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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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performance art

Alexander Sokurov, 2017, giclee (photograph by Nancy Nesvet).

FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

VENICE, ITALY, MAY 9, 2019 — I spent my second day at the Venice Biennale touring the national pavilions at the Giardini site and in other areas in Venice. The most beautiful exhibit I saw was on the second floor of the Russia pavilion, where the director of the 2004 film, Russian Ark and the 2011 winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, “Faust,” directed an exhibit that featured a life-size giclée of a Rembrandt painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son” on permanent display at the Hermitage, here along with the biblical verse, The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke, and Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, that speaks of property deeded to a son by a father, squandered by the son, further illustrated with statues of biblical figures. On two video screens were a vision of fires burning down buildings in present and biblical times, with Jesus sitting on a rock watching the … [Read more...] about FALSE FACTS ON DISPLAY BY ARTISTS: DAY TWO AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

Becci Davis, "In the Shadow of Dixie, Augusta, Georgia," 2018, photograph by Becci Davis.

BECCI DAVIS: RECONCILING PAST ERASURES THROUGH DIRECT ACTION

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Suzanne Volmer

Emerging artist Becci (pronounced Becky) Davis explores race and gender identity issues through performance art. I liked the idea of inviting Davis to my studio so we could have a conversation about her work, share art perspectives as colleagues and discuss the trajectory of her career. She was still reeling, in a good way, from the opportunities and responsibilities afforded to her as a recipient of multiple artist awards in 2018 and was in the midst of finishing up an intense work cycle that brought to fruition a number of interactive projects completed roughly over the span of a year. Davis received the New Genres Individual Artist Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and she won The Emerging Artist Award from the Saint Botolph Club Foundation, Boston in 2018. She also received a Providence Public Library Creative Fellowship and RISD Museum’s yearlong Artist … [Read more...] about BECCI DAVIS: RECONCILING PAST ERASURES THROUGH DIRECT ACTION

Tom Rakewell (Ben Bliss) falls captive to Mother Goose’s ladies (Photography by T Charles Erickson © T Charles Erickson Photography).

Boston Lyric Opera presents The Rake’s Progress

// Boston Lyric Opera, Music, Theatre

By James Foritano Boston, MA - A new production by director Allegra Libonati illuminates the Cutler Majestic’s historic stage and house with a tale at once simple and profound. Simple because, to the delight of this opera lover, the characters to keep in view form a neat triad of hero (Tom Rakewell, sung by Ben Bliss), heroine (Anne Trulove, sung by Anya Matanovic) and villain (Nick Shadow, sung by Kevin Burdette). Tom Rakewell is our wavering hero who charges off to London with a new inheritance, eying the goal of tasting all London’s sophisticated — and mostly low pleasures — while keeping intact the purity of his love to Anne Trulove. Nick is a dope, but a dope with the complication of deeper qualities which shine progressively albeit tragically stronger as his fate closes around him. Villain Nick Shadow is no dope; he’s a hunter of human folly so astute you might think … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera presents The Rake’s Progress

Fixed/Fluxed

Far from Foolish: Family Fun at the Festival of Fools

// Audio/Visual, Current Exhibits, Exhibits, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized, Visual Arts

By Meghan Richter Image: "Festival Host BCA's Current Exhibition: Thu Kim Vu's Fixed/Fluxed" Driving through the green mountains of Vermont is always a treat, especially in the summer when the city of Burlington is vibrant with engaging activity. This past weekend’s temperatures were about 75 degrees on average, sunny and breezy — the perfect escape from the sweltering heat of Boston. I arrived in Burlington in time for the Festival of Fools, a yearly event that is produced by Burlington City Arts. The streets were decorated with multi- colored balls that were strung together in a circus- tent formation over the intersecting streets on Church. Up and down the street, and on the green at the corner of Church and Main streets, there were varied performances ranging from dance to live music and comedy acts. Street performers traveled from all over the northeast to share their … [Read more...] about Far from Foolish: Family Fun at the Festival of Fools

Maurice Emmanuel Parent & Adobuere Ebiama (Photo: A.R. Sinclair Photography).

THE CONVERT AT CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER

// Theatre

By James Foritano Cambridge, Mass. - Central Square Theater’s current production, Danai Gurira’s “The Convert,” onstage at the Cambridge, Mass.-venue through February 28, is a complex piece of theater filled with complex characters. This description is not intended to warn off theatergoers but to prepare them to focus in as much as possible on the broad outlines of this drama, while letting go as much as possible of those smaller constituent parts they will probably never understand, or never quite understand, literally. For example, you will probably never understand the Shona language, a language that Mai Tambe, masterfully played by Liana Asim, speaks with a bred-in-the-blood familiarity and speed. As a female elder in the tribal society of the Shona, Mai Tambe not only speaks Shona, but also models its words and worldview in her posture, movements and smallest … [Read more...] about THE CONVERT AT CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER