BEAUTY: Installation--Beili Liu

Chinese-born, Texas-based artist Beili Liu (previously here) made her installation After All / Mending The Sky as an illustration to a lovely, ancient, Chinese creation story.

"After All / Mending The Sky [silk, cyanotype, needles, thread, wire, hardware, dimensions variable] is comprised of nine suspended, organic, cloud-like forms, each composed of translucent half domes crafted from raw silk fiber. These domes or 'stones' have been imprinted upon using Cyanotype process to lend rich indigo tones to their forms, from which hundreds of fine sewing threads descend. At each end of a thread, a sewing needle is attached.

The installation draws upon the ancient Chinese fable of Nüwa, goddess and creator of mankind. After a tear in the sky brings suffering and calamity to her creations, Nüwa undertakes the painstaking task of mending the sky, and returning order to the world. The installation draws a parallel between the goddess’ heroic act and the humble, domestic, women’s task of sewing—both endeavor to create and to mend."

http://www.beililiu.com

BEAUTY: Interiors--Nate and Jeremiah and Ricky and Jwan

The Los Angeles homes of actor/singer Ricky Martin and artist Jwan Yusef, and designers Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent via Architectural Digest.

Belle Enters The Beast's Castle

Belle enters The Beast's magical castle in a scene from the glorious classic film "La Belle et la Bête" by genius writer/poet/filmmaker/painter/artist Jean Cocteau (previously here). If you've never seen this stunning, legendary masterpiece of international cinema, I strongly urge you to do so!

BEAUTY: Man--Craig McGinlay

*sigh* Just feast your eyes on Scottish model and actor ("King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and television's "Outlander") Craig McGinlay. He reminds me a little bit of South African actor Sharlto Copley.

https://www.instagram.com/craigmcginlay/?hl=en

Brown

Another meditation on a color...

"Queen" by TraceyThorn

Welcome back, Tracey!

Iconic English singer Tracey Thorn who fronted Everything But The Girl with her husband Ben Watt for decades and then struck out on her own (musically speaking), is back after an eight year hiatus (if you don't count "Tinsel and Lights," her album of holiday songs in 2012) with an album entitled, simply, "Record." And the first single from this album is a glorious, electronic, bouncing affair called "Queen."

You're still a Queen, Tracey!

"Record" will be released March 2, 2018.

http://traceythorn.com/
http://ebtg.com/

Another Sunday

"Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They're designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators."
--Noam Chomsky

"The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development in man's moral nature."
--Thorstein Veblen

"A few sports foster a culture of violence. Such a misguided culture too often spills over into barbaric acts in and out of competition...
The 'trample the opponent' philosophy espoused by some coaches and parents sends the wrong message about the core value of empathy."
--Dan Doyle

"Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people."
--David Sarnoff

BEAUTY: Installation--Katharina Grosse

German artist Katharina Grosse doesn't paint images of the world, she paints the world itself. Her most recent installation which was on view through last December 3rd at South London Gallery was entitled This Drove my Mother up the Wall. Grosse said of the piece, "It’s about the reactions that you might have to other people’s actions. What might be interesting to you might transgress somebody else’s limits of acceptance and enjoyment. It’s this steady confrontation between individuals. Within family life you often have to negotiate how you live and how you accept one another. It’s a saying in English, isn’t it? To drive your mother up the wall. It’s also what children do with felt pens, to make little drawings or notes on the wall. For me, painting can appear anywhere in our world. It doesn’t have to be on a canvas or the space above the sofa....In the middle of the installation is a glaring white void, created using a Styrofoam stencil, that can only be reached by walking across the painted edges of the room."

Yet at the center a cut out in the stencil allowed paint to create a little triangle.

http://www.katharinagrosse.com/

"Get Out Of Your Own Way" by U2 at The Grammys

I'm sure you've all seen this by now, but I just have to show some love for Bono's closing spoken word section in this song, "Get Out Of Your Own Way," which features anti-Trump sentiments and a message to us, the people of the United States who have the power to stop The Monster and his kind. For the closing section, Bono played off Trump's recent hateful words--ah, which of the many? you may ask--referring to certain countries as "sh*thole countries."

For the 2018 Grammys, U2 pointedly performed their song on a barge in front of the Statue of Liberty. Ahem...
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

"Blessed are the sh*thole countries
for they gave us the American Dream.
Blessed are the arrogant
for theirs is a kingdom of their own company.
Blessed are the bullies
for one day they will have to stand up to themselves."

http://www.u2.com

BEAUTY: Installation--Adela Andea

Light sculptor/artist Adela Andea's Artist Statement:

"I like to think about my art as incorporating as many layers of reality. My ideas for the spaces I plan to generate are structured as a dialogue about the interaction between people and new technologies, socio-political issues raised through the dynamic and rapid industrialization and globalization. This socio-political and economical constructed reality is part of a consensus reality about the current stage of the ecology of electronics.

In my vision there is not one unilateral truth or message about reality. The subjective encounter through personal individual experience with the artwork is one dimension that creates many other layers of reality. Confronting the discrepancy between ideas, understanding of the concept in the context of socio-cultural present preoccupation, and the actual experience, events, the reality can be manipulated by the way is presented, argued.

Through art, the transformation of information has been mitigating the two extremes, between the valuable resources of information and the end product responsibilities for recycling, giving a different meaning to the phrase “residual value.” In addition the fast scientific developments almost enable us to distinguish between present and future technologies; a question I always ask myself when encountering new information: it has been done and succeed it, is experimental or it is envisioned to happen in some laboratories?

I like to transform the indoor spaces into installations that involve full sensory experiences for the viewers. I use all the space is available to expand for the purposes of the installation. I consider all physical aspects of the building and the level of audience involvement. Where films and video games convey a futuristic approach generating virtual realities, my art is trying to deconstruct the clear delimitation line between reality and virtual reality.

The numerous transitions in my life made me think about the enormous capability of people to adapt to situations and even more, search for the new possibilities of personal development through inquisitive experiences. I strive for my art to vindicate the malign consequences of technology on the environment and inspire new exciting ways to infuse technology."

http://www.adelaandea.com