemporary references to more recent history and popular culture.

Untitled. 2010.

Her subjects include fantastical and otherworldly beings
as well as self-reflexive images that comment directly on the process and practice of representation. Never content to follow rules and expectations, Ashoona’s unconventional artistic vision has successfully challenged and revolutionized how the public perceives Inuit art and contemporary Indigenous art more generally, helping
to create a new space for expression and artistic freedom.

A longtime artist member of West Baffin Cooperative, Ashoona works frequently at the organization’s Kinngait Studios and has become a mentor to many next generation Inuit creators.
“I don’t even think about getting awards for making my art,” said Shuvinai Ashoona. ‘I’m just happy when people can see my drawings in galleries and museums and books. I think this award means that many, many people are getting to see my artworks.”


Throughout her career, Ashoona has maintained a busy practice supported by an expansive program of exhibitions.

Her work has been featured in several important exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, that institution’s landmark 2013 showcase of contemporary Indigenous expression from around the world.
“Shuvinai Ashoona is one of Canada’s most influential visual artists and has fast become an internationally important creator,” said West Baffin Cooperative President Pauloosie Kowmageak. “Ashoona has achieved remarkable success and recognition for her art practice and for the community of Kinngait; I can’t imagine a more deserving recipient of this prestigious award.”

Handstand. 2010. Stonecut and stencil.


Ashoona has been active within the commercial gallery sphere as well. Her work has been featured in several solo and group commercial exhibitions, many of which have been presented by Vancouver’s Marion Scott Gallery, which nominated her for this award, and Toronto’s Feheley Fine Arts. Ashoona’s drawings have also been collected by many of Canada’s major art institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Musée des beaux arts de Montréal and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Ashoona has also collaborated with artists from beyond her Baffin Island community, including Shary Boyle (2015) and John Noesthedan (2008).

“Shuvinai Ashoona’s startling expression makes connections and bridges cultures,” said Robert Kardosh, third generation owner of Vancouver’s Marion Scott Gallery. “Her images tell us something important about ourselves and the world we all share. This award acknowledges and celebrates that deep resonance. It’s also a testament to her tenacious dedication to her vision and community.”


In 2022, she produced her first immersive installation, entitled Help Us. Commissioned by the Marion Scott Gallery, Ashoona’s floating constellation of drawn geometric forms was featured that same year at Art Toronto, where it earned critical and popular acclaim.


The last five years have been especially important ones for the artist, not just for her continuing creative growth but also in terms of her growing national and, increasingly, international profile. In 2019, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto presented Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, an exhibition that brought together a decade’s worth of Ashoona’s most ambitious works. Curated by Nancy Campbell, the high-profile exhibition toured to several venues across Canada, exposing the general public to Ashoona’s singular vision while confirming her status as one of Canada’s most exciting and talked about contemporary artists.

The exhibition’s catalogue is itself a monument to Ashoona’s practice and place in contemporary Canadian art. At the beginning of 2019, just as the Power Plant’s exhibition was being launched, it was announced that Ashoona had won the 2018 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO, making her the first Inuk in history to win this prestigious award. In 2021, as part of the terms of the prize, the artist’s work was profiled at the Art Gallery of Ontario in a major exhibition that was entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: Beyond the Visible, making her work even more visible to a wider audience.

Alongside these major breakthroughs within Canada’s borders has been a recent series of announcements, exhibitions and awards that reflect Ashoona’s steadily growing reputation abroad. In 2021, Ashoona’s work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings. The exhibition in Miami wasn’t only Ashoona’s first show in a US museum, but it also marked the first time that a US contemporary art institution has presented a solo exhibition by a Canadian Inuk artist.

In 2022, Ashoona’s work was included in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition, also known as the Venice Biennale.

Ashoona’s inclusion in this major international showcase brought her distinctive expression to the attention of a global audience for the first time. The official jury’s decision to award Ashoona one of two special mentions brought even more attention to her installation, further attesting to her work’s unique power and appeal. Those same drawings are currently being featured at London’s The Perimeter, in a presentation entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: When I Draw, the artist’s second solo exhibition in the UK. For more biographical information about Shuvinai Ashoona click here. For the Silo, Paul Clarke.

Featured image: SHUVINAI+ASHOONA-2009 untitled graphite coloured pencil and pentel pen.

Art

Nanni Balestrini Political Art Retrospective Exhibition Includes Early Computer Works

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CENTER FOR ITALIAN ART ANNOUNCES NEW EXHIBITION: 
NANNI BALESTRINI: ART AS POLITICAL ACTION ONE THOUSAND AND ONE VOICES ON VIEW NOW UNTIL- JUNE 22, 2024
Nanni Balestrini, Cavallo, 1963. Collage on paper. Private collection, courtesy Frittelli arte contemporanea, Florence
(New York, February/March, 2024) – The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) has launched its new exhibition, NANNI BALESTRINI: ART AS POLITICAL ACTION. ONE THOUSAND AND ONE VOICES, curated by Marco Scotini. This is the first retrospective exhibition in the United States of Nanni Balestrini (1935-2019), an Italian experimental visual artist, poet, and novelist known for his revolutionary artistic practice and passionate involvement in the social-political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. 
Born in Milan in 1935, Balestrini was a key protagonist of post-WW2 Italian literary and social avant-garde movements: he approached experimental poetry with a visual sensibility stemming from the artistic use of collage, and with a compositional practice that gave importance to the editing and recombining of existing texts (especially newspapers, magazines, and political slogans) in search for the expression of a collective enunciation.

Nanni Balestrini born July 1935 died May 2019

Nanni Balestrini, 65000 Ètudiants, 1972. Mixed media on panel. Collezione Emilio Mazzoli, Modena
Nanni Balestrini, Cronogramma, 1960s. Collage on paper. Private collection.
He worked side by side with contemporary composers interested in the creative potential of stochastic music and the relationship between computer technology and art. Much of his radical artistic and literary research also developed in dialogue with his participation in the student and workerist movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, and their explosive political charge. Much emphasis has been placed on the exclusively typographical character of writing in Balestrini’s artistic works. This exhibition will instead draw attention to the double acoustic and visual level of Balestrini’s word or, better yet, to what Paolo Fabbri described as its “phonic-optic indiscernibility.”

NANNI BALESTRINI: ART AS POLITICAL ACTION. ONE THOUSAND AND ONE VOICES, curated by Marco Scotini, focuses on two crucial decades in the career of Balestrini, the 1960s and the 1970s. It includes over 70 works by the artist, along with a range of documentary material. The works from the 1960s illustrate a creative phase when Balestrini shared research interests with Luigi Nono, one of the most important 20th-century experimental composers, and when the neo-avant garde literary movement Gruppo 63 was also founded. The creative relationship between Balestrini and Nono lasted an entire decade, and the exhibition sheds light on the search for the disalienation of the word pursued by both, as well as on their use of technology as a way to seize and subvert the means of industrial production and explore their artistic potential.

The final works in the exhibition date back to the late 1970s; some of them were conceived in connection with a poem dedicated to the New York City electricity blackout of 1977. Planned as an “action for voice” to be performed by Greek-Italian lyricist and vocal experimenter Demetrio Stratos in May 1979, the work was never performed due to the premature death of Stratos and Balestrini’s indictment surrounding the political movement Autonomia Operaia.

The exhibition also includes a reconstruction of Balestrini’s Tape Mark I (1961), one of the earliest examples of computer-generated art. A combinatory poem produced by an algorithm written in the Unix programming language on a massive IBM mainframe computer, Tape Mark I anticipates many of the contemporary questions surrounding Artificial Intelligence, and was featured in the 1962 edition of the Bompiani Literary Almanac, which was dedicated to “the application of computers to ethics and literature”, a theme of utmost relevance today. 

To provide context to Balestrini’s work, the show features a selection of early words-in-freedom works by Futurist artist Carlo Carrà, a form of avantgarde visual poetry that liberated words and letters from the conventions of grammar and syntax, making them part of visual and performative compositions. This technique was co-opted by the Italian Neoavanguardia in the 1960s, due to the revolutionary potential of the early Futurist movement.
NANNI BALESTRINI: ART AS POLITICAL ACTION. ONE THOUSAND AND ONE VOICES is on view at CIMA (421 Broome Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10013) from February 22nd – June 22nd, 2024. See visiting hours below. 

Python reconstruction of 1961 electronic poem “TAPE MARK 1”

Nanni Balestrini, Giornale di bordo (La partita a carte), 1964. Collage on paper. Private collection, Mirano (Venezia)
CIMA OPEN HOURS: • Friday and Saturday: 11am to 6pm with guided tours at 11am and 2pm (last entry at 5pm)• Members-only hours: Monday-Thursday by appointment• General admission: $15usd for guided tours; $10usd for open hours• Members & students: free
ABOUT CIMA:Founded in 2013, CIMA is a public non-profit dedicated to presenting modern and contemporary Italian art to international audiences. Through critically acclaimed exhibitions—many of them bringing work to U.S. audiences for the first time—along with a wide variety of public programs and substantial support for new scholarship awarded through its international fellowship program, CIMA situates Italian modern art in an expansive historic and cultural context, illuminating its continuing relevance to contemporary culture and serving as an incubator of curatorial ideas for larger cultural institutions. CIMA works to add new voices to scholarship on modern Italian art with annual fellowships that open fresh perspectives and new avenues of research. A visit begins with a complimentary espresso, followed by an informal exhibition tour with one of the resident fellows. Visitors are welcome to linger for additional viewing and conversation.

ABOUT CURATOR MARCO SCOTINI: Marco Scotini is an art critic and curator. He currently is artistic director of FM Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea in Milan, a center specializing in the preservation and enhancement of private collections, artists’ archives and the promotion of contemporary art. Since 2004, he has been director of the Department of Visual Arts at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti of Milan and Rome. He is scientific director of the Gianni Colombo Archive, the Bert Theis Archive, the Clemen Parrocchetti Archive and the Nanni Balestrini Archive. Since 2014, he has been responsible for the exhibition program of PAV- Parco Arte Vivente in Turin. He was artistic director of the 2nd Yinchuan Biennale in 2018 and was a member of the Italian Council from 2019 to 2021. He has curated exhibitions for leading national and international art institutions, including the Albanian pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015), three editions of the Prague Biennale (2003, 2005, 2007), Anren Biennale (2017), 2nd Yinchuan Biennale (2018) and was advisor for Bangkok Biennale (2020 and 2022). He took part in the 17th Istanbul Biennale (2022) and the BETA Timișoara Biennale (2022). He has been part of the project TV Politics at documenta 14 (2017). Scotini’s project Disobedience Archive is part of the 60th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte della Biennale di Venezia (2024), curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Art

National Black Arts Festival 2024

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NBAF is manifesting more this year: more impact, more engaging programming, more opportunities for artists, more exposure, and more funding. We are coming for it all in the new year! In celebration of what will be an amazing year, it is my honor to give you a peek into what we have in store as we prepare to do things even bigger and better in 2024.  

Our programming theme for this year is “Artistry Unbound,” an exploration of the resounding power of African American art to propel us toward the realization of our collective freedom. This theme celebrates the profound contributions of African American artists in their relentless pursuit of social justice, equality, and financial equity. It celebrates the trailblazers who have paved the way for a new generation of artists, continuing the legacy of social commentary and artistic innovation. This theme calls us to be “black on purpose” and create programs that directly speak to the injustices that we still face as a people and find artistic and creative ways to address these issues.

We are excited to bring this theme to life through carefully curated programming that will kick off with the NBAF Black History Month event, “Blacklisted! Banned Book Fair”, which speaks directly to the injustices highlighted through recent campaigns designed to censor and diminish Black voices.

Blacklisted! Banned Book Fair takes place on February 24th and 25th, and aligns with NBAF’s mission to:

  • Expose audiences to important and diverse works by African American authors,
  • Educate the public on how the banning of African American literature has been part of a larger pattern of censoring voices that advocate for social justice, civil rights, and the dismantling of racial prejudices,
  • Engage young and old readers alike with the wealth of African American books available to them, and
  • Entertain audiences with informative panel discussions, staged readings, an indie book market, and more!
             For more info, please visit our Black History Month page on nbaf.org

There are so many exciting things on the horizon for NBAF this year and we look forward to bringing you quality multi-disciplinary programming focused on uplifting and highlighting Black art and artists in new ways throughout 2024.  As we continue our transition back to larger immersive events and chart a path back to the renowned NBAF Festival, our team is committed to innovatively presenting the best in Black art and we look forward to continuing to make an impact in the community with your partnership. We look forward to seeing you soon online or at an upcoming event! For the Silo, Stephanie R. Owens.

Reflecting on the remarkable journey of 2023, we’re excited to share the significant impact your support has made on our mission and community. We encourage you to delve into the highlights and accomplishments of the past year in our 2023 Impact Report, available here.

Click on the image above to view a visual journey of the transformative moments and positive change that helped us achieve in 2023.

NBAF PROGRAMS & EVENTS

Check out these upcoming events from NBAF!

Blacklisted! Banned Books Fair
Saturday & Sunday, February 24th & 25th
Atlanta, GA
Calling all authors, literature lovers, and vendors to join us in celebrating the written word! NBAF’s 2024 Black History Month program, Blacklisted! Banned Book Fair celebrates the African American authors creating work that challenges the status quo and speaks truth to power.

The programming features:

• Moderated panel discussions with Black Authors, Activists & Intellectuals
• Indie Black Book Market featuring African American booksellers and authors
• Youth Book Fair with interactive children’s activities
• Community Book Drive to benefit youth-centered non-profits
• Interactive exhibitions about banned African-American literature and authors
• Social Photo booths, food vendors & more!

Mark your calendars and get ready for a weekend filled with storytelling, creativity, and activism. This interactive experience is in partnership with the Morehouse College Movement Memory and Justice Project, South Fulton Arts, 44th & 3rd Bookseller and the Black Writers Weekend.

If you’re an author, bookseller, or have literature/education or activism related products, apply to be a vendor on the NBAF website. Spaces are limited, so secure your space today!
Authors Vendor AppPublishers Vendor AppMerch Vendor App

SAVE THE DATE!

Saturday, March 27

Taking place at the Atlanta History Center and in partnership with Neiman Marcus, FA+F attendees enjoy food + drinks, an impeccably curated fashion show, fashion icons and artists award presentations, and are introduced to the winning student designer of the annual Fashion Forward Student Design Competition.

Fine Art + Fashion raises funds to support NBAF’s operations and programs for artists of all ages and disciplines, particularly our youth arts education programs for underserved students of African descent.

LEARN MORE AND PURCHASE YOUR SEAT!
2024 NBAF Fashion Forward
A Competition for Student Fashion Designers
NBAF Fashion Forward honorees are selected by a distinguished panel of judges and receive a cash prize of $1,500. The 2024 NBAF Fashion Forward honorees will be presented at NBAF’s Fine Art + Fashion Benefit on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 in Atlanta, GA. To get started, check out nbaf.org/fashion-forward to download the Fashion Forward Fact Sheet to learn more about the application requirements. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Fashion Forward Coordinator, Page Yang, at pyang@nbaf.org. Please mention thesilo.ca when contacting.
The deadline to apply is Friday, January 26, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. APPLY HERE!
2024 Artist Project Fund Applications
Eligible Metro Atlanta Artists Apply Today  
The 2024 Artist Project Fund (APF) is a $2,000 usd grant and 6-month artistic development program for Metro Atlanta artists seeking funds to complete an ongoing project. APF supports 20 professional artists in the completion of an ongoing artistic project, fosters a sense of community and creative collaboration, and provides immersive artistic and career development experiences to help them grow as artists and creative entrepreneurs.
The deadline to apply is Friday, February 2, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.
APPLY HERE!

SHOP THE NBAF STORE

New Merch! Your purchase supports NBAF’s year round programming.

Select from special limited edition art prints, t-shirts, tote bags, note books, and more!Black Art Matters TeeNBAF Commemorative PinsRadcliffe Bailey NBAF 10th Anniversary PostersBlack Art Matters stainless steel tumblerNBAF tote bagNBAF Logo Unisex Hoodie
With Shop Pay you can get it now and pay later! Pay in 4 interest-free installments for orders over $50.00.  

Don’t miss out on NBAF news and events.
Follow us on social to stay in the know!

Art

The Met Acquires Monumental Tiffany Window

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(New York, December, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the acquisition of a monumental Tiffany three-part window, Garden Landscape. The window—over ten feet wide and nearly seven feet tall—was designed by Agnes Northrop in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the attribution of which is based on a signed design drawing for the center panel that resides in The Met collection.

As part of the Museum’s American Wing 100th anniversary, the window will be installed in the Charles Engelhard Court in November 2024. The window will be dramatically framed by the columns from Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s Long Island country estate.

The acquisition is made possible by Alan Gerry Gift; 2023 Benefit Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; funds and gifts from various donors, by exchange; Ronald S. Kane Bequest, in memory of Berry B. Tracy; Lila Acheson Wallace, several members of The Chairman’s Council, The Erving and Joyce Wolf Foundation, Martha J. Fleischman, Elizabeth J. and Paul De Rosa, Women and the Critical Eye, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lockwood Chilton Jr., Cheryl and Blair Effron, The Felicia Fund, Julie and James Alexandre, Elizabeth and Richard Miller, Anonymous, John and Margaret Ruttenberg, and The Gerald H. Ruttenberg Foundation Gifts.

Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, said: “This stunning work of art is an extraordinary example of the transformational creativity of Agnes Northrop and Tiffany Studios. Magnificent in concept and execution and more than grand in size, it deepens the American Wing’s Tiffany holdings and will enhance the already stunning Engelhard Court with a powerful, immersive viewing experience.”

Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing at The Met, said: “Northrop’s remarkable environmental work further strengthens our representation of women artists in the American Wing and allows us to share broader stories of early-20th-century culture with our visitors.”

The window was originally commissioned by Sarah Cochran, Pittsburgh businesswoman and philanthropist, for Linden Hall, the grand Tudor-Revival estate she had built in 1912 in Dawson, Pennsylvania. She personally requested the subject of the window, which represents a lush landscape and garden suggestive of her own at the estate. Placed on the stair landing of the house, the window enticed the viewer up marble steps and offered a long vista through tall, majestic pines flanking a central fountain amidst profuse flowers—pink and blue hydrangeas, poppies, and nasturtiums. The two side panels depict, on the left, foxglove and peonies, and on the right, hollyhocks, exquisitely rendered in glass. These were subjects favored by Northrop and American Impressionist painters.

Northrop was one of the most important designers in Tiffany’s employ and his preeminent woman designer. In a field dominated by men, Northrop established herself as one of the leading designers of windows, and was recognized for her work by winning a prestigious award at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. She helps shed light on the critical and often unrecognized role played by women in the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Northrop and Tiffany pioneered new landscape and garden subject matter for stained glass, and the window reveals Northrop’s careful observations of nature and her gift for translating it into glass.

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, said: “This extraordinary evocation of a garden landscape is Northrop’s masterpiece. Made during the height of Louis Tiffany’s career, it was conceived, commissioned, and crafted by women. Featuring flowers in bloom from spring through summer, seen in the enigmatic light of approaching twilight, the window presents a luxuriant garden perennially in bloom.”

Tiffany’s opalescent glass shares a zeitgeist with American Impressionism, merging imagery with chromatic light. Northrop exploited the varied textures, lush colors, and light effects that were only possible with Tiffany’s special Favrile glass made at his furnaces in Corona, Queens, utilizing especially innovative and unusual techniques, some unique in a stained-glass window. The ingenious selection of the glass as well as the cutting of the glass into often thousands of pieces of almost impossible shapes was done by Tiffany’s skilled artisans, who were also largely women. Tiffany deemed the Linden Hall window of such note that he put it on public view in his New York showroom before shipping it to Cochran’s Pennsylvania home.
Featured image: Image: Three-part Garden Landscape window for Linden Hall, Designed by Agnes F. Northrop (1857–1953), Tiffany Studios (1902–32), New York, 1912. Leaded Favrile glass. 124 × 82 inches; 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 inches; 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 inches; center panel: 124 × 82 in. (315 × 208.3 cm); side panels: 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 in. (225.4 × 207.3 cm)
Earth

Canada’s Golden Eagle And The Acela-1 Express Train

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The Golden Eagle is one of the best known and largest birds of prey in North America. The adult birds are dark brown in colour with golden-brown feathers on the back of their head, neck and upper wings.

 

Golden Eagles use their strength, agility and powerful talons to snatch up prey including mice, rabbits, squirrels and even fox and young deer.

They are very swift and can reach speeds over 240 km per hour while diving in on their target. <240 km/h is about 150 mp/h- the top cruising speed of the American Commuter Acela- 1 express train. Watch the following video clip and note at the 1m 8s mark as  the Acela passes the station at about the same speed that the Golden Eagle achieves in a dive. Wow!

Golden eagles usually mate for life.

They build huge nests in high places including cliffs, trees, or even telephone poles and may return to this same nest for several breeding years.

The Golden Eagle is listed under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, 2007, which protects it from being killed, harmed, possessed, collected or sold, and protects the habitat from damage or destruction. For the Silo, Dixie Greenwood.

Art

What Is The Mystery Phenomenon Of Shoe Tossing?

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Shoe tossing and shoe posting are seen in most Canadian cities and rural motorways.

Its history and its symbolism are remarkably complex.

Shoe tossing is when shoelaces are tied and tossed over telephone or power lines so that the shoes hang loosely above the ground. Yet shoe tossing does not accurately describe shoes that are affixed to telephone poles or other inanimate objects using nails and staples. It seems that “shoe posting” would be a more appropriate terms for such occurrences. Nevertheless, each tossed or posted shoe represents either personal or cultural meaning.

There is a cultural meaning to each and every ‘tossed’ shoe- but what is it?

It may come as some surprise that shoe tossing holds a distressing history.

For example, many have noted that tossed shoes indicate the specific location where drugs like crack and heroin are used or sold. Moreover, others have mentioned that tossed shoes signify the physical boundaries of gang territory. For this reason the mayor of Los Angeles, California launched a campaign to remove tossed shoes from the city altogether. Further still, shoe tossing may be the product of bullying, theft and other forms of civil disobedience.

Is it safe to say that shoe tossing is primarily a form of civil disobedience or is there more to it?

On the other hand, there are some positive aspects of this mysterious phenomenon.

Shoe tossing, for instance, has been known to represent a rite of passage associated with graduation from an educational institution or a discharge from military service. While tossed and posted shoes mark our social environment in negative and positive ways they also call to mind images from the not so distant past.

Could there be a deep rooted collective unconscious meaning to shoe posting/nailing? H Joie Crockett Photos – Near the entrance to Rangeley Lake State Park you will find this oddity of a telephone pole with shoes nailed to it. The question is “Why?”

The pilfering of clothing and other possessions in extermination camps by Nazi forces during World War II included the shoes of men, women and children. These shoes were generally thrown on top of each other one by one. The result is a dense heap of shoes that were once filled with Jewish feet. Now, these shoes piles exist in Holocaust museums around the world as evidential markers of Nazi atrocity.

Holocaust shoes

Can tossed or posted shoes be thought of without considering the indelible Nazi shoe piles?

This is an idea that has not been explored and deserves further attention in visual culture discourse.
It is difficult to deny that the formal appearance of tossed and posted shoes in contemporary society reference past images of Nazi piles of Jewish shoes during the Holocaust. This may arguably be a far stretch for some; but for others, the sight of tossed and posted shoes may trigger the painful memories and agonizing reminders.
Shoe tossing is at once close to life but never far from death. The meaning one subscribes to these curious objects is, like most things, one’s own. However that does not suggest that particular objects seen in everyday life, like tossed or posted shoes, cannot allude to the images of history. For the Silo, Dr.Matthew Ryan Smith. 

Art

Prehistoric Ocarinas-Ancient Flints Contain Musical Scales

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A few years back, I posted the “I Found a… Pipe” blogpost – an attempt to initiate a series of found object accounts; exploring the dynamics of curiosity, the chance encounters, the chains of association, the pratfalls and prat-uplifts that may accompany such discoveries. 

One of the persistent themes is the idea that electronic-equivalents of sound-making processes can be found for free in the physical world – an ideal driven by poverty and its resultant anti-capitalism, and accompanying skepticism towards commercial electronic hardware flavours-of-the-months.  Whereas the “pipe of 2018” had limited sound-making value, this new blogpost examines the musical scales obtainable from multi-holed hollow flints, found during pandemic walkabouts.

I’ve been traipsing around fields. 

The flint-rich geology of the locale boasts rocks with hollow cavities – channels left by decayed ancient sea sponges.  These hollow flints are difficult to spot, as their holes are usually clogged with mud.  After some cleaning with water and bell-wire, the cavities can be cleared, creating almost ocarina-like ‘instruments’.  So far, a number of different flints have been found with interlinked channels, each offering unique microtonal musical scales.

These stones, each with their own in-built set of pitches formed 500 million years ago, are good grist for the arbitrary tuning mill. 

Why is arbitrary tuning important?  I consider it a topic all-too-frequently dismissed.  For those who enjoy the divergent aspects of differently-tuned music, or wish to escape the ubiquity of the equal tempered musical scale, it may be surprising that microtonal/xenharmonic music offers very little refuge – it is here that just intonation and “pure” harmonic mathematical dogmatism supplants one tyranny with another.  I exaggerate here a bit, but it’s fair to say that random/arbitrary musical scales are generally viewed as unsophisticated in microtonal music circles.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1273936272562753536

A few years ago I tried to establish a historical basis for ‘intuitively selected tuning systems’ in my Radionics Radio project (on Sub Rosa records), but drawing upon a fringe science – no matter how artistically groundbreaking those acoustic-radionic activities were in the late 1940s – didn’t convince many (radionics involves ‘psychically’ selecting frequencies that correspond to thoughts). 

Random tunings offer complete freedom, and reveal the idiosyncrasies of the instruments used, as well as the identities of soundmakers.  I would go as far to politicise it: arbitrary tuning is perhaps the ultimate musical ‘decolonisation’ whilst also being a practical and philosophical ideal for microtonal music’s LGBTQ+ lineage that embraces such varied personalities as Kathleen Schlesinger, Elsie Hamilton, to Harry Partch and Wendy Carlos – a lineage rarely-discussed, but deeply rooted, I believe, in the opposition to the norms of western equal temperament (and the contra-norms of just intonation and equal divisions of the octave).

The hollow flint… containing a scale.

Hollow flints found in fields speak of the primacy of arbitrary tunings: random, fully individuated tunings literally set in stone. 

My favourite is a handheld flint with five channels.  Unlike the specially-lipped ocarina, hollow flints cannot produce pure tones when blown into, unless a sharp ‘labium tip’ is expertly chiselled into it somehow (a feature of all fipple flutes).  This isn’t necessarily a problem – for instance, sound artist Akio Suzuki has been playing upon unrefined natural stones for decades, eliciting exploratory pitched noise: half-tonal, half-percussive, and sensitively done.  Covering the holes on the flint while blowing does produce vague pitches, but too broad to measure precisely.

Kathleen Schlesinger, in her 1939 deep-study of ancient greek auloi (reeded wind instruments dug up from historical sites) and their possible scales remarked that “it is impossible to determine the pitch, scale, or modality of any pipe that lacks a mouthpiece which will play it”. 

These rocks are not instruments, and it is indeed tricky treating them as such: even if a fipple mouthpiece (from a wind recorder, for instance) is introduced to the rock (which I did), the pitch of the notes varies due to its player’s breath pressure: the more open holes there are, the more breath pressure is required to produce a tone – and the natural reflex action is to supply more breath pressure, an action so unconscious that it almost feels as if the rock becomes an extension of the body.  Try it yourself.

It is possible to connect a small lapel microphone to a loudspeaker amplifier, and place the microphone inside the flint to hear feedback.  The feedback pitch is relative to the cavity, and alters according to the fingering of the cavities.  I did a brief experiment with this on camera, and posted it to Facebook to advertise the episode of Wavelength on Resonance FM where I describe these experiments.

On the internet, there’s always either a miserable don’t-know-who, or a know-it-all nonsenseclown poised to blurt. 

If they’re remotely connected to creative doings, it tends to spur on the mission to legitimise arbitrary scales.  On this occasion, one such character (I can’t discern which) emerged from the woodwork to advertise their obliviousness to these experiments’ contexts: “eh, this is like sticking a piezo transducer in anything. Ok; weird, somewhat regulated noise. ‘Man farting in field’ has been Lucier’d to death.”

Maybe this person is rightfully irate to some extent: the volume required to obtain the pitches of the flint cavity is horrendous on the ear.  To record it, one rainy afternoon I walked to the field where the flint originated, specifically to avoid remonstrations.  Alvin Lucier used compressors to limit the volume of his object-based feedback.  This feedback technique actually pre-dates Lucier’s work by eight decades – the feedback flute was proposed by Alfred Graham, patented in 1894 – a failed history I’ve excavated and written about in ‘Magnetic Music…‘ and ‘Failed Histories of Electronic Music‘, and recreated as a working model.  Graham recognised the many variables affecting the flute’s pitch, such as battery power, the shape and construct of the loudspeaker and microphone, and their relative positions. 

Nevertheless, the feedback flint, if held stable enough, is a fairly accurate approximation of the pitch intervals obtainable.  By comparing the feedback-generated intervals with the intervals obtained with an attached fipple, and also with the vague windy tones created when blowing, mean averages can be obtained.

Alfred Graham’s feedback flute, 1894.

With the lowest note registering as 669Hz, the ratios are calculable as 1/1, 737/669, 775/669, 263/223, 269/223 and 828/669 (giving an ascending 167.590, 254.628, 285.622, 324.674, 369.149 in cents).

What can be done with these notes? 

Well, the scale of this handheld flint encompasses less than four semitones (3.69, to be exact), which is a restrictive set of notes, but frequent exposure to the notes acclimatises the ear to soundmaking/melodic possibilities.  This is something noted by the composer Susan Alexjander who derived scales from DNA bases.  DNA bases’ tunings might as well be arbitrary, such is the inharmonic chaos – they seemed “so strange and alien that one at first despairs of ever creating a beautiful work of art, or making any coherent ‘sense’ out of them”, according to Alexjander.  By constant exposure to the new scales “played over and over on the synthesiser, some arrestingly beautiful combinations began to appear”…  so when dealing with such disorientating scales, perseverance is key! For the Silo, Dan Wilsen.

More can be heard on Wavelength, broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM on 19th June 2020. “A programme of multiple agendas presented by William English. This week: a tape sync with Oscillatorial Binnage member Daniel Wilson who, prevented from bin-diving during the Covid-19 epidemic, instead turns to “ground-diving” to dig out unusual stones from the earth. The potential for producing ‘rock music’ is showcased after a lengthy preliminary chat with William on the current state of the second-hand book trade.”

Fashion

Loafers And Flats Are Perfect For Fall

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Attract attention to your feet with these two new VENUS additions to the 2568’s collection.

Are you a shoe junky? If you are, you might take a special interest in 2568’s men’s and women’s new footwear line.

These shoes are comfortable classics with a twist: moccasins, loafers and boots, ballet and pointy flats, in unexpected materials and pattern featuring distinctive fabrics and leathers. Unique details also include colorful laces and decorative tassel bows. 2568 Shoes http://2568shoes.com  are inspired by Guatemalan creativity found in garments, handbags and small leather goods.

Fun,bold and funky colour patterns. The Venus line from 2568 Shoes.

The Venus loafers and Vanessa flats come in five different patterns with colors ranging from dark blues and blacks to reds and oranges. The colorful fabrics can make any outfit and can easily transition throughout the seasons.

The Vanessa line from 2568

Sizes range from 8.5 to 12. Price points range from $79 [USD]  and up, and for every shoe purchase, 2568 will send a free Guatemalan friendship bracelet. About the owners: Lorenzo Castellon  is the Manufacturing/Business Manager and Jamie Lawenda  is the Creative Director. The couple met on a job interview and thirty years later are married, have a child and own a sourcing and shoe Design Company.

Another Vanessa example

At first they created shoes and boots for other brands, including Sendra, a Goodyear welted high-end line of leather boots made in Spain. The couple continues to design and sell Sendra in the US.

The SAMOSA boot has a decidely Guatemalan influence. #goodlooking #boot

Cross-border shopper alert! The Venus loafers and Vanessa flats can be purchased at PiperLime, ThomShoes, ShoeInn and FreePeople. The Newman is available in four other colors: patent leather black and red, silver snakeskin embossed leather, and white leather.