tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16641871119651401992024-03-14T04:26:09.358-07:00Art and Politics NowCriticism must think of itself as . . .
opposed to every form of tyranny, domination and abuse.
Its social goals are non-coercive knowledge
produced in the interest of human freedom.
Edward Said The World The Text and the Critic 1983Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-52630470749346199312011-01-26T11:29:00.000-08:002011-01-26T11:31:15.707-08:00Art and Politics Now Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis is PUBLISHED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBYP3cOw0kJQHDidY-YwBJp91iQ1MfnB9JCg9ZhAybywpkFmqI7ksxVmm2hUtPPuq9HsUdzm_M40FAUBfYNX7HPIb34CrJ3EK9gLtlBCmmOY9KNCmxMYdttd5otp1pzJnlsJ_gjzHtyFF/s1600/bookcover_crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBYP3cOw0kJQHDidY-YwBJp91iQ1MfnB9JCg9ZhAybywpkFmqI7ksxVmm2hUtPPuq9HsUdzm_M40FAUBfYNX7HPIb34CrJ3EK9gLtlBCmmOY9KNCmxMYdttd5otp1pzJnlsJ_gjzHtyFF/s320/bookcover_crop.png" width="270" /></a></div>This was the big week. Seventy people at the launch at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. The book is now available from Midmarch Arts Press, 300 Riverside Drive, New York City. 1 212 865 5509. This will be my last post at this address. Please buy from my loyal independent publisher!! It is not on Amazon!! A stamp and an envelope is not too much to manage.<br />
Today, I am moving my blog to <br />
<a href="http://www.artandpoliticsnow.com/">http://www.artandpoliticsnow.com/</a> <br />
You will see my homepage and the blog link. My blogs will also be posting to my Facebook as well. <br />
See you there. <br />
SusanSusan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-27106083181117111282011-01-10T20:50:00.000-08:002011-01-11T18:43:23.695-08:00Contemporary Native Artists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbllkvbRGB3DnB_uLBqFU7hLMw-EP-bLPwJzm93x6KTqDq4j-50YS_INJxufYSFQqAHgyu8NtywZ3nAKQWsq87dSlLfJjmvBzX5SnjHZVmxaHBcNAttwOWsmE1DX33TdbVLWKYRQrO5Hm/s1600/DSCN2912.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIbllkvbRGB3DnB_uLBqFU7hLMw-EP-bLPwJzm93x6KTqDq4j-50YS_INJxufYSFQqAHgyu8NtywZ3nAKQWsq87dSlLfJjmvBzX5SnjHZVmxaHBcNAttwOWsmE1DX33TdbVLWKYRQrO5Hm/s320/DSCN2912.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://travelpeapod.wordpress.com/">Lara Evans</a>, art historian and artist, as well as Evergreen State College professor, has published with other authors a new book called <a href="https://www12.ssldomain.com/schoolofamericanresearch/sarpress/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=133">Art in Our Lives, Native Women Artists in Dialog</a>. She has also curated a wonderful art exhibition <a href="http://www.evergreen.edu/gallery/">It's Complicated - Art About Home.</a><br />
The two together give us new perspectives on contemporary native art. It is really exciting to have voices of a new generation. In the book, there are actually several generations, but the discussion is based on a novel format, a seminar among the artists.<br />
The essays are overviews of various themes, Art as Healing, Art as Struggle by Gloria J. Emerson, Gender Women and Art Making by Sherry Farrell Racette, Space Memory, Landscape Women in Native Art History by Elysia Poon, and Crossing the Boundaries of Home and Art. by Lara Evans. The dialogue among these artist and others as the basis for the book. It is both personal and historical, spanning generations, and practices.<br />
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It is a wonderful addition to writing on Contemporary Native American Women Artists. The essay by Sherry Farrell Racette was particularly provocative in its references to the history of tribal gender roles. I was a little surprised though that unmentioned was what I understood as a fact ( perhaps it is not) that settlers declared they had to deal with a male chief in negotiations with tribes that had been matriarchal, and that caused a major shift in the gender power relations in many tribes. Also, in the Northeast, it was the rights of Native women that inspired the suffragette movement to demand more rights for white women.<br />
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But certainly, gender roles vary from tribe to tribe and era to era. Also the value associated to various activities have been arbitrarily assigned perhaps by outsiders. Why is it necessarily less significant to cure and cook fish than to catch them? Why is bead work or basketry less significant than sand painting?<br />
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The fact is clearly stated that for these women, they had to move outside expectations and norms in order to be artists. And it is evident that their work is incredibly varied, intriguing, and complex, based on the magnificent color illustrations in the book (according to American Indian magazine, the pubication of the National Museum of the American Indian, the museum provided significant funding).<br />
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The work at the top of the post is from the art exhibition. It is by Maria Hupfield, Flap Flap Flap 2004 plaster and paper mache. Hupfield is addressing ecological crisis with her dead birds, but their are so beautifully laid out on the floor of the gallery that it is possible to almost forget the actual subject. That edge of aesthetics and politics is crucial to this entire exhibition.<br />
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The artists are addressing intersections of native world views and mainstream. For example in one piece by Merritt Johnson, the animals are patching the Sky Dome, They are giving up their lives in order to keep the world going, A bear stands on top of a ladder offering his skin. We on the other hand just go on with our same bad habits. In another work by Johnson, an injured Turkey is protecting the sky. In a third she makes a reference to the BP oil spill <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_F8yUo54MLjfnZldrTHKK9MOlTCsUQSQJWzx0FT-yz4V__gOJaPv1Q8Ew0-w-dFOO9OXaWb3k38kynHXqC6_296rY7eYXT6DNy1aWXnQ5cmPqtfpAo7v93XWwk6VCHwh5LywaqWVTwhAc/s1600/DSCN2910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_F8yUo54MLjfnZldrTHKK9MOlTCsUQSQJWzx0FT-yz4V__gOJaPv1Q8Ew0-w-dFOO9OXaWb3k38kynHXqC6_296rY7eYXT6DNy1aWXnQ5cmPqtfpAo7v93XWwk6VCHwh5LywaqWVTwhAc/s320/DSCN2910.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
One of the themes of the art exhibition and the book is the changing relationship to the land for contemporary Native artists. But in spite of that the urban/reservation split is not absolute in any of these artists. They all move back and forth, between different realities, as does their art. That is the reason for the title of the exhibition "It's complicated, Art About Home.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaoincbtDqzhDFrjmIIymJUpGb6Wn7UclaJWi8xdAQ5Qo8S6Ya0V9_9GUInyWsvjGMELrd92-m8yY3JfOGoNJiEJIdcVzq3om2btUZAUEy0hVUNpmNC43sAELZsmOcAMKAKa-EoizcOQB/s1600/Goodwill2010mag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaoincbtDqzhDFrjmIIymJUpGb6Wn7UclaJWi8xdAQ5Qo8S6Ya0V9_9GUInyWsvjGMELrd92-m8yY3JfOGoNJiEJIdcVzq3om2btUZAUEy0hVUNpmNC43sAELZsmOcAMKAKa-EoizcOQB/s320/Goodwill2010mag.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>Perhaps the most compelling work in the exhibiton was by Kimowan Metchewais.<br />
Goodwill 118 Edmonton, it is an innocuous image of the place where people drop off furniture for Good Will, but as Lara explained it, many native peoeple furnish their homes from this drop off. In addtion, this detailed and extraordinarly beautiful painting was done by an artist who lost the use of one whole side of his body.There are other works, videos, youtubes of Phoenix Arizona ( other peoples' idea of home), a creation myth, a stunning pair of photographs by Sarah Sense.with an overlay of woven photographic imagery based on traditional weaving from the Chitimacha tribe who have a long tradition of basketry. <br />
There are <a href="http://blogs.evergreen.edu/visionsandvoices/?detectqt=false">podcasts</a> about the exhibition at this site.<br />
Each of these artists both in the book and in the exhibition was previously unknown to me. How enriching to have this opportunity to expand my knowledge. Be sure to buy the book!Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-16777751553916636652010-12-15T16:15:00.000-08:002011-01-18T17:38:49.056-08:00Alison Saar <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aQqkYtHOICMdKTF6oenoi5hyphenhyphenGETTK4aBZv1oNCKqjGNrkzi6N45HnPe6EoRgo_K4mFSNaymFBgx4iy-2aELSixZwOYIndTkoyakN1A-lVhEt0UBqJGyQq7-z66rtqr8R9p-UdLlN4x5h/s1600/Alison+Saar..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aQqkYtHOICMdKTF6oenoi5hyphenhyphenGETTK4aBZv1oNCKqjGNrkzi6N45HnPe6EoRgo_K4mFSNaymFBgx4iy-2aELSixZwOYIndTkoyakN1A-lVhEt0UBqJGyQq7-z66rtqr8R9p-UdLlN4x5h/s320/Alison+Saar..jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blood Sweat and Tears, 2005 wood, copper, bronze, paint and tar </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianEzaAEonUbtpgG03EKmef9KOzvSNPh2UX86sEF0DUYdHEogsslQneST0kZ_m1UciTFXbmKNTXPJzY_W1GnP8m_8T4D51NRJFHe5C7sR1h8TPwOZS-G2iNLYhDPlVZu_2B3K1PXT_xZyi/s1600/Alison+Ssar..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianEzaAEonUbtpgG03EKmef9KOzvSNPh2UX86sEF0DUYdHEogsslQneST0kZ_m1UciTFXbmKNTXPJzY_W1GnP8m_8T4D51NRJFHe5C7sR1h8TPwOZS-G2iNLYhDPlVZu_2B3K1PXT_xZyi/s320/Alison+Ssar..jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunarseas: Sea of Serenity, 2007 copper, tin and wood </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGca-yqNz0XFQxcs4_rfY48GR-jdzVwwACJHRcnYccgFs_oMSNlRcbcLcqctpPR_maA5G72sGvv2IjEv3o9-L87pV4-K3Xndt2jYJiQDgzqaWMbyyLQR5qK0iDzlt6Vwtlrk5bzYwpK4-/s1600/YorkDSCN2486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGca-yqNz0XFQxcs4_rfY48GR-jdzVwwACJHRcnYccgFs_oMSNlRcbcLcqctpPR_maA5G72sGvv2IjEv3o9-L87pV4-K3Xndt2jYJiQDgzqaWMbyyLQR5qK0iDzlt6Vwtlrk5bzYwpK4-/s320/YorkDSCN2486.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> York:Terra Incognita, 2010 cast bronze</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcqpuSk07H9jpwjEuFX3DZsX9_QlTihM1fubUDgXzJnBA2UVeikaj9opONgh50ISMDNqQNlcOozFbtHRupWZkGNfUI_t_KjKFgnUt9zwXfrTlAHkZY7Ptlc0PAWPQyH_B5FKrE_8TKXBO/s1600/back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcqpuSk07H9jpwjEuFX3DZsX9_QlTihM1fubUDgXzJnBA2UVeikaj9opONgh50ISMDNqQNlcOozFbtHRupWZkGNfUI_t_KjKFgnUt9zwXfrTlAHkZY7Ptlc0PAWPQyH_B5FKrE_8TKXBO/s320/back.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixd3-6qBP8Texn4JDgvO7n0NJG86fr6f6m5kaojI5929sfREaeKOBxdWCNHSaspO9xvWlBEBVjADVevZV6XZy0lzrCOc3ctalTNc9_IfAHipk6UCWbjNE6XZ03ZLXSqk_rm5Vk-zF6gRdb/s1600/YOrk+plaqueDSCN2491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixd3-6qBP8Texn4JDgvO7n0NJG86fr6f6m5kaojI5929sfREaeKOBxdWCNHSaspO9xvWlBEBVjADVevZV6XZy0lzrCOc3ctalTNc9_IfAHipk6UCWbjNE6XZ03ZLXSqk_rm5Vk-zF6gRdb/s320/YOrk+plaqueDSCN2491.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This is the work of Alison Saar in the exhibition <a href="http://www.lclark.edu/live/news/7042-alison-saar-bound-for-glory">Bound for Glory at Lewis and Clark College in Portland</a>. The main commission was to create a statue of York, the African American slave that accompanied William Clark on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Saar's sculpture is a permanent installation on the campus. Here is the main work and the back. Little is known about York. So the artist had to piece together ideas, but we know that a dry stream was named for him. His back as a map of scars with the dry stream marked is full of poignency. York is set in the midst of a group of granite rocks, each with a bronze tablet that inscribes the few words in the Expedition journals that refer to him. <br />
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York faithfully served Captain Clark, but he was not rewarded with his freedom. Clark was arrogant and selfish. In the statue York is holding a rifle, which he used to catch game during the expedition, but when they got home it was taken away from him.<br />
This tragic story of inequality and abuse of priviledge is given dignity by Saar's sculpture. <br />
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The work in the exhibition was extraordinay. An excellent catalog with an essay by Linda Tesner (doesn't seem to be available to buy, they gave it out free at the gallery and would probably send you one if you asked) provides helpful insights into the art works, but these works are so strong and poignent that we cannot help but be overwhelmed by Saar's work. I think she is acheiving a whole new level of intensity in these sculptures. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJhB3ipd0YMZifhmxPNjSl1GdHfT_jNe_3H5IpccvtsEvHrx8WdbfAnFu3Y1t8EOXYAVPrLGVBexpVOamO1gRJOaJl1Xa5XBylTUXIbxCUisRJq3-epquCd9u7JEnkkXXu5lsDw-PUVLc/s1600/Travellin+Light+1999DSCN2482.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJhB3ipd0YMZifhmxPNjSl1GdHfT_jNe_3H5IpccvtsEvHrx8WdbfAnFu3Y1t8EOXYAVPrLGVBexpVOamO1gRJOaJl1Xa5XBylTUXIbxCUisRJq3-epquCd9u7JEnkkXXu5lsDw-PUVLc/s320/Travellin+Light+1999DSCN2482.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>There was one odd comment made by Tesner with reference to Travelin'Light, a bronze life size man in a suit hanging upside down. To me he was obviously being lynched, but Tesner said, he was "a little down on his luck." I read this three times to see if I had missed something! <br />
But the rest of the book was very insightful. Lunarseas, Sea of Serenity (above) is "speaks to introspection about how things come to mind in a quiet way, but also suggest thjat within the removed quietude of serenity one might verge on insanity ..." Blood/Sweat/Tears at the top of the blog is self explanatory. There were many other really strong works as well.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-24904698582187089962010-12-09T09:39:00.000-08:002010-12-15T15:15:38.858-08:00Imaging Others Cultural Intersections in the Colonial Period<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODLk-VXMp3BRO44fbv5Btns0O-qep2Fw__k5NOQxEargmtmggUss4G0-hFLYSmDrFl-zZpknm6FQe6rIUvr_gMhQSUKIg0X_FroxZAhfuow4iEIyzHOAnSGe_SBopkSYtzoWaqfFiuA2F/s1600/Imaging+Others.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODLk-VXMp3BRO44fbv5Btns0O-qep2Fw__k5NOQxEargmtmggUss4G0-hFLYSmDrFl-zZpknm6FQe6rIUvr_gMhQSUKIg0X_FroxZAhfuow4iEIyzHOAnSGe_SBopkSYtzoWaqfFiuA2F/s320/Imaging+Others.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Look at this wonderful image! It is a detail of a print by the Japanese artist, Yoshitora in 1860 looking at an American couple who are visiting Japan, probably in order to trade. The artist is carefully depicting their clothes. He has done a wonderful job of observing details and added his own subtle touch, like the woman in the foreground pointing, a very un Japanese gesture.<br />
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This is part of a a group of ukioy-e prints, called Yokohama-e because they are all based on observation of foreigners in Yokohama by Japanese artists. The work is from the collection of Professor Lenore Metrick-Chen, art history professor at Drake University. It is part of a fascinating exhibition that she has organized with Dr. John Monroe, a history professor at Iowa State University.<br />
"Imaging Others, Cultural Intersections in the Colonial Period" is at the <a href="http://artsci.drake.edu/andersongallery/current.html">Anderson Gallery</a>, Drake University, <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAt3Wzpr3iONf1Aho0xZAA4GqKwdtyKxPqaNgW7N_5J4ltiw-mUAPF8f8Y3FEBIjMlOUZRoQDhOx4XWCBgtQc4CjnytMGNAxept-XxA3SGaLapUPZs2gC2DYp4uQHhBBYMiHxhx4GEo4_/s1600/Gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQAt3Wzpr3iONf1Aho0xZAA4GqKwdtyKxPqaNgW7N_5J4ltiw-mUAPF8f8Y3FEBIjMlOUZRoQDhOx4XWCBgtQc4CjnytMGNAxept-XxA3SGaLapUPZs2gC2DYp4uQHhBBYMiHxhx4GEo4_/s320/Gallery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It includes art work from Africa, China, and Japan, as well as photographs made in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century of "others".<br />
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The very first piece in the gallery was an African sculpture of a person with a painted white face and anglo features. It set the tone for the surprises of the exhibition, that criss cross cultural influences to the point where all clear distinctions of gender, place, style, and power, are called into question as we look at the work.<br />
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Some of the images are familiar subjects, like Chinese railroad workers in America, and the Columbian Exposition of 1892. But then we see two men who were posing in an African display relaxing as they are not being African symbols, but just taking a break and relaxing, and of course they are just regular people.<br />
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The works span from 19c to the present. Two of my favorites were the carvings of African Missionaries, who were incredible stiff and straight looking, not a sensuous curve to be seen anywhere.<br />
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It is a stark contrast to this figure of Mami Wata, a fabulous carving based on a religion of the late nineteenth century in the collection of John Monroe, history professor at Iowa State University. The image started from a German lithograph of a circus snake charmer and was transformed into a powerful religious figure in Nigeria who went in for exotic foreign accouterments.Mami Wata worship has spread all over Africa and the African diaspora..<br />
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In the US we always look out, and assume we are the dominating culture of the world, that what we have to offer is superior and desirable to everyone else. . But in fact what we send out is alien, perhaps unwanted, and corrosive. But the cultures that we visit ourselves on send back our intrusions through cultural acts that transform our ideas with irony, humor, and a sense of our foibles that we ourselves do not recognize..<br />
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This exhibition is entirely refreshing, and its catalog, written in collaboration with students' questions about colonialism, is a great format: .<br />
Near the end, Dr. John Monroe comments :<br />
"If we just reject racist images from the past without trying to work out what social, imaginative or cultural functions they were supposed to serve - which involves placing them in a broader context- we end up with less of an understanding of how and why racism emerges. It's never something that pops up in isolation: it always exists as part of a complicated web of attitudes and assumptions that need to be untangled. That of course goes for the present as well as the past."Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-65986323487361878702010-11-29T17:45:00.000-08:002010-12-09T09:13:50.839-08:00Amazing Birds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_UawNxj9fXLh2JNduXZEoug7vDp62c3-UfaN69wJrMuBBuDoZPxrfqyMbKpSoArOa8nxMM87uZL-5SzoLPnUIQWCNyRMfirr9NMcj6b4_biIJbZX954mjS2EdXjCe4UyVRwl_lBRxouQ/s1600/swan+flying.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_UawNxj9fXLh2JNduXZEoug7vDp62c3-UfaN69wJrMuBBuDoZPxrfqyMbKpSoArOa8nxMM87uZL-5SzoLPnUIQWCNyRMfirr9NMcj6b4_biIJbZX954mjS2EdXjCe4UyVRwl_lBRxouQ/s320/swan+flying.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>This is a trumpeter swan flying. They make an amazing sound, which is why they are called trumpeters. The white spots on the ground are more swans.They do an intricate social ritual arching their necks that was fascinating. We saw hundreds of them in the Skagit Valley. As well as hundreds of snow geese and thirty other birds including Kingfisher, Blue Heron, Bald Eagles, Red Tail Hawks, Bohemian Wax Wing - but now I am getting technical. I know nothing about birds. I was with two experts who identified what I called little brown birds. But I was good on the big white birds! <br />
And the thrill of seeing so many birds is wonderful. IT awakens all of your senses to spend a day gazing at the sky, listening for bird sounds, an extraordinary symphony of sound that we blot out of our lives. Trumpeter swans migrate to Washingston State from Alaska, the snow geese come from Rangel Island where they have covered the island and eaten everything in sight. In the 1930s they were endangered. Which goes to show we can save the earth if we decide to. <br />
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. As we crossed route 20 hundreds of cars were headed to the mall. If only they would stop and wonder if they really need anything from there, get out and look at the birds and listen to their songs, they would have a free day of joy!<br />
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Take a look at Maya Lin's project <a href="http://whatismissing.net/#/home">What is Missing?</a> for a sobering look at the escalating species and habitat loss we are causing. As she has said, we are in the midst of the sixth major extinction in the history of the earth, and the only one caused by a single species, humans.<br />
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And pursuit of fossil fuels is only getting more and more ferocious in its destruction of the earth. The precious Boreal forests in Canada for example, are being destroyed in the pursuit of tar sands. <a href="http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/what-is-rising-tide/">Rising Tide</a> North America are a group of activists fighting this project, but the general public has no clue.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-32970174412642198482010-11-17T18:12:00.000-08:002010-11-22T13:41:05.203-08:00Inscape: Art in a former Immigration Detention Facility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgLP0OXktvB6QQF4diJN5RLNpZNaand7hMxsZcqx8o1LObslnJfmucfEb75qb0HvFMtFprCweh25Bhg_9d7MRCmYDEx-mziqd1yTUqUB4bj_1rW0H_88zJ2QBnpMV76EdaNZUJBJnFfsr/s1600/Katy+Krantz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgLP0OXktvB6QQF4diJN5RLNpZNaand7hMxsZcqx8o1LObslnJfmucfEb75qb0HvFMtFprCweh25Bhg_9d7MRCmYDEx-mziqd1yTUqUB4bj_1rW0H_88zJ2QBnpMV76EdaNZUJBJnFfsr/s320/Katy+Krantz.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Inscape was an installation of art in a former immigration facility where people were detained until 2003 when a new and much bigger facility opened in Tacoma. Detention is a private industry that is making big bucks. Perhaps you heard the National Public Radio expose that the new Arizona Immigration Law was written by operators of private detention centers and passed word for word, along with corporate and political backing from some major heavyweights. <br />
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The artists were attempting to transform the energy in the building. We could all still feel the unhappiness and fear that lurked in these rooms. The building is available for artists studios, and quite a few artists are already working there. <br />
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The building was first built during the Alaska Gold Rush as an "assay" office, and the top floor remained that, a place to weigh gold and to establish its value. On that floor of the facility one of the works made a direct reference to that function. Megan Trayner had a piece on the floor with a gold leaf surface. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlxfO8bcNfExvHR0anfIX47x6S3TZKJUKfy8ljT04hOZ11qZJ9AMdXRb1Z0ijrCSP4ciIdh9DXuv8sNMnlwmqwpQUeqb94NA5uxwxdLwSND2FtkgcsfC7syiojfRBR75qW82JhwaVHuEJ/s1600/bUSTILLO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlxfO8bcNfExvHR0anfIX47x6S3TZKJUKfy8ljT04hOZ11qZJ9AMdXRb1Z0ijrCSP4ciIdh9DXuv8sNMnlwmqwpQUeqb94NA5uxwxdLwSND2FtkgcsfC7syiojfRBR75qW82JhwaVHuEJ/s320/bUSTILLO.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ZX5uTa7Q1DvD5J19yuOvRqmxsWyE-f3M1tkUwXqr963Q4abvsdTGuw5cPF5b_KT2Tus3RQXTo0TjTEGloZYbdSTAnCKZVJ1QMyQN_Z1Gi2nXzRQVtAqTKogpRDNG0_H3gnO3tg6S4NPG/s1600/Romson2jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ZX5uTa7Q1DvD5J19yuOvRqmxsWyE-f3M1tkUwXqr963Q4abvsdTGuw5cPF5b_KT2Tus3RQXTo0TjTEGloZYbdSTAnCKZVJ1QMyQN_Z1Gi2nXzRQVtAqTKogpRDNG0_H3gnO3tg6S4NPG/s320/Romson2jpg.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Other artists on this floor included Romson Bustillo whose characteristic abstract patterns with symbolic meanings and intentionally undecipherable titles ( to remind us of how it feels to not undersand a language) filled one end.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnKpJXER4TNNDmvowGUXzf8HWssB2-wyJWAvEE-J6R_TwPKu_1bThdp7rLg3uBrlT6qPjVrZ8Bt8SxBXUQiwZ8hGytEHKYeah9ahFcAC_kjUn653AOeJ1AChs5H11y2rH9CYWgLXf3FEL/s1600/Nic+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnKpJXER4TNNDmvowGUXzf8HWssB2-wyJWAvEE-J6R_TwPKu_1bThdp7rLg3uBrlT6qPjVrZ8Bt8SxBXUQiwZ8hGytEHKYeah9ahFcAC_kjUn653AOeJ1AChs5H11y2rH9CYWgLXf3FEL/s320/Nic+2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
Nic Meisel's serendipitous installation, with its threatening sounds was off in another side room. I saw these pieces as it was getting dark, and the sense of ominousness in Nic's was definately present, in spite of his cheerful presence not too far away. <br />
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Some of the work was really inspired by the space and a radical departure for the artist, as seemed to be the case in the work of Katy Krantz ( judging by the art in her studio) who created a wonderful graffitti piece at the front entrance, based on simulating the actual graffitti in the small excersize space upstairs. Detainees from countries all over the world had written their countries on the wall in black tar from the roof. See piece at top of entry for Katy's artwork based on this graffitti..<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5SQceGerIj8CZIUILl883ODGSsmLNNgf86wvnxFEYLqQMTn4Sz0bb0At2D-_X-regFUxH0Kys020lhyphenhyphenXK6QkdekugWObb3LTZKFwC1arSrUj7TAAF0FKmt7MYotq8mfUhawh0Ev4n45Eb/s1600/salvage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5SQceGerIj8CZIUILl883ODGSsmLNNgf86wvnxFEYLqQMTn4Sz0bb0At2D-_X-regFUxH0Kys020lhyphenhyphenXK6QkdekugWObb3LTZKFwC1arSrUj7TAAF0FKmt7MYotq8mfUhawh0Ev4n45Eb/s320/salvage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Chinese Men's dormitory inspired an evocative piece by Helen Gamble. The hanging cot beds suggested both the fragility of existence and over crowding. The races were segregated here, and a high percentage of the inmates were Chinese. <br />
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Jen Mills Landscape of Memory, a room full of seats made of salt, suggested instability. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtDaWp8SZilf3KIFWiwhQt00C5UcjipCRfH_eXEUXu1al27aVRmlLpi-23GYVNFgO_zM7wJseb4BnL6gvTzThNTSkrU982xtcDkACZC6KsNPxd86QjM9QgfqQtPeDTBKRkmeWS_pXNVuv/s1600/salt+seatsJen+Mills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtDaWp8SZilf3KIFWiwhQt00C5UcjipCRfH_eXEUXu1al27aVRmlLpi-23GYVNFgO_zM7wJseb4BnL6gvTzThNTSkrU982xtcDkACZC6KsNPxd86QjM9QgfqQtPeDTBKRkmeWS_pXNVuv/s320/salt+seatsJen+Mills.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Ju Pong Lin combined video and an ironing board with an installation of shirts that documented the many different ways that Asians had been expelled from cities in the Northwest. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwvWoUh9dOb64_sKOa4I04ywVoimcGBC11P9l_OHf99FulAFHv2aA9-4LB9e0MhiUAMQhSllPIDsSfnE5dQNN9YgpSS83zMVgFcJgG3yx2d4m4WM3jhXyZzHWHlPSU0WNAPkjHcK-3_ml/s1600/Ju+Pong+Lin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwvWoUh9dOb64_sKOa4I04ywVoimcGBC11P9l_OHf99FulAFHv2aA9-4LB9e0MhiUAMQhSllPIDsSfnE5dQNN9YgpSS83zMVgFcJgG3yx2d4m4WM3jhXyZzHWHlPSU0WNAPkjHcK-3_ml/s320/Ju+Pong+Lin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Gail Howard's infirmary of shredded sheets draped over beds captured the idea of illness within prison, not much care, just enough to keep people alive.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTDmMfQpZbIwdvypKDvaWaCEJt7ewhnt3yr7CuMZIFFw3sdN4ed9JNL1vMm1vARRoRiD9t5MRRFd32yZVlRf7wcs1zGa2Vwbo8HAsKuFsk6vyhmmqDsMbYe-D6UP8pcE_JBcfMM4MWfdH/s1600/Gail+Howard+Infirmary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTDmMfQpZbIwdvypKDvaWaCEJt7ewhnt3yr7CuMZIFFw3sdN4ed9JNL1vMm1vARRoRiD9t5MRRFd32yZVlRf7wcs1zGa2Vwbo8HAsKuFsk6vyhmmqDsMbYe-D6UP8pcE_JBcfMM4MWfdH/s320/Gail+Howard+Infirmary.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Christian French made a floor game that suggested the labyrinthine bureaucracy and games of chance that people had to navigate in order to get out.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-kf7X0N7JKOcW7IGSdKsm7uW20s-qg-TeV8nQ00ZInEeb7BRbB5GWIZ-SQxZcrQZFwteIrztw3hjGvlsKiFVY7n7Z3GN8rT7Ngxw3lx4WU4hG-3Zpk22bCEpliQIdAooxaoxnl8JBsnLw/s1600/Ladan+Yalzadeh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-kf7X0N7JKOcW7IGSdKsm7uW20s-qg-TeV8nQ00ZInEeb7BRbB5GWIZ-SQxZcrQZFwteIrztw3hjGvlsKiFVY7n7Z3GN8rT7Ngxw3lx4WU4hG-3Zpk22bCEpliQIdAooxaoxnl8JBsnLw/s320/Ladan+Yalzadeh.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>But perhaps most impressive of all was Ladan Yalzadeh's tour of the facility which gave us a complete history and guide to the various rooms and their functions. She had come from Iran in 1986 and been processed through these rooms.<br />
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Her personal experience was mild compared to what people experience today, when there is mostly only one way out, deportation, but she clearly described the experience of standing in line day after day, the cramped and crowded rooms, and the atmosphere of oppression and anxiety.<br />
For another artist addressing detention in these very same rooms see my post on <a href="http://artandpoliticsnow.blogspot.com/2010/07/detained.html">Eroyn Franklyn</a>Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-43782211684353981152010-11-15T17:20:00.000-08:002010-11-15T17:53:46.267-08:00Picasso at the Seattle Art Museum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMGco3kgxqga8yhwXfpf1O8HZMDqPvyh-6lJgn7rkXs5_k-GOkR3DWNRjPjbh7IB-SIrNSgMYsIpmhSQ93dpCNxNivOrAtgYOmkXl0961W-g2bbtIi3hyphenhyphen1YwpfHFZeQC990bJqZ34xx9G4/s320/Acrobat.jpg" width="257" />The Acrobat, 1930 Courtesy Musee National de Picasso, Paris</div>Finally, I have some time to post a comment on this extraordinary exhibition of Picasso's art work "Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris, October 8, 2010 - January 17, 2011 at the <a href="http://www.picassoinseattle.org/art.html#5">Seattle Art Museum.</a> <br />
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For all of us in the United States who have seen the same works from the Museum of Modern Art over and over, everywhere, this exhibition is delightful. Although some of the works are definately benchmarks, like La Celestina and the Death of Casagemas, others are completely unknown, like the self portrait with pentimenti for Les Demoiselles D'Avignon and the chunky wooden sculpture from the same time frame. <br />
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In fact Picasso's sculpture is way underemphasized in most discussions. It is consistently original and intriguing. In this show among works in recycled metal, wood, bronze, and paper is the original Bulls Head made from Picasso's bicycle seat and handlebars. You can look at the leather bicycle seat and think about Picasso sitting on it. In this exhibition there is also the Man with Sheep, 1943 and the Nanny Goat 1950. <br />
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So why am I so excited about the exhibition, I, the post colonial, feminist, political activist, art critic? Because it is intimate. We can feel Picasso thinking as we look at these works, the sketches for Guernica, the photographs of Guernica in progress by Dora Maar, the photographs from early years in Paris or during the war, murky, shadowy black and white. <br />
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But it is also dramatic : the juxtaposition of the wonderful bronze sculptures inspired by Marie Therese in the late 1920s and the paintings of that same period, one of my favorite eras of Picasso's work, installed beautifully in the gallery by Anne Baldessari, curator of the Musee Picasso in Paris<br />
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I have chosen only the image of the acrobat from 1930 for this posting, as it is such a brilliant drawing/painting. I see Picasso chasing Matisse in this outline, but never can he accede to the pursuit of the idea of an art work as a "comfortable armchair" that Matisse worked so hard to achieve. Picasso always struggled, resisted, absorbed, and reworked. The impossibly contorted acrobat is, as in all of Picasso's work, Picasso himself, of course, and the contortions of his art. It is in the room that introduces his pass through Surrealism. <br />
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John Berger's <em>Success and Failure of Picasso (</em>1965) is still worth re- reading after all these years. <br />
He suggests that Picasso ultimately sought the primitive instead of the civilized. <br />
He also suggests the biggest failure was Picasso's last works, when he did over elaborate re workings of old master paintings like Velazquez, over elaborate but empty.<br />
Picasso, according to Berger, had a "failure of revolutionary nerve . . . To sustain such nerve one must be convinced that there will be another kind of success: a success which will operate in a field connecting for the first time ever, the most complex imaginative constructions of the human mind and the liberation of all those peoples of the world who until now have been forced to be simple, and of whom Picasso has always wished to be the representative." ( 206)<br />
On the subject of "How Political was Picasso?" John Richardson has an excellent article in the <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/how-political-was-picasso/?pagination=false">New York Review of Books</a> last week. Richardson knew Picasso over many years, and he watched all the acrobatics from both near and far. <br />
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All aspects of Picasso are represented here. We can all decide for ourselves what we think. And of course, all the women who inspired him are prominently included : Fernande, Eva, Olga, Marie Therese, Dora Maar, Francois Gilot, Jacqueline, and other women who are less famous. <br />
Make up your own mind, but see this show. It is travelling to Virginia and San Francisco from Seattle, and then off to Asia. For an excellent more detailed discussion of the exhibition see <a href="http://www.artdish.com/">Art Dish</a>Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-84740236448624236252010-11-02T15:12:00.000-07:002010-11-02T15:37:49.500-07:00Azar Nafisi in Des Moines IowaWhen I went to visit my grandchildren in Des Moines Iowa, I was excited to discover that <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/07/a_forgotten_civil_society">Azar Nafisi</a> was speaking, sponsored by Drake University. She has a new book called <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400063611">Things I Have Been Silent About. <img alt="Azar Nafisi" src="http://www.barclayagency.com/uploads/images/speakers/bios/nafisi.jpg" style="display: block; height: 148px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; width: 147px;" /></a><br />
And of course she is best known for <a href="http://www.meforum.org/542/reading-lolita-in-tehran">Reading Lolita in Tehran</a>, perhaps one of the best titles for a book in the last ten years. But the subject of her lecture was culture and human rights, and the idea that books can speak across cultures in what she called the "Republic of the Imagination" She spoke of the power of literature to liberate and make connections betwen people. Perfect strangers can share their experiences of a book. <br />
She also spoke about the imagination in contrast to the idea of smugness and complacency. Villains in books are those who are blind to others. The first target of totalitarian regimes is the imagination. <br />
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Curiosity is "insubordination in its purest form" The desire to know, to question yourself, to see ourselves as question marks. Alice running into the rabbit hole is an example of curiosity. At the heart of curiosity is learning about the "other" not thinking that we already know other people. <img height="200" src="http://the-office.com/bedtime-story/alice_lg.jpg" width="190" /><br />
<br />
Of course, as an Iranian, she is well aware of how ignorant people in the U.S. are about Iran and Islam in general. She spoke of how the women of Iran have refused for 30 years to comply with the restrictions of the revolution there. <br />
Freedom means choice, responsibilty, passion, risk, <br />
"How much are we willing to give up in order to regain passion?" She sees a crisis of vision, to be self righteous is a sign of weakness. <br />
It was a really inspiring presentation.<br />
<br />
Can visual art play this same role in communication across cultures? I believe so, in spite of being so embedded in capitalism. In fact, it is a perfect example of imagination as subversive to the system. A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/arts/design/26friends.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bronx%20Museum%20of%20Art&st=cse">New York Times</a> article about artists being sent abroad by the State Department in a new grant program being administered by the Bronx Museum of Art quoted Michael Krenn, author of Fall Out Shelters for the Human Spirit: American Art and the Cold War, as saying that "artists are not easily controlled" !!Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-24065616717137006762010-10-18T18:24:00.000-07:002010-10-18T18:25:37.319-07:00New York City Creative TimeI have just returned from the <a href="http://www.creativetime.org/index.php">Creative Tme Summit Revolutions in Public Practice</a>. The entire conference is on line at the Creative Time website. My main impression was that Trevor Paglen and his session on Geographies was one of the most compelling group of presentations in the conference. The second riveting session was led by Laurie Jo Reynolds on governments. These two panels really got to the heart of artists addresssing social issues. Much of the rest of the conference addressed structures of the art world, art schools, food ( well that is a political issue of course, but we are drowned in that subject here in Seattle..). I did miss a few though, and perhaps some fabulous insights. I plan to watch those sessions online. And in the facebook discussion going on now there is still a lot of discussion on the subject of the "art world" and how to change it, which to me is not the point. The point is the rest of the world and how artists can connect to that in their art in order to contribute all their formidable talents to changing the world. <br />
More soon.<br />
I am overwhelmed at the moment with proofing my book. I have been to about six different wonderful events lately that I want to write about including<br />
The incredible Picasso Show at the Seattle Art Museum. Do not miss it. <br />
Coup de Foudre, a performance with music by Paul Miller aka DJSpooky, Corey Baker and Melvin Van Peebles based on Jean Cocteau's 1930 film Blood of a Poet<br />
Nuevo York at the Museo El Barrio<br />
Alison Saar at Lewis and Clark College in Portland<br />
Inscape at the immigration building in Seattle<br />
and much more.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-81242204626415042282010-09-28T16:00:00.000-07:002010-09-28T16:10:28.090-07:00Art and Politics Now goes to publisher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mS0WzdsSsS9h76NTrUsgloW6iVppDIyP_TxAOlb8rqqrtBkn2n-fWy94j_N-F683pIQlMeXQPfUJqVyIuI4uv1d895MWOP6H7jMntTcgukONhI9rp46EDdjUUjdBE522QzR79dcUhvKd/s1600/Hana+Mal+Allah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mS0WzdsSsS9h76NTrUsgloW6iVppDIyP_TxAOlb8rqqrtBkn2n-fWy94j_N-F683pIQlMeXQPfUJqVyIuI4uv1d895MWOP6H7jMntTcgukONhI9rp46EDdjUUjdBE522QzR79dcUhvKd/s1600/Hana+Mal+Allah.jpg" /></a></div>This is the work of <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2007/09/2008525184019303789.html">Hana' Malallah,</a> an artist from Baghdad who is included in my book. The title of the work is "The Looting of the Museum of Baghdad."<br />
<br />
Yes, it is really true. My book is about to come out after all these years. You can read more about it on my website, <a href="http://www.artandpoliticsnow.com/">Art and Politics Now Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis.</a> It has ten chapters on topics ranging from art against globalization, war, terror, censorship, racism, and art in support of immigration, border crossing, and ecology. <br />
I include artists from around the world, but the emphasis is on socially engaged artists in the U.S. <br />
Tomorrow, one of the artists, <a href="http://ceciliaalvarez.com/">Cecilia Alvarez</a>, is part of a group exhibition in <a href="http://seattlecentral.edu/artgallery/currentshow.php">Seattle</a>. <br />
<a href="http://www.paglen.com/">Trevor Paglen </a>is a keynote speaker at Creative Time, <a href="http://www.danielheyman.com/">Daniel Heyman</a> has been showing his art at university galleries, and the <a href="http://backbonecampaign.org/">activists</a> like the Backbone and <a href="http://theyesmen.org/">Yes Men</a> just keep on going. <br />
That is just a tiny sample of the over eighty artists and exhibitions that I discuss. More soon. This is just a teaser.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-33894363862270887932010-09-22T15:02:00.000-07:002010-09-29T14:07:44.779-07:00Olivia Bouler and the Gulf Oil Spill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-Qz1IHpHIk-XBwxT9Ua2iCIi88VBppi8jUqSb9ra90mo7H_frOqc2IP3Cx43uWzbREzy7pYNZSWxHwDTnkA6JJ64hrxCSn29Rz8RJaVwb0dHt7Mqv_GfpKVesoOheRRjpyg9Di7mwEJW/s1600/aol-birds-small-1275594736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-Qz1IHpHIk-XBwxT9Ua2iCIi88VBppi8jUqSb9ra90mo7H_frOqc2IP3Cx43uWzbREzy7pYNZSWxHwDTnkA6JJ64hrxCSn29Rz8RJaVwb0dHt7Mqv_GfpKVesoOheRRjpyg9Di7mwEJW/s320/aol-birds-small-1275594736.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbo8utDWzZePiGqrXjUgpVRQSUKwe5F9X_pnteWjEplqRr2AWWXx_l1qyRvCC8LVAaU0kw8DXilZLWWk8FBryJCUQ0NYXpM5wO1ok9hvUeUPoDhdku_og8KtIDSe5gSGvkbvcWMuo7oOuZ/s1600/gulf-illustrations0003small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbo8utDWzZePiGqrXjUgpVRQSUKwe5F9X_pnteWjEplqRr2AWWXx_l1qyRvCC8LVAaU0kw8DXilZLWWk8FBryJCUQ0NYXpM5wO1ok9hvUeUPoDhdku_og8KtIDSe5gSGvkbvcWMuo7oOuZ/s320/gulf-illustrations0003small.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgldcUGIANycqE7Zu2tuIEafLFo7U0Wj400JKfrDrsQYbFSGlAtEogr4B7iGPBtm6bBYlEmPWJCqtctuKw7kznbmK0aBv9WReMjWsA2PIBNol2O_7egPR3Qv2VXXusvVxUTMAq89A1o7Fjw/s1600/blue-bird-smal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgldcUGIANycqE7Zu2tuIEafLFo7U0Wj400JKfrDrsQYbFSGlAtEogr4B7iGPBtm6bBYlEmPWJCqtctuKw7kznbmK0aBv9WReMjWsA2PIBNol2O_7egPR3Qv2VXXusvVxUTMAq89A1o7Fjw/s320/blue-bird-smal.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Eleven year old Olivia Bouler began her presentation at the Audubon Seward Park " My name is Olivia Bouler, and I am here to tell you that one person can make a difference." The laid back Seattle audience was not used to such up front assertiveness!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Olivia has drawn pictures of birds and raised $150,000. for Audubon to help with efforts to clean up birds soaked in oil in the Gulf. So far the counted number of birds who have died is 8,000, but the actual number is much higher because off shore birds may have died in the thousands without our knowing about it. Then there are the sea turtles, the dolphins, the many many nesting grounds. All of us agonized. Olivia did something. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I have been expecting artists to have stepped up with an outpouring of art about the spill. Some of them have. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Someone sent me this photographic project by Jane Fulton several months ago. She actually posed people on Lake Michigan, but the point was obvious and affecting. It is called <a href="http://www.janefultonalt.com/Portfolio.cfm?nK=11978&nS=0">Crude Awakening.</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiasDQigRjJhLMSxw12pU3CR3s5lop_CQrtkDivcjxNSqGUsTFDtAMWbwTSJlZkBOFk_IBbsdpUcbmYIpnF4uJlz3tC031G6wPOL-0AzudJ-kq8gECadW2EafEvkykXYG5fr3_CuEnUzGA0/s1600/Jane+Fulton+Crude+Awakening+Summer+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiasDQigRjJhLMSxw12pU3CR3s5lop_CQrtkDivcjxNSqGUsTFDtAMWbwTSJlZkBOFk_IBbsdpUcbmYIpnF4uJlz3tC031G6wPOL-0AzudJ-kq8gECadW2EafEvkykXYG5fr3_CuEnUzGA0/s320/Jane+Fulton+Crude+Awakening+Summer+2010.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETVOS6o7FB7xdr8-CCwpCxXW0n1cVDP0HtWF7jWdk2cfLr2jUFmuAB3pl_nG1__weO9rfZyEqswKUdY6mAa-j3ZU3oZtoL3s8dd2v6lKwqczLRiPYXIAHcfe9EVhcSG-QwOhGkNgukmKL/s1600/oilspill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETVOS6o7FB7xdr8-CCwpCxXW0n1cVDP0HtWF7jWdk2cfLr2jUFmuAB3pl_nG1__weO9rfZyEqswKUdY6mAa-j3ZU3oZtoL3s8dd2v6lKwqczLRiPYXIAHcfe9EVhcSG-QwOhGkNgukmKL/s320/oilspill.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Here is another work by artist <a href="http://iopalmer.com/home.html">Io Palmer</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The installation is in her new exhibition at a winery in Eastern Washington State. She said that she was intitially thinking about stomping grapes because of the location of the exhibition, but as the images of the Gulf Spill overwhelmed us all summer long, she made this piece with its emblematic references to those trying to help. "The oil spill is one more emblem of America's incessant and uncontrollable greed and consumer driven desire" </div>The most recent issue of the <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/gulf-oil-spill/barcott-text">National Geographic</a> is a must see. It has a fold out map with the layers of life in the Gulf on one side and a map of the oil wells on the other, as well as photographs of the ravaged estuaries from oil pipes, dumping, and other polluting activities. A tragic photograph of a dead baby sea turtle in a sea of brown oily mud and an image of an oil covered pelican strike to the very core of humans' stupidity. <br />
<br />
The reality is that this oil spill was inevitable, that the protected areas of these Gulf coasal zones are just a very thin area * as we see in the amazing <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/gulf-oil-spill/gulf-life-interactive">National Geographic</a> map of life and <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/gulf-oil-spill/gulf-map-interactive">oil </a>on the Gulf, which I cannot download for the blog*, compared to the ravaging, thirsty oil industry. <br />
<br />
We all understand that half the population along the Gulf depends on the sea and the other half on the oil industry. So they will soon be back to drilling deep again. <br />
<br />
But what if we all started living a different way, if we imagined a different future, and we insisted on it. We really have only two choices, the end of the planet as we know it, or going in a new direction. <br />
<br />
I realized recently how fortunate I am that I hardly drive at all in my day to day life. The vast majority of people are imprisoned in their cars, sitting in traffic everyday. I walk, bike and take the bus. But I am lucky that I can. Lots of people would like to do that, but it takes time that most people don't have. And most or our urban and suburban lives are designed to require us to drive.<br />
<br />
But what if everyone just stayed home and didn't drive one day a week, or stopped buying all those petroleum encased (organic) vegetables or just tried to buy food in packages we can re use at least once. <br />
Small efforts. <br />
<br />
As Olivia said at the end of her wonderful presentation in which she celebrated birds "If insects disappeared it would be the end of the world, if humans disappeared, it would save the earth." And then she said, "An individual can make a difference, but all of us together can make more of a difference." She not only drew pictures, she also went to Congress to lobby for another type of energy. I wonder if they condescended to her. She is more on the ball than they are. She has, apparently, been all over the news. But the real story is that she really cares and did something about it. <br />
<br />
This summer and fall Congress voted billions to continue with our support for petroleum pursuing and consuming wars, as well as failing to pass clean energy support. <br />
<br />
If the BP spill didn't wake up Congress, what will. And of course, this was really no surprise, BP has been a bad actor all over the place with their oil fields, Alaska has been full of spills they caused. <br />
<br />
Here's to this young lady. She acted on what she believed in. If only we could all do that, even for one day it would really lead somewhere.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-28654403751250439382010-09-20T15:14:00.000-07:002010-09-20T15:18:15.481-07:00John T Williams Wood Carver Shot by Police<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMDl9Zrr8gDATIDGCK0s81VvkIRJ6LdXWvmVV3UKPnzvsWLcF5QkF3Kfum9WqmYxNC7m6mwFyEqCeXFZ2YyTDEwWF0PoMIaBi-0HxHuMJBgtxBGTIXU9IIIlASzqrJovwKBP9zOqh9GKw/s1600/090810-JWIlliams-Carving.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMDl9Zrr8gDATIDGCK0s81VvkIRJ6LdXWvmVV3UKPnzvsWLcF5QkF3Kfum9WqmYxNC7m6mwFyEqCeXFZ2YyTDEwWF0PoMIaBi-0HxHuMJBgtxBGTIXU9IIIlASzqrJovwKBP9zOqh9GKw/s320/090810-JWIlliams-Carving.gif" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRbxxHCIeiofF-32LvQOTQczQB7ap5Cp5p7VtlZlVRBatWvr4cCWExBMyrrQ6o4m5tQoig7d4vakOgf2jxW-6DRkDmjjNqjMwpU595TujTip02vmq6wPwLFSCGFsqFcZFsOYNxPxBI8LY/s1600/090810-JohnWIlliams.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRbxxHCIeiofF-32LvQOTQczQB7ap5Cp5p7VtlZlVRBatWvr4cCWExBMyrrQ6o4m5tQoig7d4vakOgf2jxW-6DRkDmjjNqjMwpU595TujTip02vmq6wPwLFSCGFsqFcZFsOYNxPxBI8LY/s320/090810-JohnWIlliams.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">John T. Williams was a seventh generation wood carver of the Ditidaht Tribe on Vancouver Island. He lived in Seattle, in housing created by the Downtown Emergency Center that understands that just because people have a problem they still need a place to live. John had a problem with alcohol abuse, he had been making his own way on the street since he was seven years old. He made his way by carving small totems that he sold to tourists. His father taught him, and in the old days, they used to make a pretty good living at it. Cyney Gillis writing for <a href="http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/4655/">Real Change News</a> has given the only coverage of the full story of John T. Williams life. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He was shot and killed by a white policeman as he crossed the street at an intersection on his way from where he lived to where he hoped to sell his art at Pike Place Market. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He was shot four times because he didn't stop when told to by a police officer who seems to have been terrified of his small pocketknife. John T. Williams is hard of hearing. He was simply crossing the street. Now he has died. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">What an abrupt contrast to my previous entry of healing, and community. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Unfortunately, the fate of John T. Williams is what is going on today. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This small blog honors his art, his life, and his spirit, in keeping himself going all these years, without any of the supports of a middle class life that we all take for granted. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thank goodness the Indigenous community has risen up in fury, they are holding daily vigils, marches on City Hall, confrontations with the Mayor. Here are a few pictures. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2SLYw8U4E4lp84d5Wbs4Rbj733pdPsTkPnUInxy9dkQq-K75-ZQNg6fDpEKAz1Z-8krfqHM5eqvzlSGvOuTmVvjw_8vkqeQQWZIK08rtccHZ3YOfQzTtTK1vDIg1N0sNRcSA5TCHChXg2/s1600/Protest+of+John+T+Williams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2SLYw8U4E4lp84d5Wbs4Rbj733pdPsTkPnUInxy9dkQq-K75-ZQNg6fDpEKAz1Z-8krfqHM5eqvzlSGvOuTmVvjw_8vkqeQQWZIK08rtccHZ3YOfQzTtTK1vDIg1N0sNRcSA5TCHChXg2/s320/Protest+of+John+T+Williams.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDorXhxFvw4tu1d87WWuKgks7jvD2nMeDHIhOv5Jj0YErHeEWNksQ8GRm_klIVt_AOdPKMbiht0TJM1fjZc-NPlMY7m9JLWcpj6dREyumXptna51aMJMoJP13QX_TcovZrgtlXHaFDLkV/s1600/Protest+of+John+T+Williams4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDorXhxFvw4tu1d87WWuKgks7jvD2nMeDHIhOv5Jj0YErHeEWNksQ8GRm_klIVt_AOdPKMbiht0TJM1fjZc-NPlMY7m9JLWcpj6dREyumXptna51aMJMoJP13QX_TcovZrgtlXHaFDLkV/s320/Protest+of+John+T+Williams4.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLdNXSgzLCxkr26WTJYlKE7Eo7YnIinjWMsDg7G-m72uBCQr3HXgs9NkkW_L3XJarioy2uuPFTEElqK0LkGEHydnbDelWNu7xiWqVk8pN10YZNUcFJbFssccByGZRDSYWotnmJzk_KInY/s320/Protest+of+John+T+Williams5.jpg" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TmZJvONZVf2UwDeSFtd1gh167Bn1v0i_d5g1ZN3fPgaXnGK0zGVLdZTY9AVaxuDPaXRyFsllFTYW-kpC9ONK-Y-uDUqTjTiFFC9-ZuPehK4dXb8qgplnkv0PE54VYiWHXsjNGWxHI84T/s1600/Protest+of+John+T+Williams6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TmZJvONZVf2UwDeSFtd1gh167Bn1v0i_d5g1ZN3fPgaXnGK0zGVLdZTY9AVaxuDPaXRyFsllFTYW-kpC9ONK-Y-uDUqTjTiFFC9-ZuPehK4dXb8qgplnkv0PE54VYiWHXsjNGWxHI84T/s320/Protest+of+John+T+Williams6.jpg" /></a></div>The last one is the tribal community in City Hall. The Mayor of course said it was a tragedy. But this is more than a tragedy, this is racist murder pure and simple.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-83261198374507739212010-09-15T19:18:00.000-07:002010-09-23T14:36:08.319-07:00The Confluence Project Story Circles at Sacagawea State Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVvac0_Rt_PxO6pArMLF-4QBGwiLH6mgffCOMEe_6aGraAZ1urqfr-V0KtDvr1QJh5G8SYeB9ZmHdHljHBYtt9LSaMZwDxX5AidoXkgiPxFSubfHmyVZtOcrD6hBMBvRcdW9PIUvaHlOS/s1600/Maya+Lin+with+Drummers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVvac0_Rt_PxO6pArMLF-4QBGwiLH6mgffCOMEe_6aGraAZ1urqfr-V0KtDvr1QJh5G8SYeB9ZmHdHljHBYtt9LSaMZwDxX5AidoXkgiPxFSubfHmyVZtOcrD6hBMBvRcdW9PIUvaHlOS/s320/Maya+Lin+with+Drummers.jpg" /></a></div>At the dedication of the new Confluence Site in Sacajawea State Park in mid Washington State (now pronounced Sacagawa), Maya Lin is standing in front of drummers from the Confederates Tribes of the Umatilla Indians, at their invitation. It was a thrilling and sacred dedication. There were a lot of eloquent speakers, a trumpet piece, poetry, and eloquent indigenous speakers (including Anton Minthorn and Bobbie Connor, in a photograph below) but this drumming was by far the most profound moment. The drummers saluted the ancestors of present-day tribes, their spirits in that place, and their history. Right after I took this photograph, the Native drummers asked us to not take any more photographs, so we all simply listened and experienced the connections to the past and the future. We heard incredible music and singing that seemed to come from the depths of the earth itself. <br />
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The shape of their drums is echoed in the seven "story circles" that Maya Lin created at this site, the confluence of the Snake and the Columbia River, two mighty waterways. <br />
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Indians gathered here in large numbers for centuries, for trade, story telling and for ritual celebration. This is site no. 4 to be dedicated in the Confluence Project. Maya Lin was invited by Native leaders in 2002 to commemorate the loss of Native cultures as a result of the Lewis and Clark expedition because they were so impressed by her work at the Vietnam Memorial. <br />
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At other sites, Lin has been quoting from the Lewis and Clark journals that meticulously noted flora and fauna as they progressed down the Columbia, as well as the villages and tribes that they encountered. The extinction of much of what they say, including Indians, villages, and the natural world, is a theme of the Conflucene Project. At this site, Lin focused on the Native traditions. <br />
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She was intrigued that when L and C came to this Confluence they spent only a short day or two here, whereas, for native peoples it was a site of great importance and they tribes spent months here.<br />
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Each Circle has a different reference: welcoming, salmon, a longhouse, rivers and the dams, mythci time, trade and last what was called the Seasonal Round, all the different animals and animals that were here. I took pictures of all the circles, but the real experience is being there, seeing their relationship to one another, our relationship to them, and our relationship to the past, present and future of the river and the land. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0i6JpCOfaGIEJuoUIg1Nk-xaM2B7JpFjwkivKgn2qwk6I0WSZRJkH8kck_oefnzwqwo_v-hsgsnLKV5IkKlSLUF0f_CKwasbweButkYRzvOQvJr7_cStkZyC7IaY0MsThrz5b7JDCCuS/s1600/salmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0i6JpCOfaGIEJuoUIg1Nk-xaM2B7JpFjwkivKgn2qwk6I0WSZRJkH8kck_oefnzwqwo_v-hsgsnLKV5IkKlSLUF0f_CKwasbweButkYRzvOQvJr7_cStkZyC7IaY0MsThrz5b7JDCCuS/s320/salmon.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt57cCIlp6WahPu_zry4FjgqFUwU6aTs-ejYSSEMGAmDCZBwqONOaHBqIMsHySfF8cAEIun-vqTk2EUnjBABNZqt6Ujg3MQ0sKcpW6scNx-eaRPs-6zUKkvzU0Jy-_vFTcwYr_BiXq0u5S/s1600/dams+distant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt57cCIlp6WahPu_zry4FjgqFUwU6aTs-ejYSSEMGAmDCZBwqONOaHBqIMsHySfF8cAEIun-vqTk2EUnjBABNZqt6Ujg3MQ0sKcpW6scNx-eaRPs-6zUKkvzU0Jy-_vFTcwYr_BiXq0u5S/s320/dams+distant.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAh9rQ96mRDBzezU8WvFQB4f8Nn3GHgjhnDnhRSETl1fNpgUgNwNY955pBAbsEPcnslRXUAx4us3vFuKvajoWkcINwePLvdN4pIUnDcd5mftkzXDczSGG2uurb0ODrEPlzhcf2M7fSHNS/s1600/coyote+foreground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAh9rQ96mRDBzezU8WvFQB4f8Nn3GHgjhnDnhRSETl1fNpgUgNwNY955pBAbsEPcnslRXUAx4us3vFuKvajoWkcINwePLvdN4pIUnDcd5mftkzXDczSGG2uurb0ODrEPlzhcf2M7fSHNS/s320/coyote+foreground.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrn4MnCpwCgFTfuEiFeRG6Q2OnO8YTzTqL2M6fJ58o2iOpPeQa7cyUHc8uKBF8YtEx_Zor5tVygP9nUtpeO9-kdM0HlxLXU0fmD8Jr0BZIoC_ckb2g2yHsu_wgnyWrvQAvF-s_tZr_Quul/s1600/Maya+Lin+with+necklace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrn4MnCpwCgFTfuEiFeRG6Q2OnO8YTzTqL2M6fJ58o2iOpPeQa7cyUHc8uKBF8YtEx_Zor5tVygP9nUtpeO9-kdM0HlxLXU0fmD8Jr0BZIoC_ckb2g2yHsu_wgnyWrvQAvF-s_tZr_Quul/s320/Maya+Lin+with+necklace.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMRNkLgOwklUDR5UYS5EnnFRzAK__RbhcbllfejmJe_OhcKDW1Kim4axXD0d0wiPoPDi-IhtbZXvL6wiiOjPGOgyVH8ge5Ma3ii0I2_u_-YxLuUwcrmmnPKOB1nhlnewEp3d02sioCze8/s1600/Antone+and+Roberta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMRNkLgOwklUDR5UYS5EnnFRzAK__RbhcbllfejmJe_OhcKDW1Kim4axXD0d0wiPoPDi-IhtbZXvL6wiiOjPGOgyVH8ge5Ma3ii0I2_u_-YxLuUwcrmmnPKOB1nhlnewEp3d02sioCze8/s320/Antone+and+Roberta.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TNZA8Z2W3NnaZSQl_Flt-xmNAD_ZlGjZhzsGacwQhNNawuErPcUiL7Cs-Vkp0ZcuLe11_zTIvHubWB9xyuL70eUz0yfSJYbtdidCUlWWZMpnzJMeSYuYgP03KH6jUQbSNSV27nLAtsYH/s1600/wildlife+and+grasses+with+people.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TNZA8Z2W3NnaZSQl_Flt-xmNAD_ZlGjZhzsGacwQhNNawuErPcUiL7Cs-Vkp0ZcuLe11_zTIvHubWB9xyuL70eUz0yfSJYbtdidCUlWWZMpnzJMeSYuYgP03KH6jUQbSNSV27nLAtsYH/s320/wildlife+and+grasses+with+people.jpg" /></a></div>The shape of the circle echoes the shape of the drums, and their sound enveloped us creating a sense of community coming together. <br />
It was a very moving experience.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-10483670207321375282010-09-09T17:10:00.000-07:002010-09-10T15:21:45.435-07:00Backbone Localize This! Action Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKgH2rZiWy7n3LOckYAQlw0_LVg26gXh0yy3qS-d8Luut2dP7dWYNBmXtGuBTfP7Se8dlU2jmjBHVDL6WycHepBAd-l3u7vcbRSW0vB5qzQP4Gksyf2tnLoDMngmFbgrMj1Lzj86dmCEJ/s1600/lunch+at+the+camp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKgH2rZiWy7n3LOckYAQlw0_LVg26gXh0yy3qS-d8Luut2dP7dWYNBmXtGuBTfP7Se8dlU2jmjBHVDL6WycHepBAd-l3u7vcbRSW0vB5qzQP4Gksyf2tnLoDMngmFbgrMj1Lzj86dmCEJ/s320/lunch+at+the+camp.jpg" /></a></div>The <a href="http://backbonecampaign.org/index.cfm">Backbone Campaign</a> sponsored "Localize This!" An art/action camp. Here we are at lunch. We had such a wonderful time. It brought together my three favorite activities, camping, politics, and art. I was only there for two days but it was really intense. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOtU7PtNRl4RKu5A-c2siHWVixwUaj_q1gFxjgCWjBYDBZOaaWLZItu0OqDmyXSX3VWiEIIQE5Jih6m7HB1WxOk3OwFmQHmj39HOtQurKVUFmohBqyw4guG1-6sWd_0FYPt3CQQUWHWw6/s1600/Kim+Marks+Portland+Riding+Tideworkshop+presenter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOtU7PtNRl4RKu5A-c2siHWVixwUaj_q1gFxjgCWjBYDBZOaaWLZItu0OqDmyXSX3VWiEIIQE5Jih6m7HB1WxOk3OwFmQHmj39HOtQurKVUFmohBqyw4guG1-6sWd_0FYPt3CQQUWHWw6/s320/Kim+Marks+Portland+Riding+Tideworkshop+presenter.jpg" /></a><br />
This is Kim Marks. She is part of <a href="http://www.earthfirst.org/">Earth First</a>, an international environmental activist group. She covered the many different aspects of civil disobedience, starting with someone willing to be arrested, and the support for that person, then media, legal, video, public liasons, as well as connections to workers affected, medical, and communications and de briefer. There were even more. <br />
Her second theme was also valuable. Where do we fit in the process, at what point are we intervening?? There were six places, all of them important and she mentioned that the "<a href="http://mtrinfo.wordpress.com/organizations/">mountain top removal</a>" resistance project includes all six. <br />
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extraction, destruction<br />
money ( production)<br />
consumption (stores)<br />
decision ( who is accountable)<br />
assumption ( as in cultural assumptions)<br />
envisioning the future ( Yes Men are an example)<br />
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Of course I realized that I am always intervening in the same place, at the point of consumption, as I stand and wave an anti war sign every week. We consume war as a commodity. We eat war, we drink war. Our society is permeated by war. When we email the representatives we are intervening at the point of decision ( but better is face to face meetings). Kim actually talks to CEOS. And then there are the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnQX09DZLYE">YES MEN</a>!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKaS6dIlNfbx61VMVnPxOJdMNtuyJuJ67M9OJvPxXRSWqxnV5tH-UA03DmidOiLGG-DolguVixJWg7XEHd3sCyckeRszXZJBCv3SIP3w9okSK3ZZbT0g5NfMKc5VbhdcOrgmGPhztR3RZ/s1600/Tom+Kertes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKaS6dIlNfbx61VMVnPxOJdMNtuyJuJ67M9OJvPxXRSWqxnV5tH-UA03DmidOiLGG-DolguVixJWg7XEHd3sCyckeRszXZJBCv3SIP3w9okSK3ZZbT0g5NfMKc5VbhdcOrgmGPhztR3RZ/s320/Tom+Kertes.jpg" /></a></div><br />
There were other workshops on theory as well like the one by Tom Kertes. <br />
You can seem his theme, an amazing quotation from Martin Luther King <br />
"Power without love is reckless and abusive and love without power is sentimental and anemic" He was talking about how to have power! Useful idea.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HuS25TtMsl7VB8xaAmJOi_FCIAILh-xRNzZUJ9sX5CykAX9w0500LGQ70ITCuJVEGi-X8Gf923aUWR3ZJdJXp3sulJInu7wUSfzYncd5OaCcCX8V76HHxQq1jcAkjq_auZa1k_B7rJSt/s1600/Jay+Cookson1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HuS25TtMsl7VB8xaAmJOi_FCIAILh-xRNzZUJ9sX5CykAX9w0500LGQ70ITCuJVEGi-X8Gf923aUWR3ZJdJXp3sulJInu7wUSfzYncd5OaCcCX8V76HHxQq1jcAkjq_auZa1k_B7rJSt/s320/Jay+Cookson1.jpg" /></a></div>We also had a workshop from Jay Cookson and <a href="http://www.smartmeme.com/">smart meme </a>His subject was changing the story "How changing the story, changes the world." Again food for thought. He showed an alphabet of corporate logos, we recognized them all, then of plants, we recognized few. Our society is permeated by corporate marketing, we can change their story to our story. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclTupWdgMJDDHB1SL6rvhtJI1N1iAmOjToKzQvH2p3jtIH-E5U2A06zk8HPwn5zMVhUd6RPILdiLray5gwYm9_Fr5CmftdKynu5HQosuy1-BWWisidIXXkA3LAlcGakCMh1sH8niv24ef/s1600/map02-tar-sands-leases_preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclTupWdgMJDDHB1SL6rvhtJI1N1iAmOjToKzQvH2p3jtIH-E5U2A06zk8HPwn5zMVhUd6RPILdiLray5gwYm9_Fr5CmftdKynu5HQosuy1-BWWisidIXXkA3LAlcGakCMh1sH8niv24ef/s320/map02-tar-sands-leases_preview.jpg" /></a></div>The most devestating presentation by <a href="http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/what-is-rising-tide/">Rising Tide</a> told us about the campaign to extract oil from sand (see <a href="http://oilsandstruth.org/">http://oilsandstruth.org/</a>) in Alberta, Canada. This is a vast act of environmental destruction that few of us even know about. 10,000 acres have already been clear cut (what is called the overburden) and that is just the beginning, in order to get oil - but very little oil for the amount of oil used to get it. Gigantic trucks are going over the narrow and treacherous, and beautiful, Lolo Pass, 210 feet long! 2 to 4 barrels of oil to get one barrel of oil. Two tons of sand for one barrel of oil, <a href="http://www.endgame.org/links.html">http://www.endgame.org/links.html</a><br />
has a lot of helpful information on this and other campaigns to resist environmental degredation. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2JavLdTi7SqEcoaMI5CuGVBSgbzJ55sQbxWHZVoAMJOLPqfkyQrcsHddk-YYg6oHhyphenhyphensmnMP-D49VF-qaWDtDqesK4lQDzrkAoH8681ApNVLLPXPZd_j5_DL55MjbTdI03cmC1ntOQtQT/s1600/salmon+welcome+dinner5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2JavLdTi7SqEcoaMI5CuGVBSgbzJ55sQbxWHZVoAMJOLPqfkyQrcsHddk-YYg6oHhyphenhyphensmnMP-D49VF-qaWDtDqesK4lQDzrkAoH8681ApNVLLPXPZd_j5_DL55MjbTdI03cmC1ntOQtQT/s320/salmon+welcome+dinner5.jpg" /></a></div>Salmon Dinner at Localize This Backbone Camp with Chef Maia in the foreground - she really had a job, 25 people, vegan and non vegan, in a non catering kitchen!<br />
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We chose kayaking, treeclimbing or making giant mache heads. This was a real camp!<br />
So of course I chose making heads, but first I visited the tree climbers. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPRzXTwM0HCcIoBX5CijuX9gip_Hzt0Om1O8IaWpElIdRWy5INDvKRXI9_RuZwvINQXDXsiHtqi03bpYuMAHQbtYor7Wi81ctCcBCEQLfbKy9JDY2prkyIwRSpo2ant8Bm5G_dcRpUrqg/s1600/tree+climbing+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPRzXTwM0HCcIoBX5CijuX9gip_Hzt0Om1O8IaWpElIdRWy5INDvKRXI9_RuZwvINQXDXsiHtqi03bpYuMAHQbtYor7Wi81ctCcBCEQLfbKy9JDY2prkyIwRSpo2ant8Bm5G_dcRpUrqg/s320/tree+climbing+1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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This tree climber, Kathleen, is a peace activist. Every Sunday she helps to put up a huge war memorial in <a href="http://www.arlingtonwestsantamonica.org/">Santa Monica.</a> It is called Arlington West Santa Monica. This is her first time climbing a tree. A slew of young people were guiding her and she succeeded! These skills are for hanging banners and protesting forest devestation among other activities. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKzLJ_IfRjOwbXdxvTH3fNio9LPetr6_m4NNd6eWf0rO4SeEhJF7tFtXkmAJlEn-AFOvSHPJA7xMml8VaYAJOUiF_k-x1IUmASNitpj1xcNnnf8jypDgom4lCWJbl-LSqUsf0OOuN0gf6A/s1600/giant+paper+mache+head3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKzLJ_IfRjOwbXdxvTH3fNio9LPetr6_m4NNd6eWf0rO4SeEhJF7tFtXkmAJlEn-AFOvSHPJA7xMml8VaYAJOUiF_k-x1IUmASNitpj1xcNnnf8jypDgom4lCWJbl-LSqUsf0OOuN0gf6A/s320/giant+paper+mache+head3.jpg" /></a>And here I am helping to make a giant paper mache ( I am wearing the pink tee shirt from the Ni Mas Una campaign, see earlier blog) We learned step by step starting with a big plastic bag stuffed with newspaper. The features are made with shrink wrap which can be shaped to form features, I made an ear. Then we tore up paper bags, and dipped them in the cornstarch and water goo that was boiled until smooth. We smooshed the paper to break down the fibers as we covered it with goo. Then we put it on one layer at a time, alternating print and non print, minimum of three layers. That's as far as I got with it. Here are a few more pictures. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJith_gmnROTLlKiYHqLOnWImurKXjBdCVQ6XsLMR06xiMGdKTL-X7I1jEEYCz2yYRqualSzlvMel6uWUs-f-blSpxYdgdFd6KyGf5NgGnH-ai-uE8_2QKvmksiiHSgNOSxut2SdVbXn5/s1600/making+a+giant+head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJith_gmnROTLlKiYHqLOnWImurKXjBdCVQ6XsLMR06xiMGdKTL-X7I1jEEYCz2yYRqualSzlvMel6uWUs-f-blSpxYdgdFd6KyGf5NgGnH-ai-uE8_2QKvmksiiHSgNOSxut2SdVbXn5/s320/making+a+giant+head.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6m5F9X6ZlJApqpitBknxtnIWIzHob1MHIurK7Els_pp6FbQ55a3ensJYTZVjyyTItUyE9hZlABPRKIjFqcav_DIV6fFMITnfF1EJepHCwYgkasQVT7LtS1lmaVcwT6PEItZemUOsUDbU/s1600/giant+paper+mache+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6m5F9X6ZlJApqpitBknxtnIWIzHob1MHIurK7Els_pp6FbQ55a3ensJYTZVjyyTItUyE9hZlABPRKIjFqcav_DIV6fFMITnfF1EJepHCwYgkasQVT7LtS1lmaVcwT6PEItZemUOsUDbU/s320/giant+paper+mache+2.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYcEdmhjznpDN0z9E9sbxAJ6PoceenmJyTgc2iym5TpgM8d_WJVcEEwymP8DcnX9HV1oQWZ0XZ-u1CrFW5Ld6tvfzPpLKNP6hGGEc4jSMN4vYnHb6dnuC1DGvcPXp70V5N8_AwiCmASDn/s1600/making+the+gianthead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYcEdmhjznpDN0z9E9sbxAJ6PoceenmJyTgc2iym5TpgM8d_WJVcEEwymP8DcnX9HV1oQWZ0XZ-u1CrFW5Ld6tvfzPpLKNP6hGGEc4jSMN4vYnHb6dnuC1DGvcPXp70V5N8_AwiCmASDn/s320/making+the+gianthead.jpg" /></a></div>And last but not least the agit prop band. Bill Moyer led the way as a drummer. He actually taught us how to make music for demos. I would love to play in a band at a demo sometime. I played the cymbals. Here are some pictures of forming the band starting with Bill on a makeshift drum set. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvlyqLemGfjuO2J61fzQU_woOu0NjcmXKTvEjhfTrmLTsl-e0VGd60jeW6lLQL2xDYSDRTyAAZ4VQPtGcMID3OHaVEjSwLATNuJmNoU6dFUYrikOzb9BhDa-ToKl6V-OaCPsz7gjUCvYcH/s1600/Bill+Moyer+on+the+drums.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvlyqLemGfjuO2J61fzQU_woOu0NjcmXKTvEjhfTrmLTsl-e0VGd60jeW6lLQL2xDYSDRTyAAZ4VQPtGcMID3OHaVEjSwLATNuJmNoU6dFUYrikOzb9BhDa-ToKl6V-OaCPsz7gjUCvYcH/s320/Bill+Moyer+on+the+drums.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH8QmQBwfpyrEgNUmMe-48zEUXZU8TfVXNNs0sXUaQnTxxHb95iVXia8fT9XzRD_dFUKVkK_0TzkHor5diLO_KpQwDfSa9IcFrqZuVKDzLo8f8DazusQOil68M0AYuDf3pMwsM92dZ2X6a/s1600/musicagitprop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH8QmQBwfpyrEgNUmMe-48zEUXZU8TfVXNNs0sXUaQnTxxHb95iVXia8fT9XzRD_dFUKVkK_0TzkHor5diLO_KpQwDfSa9IcFrqZuVKDzLo8f8DazusQOil68M0AYuDf3pMwsM92dZ2X6a/s320/musicagitprop.jpg" /></a><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0S5d6SlQ7Z8eUpGHtLEY7tafgpfKmeJRsmJvsXILxTO7RKJki5HJ-NR1-YY8xlU2XdRoZY8KH2Yg9_iIKXQ5fd1j6BahsdsDThcgQbICbm2UaOnHnX9jCcNy5sL8jTYrRZuca5aWSAivP/s320/agitpropband.jpg" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I can't tell you how much fun this all was. For one thing, I loved being with young activists who really care. I am so tired of people who actually make fun of activism, or say it doesn't matter. For another, we all had a</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">great time getting to know each other. </div><br />
And we really learned a lot of organizing skills, which is the point. Now I am going to get involved with a campaign. <br />
The camp itself went on for three more days and culminated in a flash mob at <a href="http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/tag/agit-prop">Target</a> - a point of consumption because Target gave $150,000. to the anti gay, anti worker candidate for governor of Minnesota. They collaborated with a group called Agit Pop to <br />
sing "Target Ain't People" as a protest to their intervention as a corporation in elections.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-54574158621477412352010-08-28T15:20:00.000-07:002010-08-28T15:54:45.957-07:00Oregon Shakespeare Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjUl7hs-NGi5T-jl3GKh5wQW0bfR6wlzLSVd4YwWn5cyWlNV9At8PMVQh_npyduD3YulC6L2tYcIrHgmlouAIGhQeot4DwlvQe4fo95z6Birr8iXp-ovJtZIUypvyXeaa71UDgLLlUyTT/s1600/specials224x126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjUl7hs-NGi5T-jl3GKh5wQW0bfR6wlzLSVd4YwWn5cyWlNV9At8PMVQh_npyduD3YulC6L2tYcIrHgmlouAIGhQeot4DwlvQe4fo95z6Birr8iXp-ovJtZIUypvyXeaa71UDgLLlUyTT/s320/specials224x126.jpg" /></a></div>AMAZING experience. We went to 8 plays in 5 days. They have three theaters running with two shows a day each. The actors were often in two different productions in one day. We went with Georgia McDade, a friend of mine who is a Shakespeare expert, so we got lots of insights. Also, Oregon Shakespeare Festival provides educational material, both printed, in lectures, talks after the performances, back stage tours ( we toured with the actor who played Prince Hal in Henry IV Part I,) musical adaptations (Shakespeare sonnets as hip hop). This was a total immersion. <br />
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They included multimedia in several performances, film, animation, text, etc. the lighting was part of the story. When Olivia in Twelfth Night fell in love the red lights suffused the whole Elizabethan stage. In Hamlet, soliloquies had green lights and freeze action. Throne of Blood had film, black outs, brilliant lights. <br />
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And aside from the contemporary and recent plays, where you expect it, Shakespeare is all about exactly the way we behave today. Nothing has changed, greed, power, land, love, lust, betrayal, its all there, with the poetic dialogue that we have to read over and over after the play in order to pick up all the nuances. <br />
The plays we saw in order were <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KRoubE8BgN9AW5QCcwq3PZve8ld3SVbLVxSaFManzcYe5NgqK3vH4kgrXM6ikizRcg2VdPLi_wp2GvxpOXsSvm7fYMvOT8Q4vLdFbDmBZICm6X_P51WcEU8K2O2rq2LBlV82c3OfCkEw/s1600/hamlet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KRoubE8BgN9AW5QCcwq3PZve8ld3SVbLVxSaFManzcYe5NgqK3vH4kgrXM6ikizRcg2VdPLi_wp2GvxpOXsSvm7fYMvOT8Q4vLdFbDmBZICm6X_P51WcEU8K2O2rq2LBlV82c3OfCkEw/s320/hamlet.jpg" /></a></div>Hamlet, with Don Donovan in the leading role, performed in contemporary cocktail clothes and with a hip hop performance in the middle, amazing lighting, and of course, phenomenal acting. <br />
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The play within a play in Hamlet ( where he lets his mother and step father know that he knows they killed his father) was performed to music by Outkast, J-Z, LL Kool J, and Tupac. But the lines were all from Shakespeare. What a tour de force. <br />
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Hamlet ( Don Donovan) in a suit with pink rose petals floating all around him was the great promotional image. Here is the tee shirt "What a Piece of Work is Man"<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYUldjpVa21NctxuJbGoKgbEHbCwUGl7NRXO3ehwIWCC1ZU2jrdMF96zk9AtyfhGjA-eMecGbM8fTO7xQbxpZrFzRC92z4UHspWWfoWxQD8FnDKLAcCXLEzlExYntWMB4ZFFvdTza_2ZZM/s1600/Hamlet%2520T-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYUldjpVa21NctxuJbGoKgbEHbCwUGl7NRXO3ehwIWCC1ZU2jrdMF96zk9AtyfhGjA-eMecGbM8fTO7xQbxpZrFzRC92z4UHspWWfoWxQD8FnDKLAcCXLEzlExYntWMB4ZFFvdTza_2ZZM/s320/Hamlet%2520T-shirt.jpg" /></a></div>So Hamlet, for three hours and more, was riveting as both contemporary and classical. When Claudius, the step father/king, sees the play that accuses him of murder he throws up in a modern black toilet, front stage center. I haven't ever seen a toilet onstage featured before. ( And of course, OSF has no problem with anachronisms, they love them). <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jtu9We6fWduMngANVI6BfW8yjhf4c6KWj7Y8EQhP8vbB1yta6v7rzHgOm1k1y5iGe2lba7mPsyRbW3o3s8TPfCCbPZ3pdTBDhrge8QHsYl71wyFyq48M-DYdKkvZIK2BWEl4Rfx9jeSx/s1600/throne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6jtu9We6fWduMngANVI6BfW8yjhf4c6KWj7Y8EQhP8vbB1yta6v7rzHgOm1k1y5iGe2lba7mPsyRbW3o3s8TPfCCbPZ3pdTBDhrge8QHsYl71wyFyq48M-DYdKkvZIK2BWEl4Rfx9jeSx/s320/throne.jpg" /></a></div>The next day we saw Throne of Blood. This was Macbeth based on Kirosawa's adaptation in film, based on his relocation of it to ancient Japan and Noh drama with its reductive movements, sounds, and gestures. It was multimedia with a huge floating screen above the stage with stunning graphics and texts. Not to mention the set and the music. Evoking early Japan. <br />
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The dialog was an English translation of Kirosawa's clipped Japanese improvisation of the Macbeth story. So it was avant garde. It was intentionally not smoothly flowing, which I didn't get at first. I thought it was an awful lot of layers, Scottish king in English play, adapted by Japanese film director, re adapted by Chinese director for American actors. <br />
But visually it was phenomenal. <br />
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The last Macbeth that I saw was a feminist interpretation with the witches doubled in number and becoming a covey around Lady Macbeth. In this version, there was a Forest spirit who seemed to be bisexual, and only "Lady Macbeth", now Lady Asaji played brilliantly by Ako, an actress trained in Japan, who really knew about the Noh theatre that the actions in the play adopted. She bolted the whole play together, as a tiny figure in red in center stage radiating incredible power, apparently backstage as well, in her coaching of the actors on Noh movements<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdpYnQ-vKXffjoFd4Ar-fGc8-LeY3HjE5px4l5FyBJz5BMO7u5jdR9T_WDnIH9gsamNO2GDi-qRAXdn1aF3S6NtAsOnZWW6_kWMrDX3L_a_ZsXcA0OkLWVvoQ1iFreAwO2FKItaxgsUIXF/s1600/merchant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdpYnQ-vKXffjoFd4Ar-fGc8-LeY3HjE5px4l5FyBJz5BMO7u5jdR9T_WDnIH9gsamNO2GDi-qRAXdn1aF3S6NtAsOnZWW6_kWMrDX3L_a_ZsXcA0OkLWVvoQ1iFreAwO2FKItaxgsUIXF/s320/merchant.jpg" /></a></div>The same day we saw Merchant of Venice which has that famous character, Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Venice. It was played for the first time in Ashland by a Jewish actor, and it was an opportunity for lots of education of the actors and the audience. He was the undisputed star of the show. "If you prick me, do I not bleed?" He could have been speaking for anyone unjustly persecuted and treated as less than human. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSf7czXmhw45Kdc2yCYdmYR-d9NdNmKto_c4KApa_K5CY3ibthdYvhKA2bYPjb5IQU9pud3ij3SCY2_YF-nFV8IWmJYvyd7dd5eERu1wkgtb9D-V2i6A17PHMsiuTVS-FurAyS-_qDNXp3/s1600/she-loves-me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSf7czXmhw45Kdc2yCYdmYR-d9NdNmKto_c4KApa_K5CY3ibthdYvhKA2bYPjb5IQU9pud3ij3SCY2_YF-nFV8IWmJYvyd7dd5eERu1wkgtb9D-V2i6A17PHMsiuTVS-FurAyS-_qDNXp3/s320/she-loves-me.jpg" /></a> <br />
Next day we saw She Loves Me, a fun musical. It felt good to laugh and enjoy good singing. Apparently these Shakespearean actors can also sing. <br />
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The stage froze near the last act when the electricity went out in Ashland, just as the lead singer Lisa McCormick had finished a song about vanilla icecream. She sat down on her bed and said to us "want some, I think I am stuck." <br />
Her bed was supposed to whoosh away. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1PEZt7wOJUlsaljNy0WtxD4IbjPnv11Vs4b7O7Ql1efwpo7LsLRna_ZSFqhl68OnxS9XwukxBhREsw8EAbUt6fi26jETWt8Xk4Tk0y4dHXARzf-Q7_0v5_i1uvmpbz2mcti6dD8fo_f1/s1600/12night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1PEZt7wOJUlsaljNy0WtxD4IbjPnv11Vs4b7O7Ql1efwpo7LsLRna_ZSFqhl68OnxS9XwukxBhREsw8EAbUt6fi26jETWt8Xk4Tk0y4dHXARzf-Q7_0v5_i1uvmpbz2mcti6dD8fo_f1/s320/12night.jpg" /></a></div>Twelfth Night is everyone's favorite play. We saw it earlier this year at the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Amazingly, a lead in She Loves me, played Olivia in Twelfth Night on the same day. Olivia is the rich woman who falls in love with Viola/ Cesario as a boy, one of Shakespeare's favorite games. Viola is pretending to be a boy after being wrecked at sea and left almost on her own, also falls in love with Orsino, the wealthy prince in love with Olivia. So we had in the original Shakespeare, a boy playing a girl who become a boy, who is still a girl. In this play it was a girl being a boy, not so hard, but actually the love relationships required enormous skill.<br />
And of course, Shakespeare was so far ahead of his time in all this playing with gender identities. <br />
He has wonderful powerful women in all his plays too. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMsX85ghro94BT89KRRK7QDwJMrK_PSq-lbUWON5Nu3SIoN8LCrmiLF8K12tanijs8COrlYo14rTQbOe0kXdG7IqfHI5YVmdH7OcSpnJ94CNzWnYvU8veRXQxHLkkKlkv_7N9VN3DxolJ/s1600/pride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMsX85ghro94BT89KRRK7QDwJMrK_PSq-lbUWON5Nu3SIoN8LCrmiLF8K12tanijs8COrlYo14rTQbOe0kXdG7IqfHI5YVmdH7OcSpnJ94CNzWnYvU8veRXQxHLkkKlkv_7N9VN3DxolJ/s320/pride.jpg" /></a></div>The next day we saw Pride and Prejudice. Beautifully performed and staged, superb acting. And the man who played the wastrel George Wickham became that same evening <br />
Prince Hal in <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDbH8YOsSHA8xfHk_Pzf_MT7hFu_2tbXrXogkGlIMgbhFONTiSsHgIzPqoYwnDMnTuhlo5S8WG1KKNOkZ1J3Ch7CQoYCzz8C6GR-1FRLooQLochuKOfUbtq3GM-jO9sd0dpVIKQNKdCxan/s1600/henry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDbH8YOsSHA8xfHk_Pzf_MT7hFu_2tbXrXogkGlIMgbhFONTiSsHgIzPqoYwnDMnTuhlo5S8WG1KKNOkZ1J3Ch7CQoYCzz8C6GR-1FRLooQLochuKOfUbtq3GM-jO9sd0dpVIKQNKdCxan/s320/henry.jpg" /></a></div>When this play started out, it was a bit draggy, I thought this is why I never before appreciated the history plays of Shakespeare. Lots of people being slaughtered, narrated by boring characters. But once the Prince Hal scenes began, with the wonderful character Falstaff, carousing among the people with Hal, it was thrilling. An incredible marathon for the actors, including deaf actor Howie Seago, who was incorporated right into the play with signing ( he was also part of Hamlet, as the ghost, but with far fewer lines). The fight scenes were staggering, apparently the sword scenes are rehersed twice right before the show goes on every single time, once at half speed, once at full speed, and Prince Hal matched off with Hotspur, another extraordinary actor, Kevin Kennerly, who also played the lead,Washizu ("Macbeth") in Throne of Blood. <br />
And then the very next morning we had Prince Hal for a back stage tour at 10am after a double bill the day before. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzY33XkYcF9yaxyyNomDK3rQWTeVYDETw2lUZs7s9It6Js4ie8l56ZlCMTz0pefZwL6AMzAOy9jfxgvE3KhUZikgccFjNOKI_PEk0_r9dNarzBIhzp5QdEQ0KwymnXY3dYGU-sk6ttNki_/s1600/american-night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzY33XkYcF9yaxyyNomDK3rQWTeVYDETw2lUZs7s9It6Js4ie8l56ZlCMTz0pefZwL6AMzAOy9jfxgvE3KhUZikgccFjNOKI_PEk0_r9dNarzBIhzp5QdEQ0KwymnXY3dYGU-sk6ttNki_/s320/american-night.jpg" /></a></div>Final play was American Night, with Culture Clash from LA, again a new media production, with singing and probably 10 costume changes per actor. American history seen in a dream before Juan Jose takes his citizen exam. He meets all the people left out or the perspectives changed, or the events excised, or the people who should have been included or not included. It was a brilliant romp and a telling political statement, going all the way up to the Gulf Oil Spill and the Tea Party, racist anti immigrationists in the present. Here is an interview with <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/08/2940423/sacramentos-richard-montoya-on.html#none">Richard Montoya</a> about this play. <br />
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Apparently, I picked the right year to start coming to Ashland. <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/08/dispatch-from-oregon-angelenos-in-ashland.html">Bill Rauch</a> is from the heart of the LA alternative theater scene, and he is bringing in people, ideas, and vibes from that scene. It is really exciting. <br />
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So that was our marathon in Ashland.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-90419229249933200572010-08-26T15:35:00.000-07:002010-08-26T15:44:50.220-07:00Violence Against Women, Part II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQKGciFes870CiJHPckOTsT6mgKabiyGZbRU3ayGsfN3kSXgI836x4HWM-DbReduIkkUJjL7C11IDPZk59Sh8F1FGVamgYpMTxM09xTbXhBmsEVex_f0N-GEFxd94OXoBxYk5xNkzu3QA/s1600/niunamas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQKGciFes870CiJHPckOTsT6mgKabiyGZbRU3ayGsfN3kSXgI836x4HWM-DbReduIkkUJjL7C11IDPZk59Sh8F1FGVamgYpMTxM09xTbXhBmsEVex_f0N-GEFxd94OXoBxYk5xNkzu3QA/s320/niunamas.jpg" /></a></div>This spring in Philadelphia there was an extraordinary exhibition "<a href="http://www.drexel.edu/juarez/exhibition/">Ni Una Mas/ Not One More/The Juarez Murders</a>". It was held at Drexel University's new art space the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery. Although I was unable to attend the exhibition, I have received the catalog, and various other reference points, including photos posted on facebook and <a href="http://vimeo.com/12422800">videos</a> online.<br />
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The Juarez Murders have been going on for a long time: since 1993 more than 800 girls and women have been murdered. These killers target young women who are working in <a href="http://www.pasocsociety.org/article2.pdf">maquiladoras (sweat shops)</a> in the "free trade zone". Mexico has 4000 maquiladors and one million workers. Women are lured to work in them because of the hope of making money for a better life, but in the factory life they exist outside of Mexican social structures. Inside the factory, they are prey to employers who treat them as sex objects. On their way to and from work, they are vulnerable to anyone on the street. Many Mexicans see these zones as places of economic prostitution between Mexican and the US. according to gender theorist <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/frontiers/v025/25.1livingston.html">Jessica Livingston</a>: <br />
"Global captialism depends on these women to assemble its commodities. While multinational coporations profit from the maquiladors in Juarez, the murdered women and their families bear the cost of global capitalism."<br />
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<a href="http://dianawashingtonvaldez.blogspot.com/">Diana Washington Valdez </a>is the courageous and intrepid reporter for the El Paso Times who has analyzed why the killers have not been caught. She states that the murders come from different power relationships, gangs who kill as initiation rites, elites who know they can get away with it and kill for pleasure, serial killers and copy cat killings. The police and other authorities are often complicit in the cover-ups or lack of investigation.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi690vgSvf0Yqlu5RbkZXVQJTunHlSPeTlaLm4YT8jk_ovt2Sr3DL-p5bkJOYqB3Spx338j-5BpVjNPMStA_GjLxXaL2QZfkUSCkIFde4gN-0PxYNqzc7AfXqd8aHJT6Ni0hi8kRubAObnQ/s1600/CeliaAlvarezMunoz_Fibra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi690vgSvf0Yqlu5RbkZXVQJTunHlSPeTlaLm4YT8jk_ovt2Sr3DL-p5bkJOYqB3Spx338j-5BpVjNPMStA_GjLxXaL2QZfkUSCkIFde4gN-0PxYNqzc7AfXqd8aHJT6Ni0hi8kRubAObnQ/s320/CeliaAlvarezMunoz_Fibra.jpg" /></a></div>Celia Alvarez Munoz's work is featured on the cover of the catalog Ni Una Mas, it shows a simple pink shift dress, with a razor with cocaine on its edge, at the crotch, blatently referring to the interersection of sex, drugs,workers, and death. These cut offs by Munoz raise the same issues with the red sequined zipper that resembles a flow of blood. These two works are part of a larger installation by the artist <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_bussmann/4611599233/">Fibra y Furia, Exploitation is in Vogue</a><br />
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The exhibition "Ni Una Mas" included a tribute to <a href="http://www.frankbender.us/">Frank Bender</a>, who as a specialist in facial reconstruction used skulls of murder victims in Juarez to reconstruct their faces and help to identify them. He was in great danger as he worked on the faces, even drugged by high officials and threatened. <br />
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The exhibition also included well known artists like Kiki Smith, Yoko Ono, Coco Fusco, Nancy Spero, Tim Rollins and KOS. All together there are 19 artists in the catalog. <br />
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Some of them made works specific to the exhibition, others contributed work that pertained specifically to the subject, and others were more indirect.<br />
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Yoko Ono made a "heal" button, and a poem "Our body is the scar of our mind. We are the oasis of our planet, we can move mountains, heal planet, heal earth, heal us."<br />
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From the photographs, the Art March (see the video linked above) was the high point of the event, taking the message into the streets with a march of hundreds of people wearing pink tea shirts that referred to the pink crosses for the women murdered in Juarez. The exhibition addressed real issues, calling people's attention to the problem and demanding that solutions be sought. <br />
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Of course, the powerful array of forces lined up in Juarez makes it difficult, but at least the gallery made a committment to making a statement and to publicizing the murders. If such an exhibition could take place in galleries all over the country it would really make a difference. Wake up Art World! Down with Narcissism.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-69298730828109223472010-07-28T13:53:00.000-07:002010-07-28T13:53:04.582-07:00Violence Against WomenLately there have been several different works that call attention to violence against women in our contemporary world. I will mention them in order of my encounter with them<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFi4DHeXHHLzkkqre7NwWs5JXBwnuP9UVK3-Zrz4sT4Z2VwiqJuQN5-S4n0FCGa5lHW2yK1J5-uXpY7N_pdLhqc9AkCBPjhXHXG_68iE8NpfDzovEEW557eYUJrlSghNDW9QI9q3oWFnze/s1600/girl_dragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFi4DHeXHHLzkkqre7NwWs5JXBwnuP9UVK3-Zrz4sT4Z2VwiqJuQN5-S4n0FCGa5lHW2yK1J5-uXpY7N_pdLhqc9AkCBPjhXHXG_68iE8NpfDzovEEW557eYUJrlSghNDW9QI9q3oWFnze/s320/girl_dragon.jpg" /></a></div>First is of course Stieg Larsson's <em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em>,( original title, Men Who Hate Women) and <em>The Girl Who Played with Fire</em> ( I haven't read the third one yet). These two books describe a lot of violence against women, but there is also the fabulous heroine tough Lisbeth Salander, who has survived unspeakable violence against herself and is on a virtual crusade to punish those who perpetrate the violence. And we cheer her successes even though her methods are also violent because of the violence of her opponents. As a second theme, that relates to violence against women, the books are also a send up of the profession of journalism and the use of mindless sensationalizing smears.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_XOuaXK8KI5wLEpkubDrthkAzIRSNzjCZw4LmaMv0gz6_EpAk18IaorUmUOtRAvlO_Xws5Sqjs8jibUZSY6z-B2hltwuebL1VuHImcT1fg-2XWpWoLEGcjliaGeqyPDBuIcMB65_f9x6/s1600/Ruined279r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_XOuaXK8KI5wLEpkubDrthkAzIRSNzjCZw4LmaMv0gz6_EpAk18IaorUmUOtRAvlO_Xws5Sqjs8jibUZSY6z-B2hltwuebL1VuHImcT1fg-2XWpWoLEGcjliaGeqyPDBuIcMB65_f9x6/s320/Ruined279r.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRqP93WMN4MnC2JsBSDfgmwk4sVM1G5muEwQLIv9wSFEa9a0iZeTO0haBjc4GlndjeoSvGIFNhjcGb2a1isoJYnvZYORBFDYWvHKcqVRgDa_9eOpoGdYyvZiSlnkGHn6bVs2Egc1_exWr/s1600/Ruined-web042209_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRqP93WMN4MnC2JsBSDfgmwk4sVM1G5muEwQLIv9wSFEa9a0iZeTO0haBjc4GlndjeoSvGIFNhjcGb2a1isoJYnvZYORBFDYWvHKcqVRgDa_9eOpoGdYyvZiSlnkGHn6bVs2Egc1_exWr/s320/Ruined-web042209_04.jpg" /></a></div>The second forum for addressing violence against women is the play <em>Ruined</em> by Lynn Nottage. I have actually seen it twice, in London and in Seattle in a production by the <a href="http://www.intiman.org/2010season/ruined/">Intiman Theater</a>. The Seattle production was the original NYC cast and director. The night I went we had the understudy Victoire Charles, who was fantastically good in the lead part which required a huge range of emotions from sassy, sexy, and strong, to terrified and finally, happy (the hardest part to make believable). <br />
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Both productions confronted us with the position of women caught in the midst of meaningless war, guerilla conflicts, and their limited choices for survival. <br />
1 be tough, tough, tough. <br />
2 prostitution is preferable to sex slavery and rape<br />
3. children are sacrificed toother people's violent desires <br />
4 traditional society's perceptions of the position of women and contemporary war's utter disregard of respect for women are a terrible mismatch <br />
The women of the cast were fantastically good, different types, different experiences, all of them riveting us with their personal stories. The stories are real, they are based on interviews that the playwright conducted by women from the Congo. The men of the cast seem more types, than individuals, but there were a lot of types within the general theme of guerillas, traders, and commandoes. There was one sensitive man, but each one had a range of strong feelings. <br />
Then there is that other less emphasized theme, that the meaningless war was being waged today in the Congo for the rare minerals that go into all of our electronic gadgets. So as with the BP oil spill we are all implicated. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNMxjApeTNqgphu5pJWN653KtGHoUfW_Zy1ZMCBCPYHPGiCQyehBTyak_vtjZ5oKAC9XaQT5kFki02Q2VKEfmHoErZGsmKqaFZoQzJ5IRGknSncd-3sSWhdnLxbFCZSFgpQnxjeHjMRyOQ/s1600/home-kit-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNMxjApeTNqgphu5pJWN653KtGHoUfW_Zy1ZMCBCPYHPGiCQyehBTyak_vtjZ5oKAC9XaQT5kFki02Q2VKEfmHoErZGsmKqaFZoQzJ5IRGknSncd-3sSWhdnLxbFCZSFgpQnxjeHjMRyOQ/s320/home-kit-large.jpg" /></a></div>In partnership with the play <em>Ruined </em> we went to see the movie <em>Call and Response</em> at the <a href="http://www.nwfilmforum.org/">Northwest Film Forum</a>, sponsored by <a href="http://traffickingproject.blogspot.com/2009/12/seattle-against-slavery.html">Seattle Against Slavery</a>. The film was bascially a documentary about a Concert to End Slavery, organized by Justin Dillon who is interviewed about how he came to do the concert. He includes amazing musicians like Emmanual Jal who survived being a boy soldier, Imogen Heap, Natasha Beddingfeld, and Dillon himself, Talib Kweli, and interviews with Ashley Judd, and the actress Julia Ormond as well as Nicholas Kristoff and others. It also included facts like there have one million people enslaved in the US in the last ten years and only 50 convictions. That there are17,000 people in sex slavery today, it is the single most lucrative enterprise (but Ormond pointed out the continuous flow between guns, war, drugs and slavery).<br />
The magnitude of the problem is staggering. Everything we buy is probably touched by slave labor. This is sex trade that is getting younger and younger, we saw children of six or seven offering sex services. We saw the drug induced prisons for women sold out of villages for tiny debts, but we also heard from people who are trying to help people to get out. <br />
All these media, novels, theater, film, music, addressed the same problems, the same issues. Collectively they are overwhelming. But there are many groups working on doing something, the meaning of the title of the film is here is the call, let us all respond. <br />
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Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-19045706946616288462010-07-23T13:34:00.000-07:002010-07-23T14:09:44.224-07:00Art Sparks Occidental Square Summer 2010<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My office is on Occidental Square, and so I am familiar with all the regular people who like to spend the day there. They sit on benches pursuing various activities. They are guarded by the wonderful 1970s totems by indigenous carver Duane Pasco one of which you see in this photograph. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0fk2okqkqWVjmcstzpi2uNbW0hFZkrtOznGyghpPhjNeueoKmfBSe9Tg4or6BUFklT_VSYsaMIeJEXi3jWoXOyy8PMe9tC6FtKWgP174RJgfoBHzTHRzdemsD-eQfhab_8m9HFTujt2LZ/s1600/Occidental+sq+with+totem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0fk2okqkqWVjmcstzpi2uNbW0hFZkrtOznGyghpPhjNeueoKmfBSe9Tg4or6BUFklT_VSYsaMIeJEXi3jWoXOyy8PMe9tC6FtKWgP174RJgfoBHzTHRzdemsD-eQfhab_8m9HFTujt2LZ/s320/Occidental+sq+with+totem.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So I was surprised one day to suddenly see a red carpet rolled out and a women in ornate Victorian dress standing there. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYT0PoWNmBboedK-W93XZyMIgtFyT_FsIsv17EnTMN9kqB2W7yKQ4fz1-AerO1Xzd2Rfpq_31_HD-86u28Um6uUzOC41UQRFUqn9nfIf32Mar-b1w0eVDRWNQGbwQVvpLWQAMKGZkgsh6w/s1600/Mimi's+carpet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYT0PoWNmBboedK-W93XZyMIgtFyT_FsIsv17EnTMN9kqB2W7yKQ4fz1-AerO1Xzd2Rfpq_31_HD-86u28Um6uUzOC41UQRFUqn9nfIf32Mar-b1w0eVDRWNQGbwQVvpLWQAMKGZkgsh6w/s320/Mimi's+carpet.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was Art Sparks, a program sponsored by 4 Culture </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(whom I just highlighted in the previous entry). They have commissioned artists to come to Occidental Square all summer and spark it, that means, bring art to the parks that interacts with the public, and creates a more friendly setting for passersby. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The red carpet and the woman in Victorian dress, I learned, were part of that project. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was AK Mimi Allin. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmJTEoYqI8hoUs-f33XwNGnwPLEhdAAdVz82HUVDcToCUWNoEb2XeLWRXHeh35tCU-dP-YG5ZA5HzlZfMOuKrkK2fsXEvk7x57MBfIlb8CCBd7_tTchMK_wPtDjf8f0QiAgp-csDlVde3/s1600/Mimi+and+audience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmJTEoYqI8hoUs-f33XwNGnwPLEhdAAdVz82HUVDcToCUWNoEb2XeLWRXHeh35tCU-dP-YG5ZA5HzlZfMOuKrkK2fsXEvk7x57MBfIlb8CCBd7_tTchMK_wPtDjf8f0QiAgp-csDlVde3/s320/Mimi+and+audience.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">She was reading <em>War and Peace</em> in her period costume, as she walked up and down the carpet, and we were invited to accompany her for a round trip as she read. So I did. Twice. It was fun. The first time I was asked to hold her parasol, as she read a passage from early in the book, before the war takes hold. The second time, we were out on the battlefield dealing with problems. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I asked her about the project and she said she liked to take on challenges, like a very long book that we have difficulty reading these days. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">She was there a whole week, every day, reading, sometimes alone, sometimes with other people keeping her company. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I went from dubious to enthusastic. I love books. Her perseverence and good humor won me over. I found her reading on a break in the Grand Central Building and she was really into the book. I asked her for my friend John at the Globe Bookstore which edition she was reading, and it was the latest. (The Globe Bookstore doesn't have a website. Go and discover for yourself on First and Main, now that Elliott Books is gone, it is a treasure that is to be relished all the more!)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So it was a great project. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Right next to her in the park was Tony. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-MdChHqztEm91RED4OZSatV2HLgBJAXN3xo7ATDcoPkGkodDjP08FL0Dx7Ntvu4QZaJNDjU5Tus1UMa2qbQdjjLGkYOeqPnBo8EPxFudpLTk8jYNCoNTL5Y3GhhvJI0nX2VaT1l47vbp/s1600/Tony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-MdChHqztEm91RED4OZSatV2HLgBJAXN3xo7ATDcoPkGkodDjP08FL0Dx7Ntvu4QZaJNDjU5Tus1UMa2qbQdjjLGkYOeqPnBo8EPxFudpLTk8jYNCoNTL5Y3GhhvJI0nX2VaT1l47vbp/s320/Tony.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tony had brought his hobby to the park. It was a flight simulator. He said it was what pilots do to learn how to fly. He had a lot of equipment and he enjoyed showing me how it worked. But of course he wasn't part of Art Sparks. He was just there because it was a sunny day. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then there was the canopy by Celeste Cooning, which was part of Art Sparks. It is <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8m9YwcmBCT0q4g6yrt1C4fnt84Z9P28TmMKJDy3_lNNt3eL4hY1sXGIkgNSopYN0VGne_9KG8tkEYQHp2V3GYBPjmIrQgbtdZZzuU1Glhn_Yv-2gscwOxGs8rRNXMhuuB6iR2BEiOAxvD/s1600/Mimi's+carpet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8m9YwcmBCT0q4g6yrt1C4fnt84Z9P28TmMKJDy3_lNNt3eL4hY1sXGIkgNSopYN0VGne_9KG8tkEYQHp2V3GYBPjmIrQgbtdZZzuU1Glhn_Yv-2gscwOxGs8rRNXMhuuB6iR2BEiOAxvD/s320/Mimi's+carpet.jpg" /></a></div>hanging in the trees. It is adding to the tree canopy. It is called Celebration and Fanfare. It is made of a "paper like plastic fiber" and hangs over our heads as we pass under it. It is delicate and casts shadows like the trees. I'll let you decide what you think. It probably appeals to a lot of people who like their art attractive. <br />
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Another group called <a href="http://citymeditationcrew.blogspot.com/">City Meditation Crew</a>, from NYC I think, made a meditation circle with reflective gum wrappers. They were wearing white costumes with big white hats. They definately stood out from the rest of us mortals. They created events including a walking mediation that called attention to daily living. (I couldn't stay for their events, but I thought about them as I passed by with my daily living) There was also a Butoh performance that I didn't see. There are other events coming up, listed on the <a href="http://sitespecificarts.org/projects">website</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH-QbT_hT31YSBG-lsWhvnKcKWBO7E1usqizaQP6UXpmw8S-iShyphenhyphendwaKPY_9zNQP5qVROX-J3nOktayg8nFWfzYAvEWuV72Uj7SakUycdJpDF74fBOK4vJvK1PyAwLL9h7pAZ-1J4w76xa/s1600/Garric+Simonsen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH-QbT_hT31YSBG-lsWhvnKcKWBO7E1usqizaQP6UXpmw8S-iShyphenhyphendwaKPY_9zNQP5qVROX-J3nOktayg8nFWfzYAvEWuV72Uj7SakUycdJpDF74fBOK4vJvK1PyAwLL9h7pAZ-1J4w76xa/s320/Garric+Simonsen.jpg" /></a></div>There have been some other art events in the city outside the box. One important performance was by Garric Simonsen. This cart was part of his performance in which he wheeled a cart full of delectable inflatable toys and stuffed animals through the city from the <a href="http://www.jameswashington.org/studio.pl">James Washington Foundation</a> which sponsored him as part of a residency. He walked from the Washington Foundation in the Central District, down Capitol Hill, and all the way to Occidental Square. He gave away all the toys on the cart and on the way he had a lot of great conversations with the public and a lot of fun. Simonsen and all the artists in residence at the Washington House are inspired by the spirit of James Washington. They respond to this famous sculptor's home and legacy in many different ways as they work in his studio. <a href="http://washingtonart.blogspot.com/">Simonsen </a>responded to Washington's big commitment to children, community, and public engagement. He transformed that into his own exploration of issues that artists face about how to interact with the commercial systems of art (which he was obviously subverting here in a number of ways.) Washington was really brilliant at promoting himself by the way. <br />
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So how does one evaluate these type of art expressions? By whether some members of the public respond, then they all worked, by whether the public space is enlivened, that also happened. But still I am struck by the fact that Mimi was so much more really there than some of the other projects sponsored by Art Sparks, even though she had a red carpet and a Victorian dress. We could all walk with her. <br />
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I also really like the artists like Tony and Garric who just do their own thing out there. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlo6mJY0_snbHc8tpy7Ixf5CMYQx49ipntJWapr6oF5e-zwAtmKhNgD-Jkccir8TnVIpCSfdFn46FX6eNjMbnxZk7DLWHDhf1RKEIHG_Iz5qk4CRw5-71e9GADpbkT6q9Sz2Gy9do8deLW/s1600/Tony+and+friends.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlo6mJY0_snbHc8tpy7Ixf5CMYQx49ipntJWapr6oF5e-zwAtmKhNgD-Jkccir8TnVIpCSfdFn46FX6eNjMbnxZk7DLWHDhf1RKEIHG_Iz5qk4CRw5-71e9GADpbkT6q9Sz2Gy9do8deLW/s320/Tony+and+friends.jpg" /></a></div>And don't forget all those permanent residents many of whom are pretty interesting in their own right. I introduced my one year old granddaughter to my personal friends among the permanent people the other day and they were all delighted to meet her. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQPCvLRXzUXKTJqSR8r2Y6yXypGSlwBYgYDMWrnH_o8pVvsqfZ3CNhKHhM6Iw0KLEFv6uaFQLLXfbgI4nRPdiRu0lb1vtuE1jKrP4kF4oWaAvFPOgz-5VZaAQKPdiHuxdBn3eTxl206kg/s1600/Eleanor+and+Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQPCvLRXzUXKTJqSR8r2Y6yXypGSlwBYgYDMWrnH_o8pVvsqfZ3CNhKHhM6Iw0KLEFv6uaFQLLXfbgI4nRPdiRu0lb1vtuE1jKrP4kF4oWaAvFPOgz-5VZaAQKPdiHuxdBn3eTxl206kg/s320/Eleanor+and+Me.jpg" /></a></div>Here she is with me camping at Mt Rainier. I didn't catch the downtown greetings on camera.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-43318150079897475092010-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:002010-07-23T12:44:27.978-07:00Detained<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgCblFIxtfjjG5qHnag2H-R76o2KOcbGieJwI_YAYCyWJl11lbNHveXqe4pRQPvVrMnPTTl1FGLLRENGMvlGUMy_jyIxTmaiT3WD34PLt8I99TiBN6r5xJV3R-VHX-iGRLAhsYaJCX_U8/s1600/gallery7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgCblFIxtfjjG5qHnag2H-R76o2KOcbGieJwI_YAYCyWJl11lbNHveXqe4pRQPvVrMnPTTl1FGLLRENGMvlGUMy_jyIxTmaiT3WD34PLt8I99TiBN6r5xJV3R-VHX-iGRLAhsYaJCX_U8/s320/gallery7.jpg" /></a></div>Here in the Northwest we still have a lot of support for art from the public sphere, King County <a href="http://www.4culture.org/">4Culture</a>, the City of Seattle Mayor's<a href="http://www.cityofseattle.net/arts/"> Office of Art and Cultural Affairs</a>, the <a href="http://www.arts.wa.gov/">Washington State Arts Commission.</a> There are also many local non profits that support both visual art and the literary arts, theater, dance, opera, music and much more. Then we have street festivals, farmers markets, and impromptu creativity. We are lucky here. <br />
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But from my own perspective, I was really excited about an exhibition that is taking place at 4Culture gallery this summer, because the public support does not often, for obvious reasons, translate into support for politically engaged art. Sometimes there are subtle and indirect environmental references, and there has been a lot of support for artists working in the environment, but hard politics is a hard sell. <br />
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Eroyn Franklin managed to break through that with her amazing series "Detained." <br />
Her drawings fill the walls of 4 culture with the stories of two immigrants going through detention centers in Washington State, the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, and its predecessor in Seattle, the U.S. immigration and detention facility. It includes crucial, specific details, it makes the vague information that we have about detainees visible. <br />
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She tells two stories. One man from Cambodia, Many Uch, who came here as a child, was placed in detention as an adult because he drove a getaway car in an armed robbery when he was 18, a crime for which he had already served a sentence. A woman, Gabriella Cubillos, was detained because she was pulled over for expired tabs, detained for unpaid parking tickets: she had entered the country illegally many years ago, when it was common and easy in the 1990s. <br />
Eroyn had some important facts that don't appear in the drawings with their thought balloons about conversations among inmates in the centers or elsewhere ( above in a mosque after Mani was released) <br />
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2/3 of deportees are removed for immigration violations alone<br />
90 percent have no legal representation, no timely hearings<br />
80 percent of those detained are deported- they say they want to be deported in order to get out of detention<br />
Immigrant law is different from criminal law<br />
All immigration decisions are part of the Executive branch, there is no legislative involvement<br />
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The growth in this industry is huge: the old INS in Seattle had 200 beds, ICE in Tacoma had 1000 when it opened, and it has 1545 now. There is a lot of money available for this since 9/11. In 2008 there was a 35 percent increase in deportations to more than 10,000 people ! This is horrendous. Detentions are random ( often combed from prison populations), there is virtually no legal recourse, and many of the people deported have made their homes in the US for many years and have children here.<br />
The injustice of the situation is blatent.<br />
What has happened to this country, formerly so welcoming to immigrants and enriched by them. <br />
Of the 16 detention centers in the US, 7 are run by private contractor GEO,<br />
they make $150 on every person in the center. It is seen as an "investment opportunity" and a "growth industry" Another facility is projected for Yakima. <br />
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I would like to add from the <a href="http://www.bordc.org/threats/detention.php">Bill of Rights Defense Committee</a> site that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE) spends 1.7 billion a year to detain 380,000 people<br />
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How did Franklin pull off having he"Detained" shown at 4Culture?<br />
Well she is a photography graduate of Paul Berger and the University of Washington. That is a very helpful credential in this city. <br />
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Also, she was working with a journalism group who have done special reporting on this issue called The Common Language Project. They have done a four part series called <em><a href="http://www.kuow.org/specials/betweenworlds.php">Between Worlds/Behind Bars</a></em> on "Seattle's Ellis Island" on the Northwest Detention Center in downtown Tacoma. So she had content that resonates, a crucial factor. She is engaged with her subject. <br />
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Finally, the work is difficult to read, as you can see from the image above. The fifty foot long drawings require serious effort for a gallery goer accustomed to sweep through a show at a glance. That makes it less obviously threatening to people who don't bother to read it. The writing is small for a gallery, it will be much easier when the book comes out. Here is the newspaper image. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19tsgCplLDdzzOQKdUc7PTn6B6XozMS6dZD8k08zdSuPDFktyBP-CDT7JC16vxewiFqze4-Cx9z3mT9ti0h1xS6Mt_KZiQtLLYxWAOCry8tPVN4FTDMVpObi-zdmyLzr1bdFNTgVFuIyu/s1600/franklin_1p.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19tsgCplLDdzzOQKdUc7PTn6B6XozMS6dZD8k08zdSuPDFktyBP-CDT7JC16vxewiFqze4-Cx9z3mT9ti0h1xS6Mt_KZiQtLLYxWAOCry8tPVN4FTDMVpObi-zdmyLzr1bdFNTgVFuIyu/s320/franklin_1p.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">PS. The old Seattle INS facility has just been <a href="http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8991">sold</a> online to investors who will work with the International District residents to address itthe history of immigration in Seattle which goes back to the detention of the Chinese in the late 19th century. </div>Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-16608921552722817182010-07-13T17:05:00.000-07:002010-07-23T11:07:34.679-07:00Shirin Neshat Women without MenI just saw Shirin Neshat's first feature length film, <em><a href="http://www.womenwithoutmenfilm.com/">Women without Men</a></em>, 2009. It has won a lot of awards, at the Sundance Film Festival, at the Venice Biennale, and elsewhere. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAFXrI0wQW4jjr_qDRo2i2IWAQ4tAJ1CAskO5w0mxMNrnsdhAU0NFf1GkPRTdIwShtxURcy_sfuoO3IvpAYAJhsYwZsqdiUl1VFRW-6MbO_k4PabFi7Jp3bhuIcoxaIOTq6am0qP5pxWz/s1600/14womenspan-1-articleLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAFXrI0wQW4jjr_qDRo2i2IWAQ4tAJ1CAskO5w0mxMNrnsdhAU0NFf1GkPRTdIwShtxURcy_sfuoO3IvpAYAJhsYwZsqdiUl1VFRW-6MbO_k4PabFi7Jp3bhuIcoxaIOTq6am0qP5pxWz/s320/14womenspan-1-articleLarge.jpg" /></a></div>I wonder how many of the people giving awards and writing reviews have read the novel by Shahrnush Parsipur of the same title. This is the second novel by Shahrhush Parsipur that Neshat has used as a point of departure, the first was <em>Touba and the Meaning of Night</em>.<br />
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Parsipur seems to be supportive of the film, she is appearing in the photographs of the Silver Lion ceremony in Venice and she even plays a part in the film as the brothel madam. <br />
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The film is visually dazzling, Neshat's trademark, and her film is a logical direction from her early photographs, then the slow moving imagery of her installations, to now a feature- length film. Her husband Shoja Azari is also a filmmaker and collaborates with her. The film was shot in Morocco, with Casablanca as 1950s Tehran. This is a good <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/movies/14women.html">review</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.forughfarrokhzad.org/index1.htm"><em>Women of Allah</em>,</a> her famous photography series in which she wrote the poetry of the famous modernist Iranian feminist poet, <a href="http://www.forughfarrokhzad.org/index1.htm">Forough Farokhzad</a>, on the hands and face of (herself) wearing a chador, was a response to a visit to Iran after many years. She was shocked at the changes from what she remembered in the late 1970s as a small child ( she left in 1979 at the time of the Islamic Revolution). Paying homage to a great poet as a visual artist is common in art from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and other countries in which poetry has been more important than visual art. (I would like to avoid the inaccurate term "Middle East")<br />
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Her film <em>Women without Men</em> appeared almost at the same time as the Green Revolution, an amazingly fortuitous circumstance for its success. The cast and Neshat wore green and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WD0WDALpJM">held up the peace symbol</a> in Venice during the award ceremony in September 2009 for Best Director. <br />
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The film is pure Shirin Neshat. She has stunning images of women in black chadors (she has a love hate relationship with chadors, she loves their visual effects, but not the oppression of wearing them.) A lot of her films include an emphasis on the black shapes of the chador. <br />
I have heard Shirin Neshat speak, and she is very compelling. I can still remember her saying on a panel in Istanbul, " artists in Iran do not have the luxury to ignore politics."<br />
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On that note, the film's vortex is the politics surrounding the US coup of 1953 which overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran and reinstalled the Shah.<br />
One of her characters, Munis, comes back from death and engages with the political activists who support Mohammed Mossadegh. They are represented as Communists, leafleting in the dark of night, resisting the supporters of the Shah in demonstrations in the streets.They are ultimately crushed both literally and metaphorically. That's Munis in the photograph above, floating in a sea of people, both there and not there ( she is after all resurrected from the dead.) <br />
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None of this is in the novel.<br />
The sole reference to the coup in the novel is the date of the novel mentioned in the book, August 1953. There is unexplained turmoil in the streets. Munis is not a political activist, she simply visits a bookstore and reads some books.<br />
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Parsipur is a feminist novelist, she has been writing books and short stories since the late 1960s. <em>Women Without Men</em> was first drafted in the late 1970s, although published in the late 1980s. She was censored for referring to virginity and has spent time in jail. Her life has been both as an acclaimed Iranian novelist and as an exile since 1994 whose works are banned in Iran, an incredible tension. All of her novels include elements of the magical, the incredible, magic trees, magic women, women as trees, ( if you saw <em>Touba</em> by Neshat, the woman became the magical tree, in her novel <em>Women without Men</em>, a woman plants herself and becomes a tree). <br />
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But the main theme of <em>Women without Men,</em> the novel, is women together in a special place. In that place, a house with an orchard, magical events occur. The novel is feminist, focusing on four women from different social classes, a prostitute, a sister of a repressive and religious brother, a religiously observant woman in love with that brother, and a wealthy woman who leaves her general husband and buys a garden and estate in the country in order to be free and do as she wishes, including writing poetry, which she does badly. ( In the film she is a singer). <br />
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The main theme of <em>Women without Men</em> the film, is the coup d'etat, the role of the United States, and people's lives at that time. Neshat brings together the military, the Shah reinstatement, and the magical orchard where the women live by having the military who are searching for communists after the Coup come to a party at the house in the orchard. <br />
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The parties in the book are not connected to the military, they are a celebration of life and the aspirations of Fakhri to be famous. In the film, she is attached like a mother to the prostitute Zarin who hovers between life and death; in the book, Zarin marries the gardner and has a magical pregnancy ( becoming transparent), giving birth to a lily which is planted by the stream. Her mothers milk is given to the woman tree. <br />
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The place of music is crucial to the film. As the soldiers and officers sit at the table disrupting the party of the bourgeois guests who both support and do not support the coup, the tension is broken by the beautiful singing and playing of an elderly man. (earlier, before the soldiers arrived, the hostess Fakhri had performed herself). <br />
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So the question is what is the position of culture here? I found it provocative, on the one hand it was soothing the oppressive military men, on the other hand it was disrupting their oppression. <br />
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The other question is, why did Neshat keep the same title as the novel for her book. Her film is about the tension between life and politics, between freedom and oppression, the novel is about complex relationships between women, between reality and fantasy. They are entirely different. In the book all four women are in the same place. Munis does not go back to Tehran. <br />
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But one cannot argue with Neshat's power to call attention to political issues in an aesthetic context. This is the most difficult achievement for art. I salute her for that. But for those who are looking for an Iranian film, they will have to look elsewhere. She has said she wants to convey the complexity of Islamic culture, but contemporary Iranian women say that she has been away too long ( she is also banned from Iran now). Iranian women that I know do not like her work. They find it annoyingly cliched and superficial with respect to Iranian society and Iranian women.They refer to her art as "chador" art, or "veil" art, holding the Western gaze to Eastern art. <br />
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I suggest <a href="http://bidoun.com/bdn/">Bidoun </a>magazine, an outrageously amusing and clever contemporary publication on culture in the Middle East (they call it that) and <a href="http://www.arteeast.org/">Arteeast,</a> an online journal that has indepth articles on a range of subjects. <br />
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Nonetheless, Neshat is the primary female Western-based artist who is so prominently addressing Iranian politics in art for the international art audience. At least she is opening the door. The fact that we think all those chadors are what is happening in Iran then or now just shows how much we all have to learn.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-26382345824277772742010-06-19T16:36:00.000-07:002010-06-26T17:53:39.630-07:00Provence then and now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4WabpnV_Mz6aLxUtDuqrT8a4I39Pi4NX5mxV-uaHz47aVDUzuc06W8tD94-cLPeq0aJxCd6eE48y3y-JhSBWrj6b5gGwF7QlR1SMurJv7-t4KXEdrnNKUcGeQiStAjcL-66kSN7Saasv/s1600/Van+Gogh+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4WabpnV_Mz6aLxUtDuqrT8a4I39Pi4NX5mxV-uaHz47aVDUzuc06W8tD94-cLPeq0aJxCd6eE48y3y-JhSBWrj6b5gGwF7QlR1SMurJv7-t4KXEdrnNKUcGeQiStAjcL-66kSN7Saasv/s320/Van+Gogh+room.jpg" /></a>In our trip to France, we visited St. Remy (the asylum where Van Gogh painted some extraordinary artworks), this is the view out of his window from his tiny room. It is my perverse nature to begin our trip with a view of his barred bedroom. The olive trees look just like his paintings.</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzNdz_SVFGGsefdSnew3aIiLR8le3XQN-LMG9W3JcDYVgtbEPaI7UL3D6JXwtg514gVryX9FvqxepYlH5oCkJTqa4hxU1foAVDYEo4Z42JQVGv_Mtzgz6L28ShY6Ie1MNBepMuitFDehW/s1600/St+Remychildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzNdz_SVFGGsefdSnew3aIiLR8le3XQN-LMG9W3JcDYVgtbEPaI7UL3D6JXwtg514gVryX9FvqxepYlH5oCkJTqa4hxU1foAVDYEo4Z42JQVGv_Mtzgz6L28ShY6Ie1MNBepMuitFDehW/s320/St+Remychildren.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The asylum continues in use today, and there was a mural created by children living there. I guess having had a really famous artist living there must be an inspiration to them. </div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0NI34upbJ4lhA77YZsusBToNPTl9c2YdUyaiVek5XIQQwaidDWfNEAJyrkaSpY5plULmFua4GEVYWriCizAiLk1aK7NgMcTev4zptsWtwmsIgBY7qYY8lqFIMlxGbqrjJRdHjtBeNciC/s1600/+Henry+Bibemus+small+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0NI34upbJ4lhA77YZsusBToNPTl9c2YdUyaiVek5XIQQwaidDWfNEAJyrkaSpY5plULmFua4GEVYWriCizAiLk1aK7NgMcTev4zptsWtwmsIgBY7qYY8lqFIMlxGbqrjJRdHjtBeNciC/s320/+Henry+Bibemus+small+.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Aix en Provence (Cezanne's home Jas de Bouffan, Cezanne's studio, and Cezanne's quarry, Bibemus) - Here's Henry in the quarry listening to the guide who told us the geology, the art history, and the history of the quarry. Just after this we turned around and saw Mont St. Victoire as Cezanne saw it. </div></div></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xRYD9uBOEep5T-_MkNev_KnZKVrhOEQw8G8FqppwemLMoIJaJ_EZ92-HJu1mLZuMQCueuJh7IQe9BjI_F9rxvAkzG5NsXA8X5b3PJWbpNKd1Jz6RJkmLbolCQl1e0oGoIYyFCzpTaY_j/s1600/St+Victoire1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xRYD9uBOEep5T-_MkNev_KnZKVrhOEQw8G8FqppwemLMoIJaJ_EZ92-HJu1mLZuMQCueuJh7IQe9BjI_F9rxvAkzG5NsXA8X5b3PJWbpNKd1Jz6RJkmLbolCQl1e0oGoIYyFCzpTaY_j/s320/St+Victoire1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Vallauris and Castle Grimaldi (Picasso), here is a sample pot by Picasso, no pictures allowed in most places, but I got this one in Vallauris. The sculpture is in a nearby plaza.</div>There were amazing contemporary artists working in ceramics also. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmhyDJgVLMrYIvROx_VsW6ZT-dm5OTHPzjo_fCZY3jQwhLWLmQMzXgGfgbgiQdsoCblJxixt9G1NYx3AqEtBebImNxxCfR698RlBS18WKJMmMh3J-D3nMj9hfgIPq92OE0jDal1-wJr0-u/s1600/Picasso+Pottery+Vallauris..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmhyDJgVLMrYIvROx_VsW6ZT-dm5OTHPzjo_fCZY3jQwhLWLmQMzXgGfgbgiQdsoCblJxixt9G1NYx3AqEtBebImNxxCfR698RlBS18WKJMmMh3J-D3nMj9hfgIPq92OE0jDal1-wJr0-u/s320/Picasso+Pottery+Vallauris..jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjbia-vp9gRYqg1rfGLCapEmlDEVdUvhVLO_m7P16bLPeTi0_w4kwCBUe5eIXUppfjIhmsjlkRwVlttou600dPBtui88Zr4t_YQi9WZW5LceFOjkhsCWqrMnCaluqfw-Xk2NLU5nQv3Wo/s1600/Picasso+sculpture+Vallauris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjbia-vp9gRYqg1rfGLCapEmlDEVdUvhVLO_m7P16bLPeTi0_w4kwCBUe5eIXUppfjIhmsjlkRwVlttou600dPBtui88Zr4t_YQi9WZW5LceFOjkhsCWqrMnCaluqfw-Xk2NLU5nQv3Wo/s320/Picasso+sculpture+Vallauris.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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The Maeght Foundation (modern art especially Miro), here is a sample. Below is the facade with a mosaic by Chagall. Miro's work pays homage to the farmers who were still working there in the 1960s. He had an entire sculpture garden of work that needs a separate entry or a slide show. Braque had a tiled pool and stained glass. Every art work suggested new perspectives on old friends. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcDWAiFKdZYEcNfMxmRpQVU1BpR6R0z0uRBY94KHyv32X6RdoqLF1oGXQfWxXEv_sr9vKuCWmrGHAgAbJ-dlbimqErQEm1fp18yy0u3lKb0iPDm3bnIO6Za6B-Y1x8IzKDtVlU2vBmGP0p/s1600/Miro+at+Maeght..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcDWAiFKdZYEcNfMxmRpQVU1BpR6R0z0uRBY94KHyv32X6RdoqLF1oGXQfWxXEv_sr9vKuCWmrGHAgAbJ-dlbimqErQEm1fp18yy0u3lKb0iPDm3bnIO6Za6B-Y1x8IzKDtVlU2vBmGP0p/s320/Miro+at+Maeght..jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjczOF5avi22Mj2JfLuIHM3V0yVcYZ7f8XwoFnSN7s2-Vm2dTVNkmrSBbXtgZtZYgtLRBgSgi98q3KyMHTswC-iR2ygSIrpdwr-sjoDLze5V1GicLcVxqpudaRZ25gg9QFX6Z_ooX4QyxOR/s1600/facade+with+Chagall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjczOF5avi22Mj2JfLuIHM3V0yVcYZ7f8XwoFnSN7s2-Vm2dTVNkmrSBbXtgZtZYgtLRBgSgi98q3KyMHTswC-iR2ygSIrpdwr-sjoDLze5V1GicLcVxqpudaRZ25gg9QFX6Z_ooX4QyxOR/s320/facade+with+Chagall.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3t9qj6VwGU0jdtFYS8ytQjQe_0Cx1Iew9lKS9CXV8FVC67zQNyOjEL2MavZRh5SfYZnj5EfQ6l_k3RokwUgpJy8qcWq5zuuA-Oi2culc1W_AYbrRzvf2QNaFOeeHybZgGAIvbXQAnzxfS/s1600/Sert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3t9qj6VwGU0jdtFYS8ytQjQe_0Cx1Iew9lKS9CXV8FVC67zQNyOjEL2MavZRh5SfYZnj5EfQ6l_k3RokwUgpJy8qcWq5zuuA-Oi2culc1W_AYbrRzvf2QNaFOeeHybZgGAIvbXQAnzxfS/s320/Sert.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzYKphXPMLqgqs4W6n7Ap2NdkRNwALyidjmkLLjAsbnBovTMcdeY-cd0cHXDbbcRRE60UZ40blypsMHVCGrGg2Pk-UdtBgwfH7EmvFUJi8_EwN7GQ3euCt094_MCf0rGKlAM8quMoHQ8w/s1600/chagall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzYKphXPMLqgqs4W6n7Ap2NdkRNwALyidjmkLLjAsbnBovTMcdeY-cd0cHXDbbcRRE60UZ40blypsMHVCGrGg2Pk-UdtBgwfH7EmvFUJi8_EwN7GQ3euCt094_MCf0rGKlAM8quMoHQ8w/s320/chagall.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YYc40lsevdzWYOMJvddbluUSBIcC4wVvemaKCGVC3BxwyposfXUKptlBpZHazjVbNf2ksJb-UPmoenqpseYf30c7-C_RlqVILplHyHozVZc5zhSWrhYQHDNiIR_mEF9-aDTk8OmfyjPa/s1600/Miro+sculpture+garden+at+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YYc40lsevdzWYOMJvddbluUSBIcC4wVvemaKCGVC3BxwyposfXUKptlBpZHazjVbNf2ksJb-UPmoenqpseYf30c7-C_RlqVILplHyHozVZc5zhSWrhYQHDNiIR_mEF9-aDTk8OmfyjPa/s320/Miro+sculpture+garden+at+front.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The Vence Chapel (Matisse), entrance, amazing stain glass inside</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bR68EyWxAgi2h9jh1PsNzF3DudKWNz8Zurhkne4fU4hsTw-8TRDOGrOARNR5kQbvs-17HztC5JUTpyZGoYF5IIVN8P8c1mChW6Gub8s9O1FcwmwcZhxSXJnaEJGYDOc1Pj4AIEAA5Q0h/s1600/Matisse+chapel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bR68EyWxAgi2h9jh1PsNzF3DudKWNz8Zurhkne4fU4hsTw-8TRDOGrOARNR5kQbvs-17HztC5JUTpyZGoYF5IIVN8P8c1mChW6Gub8s9O1FcwmwcZhxSXJnaEJGYDOc1Pj4AIEAA5Q0h/s320/Matisse+chapel.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The Matisse Museum in Nice with joie de vivre, Sunday afternoon in France in the foreground. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JPn00nm3i-18D4xijS3_0pq_MH8H_rtrKjRj39CM-RkhkZtIg8N_62ZmclrAqjWnXodlomihVCGI2gzGI42UWC7ANO3WI2qc61cLsPGd6qWNccfc7CsdtTL4dw6auZgf_Rgz5BTqRCIZ/s1600/Matisse+Museum+Nice..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JPn00nm3i-18D4xijS3_0pq_MH8H_rtrKjRj39CM-RkhkZtIg8N_62ZmclrAqjWnXodlomihVCGI2gzGI42UWC7ANO3WI2qc61cLsPGd6qWNccfc7CsdtTL4dw6auZgf_Rgz5BTqRCIZ/s320/Matisse+Museum+Nice..jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
The <a href="http://www.museeprehistoire.com/">Museum of Prehistory</a> (wonderful website, you have to search for it in French Musee Prehistoire so here's a link) in out of the way Quinson, Verdon. We were so lucky to get in with the school children with my press pass, since it is closed on Tuesdays, the day we showed up. It was a high point of the trip for me. Interactive educational displays and state of the art media. They took us through the stages of human development based on a cave discovered nearby with remnants of human life starting 700,000 years ago. The stunning museum was designed by Norman Foster. The school children in France are studying evolution. Here is also the earliest example of stone carving that they found in the cave. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEl7yIvOufYCRBQbTu4Sz43S1BIn-eLj6H-Vkzcub6PP0QGakZCftqNC6-W6yHE9tXavSnDR84ZEbcSAxQ2TWgAYSTA7R0UJ-1DtiiF9Wgy8CPTHhqHXcR1Qpi0uRyeBIaAXDXv-xItPgk/s1600/FOster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEl7yIvOufYCRBQbTu4Sz43S1BIn-eLj6H-Vkzcub6PP0QGakZCftqNC6-W6yHE9tXavSnDR84ZEbcSAxQ2TWgAYSTA7R0UJ-1DtiiF9Wgy8CPTHhqHXcR1Qpi0uRyeBIaAXDXv-xItPgk/s320/FOster.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKa71oKxicjdIc7SL9BLFG1Hb64uA1wwzoAFBovlivzUOd0DOmol4aKUgEMuQIFj5PBNIGDzo85fwuHyWVR8oZTL51FFdoi9H2fz2Qf1fT0QgvDsMsfF0O-3SVhb6vD2UMbZGNBJYnFjnO/s1600/Evolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKa71oKxicjdIc7SL9BLFG1Hb64uA1wwzoAFBovlivzUOd0DOmol4aKUgEMuQIFj5PBNIGDzo85fwuHyWVR8oZTL51FFdoi9H2fz2Qf1fT0QgvDsMsfF0O-3SVhb6vD2UMbZGNBJYnFjnO/s320/Evolution.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWs3m9f9qB-CjgrRDchyphenhyphenDPWzmYbbAcVRcROaOfDMxWMDJn3mSw_N_EZGJ0-TeDuygV8vAYbVcWC0BkwJWLf5Fe1ZWqn_Dc6wR9jiYrxFrjN_sUb90EXK1q2aWZYcr1okf6TWmv2ux7pbI/s1600/interior+ramp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWs3m9f9qB-CjgrRDchyphenhyphenDPWzmYbbAcVRcROaOfDMxWMDJn3mSw_N_EZGJ0-TeDuygV8vAYbVcWC0BkwJWLf5Fe1ZWqn_Dc6wR9jiYrxFrjN_sUb90EXK1q2aWZYcr1okf6TWmv2ux7pbI/s320/interior+ramp.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWcBGn9ko87HV6iR3cRKMYYpFQZOFmPGBfLk1k77jLkduYQr69QBm7wGAoECzp84NuerbDWbiZhJ4J5zZd2IFnbgFoL5Ste2heYT-BpLPYTD1unMx1us4zAhyphenhyphensycOrZr5MVINfD0CReYF/s1600/early+art+work+from+Museum+of+Prehistory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWcBGn9ko87HV6iR3cRKMYYpFQZOFmPGBfLk1k77jLkduYQr69QBm7wGAoECzp84NuerbDWbiZhJ4J5zZd2IFnbgFoL5Ste2heYT-BpLPYTD1unMx1us4zAhyphenhyphensycOrZr5MVINfD0CReYF/s320/early+art+work+from+Museum+of+Prehistory.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This was near the gorge of Verdon that we hiked in <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXNj7p9pPZ-FSjr2u6R9f3EAlLtx7y6VlEq_5K_hly7CgFDB-LjxoK7KLaXcDmVk0BJgCnbr3T9SVPKmi28pCES4OEE4TPKRENuFOvaQmd7fwVtV-ARKof_rRpaMuMkP2XKZGrCLc5mXUC/s1600/Verdon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXNj7p9pPZ-FSjr2u6R9f3EAlLtx7y6VlEq_5K_hly7CgFDB-LjxoK7KLaXcDmVk0BJgCnbr3T9SVPKmi28pCES4OEE4TPKRENuFOvaQmd7fwVtV-ARKof_rRpaMuMkP2XKZGrCLc5mXUC/s320/Verdon.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">and the exquisitely beautiful town of Moustiere Ste Marie recommended by my good friend Romson Bustillo. Here is my salute to the good life in a small restaurant there. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VSa6ppUQuZZsNFbhTHD7I1i41tb75-fvjipDrIzNhFjz3zP7EZZwtFn9hYYac6iBpwOfBTBUGsGa1iPYDhhDdQOd61vZWcwJ-8-gYp7Z-M90xq6RvHhCwBhvLb5m58d5k-DwnL-yUT68/s1600/St+moustiere+restaurant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VSa6ppUQuZZsNFbhTHD7I1i41tb75-fvjipDrIzNhFjz3zP7EZZwtFn9hYYac6iBpwOfBTBUGsGa1iPYDhhDdQOd61vZWcwJ-8-gYp7Z-M90xq6RvHhCwBhvLb5m58d5k-DwnL-yUT68/s320/St+moustiere+restaurant.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The Museum of Resistance in La Fontaine de Vaucluse, called Call to Liberty 1939 -45 told the story of Petain's capitulation to the Nazis, his cult, his sending of French men to work in German industries, and then the amazing resistance movement with its multiple identities, courageous participants, and its successes (sabotage) and failures (killing and persecution). It had a whole section on the artists in the resistance, especially writers, like Paul Eluard. </div>One poet memorized 140 poems while in prison and then wrote them down when he got out. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yNeJafGrlrJnmTJzQt9GkOn-RDiC1bSKWMghOBfkM83sZdDT4OfwFbNs0aRRl2hq0H5laVdk6rPAklSBdAdrl67pW0pZsFyI01q1z9xwdL3JXIQucKEEYy2kjSNKsScgeVhVEsMBYAr6/s1600/museum+of+resistance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yNeJafGrlrJnmTJzQt9GkOn-RDiC1bSKWMghOBfkM83sZdDT4OfwFbNs0aRRl2hq0H5laVdk6rPAklSBdAdrl67pW0pZsFyI01q1z9xwdL3JXIQucKEEYy2kjSNKsScgeVhVEsMBYAr6/s320/museum+of+resistance.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In Avignon there was a national strike in France and a great March in the main street ending at the Papal Palace. Of course that was another high point.The French socialists had the best chants and were thrilled to meet an American socialist ( that's me) they didn't know there were any. The French were protesting the threatened cuts in benefits and pensions because of the economic crisis. Of course my personal ( absolutely unverified and unverifable) theory is that the privatization people wanted to force Europe to stop giving all those services, and the crash was a great way to force them into it. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrWPgPle9fcJmi-FddnY27mlSb5viOXe_DDGpH-lPfJz0E0qzlYjbCbAx76Ch8KtaEfq8h6lii4ey7Kygtz_rVebw_f0knK54Kec2y-_GqUoVIt4ts-xXQUQKrUc2yU3ssjdlKa_nlu71/s1600/Demo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrWPgPle9fcJmi-FddnY27mlSb5viOXe_DDGpH-lPfJz0E0qzlYjbCbAx76Ch8KtaEfq8h6lii4ey7Kygtz_rVebw_f0knK54Kec2y-_GqUoVIt4ts-xXQUQKrUc2yU3ssjdlKa_nlu71/s320/Demo.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Seeing the art of these famous artists in the locations where they lived and worked was enlightening. (We missed out on Leger, that will have to be on the next trip). <br />
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They moved to Southern France when it was dirt cheap, one after the other, Cezanne came from there and never left, and he painted in his own back garden as well as a quarry and his studio. Amazingly limited geography. He was forced to the sea during the Franco Prussian war and painted the Meditaerranean "l'Estaque" like a big blue wall. No crashing waves for him. Van Gogh of course moved for the sun and color.<br />
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Matisse in Nice were a perfect match of light and color, Picasso went there in 1946 (having spent the war years in Paris) and spent three months painting with makeshift materials at the Grimaldi Castle. It is now a Picasso Museum right on the water, in what was a grim old castle. Today it is filled with light and air and an extraordinary group of paintings, many of them in tones of grey and brown.There is also a stunning group of black and white photographs of Picasso painting in the Palace, with Francois Gilot, the only woman who every left Picasso, from those same months. And then there is Picasso's amazing pottery. He painted on preexisting pots in Vallauris and restarted the entire pottery production there. <br />
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Apparently he didn't like the fact that Matisse made a chapel for nuns at Vence. He was an atheist, but a very competitive one, so he did a chapel in Vallauris with War on one wall and Peace on the other wall. It has been closed down though. Here is War. Peace will come soon. Below is a photograph of the Chapel from the web. The murals are painted in a Romanesque chapel with a barrel vault and he painted it completely. Of course the formalists don't like any of Picasso's political work. <br />
I've never even see these work reproduced before. Not part of the MOMA canon, that's for sure. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsoY8utCI2YVS7yeYXPVxR25MSRTAaqmo4XByBbOpxsaWtsOspwVI9bddb6vqcA0M9A_KcqP3d_F4GHL2QQlKn8f47mmWkn8syxGEOajZwk8fGhsidpJ5TyxDsQtG7fJo6IR22_DtP3Q-L/s1600/War.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsoY8utCI2YVS7yeYXPVxR25MSRTAaqmo4XByBbOpxsaWtsOspwVI9bddb6vqcA0M9A_KcqP3d_F4GHL2QQlKn8f47mmWkn8syxGEOajZwk8fGhsidpJ5TyxDsQtG7fJo6IR22_DtP3Q-L/s320/War.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExWeAAjAdOwRXgrDHQUJ-94nKZIGSaocVwJ-5bw54ubEVBUbMErXzQhlkPW3bxKWrcePl7SUe1vt7GGM9IF_PxmB4vQGfRgtsn9_NBxzr9Lfwx9YnCa1fhjfUtz4FmYtxQIbAyZ74625P/s1600/Chapel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExWeAAjAdOwRXgrDHQUJ-94nKZIGSaocVwJ-5bw54ubEVBUbMErXzQhlkPW3bxKWrcePl7SUe1vt7GGM9IF_PxmB4vQGfRgtsn9_NBxzr9Lfwx9YnCa1fhjfUtz4FmYtxQIbAyZ74625P/s320/Chapel.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">And then there is the Maeght Foundation. We went there on a perfect Sunday morning, blue sky, sun, green grass, the building designed by Jose Sert, the unity of artists, site, and spirit was perfect. Aime Maeght was close friends with the artists represented here, he supported them right after the war and they supported his museum. There is a unity of place, persons, art that is rare in the art world. It belongs to a lost time, the 1940s - 1960s, before the Cote D'Azur went crazy and became what it is today, a rich person's play ground. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We managed to find one tiny beach S Juan des Pins, that was public and had a picnic and took a quick swim. Apparently that is where the famous photograph of Picasso holding the umbrella over Francois Gilot was taken. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUtBkbnZKtz0ZxP91Iqa5D_JvhxUsLLI5h56M8tgyBOXFLYteDz-uMhasTW_xgnosechkj5rT1m-RiYfofORig6Z-hhZrqu2TWZTctc2K0sUOcGZ3azC3w5CQCS-VJdkivOVrenStLAdn8/s1600/Henry+drinking+wine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUtBkbnZKtz0ZxP91Iqa5D_JvhxUsLLI5h56M8tgyBOXFLYteDz-uMhasTW_xgnosechkj5rT1m-RiYfofORig6Z-hhZrqu2TWZTctc2K0sUOcGZ3azC3w5CQCS-VJdkivOVrenStLAdn8/s320/Henry+drinking+wine.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I didn't know that Matisse moved to Vence during the war, after the Germans occupied Southern France, or that his daughter was tortured by the Gestapo. I didn't know that the Resistance was centered in Provence because of the rugged countryside or that the US Allies bombed Avignon killing many civilians, in order to prepare for the invasion of France (sound familiar? ). I also didn't know that Picasso had lived in Aix following the footsteps of Cezanne and ended his life near Avignon. Right to the end he was soaking up other artists work. Matisse was always the man of pleasure that Picasso could never emulate, his line he said was "a description of the states of the soul". Picasso was always striving, stretching, and creating big failures as well as big successes. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> His "three keys of Antibe" painted in pale gray on the wall of the Grimaldi Palace is simple mystery, perhaps a magic charm. I was not able to photograph it, but I did draw it. Maybe I can scan that. </div><br />
I am on the emotional side with Picasso, but I can still enjoy Matisse. Cezanne I felt was so priviledged, how could he fail to be a success. All he had to do was paint!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwEIy7hyZ9NfM_Z0a5S5p_Hp8mdnEWgqhNZc830kmZmlHpp_ESrsVDQ3ki8bsnto13cxnaaGY9F3VP2UNiKHpJl6BmBbll1YUUZ4PA9V8-d6wl7E1BbyV1bQqNi7p4UI1xcc1TRr_Cl2HC/s1600/avignon+shadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwEIy7hyZ9NfM_Z0a5S5p_Hp8mdnEWgqhNZc830kmZmlHpp_ESrsVDQ3ki8bsnto13cxnaaGY9F3VP2UNiKHpJl6BmBbll1YUUZ4PA9V8-d6wl7E1BbyV1bQqNi7p4UI1xcc1TRr_Cl2HC/s320/avignon+shadows.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>There will be more pictures soon. Here we are reflected in the water from the famous Avignon Bridge<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-50616719773424516162010-06-14T15:20:00.000-07:002010-06-19T15:32:01.071-07:00Henry Moore, Steve McQueen, "War and the Body" and "War Horse"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb_ROEw6nzkExXlh2pMNaKtCbbHsV001AuFU-hsvV6hAnDIjJ7oegTQHrVohSRpzWFr5sj576RzD2jYRzztG1AAvgS2f-gK3mNV99PcFKhC8gFIZcbBIhyphenhyphenqJXSBDCqeqke5e1kh_NXvBG/s1600/Henry+Moore.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb_ROEw6nzkExXlh2pMNaKtCbbHsV001AuFU-hsvV6hAnDIjJ7oegTQHrVohSRpzWFr5sj576RzD2jYRzztG1AAvgS2f-gK3mNV99PcFKhC8gFIZcbBIhyphenhyphenqJXSBDCqeqke5e1kh_NXvBG/s320/Henry+Moore.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>This shadowy photograph shows a sculpture by Henry Moore at the Tate Britain. It is in the permanent collection, not part of their new exhibition of Moore's sculpture. It represents a sculpture based on one of the shelter drawings from World War II, with its flowing robe and awkward pose, it has been pulled from the many drawings he made in the London Underground and other shelters during the Blitz. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQX3vQfFihUEl7-ug44xgm3zK6g97Lxln-NEzF_IoUv6igJbArAVx-qzrPdR4fUpPBUQh_0ILT11EfT5uAQSoDfM8fXFfDgQ7CkDXs95QlVl9YYMotCI6Lnoi-m99Bs_daRMN3-6yFHDmH/s1600/Moore+shelter+2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQX3vQfFihUEl7-ug44xgm3zK6g97Lxln-NEzF_IoUv6igJbArAVx-qzrPdR4fUpPBUQh_0ILT11EfT5uAQSoDfM8fXFfDgQ7CkDXs95QlVl9YYMotCI6Lnoi-m99Bs_daRMN3-6yFHDmH/s320/Moore+shelter+2.gif" /></a></div><br />
There was footage in the Tate show of Moore actually walking through the tube underground stations. He explained that he only drew people afterward and usually sleeping as he did not want to be too invasive. I didn't realize that these famous drawings in the London Underground depicted sleepers on the platforms ( of course they did, if you think about it) and that the people there were in non sanctioned shelters. They just went there in droves. After the fact, the government sanctioned it as a shelter. <br />
Moore commented (and this explains some of the drawings), "the only thing at all like those shelters that I could think of was the hold of a slave ship." You see emaciated cadavers in facing rows and close up couples. Moore found that their gestures while asleep told him a lot about their state of mind. He also found the sight "pathetic, sordid and disheartening." According to the museum though, he "transformed London's poor into heroic figures and the uncertainty of their situation into stoic resignation. "<br />
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One of the most fascinating details in the exhibition were his sketches of preliminary ideas for drawings ( he was commissioned by the government to paint the war). In his tiny sketches he drew burning cows, and sheep with airplanes flying overhead. How rarely we see the impact of war on animals. <br />
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The heart of the exhibition was the war period. His drawings of miners in the same time frame, commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Board, are equally strong (his father was a miner), suggesting claustrophobia, as well as courage and perseverence under incredibly difficult conditions deep inside of mines. <br />
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The framing of Moore by the Tate aside from this section which cut through their efforts like a knife, was to focus on sexuality, surrealism, modernism and materials. The exhibition brochure was organized by medium, a particular stone, a specific wood, etc. <br />
I went through the exhibition with my inlaws who had been to Moore's studio with the artist. He felt that touching the sculpture was crucial to understanding it, but of course in the musuem, the materials were simply an aesthetic reference, not a tactile experience. <br />
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The gallery materials gave us no biography (such as his roots in working class England), and only cursory references to his exploration of other art forms such as Egyptian and Meso American (which the museum calls Ancient Mexico "dominated by sex and religion). It mentioned the importance of Roger Fry's book Vision and Design, without saying when it was published (1920) and included some wonderful sketches. <br />
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Moore's art and his own words trumped their efforts. For example he said " Trunks of trees are very human. To me they have a connection with human life." So from a material, wood became an active spiritual presence.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSBoFDrPvaW8mZjPjRs2GLr-K6SkWMl7E1bVqRFoVckgoywxirJ3K0F2WSFlWa3UET5F6MbTFpjQMi0Dqzu2uDAKfcRDwne3gP_8iIY1NlE6XPh7DSsLZLAyoXYBy8uiuM6Uwu3BKegYZ/s1600/Steve+McQUeen+display.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSBoFDrPvaW8mZjPjRs2GLr-K6SkWMl7E1bVqRFoVckgoywxirJ3K0F2WSFlWa3UET5F6MbTFpjQMi0Dqzu2uDAKfcRDwne3gP_8iIY1NlE6XPh7DSsLZLAyoXYBy8uiuM6Uwu3BKegYZ/s320/Steve+McQUeen+display.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FbCuOcdelzY0jpf7WAMEHgKKny-Ps-RirOwzEyMAc5v4bvyIf8WU-UAA-5OjTYK20ynlTcnDh0LeC4NoGt5XTKR6VaPtRkh9heaFQEbgFhYYhGKYUGhPkhV71d32kZS7L22h5Oihvm0P/s1600/Steve+McQueen+stamps..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FbCuOcdelzY0jpf7WAMEHgKKny-Ps-RirOwzEyMAc5v4bvyIf8WU-UAA-5OjTYK20ynlTcnDh0LeC4NoGt5XTKR6VaPtRkh9heaFQEbgFhYYhGKYUGhPkhV71d32kZS7L22h5Oihvm0P/s320/Steve+McQueen+stamps..jpg" /></a></div>Steve McQueen's "Queen and Country" at the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/18/steve-mcqueen-iraq-soldiers-stamps">National Portrait Gallery</a> is a very different type of art about war, also commissioned by the government. He has been on a long campaign with Royal Mail to get these stamps used on letters. He has created 160 sheets of stamps, each stamp with a single face of someone who has died in Iraq in 168 stamps. <br />
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Steve McQueen is part of a long tradition in England, the official war artist. He went to Iraq in 2003 to try to make a piece but was barely able to leave his room. That's when he thought of stamps. But Royal Mail and the Ministry of Defense have been very difficult to deal with in creating the project, he couldn't get the addresses of soldiers who had died. And <a href="http://smallswordsmagazine.com/articles/image/mcqueenstamps.html">this article</a> raises the question of how such a project would be received in the US where even photographs of flag draped coffins are censored. <br />
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Meanwhile at Blackall Studios, London, there is an important exhibition called <a href="http://www.warandmedia.org/warandbodye/">"War and the Body."</a> I didn't get to see it although an installation "The War Experience Project," which was shown in Seattle by <a href="http://www.warep.com/">Rick Lawson</a> was included. Lawson is a veteran who works with veterans on painting military jackets with their own war experience. He hands these jackets together and the result if deeply moving. Furthermore, the artist, <br />
refuses to narrate his experience, saying it is far too traumatic to tell in a sound bite. <br />
Another artist included was <a href="http://samaalshaibi.com/">Sama Alshaibi</a>, an important Iraqi/Palestinian artist.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwbxQGk3-VB2RdOdfKGuqZzVlmmbih8ZLCPn7GAU7E_PbySDQTOlPkhrke7W7RCG2tpONwDuYjRbrblxY-4lYg3v5tYmyjoWlsZu3VRyp40oRJPi1UmHty0NWIEUaZ8f0VAk-fW7-v8t_/s1600/Ama+alshaibi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwbxQGk3-VB2RdOdfKGuqZzVlmmbih8ZLCPn7GAU7E_PbySDQTOlPkhrke7W7RCG2tpONwDuYjRbrblxY-4lYg3v5tYmyjoWlsZu3VRyp40oRJPi1UmHty0NWIEUaZ8f0VAk-fW7-v8t_/s320/Ama+alshaibi.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The important premise of the exhibition was that war is "embodied", that seems like a pretty straightforward idea. But when you think of the real physicality of all those young people on both sides, as well as children and babies, who are killed in war, it really hits on the essence of why war is insane. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhNMNBMMnuL-GVW-0rmylHbqkv2KLxMp2VsCLlL-Hx956WAGZeDxa9KQeOgdi_Ve0TRSyJB-71mUrZTfbYf1BRd2HtYUsS0q_HGx21g5T_54BtNo63-5wUCixy8IngFx0KqsAa-CfVBQ6/s1600/WarHorse1X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhNMNBMMnuL-GVW-0rmylHbqkv2KLxMp2VsCLlL-Hx956WAGZeDxa9KQeOgdi_Ve0TRSyJB-71mUrZTfbYf1BRd2HtYUsS0q_HGx21g5T_54BtNo63-5wUCixy8IngFx0KqsAa-CfVBQ6/s320/WarHorse1X.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We also saw an amazing play in London called <a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/warhorse">War Horse</a>, which used life size horse puppets made of pieces of flexible cane and leather. They moved with three puppeteers ( head, tail, and heart) of the Handspring Puppet Company, that amazing company from South Africa directed by Brian Jones and Adrian Kohler. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets directly with their hands in an extraordinarily dexterous and gymnastic performance. The emotional life of the horses, expecially the star Joey in the play, are conveyed in its tail, skin, eyes, ears and even the movement of its body in breathing. </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We were utterly convinced of their souls and spirits. The theme of the play is the role of horses in World War I, their courage and needless deaths, in the midst of the mindless slaughter of trench warfare. The World War I music was beautifully arranged, and the story of young innocents going to war only to be killed was direct. But the star of the show were the horses, in their movements on stage, galloping, falling, nuzzling the people who cared for them. The poignency was heartbreaking. When the main horse was caught on barb wire we all cried with him.We felt the mindless, stupidity of war. </div><br />
The play is based on a book, (Michael Mopurgo, <em>War Horse</em>, 1982, a children's novel written from the perspective of Joey, the main horse in the play). but the memories of the role of horses in World War I are taken from conversations with someone who was part of that War The other interesting fact is that it was similar to the multimedia approach of William Kentridge, with animations, puppets, music, and real actors, although here all the components were more literal and easily understood. The shadow plays and other techniques were abstracted, but not avant-garde. <br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissod3W6_k7ce4aPBZOQweWAq2ex9bU_6uoscbk_E8VdYI0CqmqASXvULZvxyYDWXvvnutzaJyZlplxPM_EWFIYS05EqGIo7QE3IFgIUznxuJ6yXLjIP6IGZTGWna36XvQhs_HT_byheWo/s1600/warhorse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissod3W6_k7ce4aPBZOQweWAq2ex9bU_6uoscbk_E8VdYI0CqmqASXvULZvxyYDWXvvnutzaJyZlplxPM_EWFIYS05EqGIo7QE3IFgIUznxuJ6yXLjIP6IGZTGWna36XvQhs_HT_byheWo/s320/warhorse.jpg" /></a></div>Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-77159318173746894962010-06-07T13:27:00.000-07:002010-06-21T17:42:33.537-07:00Two Iraqi artists and one Palestinian artist<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFuPBtUNqVbmwo6b1RZ2ke8YmQYi0xs8b1U9ZQfE5_VBwesDZ6xZRE-VCdZG8N0VSJuLSzM9sslCTocETS_ZaFVWETgiTCwjs07qUgQOrT0iNAaBXXQiooAApYX7-P__qmJKFpgG5KAi3o/s1600/Hana+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFuPBtUNqVbmwo6b1RZ2ke8YmQYi0xs8b1U9ZQfE5_VBwesDZ6xZRE-VCdZG8N0VSJuLSzM9sslCTocETS_ZaFVWETgiTCwjs07qUgQOrT0iNAaBXXQiooAApYX7-P__qmJKFpgG5KAi3o/s320/Hana+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I had the good fortune to meet two Iraqi artists during a brief stay in London. First Hana' Malallah, whom I have written about on this blog <a href="http://artandpoliticsnow.blogspot.com/search?q=Hana+Malallah">before.</a> She left Baghdad in the fall of 2006, reluctantly driven out by the war. She has been in London for two years now and has a studio where she is producing art works using canvas that she partially burns, then rips, cuts, and collages onto larger canvases. The result is imagery that is both painfully specific and absolutely abstract, a rare phenomenon. Naturally the paintings recall the destruction of art in Baghdad and the destruction of Baghdad which now, she states, has no government. The change has been shocking and absolute, particularly for professional women. Those who remain must be covered when they go outside and still risk being killed everytime they walk in the street. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhajiwlC9eTj5_mVdpQKUVMUHm7B43l23Kn5DsfGPi7ZoxkuxOI8b6fdAdmv0id6NJfF63FtTRduuo4_pBxYUMTl6vNU8LNcYmy8ZeXMhkr9-qXlSdl8c9eagjeOK_ni_PuQh20i2yMHvg/s1600/Hana1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhajiwlC9eTj5_mVdpQKUVMUHm7B43l23Kn5DsfGPi7ZoxkuxOI8b6fdAdmv0id6NJfF63FtTRduuo4_pBxYUMTl6vNU8LNcYmy8ZeXMhkr9-qXlSdl8c9eagjeOK_ni_PuQh20i2yMHvg/s320/Hana1.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGVinySEgqzaODXq9n3HQS2D5Tawys-9cqs1Yifv3ssQtZWiuq__YxJhL_Q3AmnZXI2TgM9hjdPsvOixynRDPNO8YQQrQVvZpfA2JpWlgLHTgCcAEaN_1ZkzOHyBukVi9XaT7HTMYH0xF/s1600/Hana+attaching+rags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGVinySEgqzaODXq9n3HQS2D5Tawys-9cqs1Yifv3ssQtZWiuq__YxJhL_Q3AmnZXI2TgM9hjdPsvOixynRDPNO8YQQrQVvZpfA2JpWlgLHTgCcAEaN_1ZkzOHyBukVi9XaT7HTMYH0xF/s320/Hana+attaching+rags.jpg" /></a></div>Hana' taught at the College of Fine Arts, Baghdad University. She also earned a Ph.D. in art theory there. Art students came from all over the Middle East and Europe, and could attend free of charge. Saddam Hussein abolished private universities. Now the University where she taught has lost its faculty to diaspora, it building was ravaged, its library destroyed and private universities are returning to Baghdad. <br />
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She told me of the deep contradictions of life under Saddam Hussein, there were no elections and if you joked you could die, but prior to sanctions she could travel freely. She had six works purchased by the government in the Modern Art Museum.<br />
During the sanctions, Hana' went to the archeological museum for inspiration. <br />
She stated that she belongs to a group of artists who are pursing the theme of ruins, who all belong to what she called the "80s" generation in Iraq. They include Kareem Risan who left in 2004 for Syria and now lives in Canada, and Nazar Yahya who is in Jordan. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc8yiqU-3_-48_mR2K3aSWnJROierFmfNflmo03wa7qpa4Gv9lh8njD7oOwQPICN4YgnxCNg_4M6BkNqPAou3VQozE8xJJ9QYNa7t-KI-fj5tfonIAVc7Unj2xKnTE_DEjD_cpVeMBey8X/s1600/Dia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc8yiqU-3_-48_mR2K3aSWnJROierFmfNflmo03wa7qpa4Gv9lh8njD7oOwQPICN4YgnxCNg_4M6BkNqPAou3VQozE8xJJ9QYNa7t-KI-fj5tfonIAVc7Unj2xKnTE_DEjD_cpVeMBey8X/s320/Dia.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqfZ6rHwPum-DtHoCdSlbmk0E_8w3ErSeZMNnHnKMxP5dYwlvyuCshOhx5lEvb96ci5zc0at6YnJqQYBNmOWgI7EuKrzPUgG0_qItND52VToGjx-dUFrYQiSs7XseNurftcDPiwkLuIdu/s1600/Dia+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqfZ6rHwPum-DtHoCdSlbmk0E_8w3ErSeZMNnHnKMxP5dYwlvyuCshOhx5lEvb96ci5zc0at6YnJqQYBNmOWgI7EuKrzPUgG0_qItND52VToGjx-dUFrYQiSs7XseNurftcDPiwkLuIdu/s320/Dia+portrait.jpg" /></a></div>At the end of my trip I visited a second Iraqi artist, Dia Azzawi. He is older than Hana'. He has a degree in archaeology in 1962 from Baghdad University, then a degree in Fine Art in 1964. He worked at the archeology museum until the mid 1970s when he left Baghdad. He said it was "politically obvious that he could not stay. "<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Azzawi is a fiery, brilliant artist. His creates monumental abstract sculpture, large paintings, mixed media "objects" and small book art works. He is currently working on a monument to the over 600 PhDs who have been killed in Iraq. The targetting of intellectuals has gone almost unreported in the media. This is a preliminary study for the monument.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ55d8ooSbtbsnSRoOFXrgTo0CuKfCIJ_jx5bi6XzzTfzda9m4vx9MiR_wadFgdD6tJo9pqAmvMPoMrYohAwRRNDXpoYDCeh3kKJieUqbg0V7vXv_oarJN1EHtitAdCIW19Jrl37av_-66/s1600/study+for+monument.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ55d8ooSbtbsnSRoOFXrgTo0CuKfCIJ_jx5bi6XzzTfzda9m4vx9MiR_wadFgdD6tJo9pqAmvMPoMrYohAwRRNDXpoYDCeh3kKJieUqbg0V7vXv_oarJN1EHtitAdCIW19Jrl37av_-66/s320/study+for+monument.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Azzawi makes detailed references to Arab poetry and historical art. For example, in a recent work a photograph of his father shows him wearing a type of scarf as a headress that we associate with the Palestinians, but he juxtaposes it to Gudea of Lagash, the ancient lawgiver of Mesopotamia who wears a similar headdress. Fortunately we had just seen that stunning work of art in the Louvre. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">He bemoans the lack of knowledge of their own history of art among Iraqis. </div><br />
He is also a collector of contemporary art from Iraq. <br />
He suggested to other artists the idea of book art, a new format for Iraqi artists that was easily transportable. Selections from his book art collection have been shown in the U.S. in several venues with the title <a href="https://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=63339">Dafatir</a>, curated by Nada Shabout.<br />
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Azzawi is also a curator. He has just created an exhibition called My Homeland of the work of seven Iraqi artists in Dubai and is also contemporary art advisor and curator for the <a href="http://www.mia.org.qa/english/#about/vision">Qatar Museum</a>. <br />
He explained to me that there is a big market in fake contemporary Arab art. As the market demand has grown for contemporary Arab art, particularly among the emirates, who have a lot of money, but don't know much about contemporary art, the collecting of works of name artists has led to the production of fakes. Jawad Salim for example, a was a premier Iraqi modern artist who was commissioned in 1958 to create the Monument to Liberty in Baghdad, by the newly created Iraqi Republic (1958 - 1963, led by Abd al-Karim Qasim whose ties to Nasser led to his assasination by Baathists in collusion with the CIA) Jawad Salim died in 1961 before his sculpture was completed. His work is currently being forged from old photographs. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDnQvCKTYn2i0POn1i56jwrg7bnI7fNRUS-bQQdzQXy9kdM3cNwxVVoREa6h2uh9eaZ6K08aRVtG5LDB5S6ITBJivY9ihPT2wrMJXlag0RCcOx09yyP3fXhZI7JL4FpIuXcsxJgQ-wvJ7/s1600/larissa3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDnQvCKTYn2i0POn1i56jwrg7bnI7fNRUS-bQQdzQXy9kdM3cNwxVVoREa6h2uh9eaZ6K08aRVtG5LDB5S6ITBJivY9ihPT2wrMJXlag0RCcOx09yyP3fXhZI7JL4FpIuXcsxJgQ-wvJ7/s320/larissa3.jpg" /></a></div>Finally, the work of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour is in an <a href="http://www.bankgalerie.com/content/pdf/pdf1/racinelarissasansour.pdf">exhibition in Paris</a>. Above you see her Palestinauts. I have followed her video work for two years and I think she is one of the most talented video artists addressing Palestinian issues (and the competition is stiff)<br />
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This show featured "Intergalactic Palestine. "All of her videos are riffs on populist genres, from cooking shows to horror movies, with the deeper metaphor of the anguishing condition of Palestine. But her trademark is that we laugh as we cry. <br />
This video is a riff on science fiction about space. She even uses a remastered sound bite from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 "A Space Odyssey." <br />
It starts with the artist, as a Palestinaut (cosmonaut plus astronaut), in her space ship, getting ready for take off. We hear "Jerusalem, we have a problem" , then "everything is back on track." She lands on the moon and plants the Palestinian flag, walking carefully in her moon boots. She declares " One small step for Palestinians, One giant leap for mankind" as she waves to the earth. Then she floats away into space and disappears.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1yxKoFTcAWGjt6Eltxm8ECECQv2AuUvXj5sTsm0rNcEAo0J_pH5ZGLRmxCAmOpma6eg2_qcZBr3QnTnZnuf9PXA_SBoY-x0RZ6Nze_qkIWRFefVaPQnqylL3qU1O_6T8TLjOLjXwcKf-K/s1600/9+SansourSpace1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1yxKoFTcAWGjt6Eltxm8ECECQv2AuUvXj5sTsm0rNcEAo0J_pH5ZGLRmxCAmOpma6eg2_qcZBr3QnTnZnuf9PXA_SBoY-x0RZ6Nze_qkIWRFefVaPQnqylL3qU1O_6T8TLjOLjXwcKf-K/s320/9+SansourSpace1.jpg" /></a></div>The artist has explained " The work reflects the fact that Palestinains are in limbo, without a state, as their homeland shrinks like a spot on the horizon . . . The moon landings reflect a widespread anxiety, that in leaving home, we might never be able to return home again.Yet because this anxiety is universal, the pain of the real forced exodus of the Palestinians is doomed to remain a private grief, forgotten by the rest of the world."Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-9957687500958035772010-04-30T11:37:00.000-07:002010-04-30T13:32:09.510-07:00T.J. Clark on Guernica<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIcsjVqjZtRt4o2H6DKtnemwD71IQZqC1rhu0uMZ9myDMJPZAx-Jz77r9rxihFuAd93R3-sMxygSG4BvDOVX-RTyZ_s3kHEJttjoWv43rH9djhKhfYObwUG7cGt8VABYHqeCcr7XL_XCn/s1600/arte_guernica_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIcsjVqjZtRt4o2H6DKtnemwD71IQZqC1rhu0uMZ9myDMJPZAx-Jz77r9rxihFuAd93R3-sMxygSG4BvDOVX-RTyZ_s3kHEJttjoWv43rH9djhKhfYObwUG7cGt8VABYHqeCcr7XL_XCn/s400/arte_guernica_2.jpg" tt="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Two great minds, Picasso and T.J. Clark matched in a lecture. At first I was dubious, when the first statement Professor Clark made was "Space was the form truth took for him as a painter." This seemed unduly formal, detached. But by the end I was fascinated, and only slightly unhappy, with his analysis. At the beginning Clark declared "The twentieth century appeared in his (Picasso's) work as a way of life coming to an end. ... It was the end of the "room" in art, the world view of being and having was shattered to the core." ( these quotes are based on my notes they are not exact). He did not elaborate on this comment, about which much can be said. <br />
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What I will add is that the metaphor of the room as a secure domestic place filled with our objects as the focal point of life, based on capitalism, acquisition, and obvliviousness to the rest of the world, was destroyed in World War I ( of course that isn't true, it was only the hegemony of the British Empire that was destroyed) - but the painters in that crucial early twentieth century era sensed the impending destruction and altered the domestic space in art into the layered, complexity of cubism. (Clark confusingly later refers to the destruction of Cubist "room-space" by Picasso, the Cubists were not actually concerned with room space, but with disrupting it, in my opinion. I think Clark overprivileges Picasso)<br />
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Then point 2 , which was the most compelling insight for me, was that this was "the new face of war" of what has become the war on terror, our permanent war forever. We know that this is the first representation in art of deaths of civilians by bombing from the air ( the Germans were testing new planes in collaboration with Franco, just in case you need that fact filled in). Such a death is now so commonplace that we digest it with our breakfast. <br />
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Professor Clark stated that ""certain kinds of death break human contact" There is a "special obscenity" of this new death. "Privacy is torn apart, the room gives way to the street." And this new reality led to Picasso' s new way of imagining a public and political that is outside, rather than the interior sexual domesticities that had been his focus. ( Well there are the Three Musicans, from just after World War I, they are in an ambiguous space and they are scarey and scared). <br />
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Again, there is much elaboration possible. Clark showed us an odd sketch in outlining this movement outdoors, but he did not show the famous bone paintings of the early 1930s which are all on the beach and, to me presage, the nightmare of Guernica in thier frightening shapes. But of course one difference is that those giant "vagina dentata" heads are threatening, whereas in Guernica they are being attacked. He also failed to every mention the "dreams and lies of Franco," that well known etching series. It presages Guernica in many ways, it is set outside, it has direct formal connections. When I asked about it in the questions, he first said it was not relevant, than brilliantly backtracked and rethought it as he talked about it. <br />
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A major point in the lecture was the enormous scale of the Guernica (mentioned again in the "dreams and lies" answer which he reminded us were tiny) the largest painting he ever did (of course determined by the scale of the site for which it was commissioned, not Picasso's inclinations.) It was this scale as well as the subject AND the site itself, the pavilion of the Spanish Republican government as it fought for its life against unified fascist forces of church and state, that forced Picasso to change his way of working as well as out of his self referential narcissism. The result is a monumental homage to the doomed people of Guernica. It is not the first time that the female victims of war have been represented, (look at Kathe Kollwitz), but it is because it is by Picasso, the most famous. <br />
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One of the most intriguing parts of the lecture was Clark's detailed analysis of how Picasso achieved this transformation of his inclinations to represent the interior, personal, and the sexual, to the exterior public death, by his removal of sexual references, of references to Greek, to males, his step by step ( based on those daily photographs by Dora Maar) changes in the relationships in the painting. <br />
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But then Professor Clark declared that in the painting we have "flatness finding its feet" ( it was a pun too, as he emphasized the feet in the painting) . WHAT, we are talking about re defining the idea of pictorial space in response to tragedy, and we have "flatness". Flatness is of course that tiresome idea of Clement Greenberg's. The flatness here is defined by Clark as "the collapse of modernity" . That's not hard to disagree with as an idea, but actually there isn't flatness in Guernica, it has all sorts of erratic spatial relations, and it is the erratic relationships that suggest the tragedy, as far as I am concerned. Some of the figures are flat, some of them are in the extreme surface of the painting, but others are not, particularly at the bottom of the painting, there is an indication of recession or at least volume. ( he talked a lot about the bottom of the painting as a complex problem) But the flatness here is, then, humanity run over by a war machine.<br />
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Clark's final statement that these are "hieroglyphics of states of agony" was wonderful.<br />
His lecture was about HOW an artist transforms his personal response to disaster into the elements of a painting, and for Picasso, according to Clark, it was in the transformation of space.<br />
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Of course, this almost eliminates the content completely. The bull, the light, all symbolism. The possiblity of resistance is nil, mankind is simply a victim and of course that is the case so often in war, the human is simply a pawn in a system of power, and this is the representation of that moment according to Clark. But emptying all content, except the moment of bombing, I think is unduly flattening the painting. Eliminating all reference to resistance (the woman flying into the center with that incredible light which for me suggests humanity and resistance) makes this image only one of despair. <br />
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Clark has become a formalist? Or is he re defining formalism in a social context. I think the latter. I hope so. I hope this is slight of hand, play the vocabulary of formalism into a new context. Clark is, of course, of that particular breed, academic marxists. They are all brilliant, but on some level, they all disturb me. They are so dry and removed from feeling the horrors. Their social concern for the state of the world is undoubtedly real, but their writing is so turned inward that it contradicts what Marx realized was necessary in the age of industrial capitalism, resisting oppression through collective action in public spaces. Clark and Picasso's public space (or ambiguous public private space) actually is not a committed activist space. We know what happened next to Picasso, he joined with the Communists and the Resistance during the Occupation of Paris. Then he went back to his old domestic ways for the most part in his later years. We have to acknowledge that Dora Maar was the radical that really was a key to Guernica.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664187111965140199.post-37300806506926271442010-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:002010-04-28T17:57:01.370-07:00Two plays about war and one "quilt"Theaters can make statements about war, directors care, but sometimes it is a little ambiguous what the plays actually say. Two plays in Seattle, Henry V and An Iliad (a modern play performed by one actor, that refers back to the classic but also inserts contemporary references), each one is obviously responding to our permanent war culture.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpT-1BTH6Z3l-3huWj-WbGJVJ4o-NeeGtwsHTzs34ppifohLPi9g7jdG3xAHCzY0EU3fb3UVNNxMZbXyNTMGspdn5_8uro5XHeGzk2bIFz7vl2QDF0vrwtCXgUn8mBuSyMlA4rRbgGlTb/s1600/BedfordHenry-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpT-1BTH6Z3l-3huWj-WbGJVJ4o-NeeGtwsHTzs34ppifohLPi9g7jdG3xAHCzY0EU3fb3UVNNxMZbXyNTMGspdn5_8uro5XHeGzk2bIFz7vl2QDF0vrwtCXgUn8mBuSyMlA4rRbgGlTb/s320/BedfordHenry-L.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div>The first Henry V by Shakespeare is really celebrating victory against long odds in war. It was used to rally the British morale during World War II, with a film version starring Laurence Olivier. Prince Hal was a pretty wild kid, but he became King Henry V.When the Church gives him a chunk of money (to avoid having their lands confiscated according to the play's beginning), he's off to war in France, based on some shakey premise that France is actually belonging to the English because of way back when family connection (that sounds like Israel in Palestine). Anyway off he goes and he beats the complacent French at Agincourt because (although this wasn't emphasized but my knowledgable husband informed me) they use the older technology of the longbow while the French used a cross bow with a shorter range. The real story of the war not included in this play, is rather grim, with many women and children dying in a siege. <br />
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So is this an anti-war statement??? The Director said in the program that her best friend's son was in Afghanistan. It seems to me the play was an homage to the courage of soldiers. <br />
But then there is Shakespeare's own perspective. It has been said that on the one hand he creates heartfelt speeches by King Henry, on the other hand suggests he is ruthless, and his men mock him. <br />
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This play was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth because the Irish troubles had already begun, so perhaps it was intended to give heart to the British. But, of course, underlying it, is the ordinary people and their ordinary thoughts, always a feature of Shakespeare. And of course they were wet, dirty and sometimes uninterested. <br />
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To further mitigate its anti war statement, in this production there was a mix of 1940s war costumes, seen here, and 1960s Pop around the Princess Catherine of France who at the end marries our Henry V, which did bring peace. So that makes the war worthwhile??? Or could he have married her anyway and no war. He was offered her at the beginning of the war. ( It is a little like the Vietnam War, Kissinger was offered a peace before it started and in the end had exactly what he was offered at the beginning, after so many years) <br />
Odd Play. Here is another <a href="http://broadwayhour.blogspot.com/2010/04/henry-v-seattle-shakespeare-company.html">opinion. </a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIXXjccy8nmu4T95G60AlRNOqiHSKWv3Sr1lhIgGtSYdJizLgqHSj7D70lFIqA6qJnQD7EnkS2P8OLQSNElScL4HYzx5p0va1R5uG05lPphaJDNOKXqy71wwf2KF1B1uECfXHiRufz_S4P/s1600/Banner_IL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIXXjccy8nmu4T95G60AlRNOqiHSKWv3Sr1lhIgGtSYdJizLgqHSj7D70lFIqA6qJnQD7EnkS2P8OLQSNElScL4HYzx5p0va1R5uG05lPphaJDNOKXqy71wwf2KF1B1uECfXHiRufz_S4P/s320/Banner_IL.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div>An Iliad (this isn't much of a picture but it is all they have on the website, obviously the character was posed before the production) , created by Denis O Hare and Lisa Peterson (who also directed it) was an entirely different matter. It was a tour de force performance by a single actor, Hans Alweis, and he played the entire range of characters ( Hector, Achilles, Ageammenon, Patroklus, Priam, Helen, Paris, Andromache, Astynax the baby son of Andromache and Hector , Zeus, Thetis, Athena) brilliantly, as well as himself (perhaps Homer) and himself again ( a contemporary who sees the meaninglessness of war). <br />
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The selections from the Iliad, the parts that were chosen, were perfect to convey the stupidity of war, the needless suffering, the insanity of killing, the arrogance, the egos, the hesitation, the thoughts of avoiding war that were not acted on, all of it was there. The recital of wars from ancient history to the present was staggering, presented in a soft voice that seemed to come out of the actor like a slow drip of blood. It was a similar intention to the slide show at the end of Henry V of art works about war, but had much more impact. The simple recital fit with the poetic homage of the play as a whole. <br />
An Iliad gave us the full persepctive on what war is about and an extraordinary performance. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBDPHt_gpcl0002Oa9WyVtH9NJxhSctEWm8j3BQ1msAMPwpE16sw7rl7ISxoKUIoIXGvhkYhUxFAQ6fYVtRCZMk1mxYtkfRxgm_E5D4GPgeSAGwc0eWqQArjkNQk19oPD_8QP4CLA0w-k/s1600/SrebenicaQuilt+detailsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBDPHt_gpcl0002Oa9WyVtH9NJxhSctEWm8j3BQ1msAMPwpE16sw7rl7ISxoKUIoIXGvhkYhUxFAQ6fYVtRCZMk1mxYtkfRxgm_E5D4GPgeSAGwc0eWqQArjkNQk19oPD_8QP4CLA0w-k/s320/SrebenicaQuilt+detailsm.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div>But then there is the Srebenica Quilt made by the widows, sisters, daughters of survivors of that terrible massacre. Each square is an homage to a lost loved one. Each one is actually woven, it is not a quilt, it is done in the flat weave kilim style, a heritage of the Ottoman Empire in this area. It is done by a group of brave, activist women who are extraodinary survivors, who are claiming a burial ground for their loved ones, who are reburying them, who are organizing to declare that they are going forward. This is the message of woman. I wish there were a play about that.Susan Platthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233139314516714556noreply@blogger.com0