New York is a place where many various threads come together.  Threads of culture, ideas, innovations, tastes, and sentiments run the spectrum, and often invent new spectrums, and find a place to express themselves here.  It’s a place of unique combinations.  Because of the proximity of ideas and people, things blend together here, and the history of human intelligence here suggests that mixing elements is often surprisingly interesting, and usually great fun as well.  New York casino hotels are one demonstration of how things can be mixed, where the idea of the casino, based on the models in the desert in the southwest, takes root here to become its own thing.  Like everything else in New York, it then becomes extremely local, and all of the uniques histories of New York come to bear on the idea of the casino.

A good deal of the most interesting art these days also follows this kind of model.  Interdisciplinary forms are finally becoming a norm.  Where the money has pretty much run out, and we’ve all run out of ideas of a purely entertaining performing arts, visionary artists are coming to make new work based on the necessity of doing something with the inspiration.  Inspiration doesn’t stop, even if the funding does run out.  This is not good news for artists, but it is for the rest, because there’s a tremendous variety of new things out there.  This will demonstrated in early February with a performance of The Space Inside. 

Directed by Bonnie Eckard and performed by Maria Porter, this new work at Theatre Row Studio Theatre is an exploration of alternative medicine in relation to the body at the end of life.  It was developed in part at the Across the Threshold Conference, and is part of an ongoing trend toward blending different disciplines in scholarship as well as performative traditions.  Eckard’s substantial and very impressive body of work has been moving more toward integrating science with performance.  The idea that she can make such splendid works as these, while also maintaining a sharp and effective spiritual wedge into the viewer’s consciousness is a testament to a major talent.

NY & The Space Inside is a post from: Five DC

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The Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix, Arizona is an internationally recognized and respected museum.  Since the beginning in 1929, the vision of the co-founders Maie and Dwight Heard has grown into a museum with a vast number of quality pieces in the collection, an education institution with a variety of programs, and the site of many traveling exhibitions and festivals.  The museum remains dedicated to the accurate portrayal of the world of the Native American through the care and the protection of the cultures and the artwork.  The pieces in the museum are illustrated with the stories of the different Nations, and combines the beauty of the work with the beauty of the lives and the people who created that art. 

The Museum is centrally located conveniently to many of the hotels downtown, for a list of those accommodations, look here. The programs and the exhibitions are world class and innovative and should you be visiting the city of Phoenix during one of the festival times you will be one lucky traveler.  Touring the museum you find everything from Native American paintings and sculpture, to traditional clothing and jewelry, past and present represented.  The museum has a large collection of works in which they own, and also rely on works that are on loan for the duration of the various shows.  Here you will find canvases of paintings centuries old, as well as contemporary and modern artists such as Fritz Scholder. 

On the grounds surrounding the museum you will find landscaped courtyards filled with sculpture and fountains, as well as the Scott L. Libby, Jr. Amphitheatre which provides outdoor entertainment just about year round, with dance performances, film, music concerts and private dinners.  Interactive learning is important, and the museum offers a variety of ways the children, and adults can experience the benefits from a more thorough and in-depth exploration.  This is one of the long standing institutions in the city of Phoenix and should be a part of every one’s travel itinerary when they are in the Valley of the Sun.

A Tour of the Heard Museum in Phoenix is a post from: Five DC

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Singapore is an amazing place to visit, and this island city state has some stunning things to offer world culture in general.  There are always new developments in art and technology wherever they’re practiced, due to the tenacity and ingenuity of artists and scientists from every culture, but Singapore seems to have been developing more rapidly than the rest of the world lately.  The new works in art and science are either a step ahead or at the cutting edges, making it an enormously exciting place to visit.  The fascinating history of the place is reflected in the blend of cultures, who do not always melt together, but often are effectively maintaining separate identities, and it’s an interesting thing to see.

It’s certainly reflected in the food as well as the art.  Some of the most fantastic recipes and tastes from around the world find their expression in the cultures that make up present-day Singapore.  In many of the culinary traditions of India, China, and Malay cultures, there are various kinds of vegetarianism, so it would make sense to see so many fantastic vegetarian restaurants here.  It’s perhaps a vegetarian paradise, where there’s never any lack for meatless options, and in some place, all the options are meatless.  Singapore’s interest in Chinese culture doesn’t end with the cuisine, of course, and there’s a splendid dialogue taking place between China and Singapore in the art world.

Beijing artist Lu Hao got his first solo museum exhibition in Southeast Asia recently, at the Singapore Art Museum.  This is a fantastic achievement for the artist, whose career has been rather spectacular already, with participation in the Sao Paulo Bienal, the Venice Bienalle, and Documenta.  Lu Hao has a fascinating body of work, with geometric structures that make comments on contemporary Beijing, as well as ink idioms and photorealism that make comments on social memory in an interesting time.  His work is playful, ironic, and enormously and joyfully complex, and it’s a pleasure to learn that he’s young enough to have many more artistic revolutions coming from his growing body of work.

Lu Hao in Singapore is a post from: Five DC

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The Rockmaker specializes in man-made boulders and rock formations that look real. He has been making boulders for over 20 years. You cannot tell his boulders from ones made by nature. It has been said that the Rockmakers boulders are truly works of art.

Man Made Boulders is a post from: Five DC

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