Viaduct Arts

‘I am acutely frightened’: artists talk of fears over a second Trump term Figures in the art world including Amy Sherald and Marilyn Minter share their concerns ahead of Trump’s return

“Artists are vessels for truth, which can be neither restrained nor abated. This is an instinct we creatives share, and the more it is repressed, the more we will produce against ignorance and suppression.”

School strike for climate rally, Adelaide, Australia, March 2019. Photo by Bill Doyle.

YouTube video by Trio Mandili Trio Mandili - Kakhuri

youtu.be/EDK9KOfknTw

“We are here. Together with our people. Glory to Georgia!”

#triomandili

From a series of imaginary book titles, by artist Johan Deckmann: www.coolhunting.com/culture/joha...

The Complicated Artist Behind the Moomins (Gift Article) The Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson had a love-hate relationship with her most famous creations.

“It was the utterly hellish war years that made me, an artist, write fairy tales"

#moomins

Here’s the whole thread in a nice readable format.

Palestinian artists plan Gaza Biennale as ‘act of resistance and survival’ Project involves showing work in Gaza but also sending works across Israeli siege lines for exhibiting worldwide

“Through art, we send a message to the world that we are still alive, and as long as we are still breathing we can shine a light on everything that is happening here.”

#gaza

[via ‪@brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social]

"The Hidden Pool - an etching by artist and printmaker, Flora Mclachlan - whose work is inspired by myth, ancient landscapes, and the enchantment of the natural world"

Neva review – sublime portrait of a warrior and her wolf in a dying world Rarely do games move me to tears, but this tale of a woman rearing her wolf cub in a world plagued by demons had a deep emotional effect

"Rarely do games move me to tears, but this tale of a woman rearing her cub in a world plagued by demons had a deep emotional effect"

"Bands like Aradia, Cinder Well, Byssus, Anna Vo […] have made antifascism a starting point in their effort to take back cultural space appropriated by the right. For them, it wasn’t enough to just have a space free from the fascist creep. They had to begin from a place of vigorous opposition."

Tradition and Resistance: Reclaiming Neofolk for Antifascism by Shane Burley. Nøkken And The Grim embody just about every feature of a dark music subculture that makes many uncomfortable. Paganism, romanticism, anti-modernity, deep ecology—a miasma of radical e...

Fascinating and relevant weekend read. A somewhat obscure music subgenre associated with fascists in the US and Europe is being reclaimed by the left, who look back at the same pre-modern traditions with very different interpretations and inspirations.

#culturewar #antifascism #music #neofolk

Bring on the Moomins Revolution Maybe becoming Moominists will save us

“The world she created was in part her artistic response as war darkened life in Finland - an antidote to despair and thugs on the march.

Let the Moomins Revolution begin - carried forward by artists, writers, poets, dreamers, nonconformists, and humanists everywhere."

#tovejansson

YouTube video by Stevie Nicks Stevie Nicks - The Lighthouse (Official Music Video)

There may be those that want to take away #womensrights. But they have to go through Stevie Nicks.

Nick Cave - The Red Hand Files - Issue #274 - My muses have left me and I have lost all motivation to create as a film and music maker. Have you ever felt alien to yourself and your identity as an art... Dear Tam and Dan, What makes our particular job so exceptional that it requires inspiration or a muse to do it? We are artists and we...

"These are perilous and urgent times. This is not the hour to sit around moaning about the condition of the world […] nor is it the moment to fruitlessly wait for inspiration to find us."

e180 mary edwards - capturing the beauty and terror of reality | conscient podcast

Composer/sound artist Mary Edwards:

"We're all going to be affected by the same outcome. When I went up to Svalbard, I went with the intention of capturing the beauty - and the terror - of the reality of these changes and how they can be fascinating to listen to, but also devastating.” #climate

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs Gave America a Rare Gift: Harmony Culture can too often drive us apart. At the Grammys on Sunday, two artists delivered something different.

This seems like eons ago now. I was struck by this lovely quote from the NYT comments:

"My God, look what art can do for us and our broken, raw and angry country, what healing it can perform, how it can create common ground, unite and even lead us, if we will just hold still and allow it in."

symbiont, by Jake Blount, Mali Obomsawin 11 track album

“From the first notes […] the radical new collaborative album and document of Black and Indigenous futurism from Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, the listener is met with rising tidewaters, massive droughts, and the appearance of an iconoclastic uprising amidst the world’s indifference."

Fascism & Totalitarianism in Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco - Guiding literature Rhinoceros, a play by Eugene Ionesco, explores the rise of fascism and the dangers of conformity. The play was first performed in 1959, a time when Europe was still recovering from the horrors of Worl...

Another good summary.

"[B]y depicting the characters’ gradual transformation into rhinoceroses as a metaphor for the allure of fascism, Ionesco highlights the insidious nature of these ideologies."

A Time for Refusal (Published 2016) On the necessity of resisting the new normal.

Teju Cole's refresher on the play Rhinoceros. From Trump 1.0, but even more relevant now.

"Ionesco wanted to know why so many people give in to these poisonous ideologies. How could so many get it so wrong? The play, an absurd farce, was one way he grappled with this problem."

“Just Take Them and Leave Me Alone”, by Iranian artist Raoof Haghighi

#WomenNotObjects

Werckmeister Harmonies review – Béla Tarr’s brooding masterpiece of a town sleepwalking into tyranny Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s 2000 film moves slowly around a small town where a very strange circus has arrived. Its eerie power has only grown in a time of rising fascism

“A second viewing of Werckmeister Harmonies reveals to me something in it more concrete about fascism and the sleep of reason, about the longing to submit to power which lurks just below the surface, to which humanity might so easily surrender, as if in a somnambulist trance.”

Seems like they are doing great, with a recent grant for $1.25 million and partnering with Tiffany & Co. Follow on IG @thelastresortartistretreat

Artist Derrick Adams Has Opened The Doors For Black Creatives To Experience Baltimore | Essence Derrick Adams welcomed the first guests to a dream realized: The Last Resort Artist Retreat, a space for Black creatives to reflect and fellowship.

“[The Last Resort] was designed to be a place of relaxation for Black creatives to come rest, reflect and fellowship with like-minded individuals. There is no expectation [for the artists] to create.”

Well that’s revealing, 6 out of 8. Guess times are never ripe for art. If you think about it, most art has been made under terrible circumstances.

YouTube video by Film Movement White Riot (2019) | Trailer | The Clash | Steel Pulse | Tom Robinson | Poly Styrene | Sham 69

The UK had a similar slide toward fascism in the 70s. The Clash and others did something about it.

Love Music Hate Racism: why bands are once again rocking against racism The organisation Love Music Hate Racism is set to relaunch across the country including Coventry.

"It is now necessary to revise the movement to fight 'a frightening expansion of the far-right across Europe’.”