An artist is making an exhibition of pictures of him scratching the paint of cars with a key in Glasgow and London. “They should feel glad that they’ve been involved in the creative process. I pick the cars randomly. got the idea when my sister and brother-in-law’s cars were keyed. Is it jealousy that causes someone to key a car? Hatred? Revenge? There is a strong creative element in the keying of a car, it’s an emotive engagement.”
Month: April 2005
Will Pills Replace Psychoanalysis?
As we learn more about how the brain works, we are starting to understand how moods and feelings are controlled by brain chemistry. So what happens to pschoanalysis – talk therapy – that has been popular since Freud? “Advances in neurology, and especially in pharmacology, have called such therapy into question. When psychological and emotional disturbances can be traced to faulty brain chemistry and corrected with a pill, the idea that sitting and talking can treat a problem such as clinical depression might seem outdated.”
Davies: Where’s The Promised Support For Classical Music?
Composer Peter Maxwell Davies is using his position as Master of the Queen’s Music to argue loudly for support of classical music. “In his lecture Sir Peter will condemn the fact that the government, despite launching a music manifesto last year which promised greater access to instrumental tuition for schoolchildren, has put no money towards its fulfilment.
Opera North Embarks On Rebuilding
The UK’s Opera North is about to be ousted from its house for a year while the building is upgraded. “The £31.5m, two-phase renovation and building project involves, in the first instance, construction of rehearsal rooms and an overhaul of the auditorium. The second phase will see the 19th-century Assembly Rooms, next to the theatre, converted into a public space that will serve as a recital hall and room for education work.”
Why Is The 90-Minute Play The Norm?
Michael Billington is afraid plays are getting into a rut: “While I’ve no wish to lay down laws, I find myself increasingly disturbed by the fashionable tyranny of the 90-minute play. It is everywhere; and I believe it is crippling ambition, ironing out contradiction, and effectively de-politicising drama.”
Remaking Denver
Denver is remaking itself “combining an old pragmatism with an intensifying progressive bent. Some longtime residents are worried the large flock of newcomers are reshaping Denver to resemble the coastal cities they left behind, while others celebrate the new push toward public transit and a vibrant downtown.”
Predock To Design $300 Million Human Rights Museum
Architect Antoine Predock has been chosen to design the new Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. “The $300-million museum aims to be the largest human-rights institution and education centre in the world. Scheduled to open in 2009 or 2010, the museum will be built at the historic Forks site in Winnipeg, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.”
In Australia: Just Give Them The Money!
The Sydney Dance Company and Australia’s symphony orchestras are underfunded and endangered. Now a popular swell of support is rising up, with Sydney’s leading radio host taking up the cause: “Are we cultural slobs, or are we prepared to step up to the plate and get behind our orchestras and the Sydney Dance Company, when we know their cultural worth and the level of community support that they enjoy? So let’s forget the debate. Provide the money, and get on with it.”
Cubs Fans, Meet “Ring” Fans (Hey, It’s Chicago)
“Perhaps it’s a stretch to insist that a passion for baseball and a passion for opera are related, though the link is documented. But as Placido Domingo intimated, the link seems most intense in Chicago, where the ache for a baseball victory is palpable (the White Sox are virtually as hapless as the Cubs), where theater, the symphony and the opera are virulent inspirers of local pride, and where a recent newspaper poll asking whether sports or the arts were more thrilling ended in a dead heat.”
The Hardest Working Man In Music
Valery Gergiev “has become, since the deaths of Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, the most talked-about maestro on the planet. Known also as ‘the hardest working man in music,’ Gergiev would have his hands full just being artistic director of the Kirov or Mariinsky Theatre, with its 2,000 employees, including an opera company, a ballet company and a giant orchestra. But when he is not in St. Petersburg, he can often be found in New York, at The Met, where he has been principal guest conductor since 1997 (a new three-year contract is about to be signed), or in Rotterdam, where he has been principal conductor of the Philharmonic since 1995, or at one of several festivals he organizes annually.”