Quantcast
Channel: Culture & Arts
Viewing all 18485 articles
Browse latest View live

While Her Kids Are Sleeping, This Mom Makes Magic With Chalk

0
0

Amanda Creek has a creative way to unwind while her kids are napping or in bed for the night. The mom of two makes chalk art drawings of iconic characters from the worlds of Disney, DC Comics, Nickelodeon and beyond.


"I just find it so relaxing," Creek told The Huffington Post, adding that she often works on her driveway creations with a flashlight when it's dark outside. "I draw until I decide I should probably go to bed too," she said. 



About a week ago, Creek's husband got her permission to "do something" with her impressive drawings and posted them to Reddit. Within 24 hours, the images had over 300,000 views


Still, Creek's biggest fan is probably her 3-year-old daughter Autumn, who uses words like "awesome," "amazing" and "on point" to describe her mom's art. "I love seeing my daughters reaction when she wakes up and sees what I've drawn," the mom said. 


Though she took a few art classes in high school, the mom says she's "pretty much self-taught" and only has one goal with her viral fame: "I just hope others enjoy looking at my drawings as much as I enjoy drawing them."


Goal achieved.



H/T Today


 


Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












Stunning Nude Photos Prove Love Comes In All Shapes And Sizes

0
0

Warning: This article contains nude images and may be inappropriate for work.



Photographer Substantia Jones has a pretty simple message: "Fat people deserve love and sex and a good, deep hit of the happy, just like everyone else."


Jones, a self-described "prudent hedonist," "uppity fatty" and "flaming gastrosexual" is the lady behind The Adipositivity Project, a platform that encourages the acceptance of various human sizes -- adipose means "of or relating to fat."


On her website, Jones publishes images of various individuals, fat and thin, with the hopes of encouraging discussion and understanding. In one particular series, titled "Valentine Series," Jones focuses her lens specifically on romantic couples of all races, genders and body types. Above all, Jones wants to communicate to the world that, contrary to what mainstream media often portrays, do not worry, fat people are getting some.


"Fat people are loved and not," Jones explains in her statement. "Enjoying sexytimes and not. Happy and not. In pretty much the same measure as the general public. The 'Valentine Series' informs the doubting world of this. Using visual aids."


Thank you Substantia! 



Every year, Jones photographs fat people with their partners, simple as that. The couples choose their clothing, which is optional, as well as whether or not they wish to reveal their identities. 


The stunning series captures real life lovey-dovey moments that will make your heart beat faster. And of course, unlike your average rom-com, it has a mission. "For every kid whose parent insisted they’d never 'land' [eyeroll] a partner unless they lost weight, have a look. For every fat person who’s let some nimrod convince them their relationship isn’t working because of a jiggly tummy. Have a look. For every casual observer who’s assumed I must be my thin date’s sister or something. Have a look. (And watch us swap spit in a decidedly un-sibling-like manner.) It’s for all those folks."


Whether her subjects are themselves fighting for self-acceptance, raising a middle finger to the heavens or just showing the world they are in L-O-V-E, Jones is happy to provide the opportunity. 


"I also want to show that just as humans come in all shapes and sizes, so do couples. I’ll never understand why so many believe fat people pair up (or should pair up) only with other fat people, and likewise with the thin. Whom you find attractive is determined by a voluminous assortment of factors. Your own size is not among them. You may be looking for kindness in a partner, or a certain kind of smile. You may test prospective dates on their proficiency in Spinal Tap lyrics. But hunting for someone who matches your weight? That’s criteria for a see-saw partner. Not love."


See the stunning photos for yourself below.



Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Haruki Murakami’s Early Stories Aren’t Just For Superfans

0
0

At a season opener for an unpopular baseball team, Haruki Murakami lounged in the sparsely populated bleachers with a beer. In the first inning, the new guy on the team hit a clean double with the crack of his bat, and wham! An epiphany landed cleanly in the mind of the now-beloved author. He was going to write a novel.


It wouldn’t be easy, he conceded. He worked late, taxing nights at the jazz bar he’d opened with his wife a few years earlier. But he was accustomed to hard work. Averse to the idea of an office job, he’d raised the money to open the bar by working as many as four odd jobs at a time until his dream was realized. And now he had a new one.


This kind of epiphany -- vague and dreamlike, coming seemingly from nowhere -- has become a staple of Murakami’s stories, so it’s fitting that a bizarre occurrence is what got him writing in the first place. He relates this scene in the introduction to his two newly published short novels, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973. Written in 1978, they’re his first two shots at fiction, and have recently been translated into English.


The author refers to them as his kitchen table novels, crafted at late hours after clocking out of his day job. “They are totally irreplaceable, much like friends from long ago,” he writes. “They warmed my heart, and encouraged me on my way.” In speaking of these works so preciously, Murakami is being humble. While they’re sure to delight fans, they’re beautiful stand-alone works in their own right.


The first, Hear the Wind Sing, is a strange and funny meditation on impermanence. The narrator returns from university in Tokyo to his hometown for the summer, and becomes fast friends with a man who’s very much his opposite: a curmudgeonly, wealthy, cliché-slinging dropout named the Rat, who’d sooner drink himself silly than pick up a book. Beer, he posits, is beautiful in its ability to move through you without changing you permanently -- “easy in, easy out.” Over the course of the summer, they switch roles, their values and realities swapped in a 1Q84-like manner -- simultaneously plausible and surreal. While the Rat starts lugging around heavy texts, the narrator spends a few (literally) forgettable nights out with a mysterious, four-fingered woman. The pair chat about biology -- for what’s a Murakami novel without a reference to cats? -- eat stew, and reflect on their past relationships.


It’s a prosaic story related in what would become the author’s token plain language. But beyond that, it has embedded in it the philosophies on art that would shape Murakami’s works going forward. The narrator cautions the reader, “If it’s art of literature you’re interested in, I suggest you read the Greeks. [...] If you’re the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o’clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly. That’s who I am.” He continues to call his story a “measuring stick” that can be used to calculate the gulf between what we attempt to perceive and what we can actually perceive -- a manifesto for connecting through storytelling.


The second novella in the two-book collection, Pinball, 1973, is set in the same sleepy hometown of the narrator, whose life whizzes by before he’s able to notice. A founder of a translation company, he makes good money but doesn’t question the meaning of his work, instead getting caught up in the puzzle-like quality of it. It’s in this state of mind that he stumbles upon a pinball machine at a local bar, and slowly grows obsessed with the game before his machine of choice is whisked away. A rare model, it’s never seen again. Using his fiction to thinly veil his artistic opinions, he writes, “Almost nothing can be gained from pinball. The only payoff is a numerical substitution for pride.” He continues, adding that a pinball machine is only good for self-expression and ego-expansion; a clear parallel to certain types of literary writing.


So, the two strange, meandering stories are sure to please fans of the authors’ later work, as they provide insight into what, exactly, he hopes to accomplish with his clean language and dreamlike plots.


But, much like a game of pinball, they’re also addicting stories with fulfilling, if not inherently meaningful, conclusions.


The bottom line:


Murakami’s early novels are illustrative of his early ideas about writing, but they’re also engaging stand-alone works of fiction.


Who wrote it:


Haruki Murakami is the author of The Windup Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore, and many other novels.


Who will read it:


Those interested in surreal works of fiction. Those who dig a pulpy approach to storytelling. Anyone interested in '70s culture.


Opening lines:


“There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of writing, just as there’s no such thing as perfect despair.” So said a writer I bumped into back when I was a university student. It wasn’t until much later that I could grasp his full meaning, but I still found consolation in his words -- that there’s no such thing as perfect writing.”


Notable passage:


“It had been a long time since I felt the fragrance of summer: the scent of the ocean, a distant train whistle, the touch of a girl’s skin, the lemony perfume of her hair, the evening wind, faint glimmers of hope, summer dreams.


But none of these were the way they once had been; they were all somehow off, as if copied with tracing paper that kept slipping out of place.”


Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Vivian Fu's Raw Self-Portraits Challenge The 'Asian Sidekick' Stereotype

0
0

Warning: This article contains nudity and may not be appropriate for work. 



The San Fernando Valley, my homeland, located just north of Los Angeles, isn't exactly known for its cultural influence. Nail salons, bowling alleys, foot spas, coin laundry mats, car washes and the occasional frozen yogurt joint populate the strips, arranged geometrically into vaguely Spanish style cubes. Also, it's hot, really hot. The kind of heat that turns seatbelt buckles into deadly weapons and your underboobs into natural bodies of water. 


Bay Area-based photographer Vivian Fu grew up in this sweaty corporate limbo too, and credits much of her aesthetic to its vibes. "The valley is so hot, and heat makes you so aware of your body," she explained to The Huffington Post. "You get sweaty and uncomfortable. The mosquitos are out and you're covered in bites. You're peeling your thighs off of the leather interior of a car. Aside from the heat, the landscape is so bizarre, and filled with beige stucco track housing and strip malls, and within some of those buildings I knew that adult films were being shot."


Fu's photographs most often depict the artist and her partner, Tim. Like the valley, they are a little bit suburban, a lotta bit seedy, and emit heat. The project began with a scenario any born and bred valley girl (or guy) can relate to -- being bored on the Internet. "There was so little to do in the valley, and I spent most of my time at home on the Internet, which is what helped spur my interest in photography. I think that also as a teenager in the valley you want to show off how different you are from the sameness of the entire landscape that you're in, even if your version of showing your uniqueness is the Hot Topic version of it."


LiveJournal, Myspace, Flickr, Tumblr. They all became virtual stages; part-diary, part-soapbox, allowing that contemporary combination of introspection and exhibition to ferment. "These spaces became platforms to share my life and my images and to connect with other people who were interested in similar things," Fu said. 



Social media has become a breeding ground for a particular artistic aesthetic, one dominated primarily by young women artists with their raw, self-aware and self-actualized work. They aren't afraid of menstrual blood or the color pink, projecting girl power-inflected teenage dreams. Think Petra Collins, Molly Soda, Mayan Toledano and Grace Miceli, whose viral T-shirt reading, "Girls at night on the Internet," could make a fitting mantra.


While mainstream culture treats feminine and teenage proclivities with disdain, this new guard flaunts its unadulterated passion for selfies, glitter, sex and doodling, recognizing the revolutionary underpinnings of their pastimes. 


Fu, whose work is now on view alongside Soda, Toledano and Miceli's in the LA exhibition "hot in here," realizes the selfie's power of subversion. "I'm not sure if weapon is the word that I would use for it, but I do think that people are using the selfie as a means of claiming ownership of their bodies, identities and lives, and also as a means of exploring and celebrating themselves."



I still feel an immense amount of pressure that I need to be a certain way, especially with my photography... that me and my photographs are in some way responsible for speaking for all Asian American women or that I am a tour guide of Asian American girl life experience...

The selfie has a rich feminist history. Far before duck faces plastered your newsfeed, artists like Carolee Schneemann, Ana Mendieta, Laurie Simmons, Cindy Sherman and Francesca Woodman broke new ground taking control of their representations, expunging the obligatory mediation of the male gaze. Now, the form is most quickly associated with narcissism and vapidity, and it's being packaged and sold as such. "I don't think that the selfie has lost it's power, but I think that the idea of the selfie is being commodified to sell shit in a similar way that feminism is being commodified to sell shit."


Yes, some of Fu's motivations are political, but sometimes she's just enamored with the light. "When I'm taking pictures it's usually because I feel strongly about the people I'm imaging or because the light was beautiful or because I want to hold onto that moment in some way with this visual document," she said. "This freedom and privilege I have to make photographs combats the feeling I had growing up that I couldn't own my life or that I had to be a certain way or that my life had to turn out a specific way. In making photographs, I have a document of different moments in my life that I literally own."



Some of the tensions Fu references stem from growing up in the suburbs, surrounded by blond valley girls and white skater dudes. It didn't help much that most Asian women represented in pop culture played the sidekick or the fetishized love interest -- basically, the supporting character to the white lead.


"Stereotypes of Asian women are prevalent within the American consciousness, and I'm sure that most people are aware of what those stereotypes are," Fu said. "I think that the problem I had with these ideas is that they denied me agency of my life, my choices, and identity. What has been so wonderful about growing up with the Internet is that I had a space where I had control over the narrative that was being created."


In her photos, Fu appears naked lying in bed, draped over her partner, looking in the mirror, lounging in the grass or hunched on the stairs. They are regular moments -- some intimate, some dull, some self-conscious, some sexual -- conjuring that LiveJournal-esque combination of raw vulnerability and performance. While many female artists are fighting the good fight to turn a lazy bedroom into a battleground, at this point, the majority of them are white.


For Fu, this presents both an opportunity and a burden. "Now that I'm a 'grown up' I still feel an immense amount of pressure that I need to be a certain way, especially with my photography," she said. "For example, that me and my photographs are in some way responsible for speaking for all Asian American women or that I am a tour guide of Asian American girl life experience. I feel a pressure that this is my burden to bear, and I resent that." 


There are certain moments when, driving through the valley, the dingy commuter belt acquires a strange sort of magic. Grotesquely bright business banners, now sun-bleached and faded, seem to slouch over with an acquired humbleness, perhaps to avoid the blistering heat. Shadows of '70s porn scenes cast a dim shade on the familiar cast of suburban characters: the bickering nuclear family, the rowdy gang of bored middle schoolers, the pack of moms jonesing for a mani-pedi. Or maybe it's just the smog. On the right day it can be gaudier than Vegas, hungrier than Los Angeles, wildly dull and endearingly uncool.


Fu's work feels like the valley -- hot, domestic, restless, boring and bewitching. It's further proof that revolutionary art can happen anywhere, even the dark spirals of Internet stalking that take place in the wee hours of the morning in your childhood bedroom. 



Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Scientists Discover Mona Lisa Isn't The Only Painted Lady Rocking The 'Mona Lisa Smile'

0
0

The mystery of Mona Lisa's smile is probably one of the first things you learned about in art class. But it turns out Mona Lisa may not be the only painted lady to be working this signature, coy look. 


Experts and art fans take notice of Leonardo da Vinci's famous grin because of its uncanny ability to shape-shift. Look right at the smirk and you can hardly see any recognizable signs of happiness. But as you zoom out, let your eyes travel to her eyes and cheeks and hair, you'll notice, out of the corner of your eye, that Ms. Mona seems, all of the sudden, to be smirking. 



This little bit of art world magic is possible thanks to the different ways our eyes perceive stimulus depending on whether we're encountering the world head on or from the periphery. As Stephen Macknik of Scientific American explained: "While the neurons at the center of our vision see a very small portion of the world -- giving us high-resolution vision -- neurons in the periphery perceive larger portions of the visual scene, and hence possess lesser resolution."


Margaret Livingstone, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School with an interest in art history, was the first to come to this conclusion in the year 2000. Livingstone conducted an experiment using Adobe Photoshop, blurring and sharpening different parts of the painting to imitate the blurring that occurs naturally in our vision field.


She discovered that Mona Lisa's smile grows as it gets more blurred to the right; and it's more apparent in peripheral vision. In scientific terms, the phenomenon can be "explained through the notion that different retinal neurons are adjusted to varying the content of spatial size information in the image, which scientists refer to as its spatial frequency distribution."


So we know the secret to Mona Lisa's signature smile. However, while Lisa del Giocondo might be the most well-known of Leonardo's muses, she might not be the only one of his subjects to employ this simpering look. 



It wasn't until 2011 that experts authenticated "La Bella Principessa" as a work by Leonardo himself. And it's not until even more recently that Alessandro Soranzo and Michael Newberry of Sheffield Hallam University conducted a study, published in Vision Research, that explored the intricacies of the subject's expression. 


To make a long study short, Soranzo and Newberry confirmed that La Bella herself did share Mona Lisa's enigmatic grin. And, what's more, since "La Bella Principessa" was painted before Mona, it seems like it's Mona Lisa who is the copycat.



This research presents a new illusion which is similar to that identified in the Mona Lisa; La Bella Principessa's mouth appears to change slant depending on both the Viewing Distance and the Level of Blur applied to a digital version of the portrait. Through a series of psychophysics experiments, it was found that a perceived change in the slant of the La Bella Principessa's mouth influences her expression of contentment thus generating an illusion that we have coined the "uncatchable smile."



The more important lesson, however, is that Leonardo was well aware of the visual mastery at play in his works. Mona Lisa's subtly shifting smile was not an accident, but a carefully crafted visual puzzle, one that would baffle art historians and scientists for centuries to come. 



 


 

 Also on HuffPost:

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Intimate Portraits Of Shelter Volunteers Reveal A Special Kind Of Love

0
0

Jesse Freidin has spent the past year taking photos at animal shelters. But his subjects of focus are not dogs or cats. They're the humans. 



Freidin's project, called "Finding Shelter," examines the intimate bond formed between shelter volunteer and animal.


"No one talks about the logistical aspects of pet adoption, or how it takes a huge toll on people doing this work," Freidin told The Huffington Post. "These volunteers show up for free and carry the brunt of the work. They're the ones who allow the animals to go through the system and they're responsible for getting the animals adopted."


Freidin wanted to find out why these people, who dedicate hours upon hours to a thankless unpaid job, feel compelled to do what they do.


"I had this theory before I started that there's a cycle of support and healing that's happening," he said. While the dogs and cats receive care and love from their handlers, Freidin said he believes those gifts are reciprocated -- that the humans are emotionally benefiting from their time spent at the shelters, too. 


After shooting several volunteers at multiple shelters in California, Freidin noticed the volunteers had something "really beautiful" in common: "Across the board, if nothing else, these people have a deep desire to give back ... But in turn, are seeking some kind of support from that process."


The photographer describes the psychology behind the human-animal bond as something really complex; he says that dogs, in, particular, create a sense of support, safety and security. These things, Freidin has found, are easier to share with a dog than with a human. "There's this deep, unspoken connection between dogs and people. Together, we learn how to be social and trust and give love. People today aren't talking enough about that."


Freidin hopes his photos and their accompanying stories will help to get people talking. On Tuesday, he launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for a two-week trip to photograph 150 more dogs and volunteers at shelters across the country, and chronicle what he captures in a book. The photographer will give each shelter digital copies of his photos, so the animals have a greater chance of getting adopted. Freidin has mapped out the stops and production costs, but he's still unsure if his 10-year-old Boston Terrier, Pancake, will come along for the ride.


For a taste of what's to come, check out some of his first "Finding Shelter" portraits below. 



Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' To Be Made Into TV Series For Showtime

0
0

It's official: Patti Smith's bestselling memoir Just Kids is becoming a TV series. 


The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on Tuesday and revealed the show would be co-written and co-produced by Smith herself, along with screenwriter John Logan ("Penny Dreadful"). The limited series will air on Showtime, home of "Dexter" and "Homeland."


The most important question about the show, though, is this: Who will play Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, the iconic photographer whose relationship with Smith is at the center of Just Kids


A couple years after the book was published, Smith told Vanity Fair she once pictured Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in the roles. 


"I remember the very first time I saw Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson together, when they were younger, and I thought, Those two kids could have easily played us when they were first starting," she said. "There’s something in his eyes. And Robert [Mapplethorpe] was also a bit shy, and a bit stoic. Kristen has a very special quality. She’s not conventionally beautiful, but very charismatic.”


That casting would definitely draw some major ratings, as there are plenty of people (us included) who'd love to see the former couple back on screen together (#Robsten4ever), but we won't hold our breath.


In that same interview, Smith continued, "We were unknowns, and I think it should be unknowns in the film, and young."


She added, "I love Mia Wasikowska. I love the girl who plays 'Hanna' -- Saoirse Ronan. She’s brilliant. The depth of that girl. There’s a lot of interesting actresses and actors for any project. It’s a subject I like to think about." 


Who do you think could play the lead roles? We've put together a handy poll to help you out




Also on HuffPost: 



For a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











How Dogs Do Summer vs. How Cats Do Summer

0
0

There's no wrong way to do summer, but cats and dogs definitely do things a bit ... differently. At your family barbecue, your cat is probably perched on the grill, just taking in the scene -- while your pup is probably taking in all the burgers.


Check out our roundup of these hot dogs and cool cats from Instagram living their best summer lives. 


 


 GRILLIN' AND CHILLIN': Dogs vs. Cats




A photo posted by shelly (@shellyalzada) on



 

MAKING A SPLASH: Dogs. vs. Cats




 

ROAD TRIPPIN': Dogs vs. Cats




 

FEELING THEIR SUMMER LOOK: Dogs vs. Cats



A photo posted by Jetta (@pawsandpaint) on






HAVING A BALL: Dogs vs. Cats




A photo posted by DUMAN (@dumdumthegrey) on



 

TREATING YO'SELF: Dogs vs. Cats






 ENJOYING THE WONDER OF BUBBLES: Dogs vs. Cats



A video posted by Tiffany C. (@jelliefishy) on






KEEPING COOL: Dogs vs. Cats




 


  LIVING DAT POOL LIFE: Dogs vs. Cats



A photo posted by @sweet_suki_ on




A video posted by @mcmac123 on



 


REAPING THE SUMMER'S HARVEST: Dogs vs. Cats




A video posted by Emily (@abcdemerli) on



 


BASKING IN NATURE'S GLORY: Dogs vs. Cats




A photo posted by Kelsey Hare (@kare_01) on



 


MAKING SPARKS WITH A NEW FRIEND: Dogs <3 Cats



 


Also on HuffPost:



-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












Meet The Women Radicalizing One Of The World's Oldest Dance Forms

0
0

One of America’s most unusual dance dynasties reigns in Minneapolis: the trio of Ranee Ramaswamy, and her daughters Aparna and Ashwini.


In just over two decades, their company, Ragamala, has become the standard bearer of a singularly successful kind of hybridity, merging ancient traditions into high-end productions that major grant organizations find hard to resist. Their only other members are not of Indian origin. Together, the five dancers travel the world with first generation Indian-American women accompanists, bucking the classical hangup that true virtuosity is the domain of men.




"We're not one or the other culture, so why would our work be?

Maybe it's the "Minnesota nice" effect, but the cutthroat vibe that usually attends Indian classical artistry isn't evident in the company's protocol either. Sweeping her arms upward at a rehearsal in Manhattan this past Sunday, in a move choreographed by her mother for the pièce de résistance of a bharatanatyam program -- the varnam -- Ashwini joked that the gesture reminded her of the Disney classic “Fantasia": “when Mickey calls up the waves.” 


That sense of "mischief," to quote one reviewer, comes out in Ashwini's adami, the signature head movement usually associated with seduction. Offstage, the dissonance continues, with speech peppered in a cheery mix of pop culture references and the flat As of the midwest.



A photo posted by Mallika Rao (@childmalli) on



Ashwini was rehearsing for her solo Manhattan debut, made Tuesday night as part of the South Asian arts festival Drive East. In one wing of the studio sat Ranee, on nattuvangam -- brass cymbals used to keep time by the dancer's guru. Youthful at 63, she was the eldest there by a few generations. To her left sat vocalist Roopa Mahadevan, and flanking the two, sisters Anjna and Rajna Swaminathan on the violin and the mridangam respectively, the latter a barrel-shaped hand drum.


In her saffron half-sari set off by neon orange toenails, Ashwini looked up to the task of hooking modern viewers. Aparna sat directly in front of her so as to “nitpick” -- as she put it -- precisely. English, Tamil and Sanskrit flew. Everyone except Ranee occasionally dipped into Indian-isms for comic effect: “Why you do like that?” Aparna asked Mahadevan, when the singer mistakenly cut a jati off too quickly.


The women took pains to plot out the impact of fleeting moments, timing each step of Ashwini’s slower riffs, and building in space for Mahadevan to improvise with pleasure. “You should feel freedom,” Aparna told the singer gravely. Comic relief came during a recap of the varnam, in the form of a Tamil metaphor for lovers: a “creeper” vine and a tree. Ranee got an earful on the stalker vibes of a word the rest insisted only Indians use. “If I ever find a skinny man,” said Mahadevan, who with her curly hair and Venus shape, looks like a Renaissance painting, “I’m going to say, ‘You’re the creeper to my tree.’”


“I think we’ve got a good Hallmark card idea here,” Ashwini shot back.


The Ramaswamys function on an "adapt or die" mentality, but “fusion” is a bad word. They say they haven’t yet found a term dimensional enough to please them. “You wouldn’t believe how many people ask us if we’ve done something with flamenco,” Aparna says later, sitting at a café down the street from La MaMa, the experimental performance space where Drive East unfolds through mid-August.




“You have to be thoughtful [about collaboration]. It's not just about, ‘Oh, they have rhythm, and we have rhythm!’ That's too shallow.”

 


The elder of the two, Aparna is ferocious where Ashwini is affable. She gets visibly charged when she explains why the company, which doubles as a small dance school, doesn’t "do arangetrams."


For Indian-Americans, the word itself conjures up an entire culture. Think wedding, quinceañera and bat mitzvah madness rolled together, only with the star of the show dancing for three hours with the help of live musicians flown in from India, and flower arrangements from Holland and Hawaii. Literally translated to “ascending the stage,” the arangetram is essentially a debut performance. What was once the purview only of dancers with intentions of going pro has become a standard rite of passage for Indian-American high schoolers set to switch their sights onto medicine or engineering come fall. Over the years, one-upmanship has scaled new heights, with some families booking the Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall for their girl’s big day. 


For non-Indians throughout the country, invited by colleagues or friends, these events can be a primary mode of dance education. This primacy troubles the Ramaswamys. “As a cultural representation, community productions are not always of the highest quality,” Aparna says carefully. “And it’s hard for audiences to tell the difference.”


In some respects, the apocryphally old dance form enchants easily. Bharatanatyam dancers dress in peacock-bright pleated costumes, sewn from saris. Good footwork is thrilling, and experts can seem to fly in the air when they get going. Then there are the stretches of abhinaya, or expression, which can feel like avant-garde theater. Scenes take shape with mudras -- hand gestures -- depicting every magical Indian icon, from the elephant to the peacock to the pantheon of Hindu gods.


The flashy exterior belies an intense interior experience for the dancer. Aparna equates dancing to engaging in “prayer.” The soulfulness of the form is why collaboration must be approached respectfully, she argues. Mindless flamenco infusions are out. “You have to be thoughtful. It's not just about, ‘Oh, they have rhythm, and we have rhythm!’” she says, her eyes widening. “That's too shallow.”


Given the obsession with classical culture in Indian-American communities nationwide, the dearth of homegrown professionalism is striking. Rajna Swaminathan says she is one of two Indian-American women who plays the mridangam full time in the country. Those who do take the leap typically do so with the support of parents unswayed by the security of a career in medicine. Often, they are musicians themselves. The Swaminathans’ father, for instance, a physicist based in Maryland, is also an accomplished mridangist who accompanies visiting performers.


In this underpopulated landscape, cross-disciplinary collaboration is key. On the docket for Ragamala is a project with Amir ElSaffar, a talented Iraqi trumpeter. Last year’s “Song Of The Jasmine” -- run at the Lincoln Center, which also co-commissioned the production -- featured the Indian-American jazz composer Rudresh Mahanthappa. In the lead-up, he decamped to Minneapolis to workshop with the Ramaswamys, a process that involved poring through love poetry by the eighth-century Tamil poetess Andal. The result was an original work heralded in The New York Times as “infectious.” “You don’t generally go to a performance of Bharatanatyam,” began the review, “expecting to want to get up and dance.”



The key in mixing forms is “finding a thematic bedrock,” Aparna says. Tapping into a shared idea -- the parallel between romantic and spiritual love, perhaps, or, as in the case of jazz and Carnatic traditions, a love of improvisation -- yields entry points. Engaging fully in the creative stages "allows wider audiences to understand the complexity and the richness of the individual forms," Aparna says.


The Ramaswamys' obsession with the idea of individual integrity comes from their teacher, Alarmel Valli. A legend in India, Valli is trained in a style known as pandanallur. A guiding metaphor is of a feather blown into a straight line. “That interplay of grace and strength,” Ashwini credits as the basis for the style's every movement.

A point of distinction for Valli is to access one's personhood on stage. The Ramaswamys are schooled to some extent in themselves. Where Aparna is fierce (in the family mythology, she knew she was going to be a dancer at the age of three), Ashwini is a wanderer. Both women are graduates of Carleton College, a liberal arts school not far from where they grew up. After graduation, Aparna worked on Ragamala with their mom while Ashwini headed to New York, spending a few years in the book publishing world before turning back to what they jokingly call “the family business.”


In childhood too, the girls diverged. “I was more of an American kid,” Ashwini says, rattling off her list of interests: writing, drawing, singing. “Most American kids try all the activities,” Ranee says pragmatically. “They don’t go deep, they go out.”


Aparna, she contrasts, “was ready to be molded” the moment she saw Valli perform, as a young girl. That first glimpse became the family’s origin story. Living in Minneapolis, they rarely saw the big visiting artists from India, who mostly toured the diasporic hotspots: New Jersey, Texas, California. When Valli came to town in 1982, “she changed the city,” Ranee says. Non-Indians and Indians alike turned out for what would become the first of many appearances in Minneapolis.


By then, Ranee had become the small community’s de facto performer. “Women my age were not usually trained at all,” she says. Her first marriage, to Ashwini’s and Aparna’s father, was arranged, into a family who “didn’t even like me to hum,” she says. “They thought it wasn’t proper for a Brahmin woman to perform,” and so she pursued her childhood passion tepidly, performing to taped music at community events that didn't require much soul-searching.


Her eventual divorce set the three women in motion toward the stage. They began to take annual pilgrimages to India to learn at the feet of Valli, who encouraged Aparna to access her fire, and Ashwini to let her playfulness shine through.


The counterintuitiveness of their lives (relatedly, all three women are now married to non-Indian men) seems to give them pleasure. "We're not one or the other culture, so why would our work be?" Aparna says. 


Indeed, they seem to be performing even when they're not. At the end of rehearsal, Ashwini mugged one last time. “The best feeling is being done,” she said, panting a little after the final leg of her thillana -- all leaps and quicksilver footwork. Then, a smile, as if she didn't mean that at all. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











'Show Me a Hero': David Simon Is Still Mad As Hell

0
0

The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. 


Of all those who revolutionized TV in the last 20 years, David Simon was always the most political and least commercial. From The Wire to Generation Kill and Treme, he's consistently dived into the country's thorniest topics: the Drug War, inner city public schools, the invasion of Iraq, New Orleans post-Katrina. In his new HBO project, Show Me a Hero, he takes on his least likely subject for nightly entertainment yet: public housing. A true story set in Yonkers in the late Eighties/early Nineties, the six-episode miniseries stars Oscar Isaac (giving a young-Pacino level performance) as Nick Wasicsko, the youngest mayor in America at the time. He finds himself confronting an enraged constituency after a Federal court orders 200 units of affordable housing — all of which is set to be built in the city's lily-white neighborhoods. What unfolds is an American tragedy in six acts.


What initially drew you to the material?
Fifteen years ago, I read the book by Lisa Belkin. I was living in Baltimore, a city that had a similar fundamental dynamic of racial inequality, and we were contending with the same arguments and the manner in which the government fails to deal with it. There's an abject lesson in the journey of Nick Wasicsko, a way of seeing just what we avoid when we govern ourselves in America. While he wasn't a perfect creature in any sense, he had a moment where he actually attended to this pathology, which is otherwise left unaddressed.


And they blew him up, they just blew him up. In what's supposedly a pluralistic society, there was so much trauma over 200 units of public housing in a city of 200,000 people. Can you imagine the trauma if America really took to addressing the schism between the separate societies that we've built? What if we really tried to incorporate economically, socially and politically, the non-white population?


10 TV Shows You Need to Be Watching in 2015


Why do you think we don't?

I don't mean to blame just the political system, because clearly leading on the issue of race politically is something of a third rail — but we're the fucking electricity running through the rail. It's us. It's a significant plurality of Americans who would prefer to have these two Americas, that are growing much too distinct and separated.


Isn't there a reckoning though? The front page of the New York Times say race relations are worse than ever, and that's under a black president.
All due respect to Barack Obama, or anyone that's in public office. On some level, I think that there are two currencies that operate in politics to a far more profound effect than goodwill or sentiment. Those things are money and fear. That shit is what pays and punishes politicians, money and fear.


Fear of what?
The fear of change, the fear of any bad outcome. Political leaders are responsive to voters. That's the sum of our fears, that my life might be displaced. I might have to share. And that fear can be applied to almost any act of communal purpose that the government might take on.


TV's Most Heart-Stopping Moments 


What are you most disappointed by in the political discourse?
The rise of libertarianism in this country. There are certainly places — for example, the drug wars — where I find myself in complete agreement with the libertarian ideal. But they always dissolve into the incredible juvenile notion that the solution for bad governance is no governance. We the people are the government; it's either that, or it's all over. If we're not the government, then philosophically the America experiment is over. Yes, it's a constant struggle to diminish the effects of bad governance. That's an unending, unyielding, never-ending fight. But that's democracy. That's the job.


Why has housing policy changed in the last few decades?
Public housing was a New Deal policy. It was an idea that was undertaken for white people. And, at the time, it was looked as one of the healthiest anti-Depression initiatives undertaken. Yet somehow, when people of color arrive to look towards the same dynamics, it becomes why are we building houses for the poor? We went from the idea that government can do some good things for people and can do things to lift up people who have the least in our society, to government shouldn't be in the business helping anybody. That is a remarkable revolution in mainstream American political thought.




So where is the political leadership?


Listen to the mantras of every political campaign: "I believe in freedom, I believe in liberty." Well, of course we all believe in freedom and liberty as general attributes of a healthy society. But if we believe in them exclusively, without saying this other word "responsibility," then what we've created is going be a very coarse and brutal society. Freedom and liberty without responsibility just make life grand for those people who are at the top of the pyramid — but drive the rest of the world down into the gutter.


20 Best TV Shows of 2015 So Far  


So how would you fix the system?


The government would finance elections. Nobody could give any fucking money to any political candidate, ever. You know, I wasn't offended that the Supreme Court decided that a corporation is a person. We crossed that river a long time ago. What freaked me out was money being equated to speech. That fucked me up. Speech is speech. Nothing will make people say more stupid shit than money. When money is actually transformed into actual words, the words are, by in large, quite stupid, self-serving and disastrous. So money is speech — that to me was an obscenity.


Do you feel Treme was unfairly treated by critics and audiences?
I think it was ridiculously compared to The Wire in terms of its intentions and purpose. When nobody knew who I was, The Wire's politics were more permissible. There's been a cost to playing to public gadfly, when it comes to arguing politics in public forums. I tend to argue politics like I talk about basketball, but the cost has been in how people perceive the material. But I really don't judge my work by whether or not it achieves some cult status. I can't. It can't be, will this catch the zeitgeist? Because honestly, that's like trying to catch fire in a bottle and it's a fool's errand.


And your next story is also set in the past and is about the rise of the sex industry in NYC's Time Square of the Seventies. That sounds commercial. 
You would think so, but I'll find a way to fuck it up. I'm really determined not to use porn to sell porn. You can't be a Puritan about what you're depicting, nor can you be prurient. If people are getting off to the show, then we've failed.


What else is in the pipeline?
I'm trying to make a Capitol Hill story about the part of our government that is completely damaged. The legislative branch is the part that's being completely purchased. There's something in the notion that the markets will solve everything, that markets will make this all better and what the markets want is a society that we're supposed to have, that gets good argument.


The next miniseries I'm looking to make is Taylor Branch's trilogy about the Martin Luther King years, because it's the part of the Civil Rights story that everybody stops telling after they get to I Have a Dream. It's where King goes north and starts talking about embedded racism and poverty, systemic exclusion from society and things that are all entirely relevant right now. Everyone told him to take a pill and go fuck himself.


But isn't there a reason why America stopped telling that story though?
Which is why I like it. Which is why I'm there. The other thing that I want to do, that I haven't even pitched anywhere, is the story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Why? Why would something from 1937 be relevant? Because there was a moral choice that required everybody to walk away from their ideology. Ideology is is the great bastard of the 20th Century. The war was the ruination of both the right and left in Spain and was effectively a dry run for World War II. I'd love to do that piece. And I can't tell you how badly I expect that meeting will go.


12 TV Showrunners You Should Know


When you go to the big executives with ideas for shows dealing with what ails America, what's your pitch?
Begging. I beg, that's what I do. I'm always begging somebody. I'm begging an actor to take a role. I'm begging the executive to give us enough to finish the show. When I was a reporter, I was begging for quotes. There's nothing wrong with begging, it's just another form of sales. I always say, "It'll be great, trust me. In the end you'll be proud you made it." I like to think that more than 50 percent of the time, people feel that way.


Ten years ago you basically told Rolling Stone that "if you said that I could be making TV shows about what's wrong with America, I'd tell you you're crazy." And yet you're still doing it. How have you kept this up?
It's as improbable as it was a decade ago, but listen, I get less hours than I used to. The honest truth is I don't know if Show Me a Hero will pull an audience — will people give a shit about something that actually ails country? But all credit to HBO, somehow I'm still part of their brand. I'll be fascinated by the reaction to this one. Will it be: "They made a six-hour miniseries on public housing policy and segregation in America? Who's running HBO? Do they know what they're doing? Do they know they're in television."  


Does the miniseries format give you some relief? Back in The Wire and Treme days you had to worry about being canceled every year?
Yeah, it helps you emotionally, it really does. It’s still hard work but you know that once you’re in, you’re in until the end, and you even get to say exactly what you intend. Because my ratings are never what everyone would want, you’re begging to get to the end of the story, which is pretty blistering for the storyteller.


Where do you see TV going next? Do you worry about it going away from the showrunner to more of a spectacle model like say The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones?
I don't do that. I don't want to do that. I think that there's a lot to be admired in that equation, particularly in regards to Game of Thrones. They've taken some literary material, in the fantasy genre, and they've done it very, very well and it has big subtext and real meaning. The ratings are huge because of how fantastical the world is and because of how well they've done it. It's not for me. If you start the day interested in public housing in Yonkers, New York, there's only so much maneuvering in how you deliver the story. Unless you're a complete bullshitter, and all of a sudden, Nick Wasicsko is murdering people in the dark of night. At a certain point, you've made your bed, go lie in it. If you wanted to make some other bed, you shouldn't have picked up the source material.


What do you consume in culture? What are you enjoying these days?
I go to the bookstore, like an old fart. I don't watch a lot of TV. I tend to watch a lot of movies that come out, but it seems like a lot of them can be viewed in 10 minutes. I read a lot of non-fiction, I tend to read the newspaper. I just joined Twitter, but it's just to post stuff. I'm not going to argue the world in 140 characters. That's the part of Twitter that I have no regard for.


TV's Best and Worst Series Finales


The Difficult Men book posited that you and David Chase and your fellow auteurs were hard to work with and that's what made you great. What do you make of that theory?
You read the book and there's nothing about it where I'm being difficult. When I look through it I said, "Well, OK. I didn't tell characters when they were killed until right before the script was published." But there's an old Irish proverb that goes: "God used to tell men when their day of death was coming, to give them some advance warning, but then the cows stopped being milked and the fields went fallow and the barn door fell off its hinge. So God said, 'You know what? I'm keeping this to myself.'" And that's what I was doing: helping professional actors stay in character. So that was the only place where I was like any kind of a son of a bitch. I do like to argue. I like the writers' room to argue. That's relentless democracy. At a certain point you have to end the argument, but argument is good — especially if it's a good argument.


 


Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Man Auditions For Miami Heat's All-Female Dance Team, Is In It To Win It

0
0


This guy really brought the fiyah to the Miami Heat. 


Or at least the team's dance squad auditions. 


Dancer and choreographer Keith Wilson showed up to the open auditions for the squad earlier this month at American Airlines Arena in Florida. And though the squad is all-female, that didn't deter Wilson from burning up the dance floor during the first round of tryouts.


His incredible moves were, (thankfully), caught on camera and shared on YouTube. Watch as Wilson tears it down to Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)." His energy is infectious and just when you think he cannot possibly get any more amazing, he throws in some jaw-dropping kicks and splits. 


“It was very simple and easy for me to catch the beat, catch the move and just milk it for what it was,” he told BuzzFeed of his audition.


While the dancer, who previously tried out for the squad back in 2012, didn't make the team, he hopes that more men will be inspired to take the plunge and audition for the group. 


“Go for it!" Wilson told BuzzFeed. "Even if you get cut, it only takes one ‘Yes’ to make all the difference.”


 


 Also on HuffPost: 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











How To Make A 3D Hologram With Stuff You Already Own

0
0


Feel like resurrecting Tupac in your own home? No problem. 


U.K.-based tech enthusiast Mrwhosetheboss posted a now-viral tutorial on YouTube that shows how to turn any smartphone into a hologram projector. The video was inspired by another, very similar YouTube tutorial by American Hacker teaching his viewers how to watch 3D videos without wearing designated glasses.


Here's what you need: graph paper, a CD case (you'll have to get rid of them one day), tape or super glue, a pen, scissors, a smartphone and a knife or glass cutter.


To build the projector, draw a small rhombus on the graph paper, use that template to cut out four rhombus shapes with the plastic from the CD case, tape the four plastic cut-outs together, place the 3D construction over your smartphone, load up a "hologram-specific video" (like this one), press play  -- and voilà! A homemade hologram! 


You can increase the size of projector's rhombus teplate as much as you like, Mrwhosetheboss noted, as long as the projector fits atop your smartphone screen when you're done.


SinceMrwhosetheboss posted the video less than two weeks ago, it's garnered over 7 million views -- and rightly so. It's simply brilliant. 


____


Alexandra Ma covers tech and world news, and is based in New York. You can contact her at alexandra.ma@huffingtonpost.com or on Twitter: @Alexandra__Ma.


____

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











This Tom Brady Courtroom Sketch Is Giving The Internet Nightmares

0
0

Tom Brady appeared in a federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday as part of his lawsuit against the NFL over his four-game Deflategate suspension. This is an artist's rendering of what Brady looked like at the proceedings.  



Ouch. 


According to CBS Boston's Jim Armstrong, Brady's courtroom sketch was done by New York-based artist Jane Rosenberg. She's done this kind of thing before, drawing in courtrooms that featured John Gotti, Woody Allen and Martha Stewart. Rosenberg also has paintings in a handful of museums and galleries across the United States.


Rosenberg is clearly an accomplished artist, but her sketch of a deflated Brady is an objectively funny interpretation of a man who was once named to People's "Sexiest Man Alive" list.








The Internet has since taken exception to the Brady sketch, pumping out a trove of memes, each somehow funnier than the next:
















































That's not all, though. Internet photoshop skills be damned, Louisiana State University head football coach Les Miles came through and scored an unexpected win. 





 H/T Alexander Goot 


Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Up-Close Photos Of Women 'In Their Prime' Defy Conventions About Aging

0
0

A new book is showing what it means to be a woman in your prime. 


Photographer Peter Freed just completed a Kickstarter campaign for PRIME, a book of portraits and essays featuring women ages 35 to 104 who Freed says are "defying the conventions of how a woman, at any given age, should look, act and love." 


 (Story continues below.)



Freed was inspired by a Harper's Bazaar photograph of a woman without makeup, and began photographing women for PRIME in 2010. He shoots his subjects without makeup or jewelry, and the final images are un-retouched. 


He has also collected essays from over 100 women, including author Dani Shapiro and actress Susan Saint James, which he hopes will spark important conversations about aging. 


"The essays are filled with the challenges and opportunities life throws us and the choices made in response to those events," Freed told The Huffington Post. "These women uniformly refuse to accept conventional definitions about a woman’s age. It is my hope that in the pages of this book we will learn the names, see into the faces, and hear in their own words details of the journey that has shaped them."


All proceeds from the sale of PRIME will go to Women in Need, a NYC-based nonprofit helping homeless women and families. 


See more stunning images and excerpts from PRIME below.




 "I smile today when I hear young women say they want to be married at 30, have three kids and quit work. I was that young planner and list maker once. But there are very few people for whom life works out that simply. And so when anyone asks what I have learned from life, I answer 'always have a Plan B.'"


-- Lee Woodruff, age 52




"The best is yet to come. Those words greet me in the morning, make me smile at the wrinkles and scars time has left on my body, in the folds and creases of all the roads taken and those not, on this perfect imperfect of journeys called life."


-- Regina Brett, age 56



"It’s easy to reflect upon life years later and ask why things happened, and what lessons you learned from these experiences. When you are in the thick of it, it’s a lot harder to stay objective. All I can say is that if you are a person looking for inspiration, motivation and answers, you will find them."


-- Paula Carnabuci, age 47


Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Sun, Surf And Skin Are Among The Pleasures Of Barcelona's Circuit Festival

0
0

Known as a glittering metropolis of sun and surf, Barcelona is currently playing host to an estimated 72,000 gay travelers from around the world.


They've come for the annual Circuit Festival, which organizers have touted Europe's largest gay and lesbian celebration. Since it was first established in 2008, the festival has been the place to see and be seen for many gay globetrotters, with parties, dances and other activities created specifically for the community spread out over 12 days, between Aug. 5 and 16. 



As these sizzling photos attest, one of the Circuit Festival's many highlights is the daytime Water Park Day. An estimated 8,000 swimsuit-clad merrymakers touched down on the Isla Fantasia Water Park in Vilassar de Dalt for the splashy fête, which is billed as the biggest open-air gay party on the continent. 


Once the Circuit Festival wraps in Barcelona, the festivities move on to Ibiza. Another 25,000 people are expected to attend that installment, which kicks off Aug. 19.  


Based on the photos below, there's no question the festivities were memorable! 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












Dancers Surprise Hikers In Hawaii With Emotional Ritual At Sunrise

0
0

Hikers who climbed up Hawaii's popular Lanikai Pillbox Trail on Saturday to watch the serene sunrise were met with something much more intense: A group of Polynesian dancers performing a powerful haka.


Gee Tuitele-Martin, Jacksmith Tanuvasa and Iosua Manumā did the haka -- an ancient Maori war dance often performed in modern times to honor a person or express collective emotion -- to commemorate their former dance teacher, Val Jeremiah, who recently passed away.


They gathered on the concrete fort at the top of the trail, which overlooks Oahu's eastern shore, to "bring in the new sun by having a spiritual haka," Johnny Lasalo, who filmed the video, told The Huffington Post.


"It felt great and really shook everyone who could hear us," Lasalo said. "The bystanders were amazed and confused but were silent after the haka was done. No one made a sound and everyone just sat there for about five [minutes] enjoying the silence," he added. 





"Welcome the sun," Lasalo wrote in the video's caption.
"The reset button to clear our minds on this Saturday morning."

Lasalo and the three dancers in the video used to perform on The Star of Honolulu cruise ship, which is where they met their cast dance instructor, whom they affectionately called "Aunty." The haka they performed was written by Aunty Val and her family.


"Performing this specific haka is humbling," said Tuitele-Martin, one of the dancers in the video. "Aunty Val's [maiden] name, which is Ratapu ... translates to 'Sunday' or 'Sacred Sun,'" in Maori. 


"To do this haka at sunrise was only appropriate to remember Aunty Val."


We wholeheartedly agree. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Artist Furious After China Totally Rips Off Chicago's Bean Sculpture

0
0

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the artist behind Chicago's most famous piece of public art begs to differ. 


China is about to reveal a sculpture that is nearly identical to "The Bean" (officially called "Cloud Gate.") According to the state-owned paper People's Daily, the sculpture is the "shape of oil bubble" in honor of the first oil well in the city of Karamay. This is what it looks like:



 


This is what the Chicago version looks like:



The artist behind "Cloud Gate" said he plans to sue the creator of the apparent copycat.


"It has been reported in the media today that an identical sculpture has been commissioned for the town of Karamay in the Xinjiang region of China," Anish Kapoor said, according to Reuters. "It seems that in China today it is permissible to steal the creativity of others. I feel I must take this to the highest level and pursue those responsible in the courts. I hope that the Mayor of Chicago will join me in this action. The Chinese authorities must act to stop this kind of infringement and allow the full enforcement of copyright."


A Chinese official insisted that any resemblance between the two sculptures is coincidental.


 “You can’t say we’re not allowed to build a round sculpture because there already is a round one,” the official told the Wall Street Journal. “While we use similar materials, the shapes and meanings are different. ‘Cloud Gate’ intends to reflect the sky, but ours reflects the ground; that’s why we used granite to imitate oil waves (in the area surrounding the sculpture).”


This isn't the first time China's gotten into trouble for allegedly ripping off artwork. Knockoffs of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's rubber duck art have popped up all over the country in recent years. And the entire city of Tianducheng was built to resemble Paris -- Eiffel Tower and all: 



Also on HuffPost: 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











This Sleepy Street Art Is Best Viewed From The Sky

0
0

Fact: It's not easy to find a cozy spot to take a nap in a big city. 


However, French street artists Ella & Pitr, also known as Papiers Peintres, have come up with an unorthodox solution: just spread your sleepy self out on the roof and doze away. Yes, this plan works better with works of art than with real people. 



Ella & Pitr are known for their unusual breed of sleeping giants, painted or wheatpasted across rooftops and patches of ground. When viewed from above, the aerial artworks turn the hustle and bustle of a grand metropolis into one giant body pillow. 


The artists have spread their work throughout the world, hitting up places from Italy to Canada to Portugal to Chile. Their cast of characters, normally rendered in black, white and red, land somewhere between the styles of Os Gêmeos and Maurice Sendak. The one thing they have in common: They're seriously in need of a power nap. 



-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Coloring Book 'I Love My Hair' Celebrates Curls, Braids, Afros And Coifs Of All Kinds

0
0

How do you wear your lovely lady locks? In a bun? In a twist? Short? Long? In braids or dreads? Au natural?


A new adult coloring book by Andrea Pippins, called I Love My Hair, features delicate ink renderings devoted to a woman's mane, which, as most know, works much harder than your average heap of dead cells. 



I Love My Hair is the latest iteration of the adult coloring book craze, causing many a grown-up to dig out their Crayola best and rediscover their inner first grader. The benefits, aside from a good time, range from rediscovering your creative voice, to de-stressing to entering a nostalgic and meditative state. "I recommend it as a relaxation technique," psychologist Antoni Martínez explained to The Huffington Post. "We can use it to enter into a more creative, freer state. I recommend it in a quiet environment, even with chill music. Let the color and the lines flow." 


While the existing variety of coloring books run the gamut mandalasnaturescapes and famous artworks are just a few out there -- never before has the genre tackled this more hirsute subject matter. The book features delicate illustrations of mohawks, updos and everything in between, as well as the mops of historical hair icons like Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette and Diana Ross. 


Pippins, a Brazilian-born designer, illustrator and teacher, is known for digital and screen-printed artwork that speaks to her experiences as a woman of color. In her first-ever coloring book, Pippins lays the foundation for any humble colorer to unleash her creative potential. From a geisha's ornate shimada 'do to a disembodied mass of tangled curls, Pippins' imaginative images will inspire your inner artist and fashionista. 


I Love My Hair, published by Random House books, will be on sale November 10, 2015. In the meantime, enjoy a preview of the work below. 



Also on HuffPost:  



-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Artist Photographs Geisha In Blackface To Address Changing State Of Race And Gender

0
0

A geisha is a traditional female Japanese performance artist and hostess who entertains customers, often male, with various skills and artistic pursuits. Since the late 600s, her conventional image has been displayed throughout pop culture and art history. She's nearly instantly recognizable for her kimono, shimada hairstyle, red lips and ivory-white painted face.


In a photo series titled "Geisha," Maxine Helfman captures contemporary images of strikingly gorgeous geisha with one crucial difference. Instead of Japanese, the subjects are black, and instead of adorning their faces in a thick base of white, they wear blackface.



Helfman is a 61-year-old white woman and self-taught photographer, whose works often address issues of racial and gender inequality. Like artists including Kehinde Wiley and Awol Erizku, Helfman revisits the many overwhelmingly white moments in art history, injecting long-overdue diversity into the canon.


"Inspired by periods of art history, my work reinterprets these traditional works from a more contemporary point of view," Helfman explains in her statement. "Our world and cultures are changing so quickly, we are witnessing the collision of past and present as populations shift, our world has become so diverse that cultures are visually harder to define." With the help of her camera, Helfman constructs "manufactured realities," impossible portraits floating between past and present, juxtaposing elements of both. 



"Geisha" is not Helfman's first time dipping into and tampering with art history's most homogenous moments. We've previously covered her series "Historical Correction," in which black subjects are inserted into otherwise traditional 17th-century Flemish-esque portraits. 


Helfman considers her projects to be highly collaborative; she works in dialogue with her subjects to appropriately prompt a discussion about race and representation. "Being white, I can only create respectful works of art that add to [a] dialogue," she said in an earlier interview. "My projects are always shot from a point of respect for my subjects."


The artist further explained her aims for the series in an email to The Huffington Post: "Art has the power to make a statement that invites us to look at things from a different perspective, not bound by fact or accuracy. It is from this different perspective that disrupts our preconceptions and opens the door to new dialogue.  All of my projects begin with that concept. It is the conversation that is generated that is fascinating -- positive and negative."



Also on HuffPost:


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Viewing all 18485 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images