Author: Matthew Westphal

Tare Modern Opens Its New Space, ‘The Tanks’

“The Tanks’ purpose is to bring live work and performance art – often, since its origins in the 1960s and 70s, seen as too fragile, fugitive or plain avant garde to be co-opted by museums – into the mainstream. The underground galleries will also provide space for the kind of large, complex film and video installations that the museum has struggled to show in the past.”

So What’s It Like Down In The Tate Modern’s Tanks?

“The acoustics of the East Tank (Commission) and the South Tank (Live), two of three underground spaces where the oil that fuelled the power station was once stored, are remarkable. The spaces act as sound boxes … The conversion of the Tanks retains the feel of bunkers, with brutalist concrete columns set at dramatic angles complementing the original industrial architecture. In places there is even a slight whiff of old oil.”

Toni Morrison On Black Literature And The White Gaze

“In American literature, African American male writers justifiably write books about their oppression. Confronting the oppressor who is white male or white woman. It’s race. And the person who defines you under those circumstances is a white mind … African American women never do that. They never write about white men. I couldn’t care less – I didn’t want to spend my energy refuting that gaze.”

Spike Lee On Being Controversial

“The stuff I have done and said has never been for – and this is a word I really detest – controversy. I think the word is misused. I was raised in a household – we were all encouraged by my parents to speak your mind. Now, that does not mean you should speak every time there is an opportunity to. And so it has been a learning experience over the years that … I cannot talk about everything. I cannot do it. I cannot do it, cannot do it.”

UK National Gallery’s Guards Threaten Strike During London Olympics

“The National Gallery faces the possibility of partial closures during the Olympics after warders who patrol its rooms announced a fresh series of strikes beginning on the first day of the Games. The warders – officially known as gallery assistants – have been fighting a long-running battle with management over reduced staffing levels.”

Dictionaries Are Gold Mines Of Anthropology And Social History

“If you want to know what a soldier’s life was really like in the Forties, pick up a dictionary of Services slang. Most of the words have nothing to do with fighting: they’re to do with gossiping, making tea, and waiting around.” And among the 3,000 new words in the latest edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary are “fengkoufei (a bribe paid to a journalist to keep his mouth shut), Baijin Zhuyi (money worshipper) and fenqing (angry young nationalist).”