Friday, June 06, 2008
Greg Drasler at the Betty Cunningham Gallery
Even if the exhibition is long gone, I had some pictures from the New York based painter Greg Drasler's exhibition at Betty Cunningham Gallery which I was compelled to post. For some reason, I liked his paintings a lot. They did not look photorealistic, yet they did. They did not look like the sets of a period classic movie set, yet they did. They did not look Art Deco, yet they did. I know I did not make much sense there, but the choice of his subject matter, the execution and the colors just make for some kind of a haunting alternate reality.
Texas hold'em chronicles
In the continuing Texas hold'em series (first one posted here and more here), this is one on creationism.
From the Times: Starting this summer, the state education board will determine the curriculum for the next decade and decide whether the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution should be taught. The benign-sounding phrase, some argue, is a reasonable effort at balance. But critics say it is a new strategy taking shape across the nation to undermine the teaching of evolution, a way for students to hear religious objections under the heading of scientific discourse.
Here are interesting viewpoints from the chairman of the Texas education board, Dr. Don McLeroy:
On Evolution: I just don’t think it’s true.
On Geology: Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion.
On Religion: I believe a lot of incredible things. The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.
Circle of Pietro Ricchi Il Lucchese (1606 - 1676), 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony of Padua', oil on canvas, 36" X 52"
From the Times: Starting this summer, the state education board will determine the curriculum for the next decade and decide whether the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution should be taught. The benign-sounding phrase, some argue, is a reasonable effort at balance. But critics say it is a new strategy taking shape across the nation to undermine the teaching of evolution, a way for students to hear religious objections under the heading of scientific discourse.
Here are interesting viewpoints from the chairman of the Texas education board, Dr. Don McLeroy:
On Evolution: I just don’t think it’s true.
On Geology: Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion.
On Religion: I believe a lot of incredible things. The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.
Circle of Pietro Ricchi Il Lucchese (1606 - 1676), 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony of Padua', oil on canvas, 36" X 52"Thursday, June 05, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Migratory instincts
One could not get it more right than yesterday's NYT editorial on our immigration imbroglio.
A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.
Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values.
A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.
Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Lissome Law department
As we move towards an era of more conservative courts, the threat of overturning Roe v. Wade becomes a clear and present concern. It is instructive to read what a former gynecologist has to say during the times when abortion was considered illegal.
Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off. Another method that I did not encounter, but heard about from colleagues in other hospitals, was a soap solution forced through the cervical canal with a syringe.
The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.
A paper by Richard Posner, a judge who sits on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and William Landes, a law professor at the University of Chicago estimateed that four of the five most conservative justices to serve on the Supreme Court since Franklin Roosevelt are currently sitting on the bench today. Full ranking at the end of this article:.
Francis Picabia, 'MI', oil and crayon on panel, 63" X 37", 1929 (from a Christie's auction booklet)
Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off. Another method that I did not encounter, but heard about from colleagues in other hospitals, was a soap solution forced through the cervical canal with a syringe.
The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.
A paper by Richard Posner, a judge who sits on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and William Landes, a law professor at the University of Chicago estimateed that four of the five most conservative justices to serve on the Supreme Court since Franklin Roosevelt are currently sitting on the bench today. Full ranking at the end of this article:.
Francis Picabia, 'MI', oil and crayon on panel, 63" X 37", 1929 (from a Christie's auction booklet) Monday, June 02, 2008
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Gas prices breaking pumps - literally
The rate of increase in gas prices is so high that counters inside mechanical gas pumps are wearing out trying to keep up.
No, that was not a punch line designed for irony. It is true. From the Times:
While gasoline is still dispensed at no more than 10 gallons a minute, higher prices mean the mechanical equipment must spin faster to keep up, leading to more problems. When gas was a dollar a gallon, the penny wheel went to a dollar in one minute. But, anything that goes four times faster is going to wear out quicker. This time, prices have risen so high so quickly that the manufacturers of the replacement parts have been unable to keep.
No, that was not a punch line designed for irony. It is true. From the Times:
While gasoline is still dispensed at no more than 10 gallons a minute, higher prices mean the mechanical equipment must spin faster to keep up, leading to more problems. When gas was a dollar a gallon, the penny wheel went to a dollar in one minute. But, anything that goes four times faster is going to wear out quicker. This time, prices have risen so high so quickly that the manufacturers of the replacement parts have been unable to keep.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Geometries
The Chelsea based Robert Miller Gallery has a simple, neat show. The show asks one to simply look at lines, shadows, curves, surfaces and other geometric forms in an artistic light. Geometry used as a language and subject by contemporary artists is relatively new and this collection is a good representation of the possibilities. Some of the works were purely minimalist whilst others bordered on being contrived. Most were somewhere in between. The show is on till the end of July.
Joel Shapiro works on iterations of rectangular volumes
Keith Sonnier uses neon light to describe volume in space
Kjell Varvin combines objects in space with two dimensional drawings
Kenneth Snelson uses aluminum and steel held in tension by cables
John Duff uses steel and plaster to work dimensionality
Another one of Joel Shapiro's works
John Pai welds well to depict volumes
John Pai's works: Installation view
Joel Shapiro works on iterations of rectangular volumes
Keith Sonnier uses neon light to describe volume in space
Kjell Varvin combines objects in space with two dimensional drawings
Kenneth Snelson uses aluminum and steel held in tension by cables
John Duff uses steel and plaster to work dimensionality
Another one of Joel Shapiro's works
John Pai welds well to depict volumes
John Pai's works: Installation view
Al Held uses drawing to meld surface and space
Paul Miller a.k.a DJ Spooky works in the intersection between digital and textual worlds
Nils Folke Anderson created nine large scale polystyrene inter-locking squares that was riveting to look at. This piece logically tied the show and was displayed over at the gallery entrance. I noticed many people on the street stopping to look at this structure and intrigued by the resulting geometric vision, stepping into the gallery space.
Paul Miller a.k.a DJ Spooky works in the intersection between digital and textual worlds
Nils Folke Anderson created nine large scale polystyrene inter-locking squares that was riveting to look at. This piece logically tied the show and was displayed over at the gallery entrance. I noticed many people on the street stopping to look at this structure and intrigued by the resulting geometric vision, stepping into the gallery space.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Optimism
We know we are plumbing the future when researchers have successfully managed to train a couple of monkeys to feed themselves with a robotic arm. On a serious note, such research bodes well for people with spinal cord injuries who could use similarly designed brain-powered prosthetic limbs to successfully perform simple tasks like feeding themselves.
Nature journal link here.
Nature journal link here.
Hustle
You can now be Facebook friends with Grandpa Wen (or the crying Prime Minister). Why does a country try so hard at being cool? Maybe an easy way to dust the flak off the Tibet brouhaha and sweep the stage clean for the Olympics.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Indian art alert at Chelsea
Even though Indians have recently been blamed for causing the global food crisis by insular insinuations that they are eating too much (see Sepia Mutiny's Food Price Kerfuffle for an analysis debunking the claim), they have not yet been blamed for producing too much contemporary art. Judging by recent glut of Indian artworks doing the rounds in Chelsea, I must say that if the artworld prices suddenly changed tomorrow (for better or for worse), Indians might get blamed for that too.
I happened to visit a couple of galleries (Stux Gallery and the newly opened Lio Malca gallery) showing works by Asian (primarily Indian artists) and it was delightful.
Again, I am linking to the press releases on the gallery website rather than describe the art.
The Stux gallery had a showing of Contemporary artists from India, Pakistan and Middle East. The portrait by Reena Kallat (first image below) made from painted rubberstamps and the inkjet prints of Prema Murthy are the best of this show.
The collage artist Baba Anand was showing at Lio Malca (G’dS and Demig’ds). The art had a very kitschy feel (done with a mixture of collage and photographs) – I did not like it, but I can see people getting into this kind of tacky, glossy stuff. The artist seems to be alternately making fun of the Bollywood film machine and a motley assortment of Indian gods and goddesses.
Lalla Essaydi (Oil on canvas)
Negar Ahkami (Acrylic on panel)
Prema Murthy (Inkjet on paper)
Jaishri Abichandani (Acrylic on canvas)
Rajul Mehta (mixed media on canvas)
I happened to visit a couple of galleries (Stux Gallery and the newly opened Lio Malca gallery) showing works by Asian (primarily Indian artists) and it was delightful.
Again, I am linking to the press releases on the gallery website rather than describe the art.
The Stux gallery had a showing of Contemporary artists from India, Pakistan and Middle East. The portrait by Reena Kallat (first image below) made from painted rubberstamps and the inkjet prints of Prema Murthy are the best of this show.
The collage artist Baba Anand was showing at Lio Malca (G’dS and Demig’ds). The art had a very kitschy feel (done with a mixture of collage and photographs) – I did not like it, but I can see people getting into this kind of tacky, glossy stuff. The artist seems to be alternately making fun of the Bollywood film machine and a motley assortment of Indian gods and goddesses.
Lalla Essaydi (Oil on canvas)
Negar Ahkami (Acrylic on panel)
Prema Murthy (Inkjet on paper)
Jaishri Abichandani (Acrylic on canvas)
Rajul Mehta (mixed media on canvas)
Images from Baba Anand exhibition at Lio Malca
Monday, May 26, 2008
In Flanders Fields - John McCrae, 1915In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
'You can't make this up' department
While Harpers this month profiled penis thievery in Nigeria and the culture bound depersonalization syndrome that might cause a person to actually believe that the organ in question has disappeared, this news item (from reddit) about a cat turning into a woman in Nigeria and a mob attacking her smacks of similar mind/culture dichotomies.
Poetry
Search
After about twenty years, she went back to the city where it
started and boarded one of those city buses, a red, red
one, kind of like the one they had traveled in a
lot during the whimsical, wintry nights;
hopeful, yet fearful of when the
cocoon might give; she then
happens to chance on a
young man two seats
upfront with that
selfsame slouch,
unmistakable,
yet distant.
On a
whim, she
almost reaches
to shout out that
her torturer has now
gone and would not come
again to haunt her any more
and he could come back and stay
with her and live his life full; as if he
were just reborn to her anew; the red bus
stops abruptly and the man catches himself from
falling; turns back involuntarily and catches a very frail
old lady staring at him. Her searching gaze faltering yet again.
After about twenty years, she went back to the city where it
started and boarded one of those city buses, a red, red
one, kind of like the one they had traveled in a
lot during the whimsical, wintry nights;
hopeful, yet fearful of when the
cocoon might give; she then
happens to chance on a
young man two seats
upfront with that
selfsame slouch,
unmistakable,
yet distant.
On a
whim, she
almost reaches
to shout out that
her torturer has now
gone and would not come
again to haunt her any more
and he could come back and stay
with her and live his life full; as if he
were just reborn to her anew; the red bus
stops abruptly and the man catches himself from
falling; turns back involuntarily and catches a very frail
old lady staring at him. Her searching gaze faltering yet again.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Friday linkages
Do you believe in the inherent goodness of human nature and believe that violence and going to war is always counterproductive or do you believe that humans tends to get nasty and brutish devoid of contractual relationships and going to war is a device that repairs broken contracts? A book by Nicholson Baker believes ardently in the former and is getting a lot attention since he argues that the 'justest' war of them all – World War II - was un-necessary. Analysis here.
A neocon who thinks – though that might seem like an anomaly, this essay by Robert Kagan (a long one) has an interesting point of view: In a post cold war era, it is prudent to note that re-alignment of power does not seem to have been directed to the detriment of America but at the two large powers: China and Russia. In Asia and the Pacific, Japan, Australia, and even South Korea and the nations of Southeast Asia have all engaged in “hedging” against a rising China. This has led them to seek closer relations with Washington, especially in the case of Japan and Australia. India has also drawn closer to the United States and is clearly engaged in balancing against China.
The following is telling: Some have suggested that failure in Iraq would mean the end of predominance and unipolarity. But a superpower can lose a war — in Vietnam or in Iraq — without ceasing to be a superpower if the fundamental international conditions continue to support its predominance. So long as the United States remains at the center of the international economy and the predominant military power, so long as the American public continues to support American predominance as it has consistently for six decades, and so long as potential challengers inspire more fear than sympathy among their neighbors, the structure of the international system should remain as the Chinese describe it: one superpower and many great powers.
Philip Weisss on why married men stray (especially after the state of New York is seeing a ‘straying incident’ every couple of months, this is true - Eliot Spitzer, his successor David Paterson and most recently Vito Fossella). Is sexual straying a personality disorder inherent in men or is it a biological manifestation outside of a man’s control?
A neocon who thinks – though that might seem like an anomaly, this essay by Robert Kagan (a long one) has an interesting point of view: In a post cold war era, it is prudent to note that re-alignment of power does not seem to have been directed to the detriment of America but at the two large powers: China and Russia. In Asia and the Pacific, Japan, Australia, and even South Korea and the nations of Southeast Asia have all engaged in “hedging” against a rising China. This has led them to seek closer relations with Washington, especially in the case of Japan and Australia. India has also drawn closer to the United States and is clearly engaged in balancing against China.
The following is telling: Some have suggested that failure in Iraq would mean the end of predominance and unipolarity. But a superpower can lose a war — in Vietnam or in Iraq — without ceasing to be a superpower if the fundamental international conditions continue to support its predominance. So long as the United States remains at the center of the international economy and the predominant military power, so long as the American public continues to support American predominance as it has consistently for six decades, and so long as potential challengers inspire more fear than sympathy among their neighbors, the structure of the international system should remain as the Chinese describe it: one superpower and many great powers.
Philip Weisss on why married men stray (especially after the state of New York is seeing a ‘straying incident’ every couple of months, this is true - Eliot Spitzer, his successor David Paterson and most recently Vito Fossella). Is sexual straying a personality disorder inherent in men or is it a biological manifestation outside of a man’s control?
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