OBG campaign online / edible city / early Michelangelo / Yale and the Incas (Tuesday 14 March 2006)
Ormeau Baths campaign website
A 'blog' website has been launched in relation to the ongoing situation at Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. To keep up to date on events and comment on the sudden closure of the gallery, go here.
Urban food for thought
compiled by Jessica Langan-Peck
Multimedia artist Song Dong has taken his craft to a delicious new level. Dong began work the week before last on a model city made entirely out of biscuits, crackers and cake. Called Eating the city, the installation explores the rapid and dramtic growth of cities. This leap of population and industry especially occurs in Asia, Dong's home continent. He commented on the sameness that results. "I'm from Beijing which today feels no different to Shanghai or Hong Kong."
What do digestives and rich teas have to do with rapid city growth? The biscuits are used in the work because they are a desirable, a sweet item that is often consumed as a treat. If we consume too many biscuits, we're likely to feel sick. Similarly, greediness for property or money can result in a city's loss of unique atmosphere. Dong wants to impart that too much of a good thing is dangerous.
Dong is well known for his avant-garde, often performance-based works of art. His ethos is "Art is about living, it is about life." As a result, the Chinese artist is hands-on; he often uses disposable or edible materials in his works. The several thousand biscuits used in the city, supplied by McVities, will be availalbe to eat from 4 pm every day after the city is completed, at Selfridges in central London.
If you are a biscuit connoisseur, you know full well that Dong's city is an impressive feat. Though tasty, digestives are particularly liable to break into pieces at the lightest touch. Perhaps the most valuable lesson to be learned is that rapid urban growth often creates a fragile environment.
Fresco may be early work of Michelangelo
compiled by Jessica Langan-Peck
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| The fresco, attributed to Michelangelo, was discovered behind an altar in a village church in Chianti, Italy; image held here |
The story of master painter Michelangelo's childhood may have to be rewritten. In a church in the village of Chianti, parishioners have maintained for years that the fresco above the altar was painted by the great artist in his youth. Until recently, the claim was considered to be merely the stuff of legends.
An elderly member of the parish revealed recently that as a young altar boy up to no good he stumbled upon the letters M, B and F monogramed on the fresco. According to art historians, MBF is thought to stand for Michelangelo Buonarraoti Fecit (which means 'did' in latin). Elsa Masi, the head of the local culture association, maintains that the initials found in the church are exactly the same as initials found on a Florence crucifix attributed to the artist.
We know that Michelangelo indeed spent part of his childhood in Florence, and it is certainly possible that the artist stayed in Chianti during the troubled 1490s. The village church itself seems to have many ties to the young Michelangelo. It belonged to the Augustinians, with whom the artist sought shelter during his young life.
Unfortunately, water damage to the fresco will likely make stylistic verification of the work impossible. But perhaps this uncertainty is not such a tragedy, as the local residents have been quite sure of the painting's creator for hundreds of years.
Yale under suit by Peru
compiled by Kate Muller
Art seems to be an endless source of lawsuits. Take, for example, that the Peruvian government is threatening Yale University with law suits over the rights to Incan relics. The artifacts in question were removed from the ancient city of Machu Picchu by the Yale professor Hiram Binghan during the years 1911 to 1916.
A fifteenth-century city, Machu Picchu was built in the Andes mountains, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. After the Spanish conquered the Incan empire in 1532, the city lay abandoned, until 1911 when Binghan uncovered this 'city in the sky'.
The Peruvian government claims that there was an agreement drawn up that throughout Binghan's three expeditions the artifacts recovered would remain on temporary loan, and would eventually be returned. The antiquities are currently being held at the Peabody Museum in Connecticut, in conjunction with Yale University.
Yale remains in firm belief that the artifacts were excavated and transferred to the United States under legally sound arrangements and should remain in their possession.
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I would really like to see an image of Song Dong's work.is
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