Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries

The Siege of Asilah, 1475-1500 (detail), probably produced under the direction of Passchier Grenier, a tapestry agent
dallas. From the 15th until the 18th century, tapestry was the status symbol par excellence.

Far more costly than painting or sculpture, it had the benefits of being portable, multi-purpose and spectacular, especially when large.

The Burgundian court, whose territories included Flanders, the main area of production, set the standard for display, which was taken up by every European court and many wealthy religious institutions.

This exhibition is a chance to see the results of a two-year restoration of the 15th-century, four-piece set The Expedition of the Portuguese in North Africa, woven in Tournai under the direction of Passchier Grenier (1447-93), the international tapestry agent.

Since the 17th century, these tapestries were carefully preserved in the collegiate church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Pastrana, near Guadalajara, Spain.

Their restoration was paid for by the Fundación Carlos de Amberes (the foundation that promotes the study of the history of 16th- and 17th-century relations of Spain and the Low Countries), with the support of the Belgian Inbev-Baillet Latour Fund, the Spanish Fundación Caja, Madrid, the Region of Castilla-La Mancha, the Provincial Council of Guadalajara and the Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara.

The work was carried out by the Royal Manufacturer de Wit in Belgium. These monumental tapestries (11m by 4m) were commissioned by Afonso V, king of Portugal and the Algarves (1432-81), who reigned from the age of six until he retired to the monastery of Sintra in 1477.

They commemorate his conquest of North Africa in a series of crusades for which the Pope Nicholas V had granted him the hereditary right to enslave the conquered Muslims.

The depiction of contemporary events was fairly unusual in this medium, which was generally reserved for historical, biblical or mythological subjects.

The wars lasted from 1458 until 1471 and the four tapestries consist of The Landing at Asilah, The Siege of Asilah, The Assault on Asilah, and The Conquest of Tangier, the last event depicted being crucial to the control of traffic in and out of the Mediterranean.

The tapestries, which are rich in military details, are displayed in a single gallery. It is not known how the tapestries left the Portuguese royal collection and came to the church in Pastrana. Categories: Medieval

Art Motion frames turn TVs into imaginary windows

 

To install your spanking new flat-panel TV on the wall, you can either purchase a regular bracket or go all out with a made-to-order Art Motion frame.
These window-like frames are compatible with screen sizes ranging from 37- to 65-inches and come in a choice of standard, deluxe, and ultimate versions. The standard edition is designed to clamp onto your TV's bezel, while the deluxe and ultimate equivalents go one step further by offering easier access to the sockets behind the panel.
Meanwhile, a total of 10 speakers and a powerful 100W amplifier have been integrated right into the ultimate version.
A 37-inch standard model costs $800 and then the price skyrockets to $4,650 for the top-of-the-line ultimate kit for a 65-inch TV, which promises a "pro-audio" experience. Art Motion also runs a design center to customize its products to user's exact specifications. More information is available on the company's Web site.

Art piece wins Gold Key honors

 
Adam Cairns /ThisWeek Kendra Zarbaugh shows off two of her paintings inside the art room at Canal Winchester High School on Jan. 27. The senior is headed to the national Scholastic Art Awards for a duct tape dress sculpture that placed well at the regional competition. 

A Canal Winchester High School senior may get the chance to exhibit her artwork in New York City after receiving top honors in the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Kendra Zarbaugh earned a Gold Key award for her sculpture, “Like a Fish Out of Water,” which currently is displayed at the Central Ohio Regional Exhibition at the Columbus College of Art and Design.
CCAD hosted the Central Ohio Regional Exhibition, where nearly 600 pieces of art were judged; only 25 received Gold Key awards.
According to the competition website, regional judges review approximately 200,000 pieces of artwork by students in seventh through 12th grade from across North America. The top-scoring 5 percent of that work is sent on to New York City for review by a set of finalist judges made up of nationally renowned artists, art professionals and educators.
At that point, about 350 students may be awarded gold medals, exhibit their work in New York City, and be eligible for up to $10,000 in college scholarships.
“I think receiving this award is very honorable. To do something that I did for myself, a very internal thing, and then to have someone else appreciate it — that is very cool. I’m very blessed and honored,” Zarbaugh said.
Her piece began as an entry in the annual Duck Tape brand “Stuck at Prom” scholarship contest, where students create formal wear to wear to prom out of Duck Tape.
However, Zarbaugh did not win that competition and abandoned her duct tape prom dress at the bottom of her closet before her art teacher, Kelly Helser, asked her to bring it in.
“When she brought it in, I thought, ‘this needs to go to the next level, so let’s work on it and submit it to Scholastic,’” Helser said. “She’s a kid with a raw talent and a maturity to make things that people may interpret their own way, but they can take meaning from it.
“She’s not afraid to try different techniques and mediums, and she willingly accepts constructive criticism.”
Zarbaugh said Helser inspired her to rework the dress into a sculptural piece.
“I made a plaster cast of a model we had in the classroom that I could then attach the dress to, and mounted it on an old lamp stand I found in my garage,” Zarbaugh said. “I’d competed before but didn’t win anything, so Helser helped me a lot. This is my senior year, so it’s my last chance; my teacher means the world to me.”
After graduation, Zarbaugh said she hopes to attend art school to continue honing her skills and turn her creativity into a career.
“Art has been my outlet my whole life,” she said. “I’m not a sports kind of girl and I can’t throw a ball.
“My mom always says my river runs deep; being internally bound — well, this is my outlet, so this lets me be me. It’s something I own and can feel myself in. I’m looking into colleges right now but it depends on what money I can get.”
If Zarbaugh wins enough in scholarships, she said she would like to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“But I’m kind of a homebody, so that far away might be tough,” Zarbaugh said.
All of the award-winning pieces in the regional contest will be on view at the Canzani Center Gallery at CCAD through Feb. 4.

Opera Love From Afar gets singers high

Annie-Kim Déry floats above Russell Braun in Love From Afar, The Canadian Opera Company's new production starting Feb. 2. 

Annie-Kim Déry floats above Russell Braun in Love From Afar, The Canadian Opera Company's new production starting Feb. 2.Suspended from the ceiling by thin wires attached to a harness around his torso, baritone Russell Braun's first thought wasn't “Yikes, get me out of here.”
No, the opera singer says he looked at the acrobats twirling around him and thought, “We look like beautifully arranged angels.”
Braun is the only non-acrobat to fly in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Love From Afar, opening Thursday at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Naturally he calls the experience “uplifting . . . I'm a kid at heart. Most kids fantasize about being an acrobat, of being weightless.”
Braun's role involves being belted into a swing that is lifted, and he also flies with a body harness attached to wires.
The first stunt he tried was with the swing and Braun admits he was hanging onto the ropes for dear life until he told himself, “Technically, if I can sit on a swing in the playground, I can do this.”
He points out he doesn't do any tricks, just “sings and move my arms a little. I don't do a 360.” In fact, his character is dead for two of the flights; not much movement required.
The “real” flying is done by six acrobats, four of them trained at Montreal's National Circus School, whose specialties include hoops, silks, sideways walk, stilt walk and tumbling.
The opera by composer Kaija Saariaho, which was first performed in 2000, is the story of a love affair between two people who never meet but communicate through messages carried back and forth by a pilgrim.
Each of the three main characters is shadowed by two acrobats who perform as the story unfolds. Braun's two shadows are dancers Ted Sikstrom and Antoine Marc, who have both appeared in previous productions of Love From Afar.
Sikstrom, 37, is a gymnast and classically trained ballet dancer who embarked on a new career half a dozen years ago when he was asked at an audition if he could do any “tricks.” He showed off his back flips and somersaults and has been an acrobat ever since.
Performing in an opera has proven to be a wonderful challenge, he says.
“I like the mix of acting and physicality we have to do in the show. Everyone can do technique. It is much more interesting when you have to merge it with the story and find a way to express what opera singers are singing: their emotions, dreams, intentions, feelings.”
Marc, 28, is a hip-hop dancer from Martinique who trained in France; he does some harness flight and something called the sideways walk. He learned most of his acrobatic skills while studying capoeira, the Brazilian martial art with a dancelike aspect, but he says “being an acrobat enriched my horizon. I always think of using my dancing skills in my acrobatics and vice versa.”
There's never any complacency when acrobats perform, he says, adding, “Double back flip is a funny one because it doesn't matter how many times you do it, you're always a little bit scared of not landing.”
Soprano Krisztina Szabo, who plays the pilgrim, is shadowed by Sandrine Merette and Marieve Hemond. Merette is an expert in bungee and, at only 27, she has been performing circus stunts for 18 years, but it still feels like “a change from everyday living. It's a little bit of a thrill, there's adrenalin.”
People don't believe Annie-Kim Déry, 28, when she says she is a circus performer.
“They say, ‘No, really. What do you do?' When I tell them it's true it gets . . . awkward.”
It's certainly a cool job, says Evelyne Allard, 27, who specializes in a hoop routine: “It's a feeling of freedom, liberty, defying gravity, all those exciting feelings.”
Allard and Déry are the shadows of the beautiful Clémence, played by Erin Wall. All of the women acrobats trained in Montreal.
Braun says he has been staggered by the aerial skills (and relative lack of constraints) of the acrobats.“I'm in awe. The effects are so beautiful,” he said of a stunt with silks that unfolds below as he's flying.
It's the job of Flying by Foy, a U.S. company in the flying business since Mary Martin played Peter Pan on Broadway in 1954, to lift this opera into the air.
Flying director Tim Mackay, who created the flying scenes in the Toronto production of Billy Elliot, has been in Toronto overseeing the winches, wires, tracks and pulleys used to guide the seven flyers during the opera. There are numerous crew members involved with the equipment, and hooking the acrobats into their rigging and working out the “traffic” was one of Mackay's tasks.
“The most important thing is the safety of people,” he says, adding one rule for the opera singers is “don't stand under an acrobat.”
Flying is becoming increasingly popular in entertainment, says Mackay, who has worked the trick in theatre, film and TV. (Mary Poppins, American Idiot and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark — famously not always perfectly in the latter case — are recent theatrical productions to use flying.)
So Mackay has seen newbies before, and he was there when Braun flew for the first time in rehearsal. He was impressed. “He did great. We started slow and let him feel confident. He was really professional. It's a pleasure to work with someone like him.”

Sony Computer Entertainment chairman named CEO of Sony proper

 It looks like Tokyo, Japan-based creator of the PlayStation 3 and Vita hopes to turn a new leaf in 2012. Mashable reports that Sony has announced Kazuo Hirai is the company's new CEO and president, replacing Howard Stringer, effective April 1. Hirai currently serves as president of Sony's Consumer Products & Services Group and chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Many will recognize him as one of the more prominent faces of Sony's PlayStation brand, heading up many of the company's major PlayStation-related announcements both in Japan and the U.S. It's a fitting move for Hirai, considering he's already seen as one of most powerful executives at Sony. Stringer will now serve as chairman of Sony's board of directors.

"Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature," Stringer said in a release. "It was my honor to recommend him to the board for the positions of president and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now."

Hirai has seen many highs and lows since joining Sony Computer Entertainment in 1995. Unfortunately, the past year has battered Sony with lows, namely the PlayStation Network outage of last spring. More recently, Sony experience troubling Japanese sales of its brand new PS Vita portable game system. Regardless, Hirai continues to look forward.

"The path we must take is clear," Hirai said in a release, "to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains."