The Boa Morte Festival is one of the most celebrated events thattakes place in Cacheoria near the banks of the Paraguacu River, in Bahia. Check out this interview on UEFSTV featuring my partner Scott A. Barton he’s there conducting research for his PhD in Food Studies at New York University. These priestess with their beautiful sculpted faces are national treasures know as ” Sisterhood of Our Ladies of Death,” and this is a one of the most important Candomble celebrations held during the year in Bahia. Boa Morte is a celebration of the secret black religious society whom are direct descendants of slaves, these women priestess can trace their lineage directly to the African slaves that were brought to Brasil by the Portuguese who colonized the country. Still years later, the Youruba cultural traditions are heavily practiced, as you can see the priestess in ceremonial white laces dresses with long strands of intricate silver necklaces that hang around their necks. I’m told the oldest priestess is 107 years old, and she still participates in these religious celebrations. Sorry if you don’t speak Brasilian Portuguese, but this interview gives you a quick glimpse into the one week long festival activities that start on 15 August.
Elizabeth Gilbert reflects on the creative spirit and her model for writing through creativity. Listen how she takes you through her trajectory of premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of – running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home.
She’s a longtime magazine writer – covering music and politics for Spin and GQ – as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection Pilgrims, the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. Her work has been the basis for one movie so far (Coyote Ugly, based on her own memoir, in this magazine article, of working at the famously raunchy bar), and now it looks as if Eat, Pray, Love is on the same track, with the part of Gilbert reportedly to be played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.
Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop Two Buttons in Frenchtown, New Jersey.
“Gilbert is irreverent, hilarious, zestful, courageous, intelligent, and in masterful command of her sparkling prose.”
In the areas of fiber arts and performance art, one name reins supreme: Nick Cave. Not to be confused with the musician, Nick Cave, the fiber/performance artist creates“sound suits” from found objects, including beads connected like tiny seeds of creativity, glass or plastic pieces strung together to form intricate patterns that suggest Brazilian or Caribbean carnival themes. These suits might also be layered with twigs and flowing hair, which from a distance looks like trees dancing in the woods, from some weird fairy tale.
This Cranbrook Design school graduate—who also serves as chair of the Fashion Design Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—has created new artistic boundaries as he adapts old with new art techniques. With a unique mix of fibers and other materials, he has produced furniture, clothing and much more. This new relationship between contemporary art, crafts, and fashion was evident in the 2007 “Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” exhibition mounted by the Museum of Art and Design.
Soundsuit: This funky style is made of a diverse collection of found objects.
But this movement of sorts almost didn’t happen.
Sometime in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the interest in knitting started to fade, followed closely by the dwindling number of yarns shops throughout New York City. Today, knitting has emerged as a viable fiber art form, with a different twist that leans towards free-form, stylized garments, or products that are a combination of materials. These materials feature a mix of fibers with varied textures, as well as found objects from nature, even buttons or beads.
Cave’s work has forced other fiber artists and artists in other disciplines to reexamine their own material references. Whether you have the experience of witnessing Cave’s suits in performances, or as immobile figures in a gallery, you can still experience the sound and visual dialogue his pieces provoke. His work speaks to viewers with a cacophony of sounds heard over and over again.
Nick Cave's "Soundsuits" at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City
Cave had previously danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. One day he began to pay attention to the cacophony of sounds that came form his costume, which was mostly made of twigs. As he moved his body, each twig bushed against another and produced barely audible but regular sounds. Similar sounds came from other dancers who were gyrating to the beat of accompanying drums.
He had found a muse who would inspire his new art form—himself.
His canvases of his own or other dancers’ bodies expanded to include skintight leotards, to loose fitting garments with deep hoods. His materials now include beads, bangles, and sequins. No objects are off-limits; nor any subject. He has pulled together references from the social and political issues of the day, using for example, his own state of blackness as a silhouette; and in a nod to the Rodney King trial, a piece that expresses the freedom—or lack thereof—of the black male body, this time tied with materials that look like rope. The most ornate work can resemble over-sized deities, similar to spiritual figures from the African Yoruba tradition, or the BrazilianCandomble.
Nick Cave is represented by theJack Shainman Gallery in New York City.
While traveling through China I noticed how eager everyone was to prepare for the Chinese New Year holiday celebration. It seemed like everywhere I went, red and golden trinkets were sold in outdoor street markets, major department stores and even supermarkets. It’s obvious that these decorations will quickly erase any remnants of Christmas. Besides celebrating at my Daotist center, I usually gather, with friends and family for a traditional Chinese Banquet in Chinatown.
All of this has changed in recent years, thanks to my friend Kian Lam Kho. He loves to cook and his food is far superior to that of any place’s I’ve eaten in Chinatown in New York City. Instead of having his friends flying off to China, Kian invites a select group of his foodie friends, chefs, and restaurant folks to share a tasty meal in the intimate setting of his home.
Kian is from Singapore, he grew-up eating what he defines as authentic Chinese home cooking, with bold flavors that might be considered too harsh for the American palate. Hanging out with these foodies allows me an entry into the world of “tasting” at some of New York City’s major new restaurants. (I’m always fascinated by the way chefs and restaurant professionals easily critique a dish, the restaurant decor, the service, wine list and more, in one setting.) But this time we’re eating at the home of one the best Chinese Chef’s in New York City.
BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) — The first thing Qiwen did when she woke up Sunday on the first morning of the Year of Tiger was to run towards the windows. As she found trees and houses standing tall, safe and sound, the four-year-old cracked a smile.
In her first outdoor venture on a Chinese New Year Eve at Saturday night, the little girl huddled up against her mother in attempt to cushion earsplitting firecrackers while taking safe peeks at the lightened up sky.
THE CHINESE Year of the Tiger begins on Feb 14, 2010 and will end on 2 February 2011. The Tiger is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The year of the tiger is believed to bring with it mythical heroic powers.
This is 4707, the year of the tiger, if you celebrate Chinese New Years. My Tai Chi teacher,Sat Hon whom I’ve practiced with over the past 10 years at the Daotist Center in Manhattan calls this holiday the Asian New Year. His reasoning is that every Asian cultural has some form of celebration to usher in the year.
I love celebrating festive occasions that have a celebratory feeling, so for me Chinese New Years is one of those joyous moments. Sat Hon’s students gather for a communal festive celebration, with music, Chinese poetry, meditation, eating and a performance of the lion dance. Suited up, his two daughters and one male student performs a gyrating dance with a figurative style Chinese lion head costume. The long sinuous body looks like a giant caterpillar its curving body snakes above the floor. The lion costumes head, bobs up and down, or suddenly twists from side to side its eyes fluttering in sync with the music’s drumbeats. Despite the lion’s grotesque features and menacing fangs the sinewy body slows down to reveal itself as a soft focus Chinese shadow puppet. Then the drumming beats picks up speed and beats faster and faster the body shakes, shimmies and then the head drops.
A loud applause erupts, his daughters and the other student emerge from under the costume. Sat hugs his daughters.
We all shout Kung Hei Fat Choi (best wishes for Health, Happiness & Prosperity to all.)
Now its time to get down to eating and mingling with friends.
Zhang Huan’s second solo show at PaceWildenstein, features Rulai, a monumental Buddha and recent large-scale works on paper based on the 7thcentury Chinese prophecy book Tui Bei Tu. The exhibition follows the debut of his newly conceived Handel opera, now scheduled to tour China in 2010, as well as the publication of a new Phaidon monograph.
NEW YORK, November 24, 2009—Following the critically-acclaimed September premiere of Semele, a new production of George Frideric Handel’s opera directed and designed by Zhang Huan and presented to audiences at The National Opera of Belgium in Brussels (scheduled to tour China in 2010), the artist will be the subject of his second solo exhibition at PaceWildenstein.
Neither Coming Nor Going will be on view at 545 West 22nd Street, New York City, from December 11, 2009 through January 30, 2010. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, December 10th from 6-8 p.m. Representing the artist’s continuing investigation of humanity through tradition, historical associations, and personal experiences, Neither Coming Nor Going will feature a monumental ash Buddha, Rulai (2008-2009), measuring 18′ 1/2″ x 14′ 10″ x 10′ 11-1/2″,as well as a series of unique large-scale works on paper made in 2006-2008.
The compacted ash surface of Rulai, supported by an internal metal frame, is heavily embedded with miniature porcelain Buddha relics, copper offering dishes, miniature skulls and unburned joss sticks. The strikingly beautiful grisaille palette of the sculpture is sharply contrasted with blood red paper wrappers, clustered around the crown and face of the deity. Burning incense pours out from Buddha’s head, activating a traditionally static art form with performative aspects, one of the artist’s hallmarks.
Zhang Huan video of burning Buddha’s
Using ink, paper handmade from the bark of Mulberry trees, and in some works feathers to build up the surface, Zhang Huan depicts animals and landscapes in the series of unique works on paper included in this exhibition. He references the celebrated 17th-century Chinese painter and calligrapher Bada Shanren as well as Tui Bei Tu, a seventh-century Tang Dynasty prophecy book which reappeared in second-hand book stores in China in the 1990s after being banned by the Communist party. Tui Bei Tu offered an alternative to traditional Eastern and Western systems and presented insight into China’s future, utilizing drawings and poems to prophesize a sequence of sixty events.
