Tag: politics
Isaac Julien: Once Again… (Statues Never Die)
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024 Art Column,Dr. Albert C. Barnes was one of the greatest art collectors of the 20th century, and one of its most odious personalities. He made his fortune with eyewash – an antiseptic compound called Argyrol. Although he claimed to have invented this wondrous product, in reality he only marketed it. His career could serve as a […]
The Apprentice
Thursday, October 17th, 2024 Film Reviews,First, a word about Donald J. Trump. Like so many, I’m completely flabbergasted that voters of any political persuasion would consider putting this man back in the White House. Not only is his campaign a policy-free zone, he’s unable to focus on any issue beyond his immediate self-interest. To advance that sacred cause he will […]
White Rabbit: Laozi’s Furnace
Monday, October 14th, 2024 Art Column,Transformation is a fundamental goal of art – base materials are transformed into things of beauty, dull objects become receptacles for daring ideas. This process extends from the work to the audience itself. As the poet, Rilke said, the work of art commands us: “You must change your life.” I’m not sure anyone will be […]
Touch & Kneecap
Friday, August 30th, 2024 Film Reviews,Although Icelandic creativity is appropriately volcanic, most of the films from this tiny country fall into the arthouse category. It may be that Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch is the movie that cracks the mainstream. Devoid of rugged landscapes, lurking demons and sheep, Touch is the kind of wellmade, sentimental drama that audiences tend to adore. The […]
The Sitting Duck
Friday, June 21st, 2024 Film Reviews,As we’ve recently seen with Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof having to flee his native land to avoid imprisonment and a flogging, the cinema still has the capacity to send tremors down the corridors of power. Although films on social justice issues are not much appreciated in authoritarian states, those same regimes recognise the immense propaganda […]
Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 Chinese Art, Film Reviews,When a rock band enjoys a career of 45 years and sells more than 20 million albums, they probably qualify as legends. They may also be overdue for a documentary, an omission that has now been supplied by director, Paul Clarke, who has spent the past seven years making Midnight Oil: the Hardest Line, which […]
High & Low: John Galliano
Sunday, June 2nd, 2024 Film Reviews,In December 2010, John Galiano, one of the most celebrated British designers of all time, murdered his own career with a drunken anti-Semitic tirade in a Paris café. Kevin Macdonald’s feature-length documentary, High & Low: John Galliano, features footage of Galliano’s meltdown, and it’s not a pretty sight. The same could be said of Galliano’s […]
Art Dubai 2024
Friday, April 5th, 2024 Art Column,For the second year in a row, I’ve come away from Art Dubai with the feeling that it’s distinctly different from every other international art fair. Even as I write, one of the biggest of all fairs is getting ready to launch. Art Basel Hong Kong remains Asia’s premier commercial art event, despite challenges from […]
Io Capitano
Friday, March 22nd, 2024 Film Reviews,Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano is the kind of film everyone should see before making hasty statements about borders and refugees. The film begins in Dakar, Senegal, following two teenage boys who set out for a new life in Europe. Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and his cousin, Moussa (Moustapha Fall), are not victims of war or natural […]
American Fiction
Friday, March 15th, 2024 Film Reviews,It’s difficult to satirise the United States today, as reality keeps going places fiction fears to tread. Wind back the clock ten years, and nobody could have predicted the proto-fascist excesses of the Trump era, in which every form of bigotry now seems to be a vote-winner. Hardly less alarming is the collapse of so-called […]