Samuel Beckett, line drawing by Guillermo Contreras The brilliant Irish playwright, novelist and poet would have been 106, today. Known widely for his absurdist plays and novels, Beckett received the Nobel prize for literature in 1969. Later in life, he wrote for radio and television. He is remembered today for
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Art Threat: Call for participation – Resistance Strategies – Digital book looking for proposals on Mayan resistance
The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics is calling for contributions for a “digital book” to focus on historical and contemporary Mayan strategies of resistance and their impact on the work of artists and activists in Mexico and beyond. The publication will be edited by Diana Taylor and developed using
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal First Peoples Festival call for submissions – Submission deadline extended to April 13
The 22nd Montreal First Peoples Festival has extended its entry deadline to Friday the 13th of April 2012. The Festival is looking for audiovisual works for this years’ showcase, taking place July 31st to August 8th. As always, the showcase features works by native directors and films by non-native directors
Continue readingArt Threat: Ai Wei Wei installs live webcams in home – Artists winks at Chinese authorities with a Big Brother flourish
Artist Ai Wei Wei has installed live webcams in his home so that authorities – and worried supporters – can keep track of his day-to-day whereabouts and welfare. Feeling hemmed in by increasingly invasive state surveillance – being followed day-to-day, round-the-clock surveillance on his home, searches of his studio, phone
Continue readingArt Threat: News Remix: Mar 23 – April1, 2012 – A bricolage of (some of) last weeks news stories
Nairobi graffiti by artists Uhuru B, Swift, Smokilah and Bankslave Kenyan graffiti artists are painting the walls of Nairobi with reminders of government corruption. Executions are up in the Middle East – in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Yemen – as governments there continue their efforts to quell political turmoil.
Continue readingArt Threat: News Remix: March 15-22, 2012 – Bricolage of (some of) last week’s headlines
This is the first in a new (ir)regular installment summing up last week’s news headlines using a ‘remix’ style — a quirky restless glance into the wreckless feckless immediate past. (Inspired by Harpers Magazine’s ‘Scientific Summary’.) Aerial photo of tsunami debris from Japan US peacekeeping forces joined with Congolese army troops
Continue readingArt Threat: Le 22, on ferme! – Artist-run centres across Québec support the student movement
Over the last month and a half, students across Québec have been mobilising against the dramatic tuition hikes being imposed by the Charest government and education minister Line Beauchamp. Emerging out of the 2005 student movement that successfully (if controversially) challenged the Liberal government’s proposed cuts to the loans and bursaries
Continue readingArt Threat: Big Bang Big Boom: Animated graffiti – An endlessly fascinating warning against the temptation of war
BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo. For those who haven’t seen it, Big Bang Big Boom (2010) is yet another fabulous animated graffiti parable from the blublu art collective. Their work is endlessly fascinating — animated creatures sliding seamlessly from walls,
Continue readingArt Threat: Support WWOZ community radio in New Orleans – Fundraisng drive for the voice of New Orleans cultural renaissance
Tune in, turn on and give a few bucks to one the most fabulous radio stations anywhere. WWOZ New Orleans community radio is having their annual membership fundraising drive, and now is the time to support this treasure in the midst of New Orlean’s cultural renaissance. WWOZ is home to
Continue readingRob Maguire: I’m moving to Vancouver
My time in Saskatoon has come to an end. My partner and I will be moving to Vancouver on April 1 — no joke! Since arriving from Montreal three and a half years ago, I’ve experienced both the great warmth of Saskatchewan people and the deep freeze of prairie winters.
Continue readingArt Threat: Portraits of a young girl influenced by the mainstream – Photographs by Jessica Manley
Currently a senior at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Jessica Manleybegan the project “Melissa” six years ago while still a high school student. She began working with her younger sister, Melissa, to explore the way media influences the understanding of ‘normal’ in young girls, and how
Continue readingArt Threat: WikiLeaks dump reveals Dow Chemical spies read Art Threat
Today WikiLeaks began releasing a collection of emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, an American private espionage firm with a client list that boasts such warm and fuzzy companies as Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and the US Department of Homeland Security. According to WikiLeaks, “the emails
Continue readingArt Threat: Cinema re-opens in divided East Jerusalem – After 25 years, a welcome revival of Palestinian arts & culture
After 25 years in shuttered silence, the Al Quds cinema has reopened its doors in East Jerusalem. And it’s opening schedule was no blockbuster wasteland. Under the banner of “Freedom Films Week”, the revamped theater screened films on such topical and urgent issues as sexual harassment, the Arab uprising, Algerian
Continue readingArt Threat: Inspiring new album from performer Rodney DeCroo – Vancouver-based roots rocker releases new album of poetry and jazz
A new recording from one of my favourite performers Rodney DeCroo is always a treasure, especially coming as this one does in the midst of Winter’s least cheery days. DeCroo’s music warms from the inside capturing in a rare way the beauty, difficulties and dangers of what it means to
Continue readingArt Threat: Occupy Montreal wants your art! – City-wide callout for artists
Occupy Montreal has announced the formation of a city-wide art committee, and they are calling for artists to get involved. A first meeting has been scheduled for Friday, Feb 17, 5pm-7pm @ 4521 St Jacques, just west of Metro St-Henri. From the announcement: We are organizing a new, city-wide Arts
Continue readingArt Threat: Postcolonial politics threatens integrity of Documenta 13 art exhibition – Indigenous group protests artists’ use of sacred meteorite
It is a tale of postcolonial politics, cyber-archeology and art. Two Argentinian artists are being challenged by a growing international campaign to stop their plan to ship a 37 ton meteorite from Argentina to Kassels, Germany for the Documenta 13 art exhibition. The meteorite, known as El Chaco (pictured above
Continue readingArt Threat: Activating the Olfactory: Tasty Happenings in Spaces of Restraint – Diego Rivera and the aesthetics of appetite at the MoMa
"Untitled (free)" by Rikrit Tiravanija, at the MoMA We have had decades of criticisms of the museum and the gallery as institutions that, to put it kindly, are politically reticent and socially restrained. However, many of these criticisms work in a way that is oppositional, polemical, and fueled by anger,
Continue readingArt Threat: 100 political artists profiled – New book from Gestalten
Gestalten has published a new book about art and politics — Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism, edited by R. Klanten, M. Hübner, A. Bieber, P. Alonzo, G. Jansenby. This full-colour coffee table treat introduces, explores and has contributions from more than 100 artists whose work is pushing political
Continue readingArt Threat: 23 political art stories from 2011
Washed Up by Alejandro Durán The New Year is officially upon us, but we want to take one last opportunity to look in the rear view mirror. Here are 23 of our favourite stories and projects that took place in the world of political art in 2011. Do you have
Continue readingArt Threat: Looking for the Political at Art Basel
The politics at Art Basel, one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in the US, may be hard to find, but they’re there for those who know where to look. On December 4th Karen Rosenberg wrote an article in the New York Times (entitled “Art Basel: Business Over Activism”) highlighting
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