Martin Cid's Blog: Martin Cid Magazine, page 1076

Gulf Photo Plus is pleased to present the exhibition ‘Observing the Ritual’

Gulf Photo Plus is pleased to present an exhibition “Observing the Ritual” (May 16 – August 27, 2016), which will be accompanied by a series of events: artist talks, portfolio reviews, book signing and a specialty workshop with the participating photographer Nicoló Degiorgis.

Gulf Photo Plus is pleased to present the exhibition ‘Observing the Ritual’

The group exhibition “Observing the Ritual” unites three distinct series by three distinct photographers to explore the spaces in which the rituals fundamental to Muslim culture occur. From communal prayers held in a secret mosque to the breaking of the fast in a family home during Ramadan, the exhibition’s contributing photographers shed light on the most intimate moments of life for practicing Muslims.

Hidden Islam by Nicoló Degiorgis.

One of the series displayed in the “Observing the Ritual” exhibition is “Hidden Islam”, a long-term independent project by Italian photographer Nicoló Degiorgis, who is based in Bolzano Bozen. Although Italy is home to 1.35 million Muslims, there are only eight mosques in the entire country. Islam is not officially recognized as a religion by the state. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a proliferation of improvised, makeshift mosques “hiding” in old factories, abandoned structures, garages, shops, and even gyms. Degiorgis has spent the last several years following the Muslim communities of northern Italy, an area where deep-seated cultural tensions persist between the Muslim minority and their neighbours. As he explored the communities and gained the confidence of their members, he was granted permission to document these temporary places of worship.

The culmination of his work is a highly sought-after, self-published book titled Hidden Islam. Each page of the book is folded to show the outside of one of the buildings that house these temporary mosques. Once the page is unfolded, the viewer is let “inside” the building to see what’s hidden – large and small rooms and enclosures, packed with people praying. Presented for the first time in 2012, the book is now in its third edition. In 2014, the book was the winner of the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation Photo Book Awards and was named “Book of the Year” by the jurors of the prestigious Rencontres d’Arles photography festival in France. The book will be available for sale at the gallery and the book signing will take place during the opening night on May 16, 2016.

Prayer Rooms by Ammar Al Attar.

Self-taught, UAE-based photographer Ammar Al Attar has a very different approach to photographing places of worship, as demonstrated in his “Prayer Room” series. Like Degiorgis, Al Attar searched for hidden spaces of worship. Unlike Degiorgis, however, the spaces he shot were located in the Gulf and were anything but secret. Tucked away inside of shopping malls, business centres, and parking lots, the prayer rooms Al Attar photographed are compulsory in the region – obligatory spaces for faithful worshippers to gather for the five prayers each day.

Al Attar’s work concentrates on the serenity of the prayer room and the overwhelming sense of peace created by the space itself, which he photographs without alteration or staging. The viewer’s ability to engage with the space is only enhanced by Al Attar’s decision to photograph the prayer rooms when they are completely empty. The photographs capture every detail of these humble interiors, from the pattern of a rug to the relentless clock on the wall to a waiting Quran. Al Attar sees these hidden spaces as a refuge from the fast growing urban environment of the Gulf, and his work honours the idea of the community that is achieved in the moment of prayer.

Iftar by Natalie Naccache.

British-Lebanese photographer Natalie Naccache breaks outside of the prayer room in her series “Iftar” as she explores the idea of ritual as a manifestation of spiritual equality. A widely published photojournalist and documentary photographer represented by Getty Reportage agency, grantee of The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture in 2014, Naccache uses her series to document families of very different social and economic backgrounds as they prepare for Iftar, the evening meal by which Muslims break their daily Ramadan fast. Naccache brings the viewer before the richly set Iftar tables of wealthy families to the simply laid meals of Syrian refugees with equal attentiveness. Whether the photographs in Naccache’s series depict women decorating the table with expensive silverware or workers sitting down beside their vegetable stalls for a simple meal, each image is carefully paired to elevate the communal sense of anticipation and the equal joy of the ritualized meal at hand.

Books at The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Sonata of Solitude by Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde

Books. Bodhana Art & Research Foundation in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and The Raza Foundation is delighted to announce the book launch of Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Solitude authored by Meera Menezes and conceptualized by Jesal Thacker on 22 April 2016 at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. The book has been researched and published by Bodhana Art & Research Foundation with support of The Raza Foundation.

Books. Sonata of Solitude by Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde

Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Solitude — The first book in the Sonata three part series includes a preface by Krishen Khanna, a contribution from New York based critic and cultural theorist G Roger Denson entitled From the Upanishads to the Modernist Painting:  Vasudeo Gaitonde brings India to Global Agora and a biography of the modern master Gaitonde by eminent art scholar and author Meera Menezes.  Through her biography, Meera erases the existing myths about the artist and successfully attempts to produce a factual document on his life and journey including stories known and unknown since his childhood through his formative years in the Sir J. J. School of Art, his struggles and eventually taking leave of the family to permanently settle in Delhi.

Meera Menezes, Author, commented:

“The main reason for my writing this book has been to create a better understanding of the man, his artistic trajectory and his seminal contribution to the idiom of Indian contemporary art.”

Later in the year the other volumes will be released as well as a documentary film. The second volume Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Light authored by Roshan Shahani and Narendra Dengle positions Gaitonde within a watershed moment of contemporary Indian art and the final book of the series Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Consciousness co-authored by international art critic and cultural theorist G. Roger Denson and eminent architect Narendra Dengle is a comparative study between the oeuvre of Gaitonde and the aesthetics of visual art, the mythology of creation or the cosmogony and varied philosophies that surfaced themselves in the corresponding period world-wide.

The enigmatic life of Gaitonde will be presented in the form of a documentary at the end of the year entitled Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Reeling a Sonata featuring an exclusive set of interviews with family, friends like Krishen Khanna and A. Ramachandran as well as close confidantes like Ashok Vajpeyi.  The film expands and exposes the anecdotes that will delight viewers who want an insight into Gaitonde’s life, narrated by his friends and close associates. The film also includes opinion and comment from contemporary artists like Bose Krishnamachari among others.

Birthdays Today, April 14: Robert Carlyle, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ellington Ratliff, Abigail Breslin

We loved The Full Monty and he was simply fantastic. He’s Robert Carlyle and he’s our Top#1 Famous Birthdays Today, April 14. He was born in Maryhill, Scotland in 1961 and, from Yareah, we wish him and his family all the best in this special day. Congrats aznd happy birthday, Robert Carlyle!

Famous Birthdays Today, April 14: Robert Carlyle Once Upon a Time Panel at the 2014 Comic-Con International.. Source: flickr. Author: vagueonthehow

I do tend to divide my childhood into darkness and light, and the first seven years were certainly the darkness.

Robert Carlyle

Most of the time, you find that the smaller the budget, the more the project is about something substantive.

Robert Carlyle

More famous birthdays today, April 14: Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Ellington Ratliff, member of the band R5; and Abigail Breslin, actress born in New York City in 1996.

Happy birthday to all of them. Have a very nice dy, dear friends.

Famous Birthdays Today, April 14 Video: The Full Monty – Hot Stuff

Los Angeles exhibitions. Works from trees that fell during the 2011 San Gabriel Valley windstorm

Los Angeles exhibitions. Furniture design collective exhibits new works created from trees that fell during the 2011 San Gabriel Valley windstorm.

Windfall by Box Collective

The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) presents Windfall by Box Collective, a group exhibition of ten Los Angeles furniture designers and makers whose new works are sourced from trees that fell in northeastern L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley during the historic windstorm of 2011. The exhibition consists of 15 works of furniture, sculpture, and domestic objects made from salvaged trees from areas such as Arcadia, Chinatown, Pasadena, and Montecito Heights. The collective waited four years for the wood to air-dry before designing and making the displayed works. Windfall is on view from May 28 – September 4, 2016.

The Box Collective’s designer-makers share a common ethos of fabricating original designs from local wood sourced from reclaimed materials and urban salvage. They each helm their own small businesses with a “tree-to-table” approach, making timeless, well-crafted, and livable domestic objects in the same vein as celebrated designers Sam Maloof, George Nakashima, and Carl Malmsten.

“This exhibition seeks to showcase the incredible bounty that exists among the broken, the disused, and the discarded,” elaborates CAFAM Executive Director Suzanne Isken. “Windfall features locally manufactured, highly crafted, green designs that open a public dialogue on the importance of sustainability in a world filled with too many thoughtless objects.”

A specificity of time and place unifies the objects created for Windfall, as each of the woods used to create them fell on the same night. The historic San Gabriel Valley windstorm of 2011 occurred between November 30th and December 1st, during which time wind speeds reached up to 100 miles per hour. Nearly 5,500 trees were damaged in Pasadena, while hundreds more were destroyed in neighboring vicinities, including about 300 non-native and prehistoric species at the Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Gardens in Arcadia.

“Anybody who was in L.A. during those storms will have distinct memories of the extreme winds, giving them a connection to the pieces similar to two strangers meeting who share a common experience,” elaborates designer Robert Apodaca. “This connection is especially beneficial in a time when people want to become more aware of where the things they buy come from, whether that be furniture, products, or even their food.”

Most of the works are made out of woods collected from the L.A. Arboretum’s fallen trees. David Johnson’s media cabinet is made from the entire trunk of a pink cedar, while designer Stephan Roggenbuck collected a Lebanese cypress to craft a hand-carved bench. Cliff Spencer used pieces of a paulownia tree to make a sleek, contemporary beehive. Furniture maker Harold Greene’s chaise lounge is built from bent and laminated layers of a cedar of Lebanon. Woodworker Andrew Riiska chose a persimmon to build his Grasshopper Lounge Chair and a bench that will be part of an interactive, site-specific installation in the CAFAM lobby.

Some designers found material from trees that fell around their neighborhoods. Robert Apodaca’s hand-carved and scorched Blackout Bowls are made from recovered pieces of a eucalyptus tree that knocked over power lines near his home in Chinatown. Furniture maker William Stranger salvaged an Engelmann oak from a house near his studio in Pasadena to make a mirror and parts of a coffee table. Casey Dzierlenga milled a fallen maple tree in her friend’s backyard in Montecito Heights to make the Lorca Coffee Table.

Designers RH Lee and Samuel Moyer also incorporate wood from windstorms outside of Los Angeles into their pieces. RH Lee salvaged pieces of a walnut claro in Santa Rosa, CA that have become end tables. Samuel Moyer’s Arrow Console is fabricated from an ironwood tree that landed on his truck in a Hudson River Valley windstorm in New York.

Members of the Box Collective have exhibited their works around Los Angeles, including at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

The opening reception for Windfall by Box Collective takes place on Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. The reception is free for CAFAM members and open to the public for a $12 entry fee.

This exhibition is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Bloomberg Philanthropies. Artists participating in the city’s first biennial along the Los Angeles River

Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge Grantee, City of Los Angeles Announces Roster of Artists for the City’s First Public Art Biennial.

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Today, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced several artists participating in the city’s first biennial along the Los Angeles River. The biennial seeks to call attention to water and sustainability as well as act as a cultural experience for visitors. The biennial, titled, Current:LA Water was chosen as one of four grantees in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge, which provides funding of up to $1 million for public art and aims to demonstrate the power of culture to advance civic priorities.

“Public art projects change cities for the better, and they can also enhance city governments. By enabling agencies to push boundaries and work with new partners, these projects unite everyone with a shared mission,” said Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO and former New York City First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris. “We are pleased to support the City of Los Angeles and to soon experience the public works these great artists will share through CURRENT:LA.”

Developed by the Department of Cultural Affairs Public Art Division, Current: LA will include works by artists and teams: Refik Anadol + Peggy Weil; Edgar Arceneaux; Josh Callaghan + Daveed Kapoor; Mel Chin; Chris Kallmyer; Candice Lin; Lucky Dragons: Luke Fischbeck + Sarah Rara; Teresa Margolles; Kori Newkirk; Michael Parker; Gala Porras-Kim; Rirkrit Tiravanija; and Kerry Tribe. Over 130 artists submitted proposals.

“Los Angeles is the creative capital of the world, a place where we appreciate how art inspires us to see the world through new eyes,” said Mayor Garcetti. “CURRENT:LA will make Angelenos rethink our relationship with water, and better understand how the L.A. River connects the diverse communities and cultures that make our city great.”

The three other grantees of the Public Art Challenge (Gary, Indiana; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and a joint project by, Albany, Schenectady and Troy, New York) are undertaking projects that address some of the nation’s most pressing civic issues including neighborhood safety and urban revitalization.

Spartanburg, has announced 10 neighborhoods participating in an instillation that will transform open spaces and create more vibrant neighborhoods. Gary, Indiana announced that six individual artists and teams have been selected to submit full proposals for their project, ArtHouse a Social Kitchen which seeks to use public space to spur development of a cultural district and to promote urban revitalization. And in a joint project aimed at addressing vacant housing, three New York cities, Albany, Troy and Schenectady, announced a host of community events including art workshops, local gallery installations, and clinics to enhance opportunities for potential buyers.

To follow the developments of each city and learn more about how cities, artists and communities are coming together through the public art challenge, visit http://publicartchallenge. bloomberg.org/.

TV Shows Today, April 13: Empire, The Middle, Criminal Minds

Well, it’s Wednesday and it’s time for amazing television shows. First, we recommend the series Empire. Today’s episode: The Tameness of a Wolf. Season 2. Episode 13. 9:00 pm. FOX. From Wikipedia: Empire is an American musical drama television series which debuted on Fox on January 7, 2015. Although filmed in Chicago, the show is based in New York and it centers on a hip hop music and entertainment company, Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders’ family as they fight for control of the company.

Our second choice is for The Middle. Today: Survey Says… Season 7. Episode 20.

8:00 pm. ABC.

And our last recommendation is for Criminal Minds. Today’s episode: Inner Beauty. Season 11. Episode 20. 9:00 pm. CBS.

We hope you enjoy the shows. Have a very nice day, dear friends.

TV Shows Today, April 13 Video: Empire Season 2 Ep 13 First Look: “The Tameness of a Wolf” | EMPIRE

Famous Birthdays Today, April 13: Thomas Jefferson, Jessica Vanessa, Lodovica Comello, Carles Puyol

Well, he was an American Founding Father, his name was Thomas Jefferson and he is our Top#1 Famous Birthdays Today, April 13. He was born in Shadwell in 1743 and he died in 1826. Rest in Peace, Thomas Jefferson.

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Thomas Jefferson

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson

More famous birthdays today, April 13: Jessica Vanessa, Vine Star born in Florida; Lodovica Comello, beautiful actress, singer and dancer; and Carles Puyol, soccer player.

Happy birthday to all of them. Have a very nice day, dear friends.

Famous Birthdays Today, April 13 Video: Thomas Jefferson & His Democracy: Crash Course US History #10

H&H Classics’ Imperial War Museum Classic Motorcycle And Motor Car Sale A Must For Collectors

Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Competition Roadster

The incredible H&H Classics Motorcycle and Classic Motor Car auction at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, UK, 19 and 20 April 2016, is set to bring some of the most collectible classic cars and motorcycles to automobile enthusiasts around the globe, thanks to the world’s most trusted online Marketplace, www.proxibid.com/.

Famous high-value classic marques, such as Brough, Vincent, Norton, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Porsche – many with prestigious and enviable provenance – will feature across the two-day event. Classic car and motorcycle collectors can bid on any of the exciting lots available, live online via Proxibid.

Highlights include:

• 1930 Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sports Combination

• 1954 Vincent Rapide Series C

• 1961 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Competition Roadster

• 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Evocation

Proxibid features the industry’s most comprehensive risk management system ― a sophisticated hybrid of proprietary technology and third-party partnerships. Managed by an in-house team of experts, it is designed specifically to facilitate high dollar transactions like collector cars, so buyers can be assured that every purchase is secure.

Thanks to an agreement between H&H Classics and Unbolted, a peer-to-peer lending platform, financing is available for up to 70% of the lower estimate value of the exquisite vehicles in this sale. Unbolted’s loan approval and disbursement process is quick and simple, providing financial flexibility for H&H buyers. With financing available through Unbolted and secure online bidding with Proxibid, H&H buyers have more options than ever to purchase at auction.

For more information about this auction, to view the online catalog, or to bid, please visitwww.proxibid.com/catalog.

Widget to distribute world’s #1 location technology device Tile in UK, Benelux and Scandinavia

Tile tracker distributed by Widget

Widget, a popular EU distributor which specialises in bringing the latest technology products to market through its channel partners, will distribute Tile, the #1 Bluetooth location technology device, to distribute its products in the UK, in Benelux, through its subsidiary Now Mobile and in Scandinavia through its associate company Newgen Distribution.

Tile is a Bluetooth locator and companion app that helps people find lost possessions such as keys, wallets, purses, cars, bags, luggage and more. Tile is an elegantly designed, tiny white square that pairs with a smartphone or tablet to become a homing companion for lost things. Users can simply open the app and ring any item that is in Bluetooth range or see its last known location on a map. Tile also works in reverse, allowing consumers to ring their smartphone with the push of a button on their Tile device itself even if the phone is left on silent mode.

Widget has previously brought major brands, such as TomTom, Fitbit, Sphero, Pebble and Flip Video, to the European region. Its customers include all the major electronic retailers in the UK, Benelux and Scandinavia.

Widget’s Managing Director David Elder said: “Tile is the breakthrough product in the location technology market. The retailers which have already come on board with Tile have seen very encouraging sales and we are looking forward to expanding the retail points of presence across Northern Europe.”

Launched in the US via a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2012, Tile attaches to everything from bikes to bags to key chains to help people locate the item if lost or stolen through a mobile app.

A single unit of Tile retails for €29.99 in most European countries and £19.99 in the UK. Further information on Tile can be found at www.thetileapp.com

TV Shows Today, April 12: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Game of Silence, iZombie

It’s Tuesday and it’s time for great television shows. First, we recommend Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Today’s episode: Paradise Lost. Season 3. Episode 16. 9:00 pm. ABC. From Wikipedia: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or simply Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is an American television series created for ABC by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen, based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division), a fictional peacekeeping and spy agency in a world of superheroes. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise.

Our second choice is for Game of Silence. Today: Pilot. Season 1. Episode 1. 10:00 pm. NBC.

And our last recommendation is for iZombie. Today’s episode: Dead Beat. Season 2. Episode 18. 8:00 pm. CW.

We hope you enjoy the shows. Have a very nice day, dear friends.

TV Shows Today, April 12: Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD 3×16 Promo “Paradise Lost” (HD)