Latest news with #Beasts
Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Dutch beach beasts find a final resting place in a new exhibition
Dutch artist Theo Jansen is interviewed in front of his 'strandbeesten' or Beach Beasts, wind-powered creatures made from yellow plastic tubes, displayed during an exhibit in Delft, Netherlands, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto "The Simpsons." Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery. The "bones" of Theo Jansen's "strandbeesten" - beach animals in Dutch - have taken over a former cable factory in Delft, the small city in the western Netherlands that Jansen has called home for decades. "During the years, there has been a sort of evolutionary history, you could say. And you could see these animals as sort of natural historical objects," the 77-year old artist told The Associated Press before the installation's opening. The Strandbeesten Mortuary, as the exhibition is called, follows the various versions of the mobile sculptures since 1990 when Jansen created the first one from plastic pipes and tape. As the animals evolved, Jansen incorporated plastic bottles, wooden planks, cloth and cardboard. The life and death cycle of these famous animals - formed mostly out of PVC pipes - has left behind an impressive fossil record, which is on display at the exhibition. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo Marloes Koster, who organized the exhibition for Delft's Prinsenhof Museum, said that Jansen's ultimate goal is to create a beast that will live forever. "He's not there yet, so these are the ones that didn't make it," she added. The museum is undergoing major renovations, so Koster and her colleagues have been putting together arts and culture events at alternative venues around the city while the building is shut. Born near the North Sea, Jansen grew up captivated by the wind that often hits the Dutch coastline. He harnessed it to allow his animals to "walk" along the beach. Every year, he creates a new strandbeest and, at the end of the summer, declares the animal dead. "All summer I do experiments, and in the fall I'm a little bit wiser (about) how these animals should survive in the future," Jansen said. Many of the visitors to the opening of the exhibition had followed Jansen's work for years and were keen to understand how the strandbeesten had changed over time. "You see a kind of development in the way he does things. So they start out very simple, and then it gets increasingly complicated. So they evolve," said Cor Nonhof, a Delft local who had come to see the exhibition with his wife. Even at the opening, Jansen was already keen to return to the beach to work on the latest evolution of his strandbeesten. "I cannot do anything else," Jansen said. "And I am very happy with that.
The National
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Ramadan TV 2025 review: Kuwaiti true crime series Wuhoosh tackles infamous incidents that rocked the Gulf
Despite its popularity globally, true crime is not a well-tread genre in the Gulf. Due to conservative cultural norms, most avoid discussing heinous crimes openly to spare the families of those involved from the public gaze. Wuhoosh a new series from Kuwait is attempting to push the envelope on this taboo subject this Ramadan. Translating to 'Beasts', the 10-episode series streaming on Shasha is directed by filmmakers Mohamed Salama from Egypt and Saeed El Marouk from Lebanon. The show stars some of the most talented and famous names in Kuwaiti television including Shujoun Al Hajri, Haya Abdel Salam, Faisal Al Omairi, Bashar Al Shatti, Ali Kakooli and Mansour Al Bloushi. Divided into four stories, two are told over two episodes while the other two are told in three episodes. All 10 episodes released on the first day of Ramadan, and the series has since sparked debate on social media between viewers who enjoyed its daring way of telling real-life stories and those who condemned it for using these traumatising events for a television drama. The first of the four stories is about a fire that ravaged a wedding tent in 2009 which took the lives of 57 people and severely injured 90. The arsonist that started the fire is the first wife of the groom, who was not in the tent at the time. Having grown apart, the groom falls in love with another women and marries her. Fuelled by jealousy and blind rage, the woman takes douses the outside of the tent with petrol and lights it on fire. In the ensuing panic, a stampede occurs inside the tent, with many being trampled over before being burnt to death. Investigations then lead to the arrest of the arsonist, before she is sentenced to death for her crime. Right from the start, the show establishes two crucial things with this first story. The first is that this is going to be a tough, perhaps excruciating watch for many. Seeing a person commit these crimes and witnessing the result and how it affects people will make many feel uneasy. The second thing it establishes is the quality of the filmmaking, acting and storytelling. There's very little glamour in these roles, whether portraying a criminal or a detective, the actors make sure to do it sincerely without belittling the event or the people affected. With all these stories being set at some point in the past 40 years, much attention and effort is put into getting the details of the time period right. From the cars to the clothes or even the locations, the result is very impressive. The second and third stories are both told in two episodes. The first is about a child abuser who abducted and assaulted 17 children before being caught in 2007 and hanged in 2013. The second is about a thief who in 1983 would ask for a ride home in front of banks before murdering the drivers and stealing their money. The fourth and final story is perhaps the hardest to watch. In 2002, a countrywide search began after a girl, 6, went missing. Days later, her body was found in a remote area, showing signs of being brutalised and tortured. The case truly rocked Kuwaiti society, with many hoping it would be solved as they started to live in fear from what is out there. After a thorough investigation, it was found that three men had abducted the child for what they claimed was an 'honour killing' to avenge an illegal relationship between the victim's brother, and the sister of two of the killers. With stories like these, there's no enjoyment to be taken outside of appreciating the effort and craft put into making it as good as it is. The stories have been told for generations either as cautionary tales or injected with saucier details to make it more scandalous. Presenting the facts in this way sets the record straight on many things, especially being crimes so notorious in society at this point. It is very refreshing that a Gulf drama would not hold back in its presentation, allowing the filmmakers to direct something that can be appreciated for its style while also giving the actors roles in which they can dive into and fully embody. One hopes that this is the start of a trend and not a flash in the pan.
CairoScene
20-02-2025
- Science
- CairoScene
Egypt's ‘Cave of Beasts' Holds the Haunting Secrets of a Lost People
Egypt's 'Cave of Beasts' Holds the Haunting Secrets of a Lost People The first thing to know about the Cave of Beasts is that reaching it is no small feat. The Western Desert of Egypt does not accommodate visitors easily, and Wadi Sura—where the cave is located—stretches deep into a landscape that, for millennia, has rejected human habitation. The heat is unrelenting, and the sand moves in ways that disorient even seasoned desert travellers. But somewhere at the southwestern base of the Gilf Kebir plateau, near the borders of Libya and Sudan, there is a cave unlike any other. Inside, preserved in pigments that have clung to the rock walls for over 7,000 years, is the immutable evidence of human creativity and ingenuity. Discovered in 2002 by an Egyptian-Italian team led by Massimo Foggini and Ahmed Mestikawi, the Cave of Beasts—also referred to as Wadi Sura II—holds over 5,000 figures painted in red, yellow, white, and black. Some of them are unmistakable: human figures in various stances, animals that almost seem to gallop across the stone, scenes that suggest movement, story, perhaps even ritual. Others defy immediate explanation. There are creatures with human bodies but animal heads, others that lack heads entirely. Hundreds of hand and foot stencils punctuate the space, but not all of them are human. Some are so different in shape that researchers have suggested they might have been made using the hands of monitor lizards, a detail that complicates—and deepens—the mystery of the site. The significance of the Cave of Beasts extends beyond its artistic breadth. These images, left by a culture whose name remains unknown, suggest a way of life that is both familiar and alien. At the time these paintings were made, the Sahara was not the dry and inhospitable landscape it is today. It was humid, with lakes and vegetation—in other words: an environment that welcomed human settlement. Evidence of a lake at the base of the cave supports this, though whatever civilisation once thrived there was eventually forced to leave. Around 6,000 years ago, the climate shifted, the rains ceased, and the desert claimed what remained. It was not the first time the Sahara had transformed, nor would it be the last, but the Cave of Beasts seems barely concerned with the seismic natural forces changing everything around it. Some of the figures depicted across the cave's walls, especially the therianthropic ones, suggest a mythology that is now lost to time. Were these deities? Spirits? Symbols of transformation? The presence of acephalic figures raises questions that have no simple answers. The Cave of Beasts is often compared to the nearby Cave of Swimmers, a site made famous by its depiction in The English Patient as the place where Count Laszlo and nurse Hana fall madly in love. But where the swimmers are thought to represent early ideas of floating or drowning, the Beasts elude such straightforward interpretation. Over the years, researchers have worked to document and preserve the cave, recognizing its importance as one of the most significant prehistoric sites in Africa. In 2010, a team from the University of Cologne conducted an in-depth study, attempting to analyse the meaning and chronology of the paintings. But some things resist excavation. Much to the chagrin of historians, the cave does not leave any tangible explanation for what was left behind. And even that is incomplete. What these people believed, what stories they told—these things remain locked in stone, unchanged, perpetually unyielding. To reach the Cave of Beasts today requires careful planning. The journey is long, and the conditions harsh, but for those who make it, there is the rare chance to stand before something ancient, something that predates even our most ancient of documented civilisations. If nothing else compels you to make the journey, let it be this—seven thousand years ago, someone stood in that cave and left behind a message. What it means is still unknown. But if you go, if you stand where they once stood, you might be the one to finally listen.
