“I would only say that some artists feel a curiosity about examining the phenomenology of those things. It is investigative work, not just emotional work, that can enable an artist to determine how a system works and find the right vocabulary to discuss it.” – San Diego Union-Tribune
Tag: 05.03.20
Archaeologists Discover Ancient Egyptian Funeral Workshop
When at last the chamber was empty, the team was surprised to discover that it wasn’t a tomb. The room had a raised, table-like area and shallow channels cut into the bedrock along the base of one wall. In one corner, a barrel-sized bowl was filled with charcoal, ash, and dark sand. An older tunnel—part of a network of passages that honeycomb the rock beneath Saqqara—moved cool air through the space. The clues suggested that the chamber had been a mummification workshop, complete with an industrial-strength incense burner, drainage channels to funnel blood, and a natural ventilation system. – National Geographic
The Theatre Company In England Coordinating Emergency Food Deliveries And More
The theatre company Slung Low is used to thinking creatively, says its artistic director. This is just a bit different: “Constantly I’m on the phone doing deals. The other day, I swapped a load of tote bags that I got from the university for some face masks, which I split in half and swapped the other half for a lot of cream. It’s constant creative thinking, constant problem solving.” – BBC
A Goodbye Gala Goes Online, Bigger And Better Than Expected
Emily Mann was set to wrap up three decades as the director of McCarter Theater Center in Princeton this spring. Then everything shut down – and her gala went online. “‘I think I liked this better,’ Mann, 68, said by phone later that evening, moved that more than a thousand people had registered to tune in online and looking forward to watching it all again on video.” – The New York Times
The Art Of Lighted, Locked Down Los Angeles Movie Theatres
“There’s nothing like the Xanadu of a giant screen, air conditioning, darkness, Milk Duds and a big Hollywood movie in a packed theater” – which means that, right now, there’s a very well-lit, beautiful, empty nothing. – Los Angeles Times
Algerian Singer Idir, A Berber Icon, Has Died In Paris At The Age Of 70
Idir trained to be a geologist, but “his life took a twist in 1973 when he was called up as a last-minute replacement on the radio to sing ‘A Vava Inouva.’ It was a lullaby with the ‘rich oral traditions’ of the Berber culture and became a beloved song in the country” – and he continued to give voice to Berber and Kabyle culture from then on. – The Washington Post (AP)
What Will Happen To Broadway?
Everyone’s watching to find out, but one big issue is social distancing and profit margins (such as they are not, typically, in theatre). “Keeping audience members two metres apart would limit the audience to 30 per cent of normal capacity, and that simply isn’t sustainable.” – CBC
A Gallery Helped African American Artists In The 1990s – But Perhaps It Also Ripped Them Off
The George N’Namdi galleries were sometimes the only game in the country for Black artists in the 1980s. According to a recent lawsuit, “Discrimination in the art world prevented the recognition that these artists deserved until the last several years.” But the lawsuit also alleges that “the N’Namdis took advantage of this situation by egregiously and systematically breaching their fiduciary obligations to [the plaintiff] and others.” – The New York Times