Tending to his work like a garden, New York-based Austrian artist Martin Roth grows grass within the fibers of Persian rugs, constantly watering his works to ensure the grass grows lush from within the dense fabric. The end result of this project, first exhibited at an Austrian castle in 2012, will always be the same. The rugs will unravel and the grass will die. This fatalistic act is both poetic and political for the artist, working with a sensual ephemerality as well as speaking to Western countries’ urges to bring their values to other countries.
Fiona Craig grew up in the Blue Mountains, a World Heritage Listed site west of Sydney, Australia. She currently resides in the USA. She attended art groups and schools, both academic and non-academic, which gave her a broad arts and crafts experience. She completed a BA with Class 1 Honours in History (including art history studies) in 2011.
I am enamoured with North American natural scenery, with its dramatic landforms, seasons and flora. I like to depict a dramatic display that brings the art audience closer to appreciating nature.
Scarmiglione is one of the twelve named Malebranche in the 8th Circle of Hell’s 5th Gulf, where corrupt politicians are immersed in burning pitch, the Malebolge, from the Inferno of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.
As a
newcomer to the Afro-futurism and science/speculative fiction genre, I had no
idea a story like “The Comet” could be written in 1920, let alone by a black
man. “The Comet” by W.E.B. Du Bois speculates post-apocalyptic New York City
where its only two inhabitants is a black man and a white woman, a dichotomous
and definitely uncomfortable phenomena especially for the early 1920’s.
Upon realization that they were both the only humans
left for each other, both were uncomfortable considering their different
statuses in society. What struck me the most is when the narrator describes the
white woman’s reaction:
“For the first time she seemed to realize that she was
alone in the world with a stranger, something more than a stranger-with an
alien in blood and culture-unknown, perhaps unknowable.”
The white woman thinks
of the black man as an otherworldly creature incapable of being understood by
her whiteness. At first, I did my usual eye-roll, but as I pondered this quote
I thought about my truth: black people are otherworldly; we are aliens in the
best ways and worst ways possible. We are alien to this world because of our
magic. Whiteness recognizes it, steals it, copies it, and chooses to alienate us because of it, just as the
white woman did when realizing that the black man was the only hope left for
humanity.
Thank you W.E.B. Du Bois for showing us that we’re too magical for this world.
Well, we’re definitely cutting it close with this one, but we got seats, and there are still plenty left at Court Street for this viewing, but not for long…
So if you’re down to see this with us and grab a drink and mabye a meal afterward, may the force be with you!
A Space Opera inspired by African Aesthetics. Yohance tells the story of a Master Thief on the hunt of a mysterious artifact. Little does he know that he’s stumbled into the heart of an ancient intergalactic conflict…
Set on the aquatic planet of Carib, Byala is a captain in the Antillean Imperial Army. In the midst of a never-ending war with an older Empire, she discovers something long thought to be fiction…something that could change the course of history.
The first chapter in the epic tale Rains of Dara. Named after her homeworld, young Dara dreams of one day becoming her tribe’s Huntmaster like her father. The only way to do this however is to pass a perilous rite of passage and facing the deadliest of beasts.
Well, we’re definitely cutting it close with this one, but we got seats, and there are still plenty left at Court Street for this viewing, but not for long…
