tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/installation-art-8884/articlesInstallation art – The Conversation2022-12-14T12:24:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1964172022-12-14T12:24:16Z2022-12-14T12:24:16ZAlbanian migration has spurred a generation of artists to reflect on issues of identity and belonging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500410/original/file-20221212-103065-1umnjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=97%2C138%2C1415%2C1019&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Adrian Paci's Centro di Permanenza Temporanea.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian Paci </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s been a great deal of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/04/albanians-scapegoats-britain-failing-ideological-project-invaders?fbclid=IwAR1vvKEEOCLIGUfZrxGqG4KREJ2caQ0eQ3mglcqzPQmP1fEMMMnMakqpcsA">xenophobia directed at Albanian immigrants</a> to the UK recently. It’s easy to argue that Albanians are being scapegoated for the current crisis in Britain’s migration system. But prejudice against Albanians across Europe is not new. </p>
<p>After the collapse of communism in 1990, poverty, financial instability and unemployment forced Albanians to emigrate, many to <a href="https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/21580/1/how_does_the_word_albanian_make_you_feel_3oct(LSEROversion).pdf">Greece</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nNHCqrp1IP4C&pg=PA114&dq=albanophobia&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=albanophobia&f=false">Italy</a>. In these two countries, Albanians have been constant victims of <a href="https://repository.gchumanrights.org/items/f0261518-8e63-4bfb-ac4a-2e2e3cd9afb2">discrimination</a>, often facing <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/07/10/hate-streets/xenophobic-violence-greece">racist violence</a>.</p>
<p>The 2008 financial crisis hit Italy and Greece harder than most. In recent years Albanians have been migrating to northern European countries, including the UK. Yet again, they are facing <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-13024-8.pdf?pdf=button">similar discrimination</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14613190500132880">Many see Albanian migration</a> as a direct outcome of the neoliberal policies made after the country transitioned from dictatorship to democracy. But little is told about the experience of being an Albanian immigrant. Artists, however, have been trying to show their side, examining <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1368431006063333">borders</a> and making complex stories of migration more visible.</p>
<h2>Forced departures and transitional landscapes</h2>
<p>One of the first Albanian artists to engage with the topic of migration was <a href="https://jeudepaume.org/en/evenement/adrian-paci-lives-in-transit-2/">Adrian Paci</a>. His <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/workers">video work</a> Centro di Permanenza Temporanea (2007), borrowing its title from Italian temporary detention centres, depicts a group of immigrants on a staircase waiting to board a non-existent aircraft. It’s a reference to all the refugees whose dreams of starting a new life in a new country are never fulfilled.</p>
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<p>Paci fled to Italy in 1997 during the turmoil that erupted in Albania after the collapse of <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750342/tales-from-albarado/">pyramid schemes</a> on which the Albanian economy was heavily dependent. The country lost half of its <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2000/03/jarvis.htm">GDP</a> as a result. During the crisis, the government remained passive, even when social unrest nearly descended into civil war. Thousands of people lost their lives during the chaos.</p>
<p>In his video Intervista (1998), <a href="https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2802-anri-sala/">Anri Sala</a>, merges media footage of the 1997 events with footage from 1977, when the country was still ruled by longtime autocrat Enver Hoxha and under a communist system. The 1977 footage shows the artist’s mother, Valdete Sala, a former socialist leader, attending a congress of the Labour Youth Union of Albania. In this footage, she wears the red partisan scarf and stands with Hoxha. </p>
<p>The footage from 1977 and 1997 is accompanied by new footage of Sala interviewing his mother about the communist past. Sala’s works juxtapose the <a href="https://afterall.org/article/subtitling-communism-beneath-anri-sala-s-intervista">personal</a> and the political, the communist past that took away fundamental human freedoms and the post-socialist reality that brought the chaos of 1997. </p>
<p>Artists who remained in Albania after the mass exodus of the 1990s captured the changes that came with the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14683850802556376">transition</a> from state socialism to neoliberal capitalism, including the depiction of empty towns and villages, typical in post-socialist Europe.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://medium.com/oxford-university/emptiness-capitalism-after-socialism-2fca14324a3e">emptiness of these villages</a> highlights the failures of the capitalist order. The closure of state-owned factories that employed large swaths of the population and extensive privatisation brought about the decline of towns, which forced people to migrate abroad for employment. </p>
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<img alt="An abstract painting of a boat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500409/original/file-20221212-108108-qh64s7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Edi Hila, People of the future 3, 1997 from the series Migrations.</span>
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<p>A haunting feeling of a past long gone and of a transition that never reached a conclusion is prominent in <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/edi-hila-albanian-painter-postwar-communism-and-its-aftermath">Edi Hila</a>’s post-1990 paintings. His series <a href="http://edihila.artmuseum.pl/en/serie/migracje/ludzie-przyszlosci-3">Migrations</a> (1997), painted in an almost mourning grey colour, is a commemoration of those who drowned in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/31/world/albania-envoy-accuses-italy-in-sinking-of-refugee-boat.html">March 1997</a> while crossing the Adriatic Sea, most of whom were women and children. </p>
<p>The tragic event took place when the Albanian ship Kateri i Radës sank after colliding with an Italian vessel in the strait of Otranto. This was one of the many ships which departed from the Albanian port city of Vlora carrying Albanians trying to escape the chaos of 1997. At that time the Italian navy was instructed to prevent at any cost the unauthorised entry of Albanian immigrants to Italy. </p>
<p>Hila’s recent series <a href="http://edihila.artmuseum.pl/en/serie/paradoksy/">Paradox</a> (2005), containing timid additions of warmer colours, represent stills of everyday life in a changing environment: unfinished buildings, people bathing in front of the same sea where human lives were once lost, <a href="https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/13132/bunker-for-every-citizen-albania-communist-relics">communist bunkers</a> that remain reminders of the traumatic past. Life continues. But life here is haunted by the tragedies of those who tried to flee without reaching safe shores.</p>
<h2>Searching for “home” and a precarious present</h2>
<p>Many Albanian immigrants who built new lives abroad continue to search for a sense of belonging. In their performance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s0hYy_9GEg">Voyage Transparent</a> (2004), Canada-based artists <a href="https://amybryzgel.wordpress.com/flutura-besnik-haxhillari/">The Two Gullivers</a> (Flutura Preka and Besnik Haxhillari) drag a transparent suitcase, a metaphor for the invisible “luggage” (such as memories and emotions) that immigrants carry with them. The artists obtained this suitcase in the Albanian capital Tirana in 1994 and have since performed the act across the world. At each performance, it remains unclear whether the suitcase reaches its destination.</p>
<p>For photographer <a href="https://www.enricanaj.com/">Enri Canaj</a>, who grew up in Greece, the search to understand “home” takes him back to Albania. In <a href="https://www.enricanaj.com/bd12b60272-gallery">Albania – A Homecoming</a> (2011–2015) he uses photography to capture everyday moments in Albania: women mourning at a funeral, children playing, people going to work. The project is an attempt to get to know the country his parents left behind.</p>
<p>In many cases, Albanian immigrants had to hide their <a href="https://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/jesr/article/view/12402">nationality</a> when they arrived in their new country. For instance, in Greece many took new Greek names – a survival strategy because being “<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-13719-3_7">invisible</a>” meant less chance to be a target of racism.</p>
<p>Although Albania’s economy has slowly recovered, the country remains one of the <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/albanians-most-at-risk-of-poverty-in-europe/">poorest in Europe</a>. The 2008 economic crisis and the recent pandemic brought more <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/933637d0-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/933637d0-en">unemployment and precarity</a>. <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315564661/discourse-analysis-corruption-blendi-kajsiu">Corruption</a> has also played its role in perpetuating social inequalities.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CN-dMGFLYK6","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Pleurad Xhafa’s <a href="https://artmargins.com/one-on-one-pleurad-xhafa-200-million-euro-2020/">200 Million Euro</a> (2020), which was temporarily exhibited in the National Theatre in Tirana, is a direct response to Albania’s reality of normalised corruption. The installation consists of 500 euros inside a glass cube. It was created to protest the lack of transparent wealth redistribution and illegal privatisations – ironically including one which led to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13556207.2022.2061185">demolition</a> of the National Theatre itself. </p>
<p>The history of immigration is repeating itself as people continue to seek asylum around the world, including <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-63473022">in the UK</a>. This art continues to be so prescient because the cycle never ended for Albanians and so we can continue to understand their experience through these powerful works about displacement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dimitra Gkitsa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From plane stairs that lead nowhere to paintings of empty towns, these artists depict the experience of Albanian immigrants.Dimitra Gkitsa, Alexander Nash Research Fellow, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643582022-01-19T18:59:03Z2022-01-19T18:59:03ZFrom fear to connection, dynamic MENTAL exhibition explores a colourful spectrum of experiences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411792/original/file-20210719-27-a03fea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C3%2C2381%2C1585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wheel by Hiromi Tango and Dr Emma Burrows (2021)</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: <a href="https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/mental">MENTAL: Head Inside</a>, curated by Tilly Boleyn.</em></p>
<p>After three false starts due to lockdown, the Science Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, MENTAL: Head Inside, is opening at its new space in Carlton. </p>
<p>The gallery is one node in a global network of youth-focused spaces that playfully kicks down the walls between art and science.</p>
<p>Previous Science Gallery exhibitions — BLOOD, PERFECTION and DISPOSABLE — were held in different temporary locations. Curated by and for young people, MENTAL is both a homecoming and a housewarming in an airy, purpose-built space.</p>
<h2>Confronting and comforting</h2>
<p>Two years in the making, MENTAL was curated in defiance of the pandemic by a team of professional curators, an advisory group of young people and experts. The works on display are the fruits of an international open call on the expansive topic of the human mind. They invite engagement and interaction rather than chin-in-hand appraisal.</p>
<p>Although the exhibition explores the mind’s many dimensions, it tilts toward timely issues of mental health. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="young person looks into mirrored chamber" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Isolation Chamber by Rory Randall and Indigo Daya (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
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<p>The most confronting is Rory Randall and Indigo Daya’s Isolation Chamber, a recreation of a seclusion room for involuntarily detained psychiatric patients. The practice is due for elimination following the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system. </p>
<p>Visitors can enter and experience the pinned helplessness of being surveilled from many angles by those outside. Like many other exhibits, visitors can also record their reactions.</p>
<p>Emily Fitzsimons’ Cushions, knitted in the form of assorted pills, reflect on the role of medication in mental health treatment.</p>
<p>Relief of another sort is offered by Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara artist Rosie Kalina’s Respite Space, a sanctuary where the mental health of First Nations people is front and centre.</p>
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<h2>Fear and influence</h2>
<p>Selfcare4eva has Mary Angley and Caithlin O'Loghlen inhabit an in-gallery bedroom in their quest to become famous wellness influencers. A frenzy of wellness-related video and image content creation is promised, to which visitors can add when the artists surrender the room to the public.</p>
<p>The richness of human emotion presented extends beyond wellness, of course. Zhou Xiaohu’s mesmerising Even in Fear has a weather balloon inflate menacingly within a pink, vaguely ribcage-like enclosure. Some may find the suspense frightening, others thrilling.</p>
<p>Fear and nightmares also animate some of Indigenous artist Josh Muir’s sumptuous visual designs and soundscapes in Go Mental. The dreamlike feel of his work leads into the visual and auditory distortions and trippiness of Nwando Ebizie’s Distorted Constellations. Like several of the exhibits, hers is <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/there-is-no-normal">partnered</a> with an ongoing research project.</p>
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<span class="caption">Detail from ECHO by Georgie Pinn (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
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<h2>Gut feelings</h2>
<p>Music is also central to Sophia Charuhas’ Microbial Mood. A live experiment tests whether different kinds of music differently influence the growth of gut bacteria, collected in petri dishes above a set of speakers. The artist speculates future music could be used to enhance health by fine-tuning the gut-brain connection.</p>
<p>Emanuel Gollob’s beautiful sea-sponge-like robot in Doing Nothing with AI is also responsive, moving slowly and sinuously to relax the viewer. A headset transmits the brainwaves of observers as they admire the strange seaborg.</p>
<p>Nina Rajcic’s remarkable Mirror Ritual generates a personalised poem based on the visitor’s facial expressions, read as they front a mirror. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman reads poem in mirror" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mirror ritual by Nina Rajcic and Seansilab (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
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<h2>Meeting of minds</h2>
<p>Mental life happens inside our heads, but several exhibits recognise the importance of interactions between minds. Hiromi Tango and Emma Burrows’ Wheel invites visitors to try out a rainbow-striped hamster wheel, exploring how social rewards promote exercise.</p>
<p>Georgie Pinn’s Echo uncannily dramatises the experience of empathy. The visitor listens to another person’s story while looking at their face. Gradually their own face appears to take over the narrator’s.</p>
<p>The opposite phenomenon is presented in Your Face is Muted, by computer scientists Tilman Dingler, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Eylül Ertay, Hao Huang and Melanie Huang. The difficulty of maintaining online video conversations when faces become hard to read is illustrated dramatically in this interactive exhibit. Anyone who has experienced a patchy video conversation will relate.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="old green rotary phone on pedestal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is there anybody there? Rachel Hanlon’s Hi Machine – Hello Human (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/child-mental-health-how-acting-out-during-covid-can-be-a-coping-mechanism-and-what-parents-can-do-to-help-158083">Child mental health: how acting out during COVID can be a coping mechanism, and what parents can do to help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rachel Hanlon’s charming Hello Machine, Hello Human allows visitors to initiate a spontaneous phone call with another person … or does it? Hanlon’s work is an artistic rendition of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/">Alan Turing’s famous test</a> of whether a machine can pass as human.</p>
<h2>Colour and movement</h2>
<p>Overall, the exhibition has a sense of lightness and dynamism. There are gobs of colour everywhere, darker nooks to explore, and high ceilings and abundant natural light. </p>
<p>At a time when the importance of STEM education is almost universally acknowledged, if not adequately funded, STEM needs to show itself as welcoming, open and attractive. If we want young people to engage with science and technology, they must be able to see these fields not as obscure bodies of knowledge and mechanical methods but as pathways to creative discovery.</p>
<p>By showcasing the works of diverse young artists and scientists who collaborate to explore the issues of the day, MENTAL delivers a powerful message on the value and creative possibilities of science. It is an exemplary exhibition that deserves a visit, whether you are 15, 25 or 85.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/mental">MENTAL: Head Inside</a> runs until June 18 at Science Gallery Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam works for the University of Melbourne, with which Science Gallery Melbourne is affiliated, and has in the past consulted on an unpaid basis with the gallery.</span></em></p>A youth-focussed exhibition about experiences of mental health is interactive and expansive, kicking down the barriers between science and art.Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1671632021-09-13T14:55:22Z2021-09-13T14:55:22ZHow Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai has reinvented the idea of a library<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421011/original/file-20210914-23-1m5i8g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Johannesburg version of the library.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthea Pokroy/Courtesy Kudzanai Chiurai</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Zimbabwe born artist <a href="https://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/kudzanai-chiurai#bio">Kudzanai Chiurai</a> is a phenomenon. He is one of the most challenging and inventive <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-09-01-00-evolving-cynical-and-everything-in-between/">figures</a> in contemporary African art. From large scale photos of fictional African dictators to experimental films and protest posters, rich oil paintings and minimal sculptures, his work is housed in the world’s top galleries and collections.</p>
<p>Chiurai, though, frequently shrugs off gallery spaces to show in warehouses, on the street or in urban locations. His latest project, <a href="https://kudzanaichiurai.com"><em>The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember</em></a>, is <a href="https://www.44stanley.co.za/the-library">housed</a> in a boutique shopping complex, 44 Stanley, in Johannesburg. It is built around his collecting practice focused on preserving archives and memorialising social and cultural history from southern Africa. He’s turned his own personal library and archive into a public art project. </p>
<p>It’s an idea informed by Chiurai’s obsessive <a href="https://www.riotmaterial.com/archive-fever-kudzanai-chiurai/">interest in history</a> and accumulation of artefacts such as books, pamphlets, zines, newspapers, vinyl records, political <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/38241">posters</a>, audio recordings and other ephemera – materials that explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. </p>
<p>The work takes a pointedly nontraditional approach to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivist">archivism</a>. The selection and acquisition is determined by interaction. It is managed as a kind of commons where people can share and benefit from the artist’s collection and what is donated by others. Whereas most archives and libraries stress the preservation of materials, Chiurai’s library promotes access, physical engagement, and active use of the materials to maintain their continued relevance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-artists-have-preserved-the-memory-of-zimbabwes-1980s-massacres-143847">How artists have preserved the memory of Zimbabwe's 1980s massacres</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The library reflects Chiurai’s artistic repertoire, which deploys the use of mixed media to address social, political and cultural issues. It calls to mind his groundbreaking 2011 exhibition <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-4lRJrgwRw"><em>State of the Nation</em></a> which explored conflict by constructing an African utopia that enabled him to merge forms and mediums, juxtapose political ideas, evoke historical figures – like a speech by slain Congolese independence leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrice-Lumumba">Patrice Lumumba</a> delivered by artist Zaki Ibrahim – alongside a performance by contemporary musician Thandiswa Mazwai. </p>
<p>In his work Chiurai imagines new ways to activate, share, present and reinvent the archives, as he does with his latest project, the library. </p>
<h2>The library</h2>
<p>Initially, in 2017, <em>The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember</em> was of no fixed abode, usually incorporated into the artist’s own exhibitions. But the concept of a mobile library was altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted movement and live events. The library is about gathering, not just materials, but people. It is supposed to be a meeting place.</p>
<p>Now, Chiurai also invites others to curate this archive, to re-arrange it for regular public viewing in a rented space. He <a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/kudzanai-chiurai-goodman-gallery/">considers</a> the library to be: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Itself a form of liberated zone. It functions independently – I find a different librarian every time … and different people see the process of cataloguing differently. Some look at it visually, and some aurally – and so different librarians bring different things to my attention.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a structure within a room, two smaller rooms. One contains a large filing cabinet and the other a couch, record player and political posters. A man sits on the couch listening to a record." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421012/original/file-20210914-15-7sj3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthea Pokroy/Courtesy Kudzanai Chiurai</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The library includes the artist’s extensive collection of vinyl records associated with liberation movements in southern Africa from the 1970s-80s, notably Zimbabwean <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chimurenga">Chimurenga</a> and South African anti-apartheid <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/5-anti-apartheid-songs-you-should-know/">struggle music</a>. There are also recordings of speeches by historical political figures such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ian-Smith">Ian Smith</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-kwame-nkrumah-used-metaphor-as-a-political-weapon-against-colonialism-129379">Kwame Nkrumah</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mobutu-Sese-Seko">Mobutu Sese Seko</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther-King-Jr">Dr Martin Luther King</a> and even a dramatic re-enactment of the trial of <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/black-panthers">Black Panther Party</a> co-founder <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bobby-Seale">Bobby Seale</a>.</p>
<p>The collection has continued to grow. In 2018 it obtained digital recordings from the US-based educational project, <a href="https://freedomarchives.org/">Freedom Archives</a> – radio interviews with political figures and women involved in the liberation movements in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Guinea- Bissau, as well as the US civil rights movement. Other materials are donated by individuals and institutions.</p>
<p>Accordingly, Chiurai treats these traces of struggle with great care. Some of these historical documents and posters are now framed and hung on the white walls. Once, these materials chronicled life in Black Africa or Black America as it happened. Now, they are artefacts of frozen moments in history. His library is conceived as a place of contemplation and reflection. There is a big green couch and listening stations.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="against a backdrop of angular colour block paintings, a bald bearded man in glasses smiles as he talks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420214/original/file-20210909-13-ewn3i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kudzanai Chiurai in Accra, Ghana, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Linus Petit</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The art of remembering</h2>
<p><em>The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember</em> is part of an effort to <a href="http://designinglibraries.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=222">expand ideas</a> of what a library can be and its decolonisation. It is an extension of new ways people are using the ‘library’ as a place of inquiry and conversation with the past. </p>
<p>Perhaps, what is fascinating is that Chiurai’s library is not static, but re-arranges in the hands of a guest librarian, and has travelled from its first iteration in Harare, to Cape Town, Kalmar, Södertälje and Johannesburg. Previous librarians have been the political writing platform <a href="https://chimurengachronic.co.za/about/">Chimurenga</a> in Harare, writer and DJ El Corazone in Cape Town, and film director and deejay <a href="https://www.encounters.co.za/guest/sifiso-khanyile/">Sifiso Khanyile</a> in Johannesburg.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A depiction of The Last Supper with a black female Jesus figure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420614/original/file-20210912-21-19wr5nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from Kudzanai Chiurai’s film Iyeza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screengrab courtesy Kudzanai Chiurai</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What Chiurai is doing is to incubate a new model for artistic creation and knowledge production that interferes with the circulation, display and preservation of cultural objects. Who has a right to assign value? Who decides what is history? What kinds of materials should be collected? How can access be expanded to new publics?</p>
<p>Visitors also have a responsibility. They are not just passive observers, but collaborators, interpreters, and readers. The library becomes a place of provocation that allows multiple registers of value, because value is negotiated. It’s also about the reinvention of the library as a space for multiple forms of contemplation. It is still a destination for artists, scholars, curators, and collectors to research and engage with southern African history.</p>
<p>Remembering is a virtue that Chiurai extols. In Black communities it is often an expensive luxury, a privilege. But through this new space arranged in the form of a hybrid gallery, community center, library and archive, remembering is translated into a collective process of reimagining and of sharing heritage. It is also testament of the generosity behind Chiurai’s art practice, of care and community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tinashe Mushakavanhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With vinyl records, zines and political posters instead of just books, The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember offers a way to reimagine African history.Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1113922019-02-13T11:49:18Z2019-02-13T11:49:18ZIvanka and her tower of crumbs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258528/original/file-20190212-174890-rwe25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist Jennifer Rubell hired a model to vacuum for two hours each night from Feb. 1 to Feb. 17.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Maxwell Photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For two hours each evening, an Ivanka Trump lookalike has been vacuuming a hot pink carpet at the Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>As she appears to be on the cusp of completing the task, spectators soil the carpet with bread crumbs. She vacuums them up. The audience tosses more crumbs onto the carpet. The pattern repeats itself. </p>
<p>Jennifer Rubell’s installation, titled “<a href="https://www.culturaldc.org/ivanka-vacuuming-by-jennifer-rubell-press-release">Ivanka Vacuuming</a>,” has already elicited a response from the subject.</p>
<p>Following the Feb. 1 opening, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/the-performance-piece-ivanka-vacuuming-seems-to-irk-the-first-daughter-even-more-than-fake-news/2019/02/05/fe70801c-296c-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html">Ivanka Trump tweeted</a>, “Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter,” to which <a href="https://twitter.com/jenniferrubell/status/1092826529791426561">Rubell parried</a>, “I would encourage you to see the piece and form your own direct response. … Not knocking anyone down. Exploring complicated subjects we all care about.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1092826529791426561"}"></div></p>
<p>As a historian of contemporary art, I wanted to learn more about this <a href="https://forward.com/schmooze/418831/ivanka-trump-family-slams-jewish-artist-sexist-ivanka-vacuuming/">headline-grabbing</a> work. So I followed Rubell’s directive and saw it myself.</p>
<p>The piece certainly pops: It’s pink. Very pink. And the Ivanka double has a plastic sheen that borders on surreal. </p>
<p>It took a moment to adjust to the saccharine visuals. But it soon became apparent that Rubell was drawing from a rich tradition of performance art. She seems to be compelling viewers to think about the huge numbers of women who perform invisible labor – all in exchange for a few crumbs from the great American pie.</p>
<h2>Repetitive, relentless work</h2>
<p>The work of art has been staged at the back of the gallery, in a space surrounded by three white walls. In the foreground, there’s a white cube, approximately three-and-a-half feet high and topped with a two-foot mound of Panko bread crumbs. Text invites the viewers to scatter the crumbs onto the pink carpet to keep the Ivanka doppelgänger busy.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the night I visited, Rubell was in the gallery observing the performance. She told me that she has witnessed the live performance in Washington, D.C., a few times. Otherwise, she’s been watching it on a live feed from her home in New York City.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258530/original/file-20190212-174887-1n8dbft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist Jennifer Rubell’s work has already elicited a response from her subject, Ivanka Trump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Maxwell Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Ivanka lookalike is a model whom Rubell hired through an agency. In my brief conversation with Rubell, she mentioned that although she had to make some minor adjustments to the model’s hair color and makeup, it was relative easy to mimic Ivanka’s look because she is already so doll-like.</p>
<p>Rubell cited <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4bcwswEACAAJ&dq=art+since+1900+1945+to+present&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimmtW3rrTgAhXwmuAKHWdfAKEQ6AEIKjAA">pioneering performance artist</a> Vito Acconci as an inspiration for her interest in the medium. You can see his stamp on “Ivanka Vacuuming” in works like “<a href="http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/step-piece/">Step Piece</a>.” Over a performance period of one month in 1970, Acconci documented himself, each day, stepping on and off a stool in his apartment at the rate of 30 steps per minute until he was unable to continue. He wanted to highlight the absurdity of certain repetitive tasks.</p>
<h2>Invisible female labor</h2>
<p>In her work, Rubell is also tackling the seeming endlessness of mind-numbing labor. But she’s doing it in a way that aligns herself with artists such as Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, who co-founded the California Institute of Arts’ Feminist Art program. </p>
<p>In 1972, Chicago and Schapiro collaborated with other feminists to create installations, performances and discussion groups concerned with the invisible labor performed by women, especially in the home. </p>
<p>Titled “<a href="http://www.womanhouse.net">Womanhouse</a>,” this influential exhibition criticized prevailing attitudes towards femininity and domesticity that had been instilled through a range of cultural messages, from <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/232216924508831346/?lp=true">advertisements for home appliances</a>, to toys like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhjjhYGQtY&annotation_id=annotation_660006&feature=iv">Barbie doll</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258561/original/file-20190212-174870-1tmb7f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Describing their motivation for the exhibition, Chicago and Schapiro wrote, ‘Womanhouse became the repository of the daydreams women have as they wash, bake, cook, sew, clean and iron their lives away.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://blogs.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/files/2011/08/gri_2000_m_43_b29_f9_326031ds_d1.jpg">The Getty Research Institute, 2000.M.43.1.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exhibition was set up in a dilapidated Los Angeles mansion. A group of 23 artists refurbished the residence prior to installing their work to make the familiar spaces of the home seem strange. For instance, the walls of the kitchen were pockmarked with fried egg sculptures that resembled eyes or breasts, while the shelves of a linen closet were merged into the body of a life-size mannequin doll.</p>
<p>In “Ivanka Vacuuming,” I also see echoes of New York-based artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. In 1973, Ukeles got down on her hands and knees <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/special-topics-art-history/seeing-america/work-exchange-and-technology/v/ukeles-washingtracksmaintenance">to scrub the floors and steps of the Wadsworth Atheneum museum</a>. <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/355255/how-mierle-laderman-ukeles-turned-maintenance-work-into-art/">In another famous work</a>, Ukeles shook the hand of every New York City sanitation worker.</p>
<p>Like “Ivanka Vacuuming” and “Womanhouse,” Ukeles wanted to bring attention to the drudgery of everyday tasks that are crucial to our well-being but go largely unrecognized and unrewarded. </p>
<h2>The viewer as enabler</h2>
<p>There’s a twist to “Ivanka Vacuuming,” however: It requires audience participation. In order to complete the work, viewers must grab from the pile of crumbs sitting on an abstract cube in the darkened half of the gallery and toss them into the brightly lit performance space.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258538/original/file-20190212-174851-o2sbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Audience members are invited to make a mess – and then grapple with what it feels like to have someone else clean it up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Maxwell Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rubell’s invitation to viewers made me think of Yoko Ono’s famous “<a href="http://imaginepeace.com//archives//2680">Cut Piece</a>” from 1964. In it, Ono sat on the floor with her legs folded beneath her body and a pair of scissors by her side. Viewers were invited to approach the artist, one by one, and cut off a piece of her dress. The performance continued until the artist was almost naked. </p>
<p>I was also reminded of the 1990 work “Untitled (USA Today),” in which artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres <a href="https://hammer.ucla.edu/take-it-or-leave-it/art/untitled-usa-today/">piled a large mound of candy</a> wrapped in red, blue and silver foil against the corner of a gallery and invited visitors to help themselves. Torres was prompting the viewer to think critically about the sugary news dished out by mainstream newspapers like USA Today and the way many readers uncritically gobble it up. </p>
<p>Likewise, Rubell’s work challenges her audience to engage and to think critically.</p>
<p>Vacuuming isn’t inherently degrading or abject. But it’s difficult to imagine Ivanka, at any point in her privileged upbringing, wielding a vacuum. </p>
<p>The artwork is jolting in the way that it juxtaposes Ivanka’s public image – pristine, professional, camera-ready – with tasks performed by the maids and housekeepers who labor in Trump’s homes, hotels and resorts.</p>
<p>But Rubell slyly subverts the dynamics of control. Who’s in charge? Is it the wealthiest one percent whose needs power the vacuums, start up the hotel laundries every night and turn on the kitchen fryers at 4 a.m.? </p>
<p>Or, perhaps it’s us – the public, the spectator – who keep the crumbs coming, participating in a system that privileges the few at the expense of the many.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Preminda Jacob does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new piece of performance art features a lookalike Ivanka Trump vacuuming crumbs. Not only is it a cutting commentary on labor and gender, but it also highlights the complicity of the viewer.Preminda Jacob, Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/623642016-07-14T10:37:58Z2016-07-14T10:37:58ZGoing naked in public is a joyful release for mind and body<p>I doubt I shall ever see blue in the same way again, since blue paint on my skin was the only thing covering my nakedness. I was among the 3,200 people – strangers to one another when it all began – who took part in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/09/thousands-strip-naked-in-hull-for-spencer-tunick-photographs">largest naked photo shoot in Britain</a>, wearing nothing but four shades of blue body paint. </p>
<p>This work of performance art, named The Sea of Hull, was conceived by New York-based photographer <a href="http://www.spencertunick.com">Spencer Tunick</a> and commissioned by the <a href="https://www.hull2017.co.uk/whatson/events/seaofhull/">Ferens Art Gallery</a> in Hull in north-east England as part of the city’s place as <a href="http://www.hull2017.co.uk">UK Capital of Culture</a> in 2017, with Tunick’s exhibition as one of its highlights. </p>
<p>Tunick’s work has been widely discussed in academic literature as much as in the tabloids. But in the book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Judging-the-Image-Art-Value-Law/Young/p/book/9780415301848">Judging the Image</a> by sociologist Alison Young, she describes Tunick’s early years and struggles against the law in the US, and also includes comments from those who have participated in his many installations. The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/the-sea-of-hull-was-the-feel-good-story-that-this-country-needed-a7129476.html">spectrum of feelings</a> aroused in those participating in Tunick’s work – as described in the book – echo the sentiments I have just heard expressed from my fellow participants in Hull.</p>
<p>My nude buddy summarised the event as joy, community, and release. And these are the three words with which I want to develop an approach to Tunick’s work and try to explain the reasons that led me to be a part of his human sea. </p>
<h2>Joy, community and release: human essentials</h2>
<p>I first came across Tunick’s work in 2002, when I saw his exhibition at the <a href="http://www.macm.org/en/">Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal</a>, Canada. It has taken 14 years for me to be able to make it to one of his installations, but my desire to do so never faded – something for which Young provides an explanation in her book: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tunick’s great achievement as an artist is that his work is premised upon offering individuals the uncanny experience of being simultaneously the object of the image and the performance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The dynamics of the acceptance or rejection of human bodies, either naked or clothed, rely on many factors and are culturally determined. The human body, as the physical essence of humanity, is at the core of the controversy. (I am not even going to approach the issue of sex. Not least because there is no sexual element in Tunick’s installations at all, but also because the complexities of human sexuality have already been masterly summarised by <a href="https://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/faculty/patrick_clarkin">Patrick Clarkin</a> in his fascinating series <a href="https://kevishere.com/2016/04/21/wrapping-up-the-blank-ogamous-series/">Humans are (Blank)-ogamous</a>.)</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130369/original/image-20160713-12353-6qs7tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ines Varela-Silva at the end of the event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Kennedy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Being part of Tunick’s installations provides an overwhelming sense of joy. It is exhilarating to realise that we can break socially prescribed barriers. Ultimately, the struggle is with ourselves: will we be brave enough to bare it all? Once nude, the feeling of joy is indescribable. From a purely physiological point of view, our “hormones of happiness” – endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin – will be unleashed, with knock-on effects on the body, including <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568997206000279">boosting the immune system</a>. </p>
<p>Humans are social mammals, and cooperation and altruism are core evolutionary traits. In his book <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520269712">Race, monogamy, and other lies they told you</a>, anthropologist <a href="http://anthropology.nd.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-by-alpha/agustin-fuentes/">Agustin Fuentes</a> explained that cooperation is what humans do best, and what makes us such a successful species.</p>
<p>Tunick’s installations provide a feeling of community that is not easy to find in our daily lives, but one to which we are evolutionarily hardwired to seek. The sense of release emerges when the feelings of joy and community lead us to realise that we have become better human beings – more inclusive, and with a greater capacity for acceptance.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>If you assumed Tunick would take a break for a little while after navigating the Sea of Hull, you’d be wrong: he is already channelling all his creative energy into, of all places, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sign-up-to-pose-nude-at-the-republican-national-convention_us_5734bb67e4b08f96c1826b18">Republican National Conference</a>, in Cleveland, Ohio. Tunick is now looking for 100 women who will pose naked while holding mirrors to reflect:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the knowledge and wisdom of progressive women and the concept of “mother nature” … The mirrors communicate that we are a reflection of ourselves, each other, and of the world that surrounds us. The woman becomes the future and the future becomes the woman.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am seriously considering dropping everything I have currently going on and hopping on a plane, right now, to be one of those rays of sunshine in Cleveland. This will be an installation focused on equal rights, specifically on women’s rights – values I treasure and fight for everyday. Do I need any other reason? I don’t think so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Inês Varela-Silva receives funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</span></em></p>Going naked in public has its own benefits.Inês Varela-Silva, Senior Lecturer in Human Biology, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/617642016-06-30T14:14:58Z2016-06-30T14:14:58ZSix interesting stories you may have missed in the madness of British politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128729/original/image-20160629-15254-3r7rai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C8%2C969%2C623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The first flower grown on the International Space Station.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/first-flower-grown-in-space-stations-veggie-facility">NASA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So it’s fairly likely that you haven’t been reading about – or talking about – much other than Brexit since the early hours of June 24. Even the football isn’t much of a distraction, with Roy Hodgson resigning (in tandem with a slew of politicians) and England knocking itself out of another kind of European gathering. But elsewhere, things have been happening that you just might have missed.</p>
<h2>1) <a href="https://theconversation.com/energy-market-investigation-a-let-down-for-consumers-paying-more-for-power-61385">A major report on the energy market was published and it’s bad news for UK consumers</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128722/original/image-20160629-15274-1e9hidy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Phillips/PA.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results of a two-year investigation into why energy bills keep rising were released on June 24. The release went largely unnoticed but has important implications for consumers. The big six suppliers still dominate the market, despite an alarming number of people who could get a better deal by switching providers. Despite gas and electricity consumption going down since 2004, in 2014 British consumers spent 75% more on electricity and 125% more on gas than they did then. The government appears to blame this unfair expenditure on consumers – not the energy companies – without many suggested solutions.</p>
<h2>2) <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiny-wings-trapped-in-amber-99-million-years-ago-reveal-new-secrets-of-earliest-birds-61773">Two 99 million-year-old wings found preserved in amber</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C119%2C1024%2C485&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128710/original/image-20160629-15251-m7905m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail of the feathers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Saskatchewan Museum/RC McKellar</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A team of researchers <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160628/ncomms12089/full/ncomms12089.html">published research</a> on their discovery of two fossil wings preserved in fossilised amber, which were dated at 99-million-years old. CT scans of these tiny wings revealed beautiful detail that was perfectly preserved along with the wings’ skeleton – and in 3D. The discovery provides new insight into understanding the early birds that evolved from dinosaurs and how they might have used claws to clamber on trees. </p>
<h2>3) <a href="https://theconversation.com/walking-on-water-the-power-and-politics-of-installation-art-61529">People in Italy are walking on water</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128678/original/image-20160629-15248-1yca9x6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Floating Piers is on Lake Iseo until July 3.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-441329281/stock-photo-the-floating-piers-christo-project-visitors-walking-from-sulzano-to-monte-isola-and-to-the-island.html?src=ha9fkX-Hcpm1VGxvsNbJDA-1-17">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/walking-on-water-the-power-and-politics-of-installation-art-61529">The Floating Piers</a> on Lake Iseo, Italy, is an installation by Bulgarian artist Christo. It has been attracting thousands of people who want to see what it’s like to walk on water – with the help of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes that move with the waves. Amy Bryzgel wrote that such installation work is about enabling us to engage with the art we are viewing, and to be less passive in our appreciation.</p>
<h2>4) <a href="https://theconversation.com/interstellar-greenhouses-how-a-single-molecule-could-be-key-to-growing-plants-in-microgravity-61314">Scientists are closer to getting plants to grow in microgravity</a></h2>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ue4PCI0NamI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Potatoes!</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finding a way to grow food outside of the Earth’s atmosphere will be essential if we are ever to sustain life after the EU referendum. In space, the main challenge is understanding plant growth in <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-microgravity-57898">microgravity</a>, when many plants rely on gravity to know which way to send their roots.</p>
<p>But research closer to home shows that the distribution of a hormone called “auxin” ultimately controls the direction of root growth. Rupesh Paudyal found that changing the distribution of this hormone so the plant no longer relies on gravity could allow plants to grow normally up in space. So we might one day eat a potato from space, like Matt Damon.</p>
<h2>5) <a href="https://theconversation.com/play-stops-rain-could-cloud-seeding-deliver-perfect-wimbledon-weather-61725">Wimbledon has started – and by 2026 we might be able to stop it raining on the pitch</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128730/original/image-20160629-15266-bnzmm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Down with this sort of thing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-431430250/stock-photo-paris-france-may-fans-watch-tennis-in-the-rain-at-the-french-open.html?src=C9xJnr_SgNfW5e-sQqNFSg-1-1">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that uses silver iodide to attract water in one region of clouds – creating more rain – so as to reduce the likelihood of rain in another region. Such a technique <a href="https://theconversation.com/play-stops-rain-could-cloud-seeding-deliver-perfect-wimbledon-weather-61725">could be used to keep Wimbledon dry in the future</a>. Though we may not yet have definitive proof that cloud seeding works, research is promising. But is it really worth the effort to stave off a bit of drizzle? There are also ethical implications to controlling the weather, which might be an interesting discussion to come.</p>
<h2>6) <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-dragons-on-westeros-fly-aeronautical-engineering-and-maths-say-they-could-60584">Game of Thrones ends</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128701/original/image-20160629-15263-9mh3zv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Things are simpler in Westeros, especially if you’re Mother of Dragons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’re so glad Game of Thrones has been there to provide, as always, a thorough distraction from the real world. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-dragons-on-westeros-fly-aeronautical-engineering-and-maths-say-they-could-60584">this article</a>, an expert on aeronautics turns his thought to how dragons in Westeros get off the ground. It’s definitely possible – but would certainly mean that the atmosphere on Westeros is pretty different to ours on Earth. And a medieval historian gives his take on the authenticity of episode nine’s incredible <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-battle-of-the-bastards-squares-with-medieval-history-61456">Battle of the Bastards</a>. So begins the wait for the next series, and the energetic humming of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEg4SEch27w">theme tune</a>.</p>
<p>For more developments in politics across the world that have passed you by if your usual feeds have been nothing but Brexit, read <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-brexit-the-worlds-still-turning-global-stories-you-might-have-missed-61687">Beyond Brexit, the world’s still turning: global stories you might have missed</a>. Experts report news on the Islamic State, the Spanish general election, Colombia, and plenty more current issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Have some much needed non-Brexit news.Khalil A. Cassimally, Head of Audience Insights, The Conversation InternationalHolly Farler, Section and Multimedia AssistantLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/615292016-06-23T14:26:22Z2016-06-23T14:26:22ZWalking on water: the power and politics of installation art<p>Bulgarian artist Christo – who is best known for his massive “wrapping” of buildings and other monuments – has unveiled his latest installation, <a href="http://christojeanneclaude.net/mobile/projects?p=the-floating-piers#.V2ugy6vlQ64">The Floating Piers</a>. If you visit Italy’s Lake Iseo before July 3, you can experience what it’s like to walk on water. </p>
<p>On setting foot on the piers, a floating dock system of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes which undulate with the waves, visitors will experience the closest approximation to what it’s like to walk on water. Seem like a gimmick, or even more of an amusement park attraction than high art? Maybe, but installation art, in its relatively short history, has always been controversial.</p>
<p>The use of installation in contemporary art began to develop in the 1970s as a way of democratising the art experience. Installation enables the viewer to have a more active role in the consumption of the artwork, rather than passively viewing it. As such, the meaning of the artwork was no longer just about what the artist wanted to express, but about the viewer’s experience of and interaction with it. </p>
<p>For example, one of <a href="http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kaprow-allan.htm">Allan Kaprow’s</a> earliest installations, Apple Shrine, involved visitors navigating a basement labyrinth of chicken wire, newspaper, cloth and straw, at the end of which they were allowed to take a piece away with them. They had to choose between a real apple, which they could literally consume (eat), or a fake one, which they could keep and preserve forever.</p>
<h2>Art in public</h2>
<p>Installation artists seek to move art into the public space, so that those who don’t usually frequent galleries could encounter it. This doesn’t often pan out as expected. One infamous example was Richard Serra’s <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/gallery-lost-art-richard-serra">Tilted Arc</a>, a site-specific installation on New York City’s busy Federal Plaza, constructed in 1981. The point was to alter the individual’s path as she or he crossed the plaza. It sparked such a strong reaction — people were annoyed that they had to go around it, not to mention the fact that many found it ugly — that a public trial was held and a jury voted to remove it.</p>
<p>Because of its strong imposition on the landscape and in public spaces, installation art can also be effective in communicating a political or social message. At the end of last year, Danish-Icelandic artist <a href="http://www.olafureliasson.net">Olafur Eliasson</a>, together with the geologist Minik Rosing, installed <a href="http://icewatchparis.com">Ice Watch</a> — 12 blocks of ice, taken from icebergs from a fjord in Greenland — in the Place du Pantheon during COP21, the Paris Climate Conference 2015. Over the course of 12 days, those 12 blocks, arranged in a clock formation, melted away. The artist made climate change and its effects, for which there are still many sceptics, visible to all — not just the scientists and experts inside the meetings of COP21.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127926/original/image-20160623-30250-fbulm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Time is dripping.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ice Watch Paris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In February 2016, Chinese artist <a href="http://aiweiwei.com">Ai Weiwei</a>, who is outspoken on the subject of human rights and whose work is often political, covered the columns of the façade of Berlin’s Konzerthaus with <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/14/arts/ai-weiwei-berlin-life-jackets/">bright orange life vests</a> taken from Lesbos, the Greek Island that has become a gateway for refugees fleeing to Europe. The installation coincided with the <a href="https://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html">Berlinale Film Festival</a>. Although the intention was to commemorate those who died at sea in their attempt to escape war and persecution, the artist was <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ai-weiwei-life-jackets-installation-berlin-427247">criticised</a> for the location of installation, seeing as Germany has taken in more refugees than any other European nation.</p>
<h2>Art and beauty</h2>
<p>But such “public” art does not always have to be political. The work that Christo – the walking on water artist – began creating in the 1960s <a href="http://christojeanneclaude.net">with his partner Jeanne-Claude</a> didn’t aim to pander to particular debates. They maintained that their principle aim was to create objects of beauty. By intervening in a landscape or wrapping up a building in cloth, such as the <a href="http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/wrapped-reichstag#.V2uyhKvlQ64">Reichstag in Berlin</a>, they invited the viewer to look again, see something anew, and appreciate the aesthetic qualities the new artwork brings. The artists continued to make installations together until 2009, when Jeanne-Claude died. </p>
<p>The Floating Piers is Christo’s first installation since his partner’s death. Similarly, aesthetics and emotion seem to be the principle message.</p>
<p>The public nature of all of these installations enables the beauty of contemporary art to be appreciated by those who wouldn’t normally set foot into an art museum or gallery – and the placement of some of them allows for a social and political message to be communicated to a wider audience. While Christo’s piece enables the visitor to walk on water, Eliasson’s and Weiwei’s works both bring home powerful messages about important social issues in a more visceral manner than perhaps a news item or report might. And that, after all, is the power of installation art.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Bryzgel receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Ever wanted to perform a miracle? Now’s your chance.Amy Bryzgel, Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/228962014-02-06T23:36:46Z2014-02-06T23:36:46ZNew media art, in Sydney, in The Very Near Future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40891/original/qds5d4np-1391666181.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"The Very Near Future presents a unique temporal, sensory, and conceptual experience."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When visitors walk into Sydney’s Artspace Gallery, they find themselves on what seems to be a live film set. A noir feature film called The Hop Head Hatchet Man is in production. It’s a studio operation run by Harvey Lebnitz Productions.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s an installation work, <a href="http://artspace.org.au/gallery_project.php?i=189">The Very Near Future</a>, by Sydney artist <a href="http://neurospike.net/">Alex Davies</a> that’s part of the 2014 Sydney Festival. Once you’re inside the film studio “complex” – inside Artspace Gallery itself – things become rather more interesting.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Film poster for The Hop Head Hatchet Man (1953 / 2014).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ali Crosby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What ensues is a mysterious mind-bending event, resulting in a series of time loops, and déjà vu-inducing reruns of the space-time continuum every five minutes. Anyone – and everyone – inside the studio skips across the same five-minute time interval in eight parallel universes. The events - not just in the film, but also behind the scenes in the film studio itself – are revealed by means of eight different narratives.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/the-very-near-future-large-scale-mixed.html">first iteration of the work</a> was installed at Sydney’s Carriageworks in 2013 as part of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Over the two-year life of The Very Near Future, some 30 cast and crew have been involved (and just to be clear, I was one of them.)</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a hybrid film/art installation, The Very Near Future presents a unique temporal, sensory, and conceptual experience. It combines many of the immersive technical techniques that Davies has been honing over a <a href="http://neurospike.net/">decade-long international career</a>.</p>
<h2>On set at Harvey Lebnitz Productions</h2>
<p>Live security-camera footage provides visitors with glimpses of “30 seconds into the (very-near) future” in the various rooms of the film studio complex itself; it takes around half an hour of watching the “live film shoot” play out inside the film studio set to experience the eight different parallel universes.</p>
<p>The story is told by means of many different media forms and, as such, the installation is a good example of transmedia storytelling, as articulated by media theorists such as Marsha Kinder, <a href="http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/the_revenge_of_the_origami_uni.html">Henry Jenkins</a>, <a href="http://pganmc.blogspot.com.au/2007/10/pga-member-jeff-gomez-left-assembled.html">Jeff Gomez</a> and <a href="http://www.christydena.com/phd/">Christy Dena</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As you wander around the studio/installation work, and examine the props, notated scripts, and other media lying around, such as carefully labelled 16mm film cans, and you’ll recognise references to classic cinema history including films such as The Maltese Falcon, Sunset Boulevard, Zentropa, Barton Fink, Looper, Primer and the Spanish time-travel film Timecrimes.</p>
<p>Such self-referentiality is typical of film noir, and critic Alison Castle’s summation of Stanley Kubrick’s classic noir in her collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Kubrick-Archives-Alison-Castle/dp/3836508893">The Kubrick Archives</a> serves as a perfect gloss on The Very Near Future: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>True to noir tradition, the story begins at the end, and is told in flashback, with the beleaguered hero serving as the narrator of his own downfall.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>You are the villain in the window</h2>
<p><a href="http://thethousands.com.au/sydney/look/alex-davies-the-very-near-future">Described</a> as: “a Charlie Kaufman take on Groundhog Day as a noir film”, the work involves interactive cinema. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you stand at the window in the “film set” for five seconds and peer through the window, into the darkness, you find yourself in the frame.</p>
<p>If you then walk over to the edit suite you are likely to find yourself inserted as “the villain at the window” into the feature film itself. You’ll watch the film being edited in real time – and see a scene play out in which Scarlet the nightclub dancer (played by Annabel Lines) notices “someone” spying on herself and Detective Eddie Getz through the window. It’s a puzzle for film aficionados and lovers of time-travel, M-theory, and parallel universes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The storyline of the feature film at the centre of the installation – The Hop Head Hatchet Man – includes a murder-mystery, a love triangle and a “suitcase-bomb” that the femme fatale Evangeline Montgomery has planted for her unsuspecting husband, Senator Montgomery, in their mansion’s sunroom. </p>
<p>The question is, will Detective Eddie Getz be able to get to the scene of the would-be crime, in time? </p>
<p>And – when he does – which of the eight parallel narrative universes will he find himself in?</p>
<p><br>
<em>The Very Near Future by Alex Davies is showing at Sydney’s Artspace until February 16. Details <a href="http://artspace.org.au/gallery_project.php?i=189">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JT Velikovsky worked on the installation `The Very Near Future' as a writer, researcher and consultant. He worked for and consulted to the artist, Dr Alex Davies, who received grant funding for this project from the Australia Council for the Arts.</span></em></p>When visitors walk into Sydney’s Artspace Gallery, they find themselves on what seems to be a live film set. A noir feature film called The Hop Head Hatchet Man is in production. It’s a studio operation…JT Velikovsky, Doctoral Candidate: Film/Transmedia, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.