Radio Open Source Podcast
I had a wonderful interview with Christopher Lydon for Radio Open Source last week. The full interview can be found here.
From my Bookslut review of Stranger Magic, by Marina Warner:
Said’s thesis has unfortunately made little effect in the US outside of the academy. The greatest ostensible change seems to be on the use of the term “oriental” for persons of Asian origin, which is no longer deemed politically correct. Beyond this I have found that when trying to explain his theory, there is a strong desire to reject it on the part of those who enjoy the cultural artifacts of traditional Orientalism, such as the writings of Kipling, or Orientalist paintings. I have never taken from Said the need to denounce or cast off all Orientalist works. There is no need to wrap your well-thumbed copy of The Arabian Nights in brown paper when taking it to read on the train. You can hang onto your Ingres print and display your little bits of chinoiserie about your living room without fear. We are not coming for your Rimsky-Korsakov records. Take heart! If all the world’s art and literature were rejected for its association with the project of empire building there would be little left to enjoy.
“Downtown Bobby Brown,” a painting from my new post on Whitney Houston at Chapati Mystery, The Journey of Everywoman. These paintings will also be on display at the Loo Gallery in the Dreamaway Lodge in Becket, MA, from March 11 through May, 2012.
If you are in New York City this weekend, check out Kanishka Raja’s installation “Switzerland for Movie Stars” at the Armory Art Show, March 8 - 11, 2012, Pier 94, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery. Not only will Kanishka’s paintings be a treat, but a faux-tourism pamphlet that is part of the installation, features a series of paintings by me, some painted especially for this exhibit, including the one above, based on a still from the film Darr.
My review of Craig Thompson’s Habibi appears in The Sunday Guardian today. My (longer, with more pictures) version is up on Chapati Mystery.
The little book tour of terror takes me to Washington DC
This Wednesday, February 29th, I will be giving a Leap Day reading of my book at the Mortara Center at Georgetown University. The reading will start at 4 PM. Stop by and say hello if you are in the area! For more information, click here.
A review of my show in Philadelphia, by Victoria Donohoe
Legacy of difference
Since Daisy Rockwell left academia in 2006 - a Hindi scholar, she headed the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley - she has been painting small portraits of iconic political figures, including some from South Asia and the Middle East (Nehru, Saddam) chiefly by referencing newspaper and Internet photos. This work is now at Twelve Gates Arts.
Rockwell is a granddaughter of Norman Rockwell, master of American genre scenes. Her artwork is sometimes the very opposite - he made the everyday iconic, she aims to bring the iconic back to the everyday. (I recall several sculpture exhibitions by her uncle, Peter Rockwell, in Philadelphia decades ago. A Haverford College graduate, he still has family members studying at Haverford. And her father, Jarvis, to whom she dedicated her new book, The Little Book of Terror, is an artist as well.)
Rockwell’s range of subjects here is quite extensive, from a dour portrait of a Taliban leader to scenes of visits to South Asia by President Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and her sister Lee Radziwill. The two women are shown together, happily riding an elephant. But most of the other images are small brooding works, a few in lurid colors, which creates a dense, moody atmosphere rather than textural weight. The mix of cultural, religious, political and personal references to the subcontinent is somehow not confusing. And the portraits function as compelling, decipherable records of personal anguish filtered through a patchy, transfiguring screen. Therein lie both their despair and their art-historical interest.
Twelve Gates Arts, 51 N. 2d St. To Feb. 25. Tue-Sat 11-5. 215-253-8578.
Whenever anyone asks me what the pseudonym ‘Lapata’ means, I’m going to send them this photo, which the photographer, Slogan Murugan called ‘Lapataganj’ on facebook, after a popular TV serial. (link to Murugan’s website, Mumbai Paused)
Show at Twelve Gates Arts opening 2/3/12:
Come see this and other paintings in the series in my show at Twelve Gates Arts, opening February 3rd, 2012 in Philadelphia. All previously unexhibited work, mostly related to South Asia themes. Shown here- A Quiet Stroll: Jackie Kennedy and Jawaharlal Nehru enjoy a quiet stroll in Washington DC.
The Little Book of Terror:
My new book, The Little Book of Terror comes out on February 1st, 2012, from Foxhead Books. The book launch will be at the opening of an exhibition of my paintings at Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia on Friday, February 3, 2012, 6:30-8:30.
