Latest news with #Cartesian
Time of India
2 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
Mind meets Mantra: Dance of matter and self
By Vijay Hashia Mind and matter have always been a conundrum of human curiosity. Is mind matter or vice versa? How can a non-physical mind be linked to matter? Philosophers have explored various perspectives. While dualism closely associated with Réne Descartes, holds that the mind is a non-physical substance, distinct from physical body, associated with consciousness and self-awareness; others such as, William Hasker's emergent dualism states that the mind emerges from and is dependent on the physical body but remains distinct; JP Moreland and Johan Foster's Thomistic dualism emphasises mind-body almost similar to Cartesian dualism. These views contrast with physicalism and enactivism, which argue that all mental phenomena can be explained in terms of physical processes and the role of embodied interaction, respectively. Since dualism asserts that the human mind is immaterial and disembodied, the mind could continue to exist even after the body dies. Still, it fails to explain how the non-physical mind can interact with the physical body. How can something which isn't made of matter influence others? This mind-matter interaction, therefore, remains a significant challenge for dualists due to limited interpretations. In Hindu thought, the mind is generally viewed as a subtle form of matter, a derivative of Prakriti, nature or matter, rather than a separate entity. While there is a distinction between consciousness and the mind, it is not a complete separation, as propagated in Western dualistic thought. Advaita Vedanta states that manas, the lower mind, receives sense impressions; buddhi, intellect, is for decisionmaking; chitta is for memory storage; and ahamkara is the sense of ego. It is seen as interacting with the Atman, the true Self or ultimate reality. The mind is whimsical, capricious, restless, inconsistent, erratic, volatile, sense slave, trickster, unruly, yet a source of creativity and boundless potential. It is often castigated as 'monkey mind', a restless ocean, a childish, insane and akaleidoscope, et al. Senses, in experiencing the outer world, communicate with manifest objects; a wobbling, capricious mind gets carried away by senses, as it cannot directly communicate with manifest objects, so the senses provide resource input. In meditation, as we close our eyes, we cannot see the outer world. Complete communication with the outer world breaks down as we focus on the object of meditation. With this, the deluge of thoughts subsides as we concentrate on the object or breath. Sensual consciousness transcends into a new experience of aesthetic consciousness, and this is the stage where knower, knowing, and knowledge merge with superconsciousness. True meditation lies in knowing and enlightening the mind, and the stimulation comes through chanting of a mantra, for example, the Gayatri mantra 'Om bhur bhuvasvah tat saviturvarenyam bhargodevasya dihimahi dhiy hona pracodayat.' The mantra rejuvenates one's intellect and enlightens the mind. Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics in Hindi song 'Tora mann darpan kehlaaye…,' depicts the heart as a mirror reflecting one's actions and karm, suggesting that good and bad deeds are seen and reflected in the heart. True liberation lies in understanding the mind's nature and freeing it from conditioning. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cartesian Therapeutics Announces First Participant Enrolled in the Phase 3 AURORA Trial of Descartes-08 in Patients with Myasthenia Gravis
FREDERICK, Md., May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cartesian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNAC) ('Cartesian' or the 'Company'), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering cell therapy for autoimmune diseases, today announced that the first participant has been enrolled in its Phase 3 AURORA trial of Descartes-08 in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). Descartes-08, Cartesian's lead cell therapy candidate, is an autologous engineered chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) product candidate targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). Descartes-08 is designed to be administered without preconditioning chemotherapy in an outpatient setting and does not use integrating vectors. 'With the first participant now successfully enrolled, commencement of our Phase 3 AURORA trial represents a significant milestone in our mission to deliver a differentiated, durable treatment option to patients with MG,' said Carsten Brunn, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cartesian. 'With sustained benefits observed through 12 months in our Phase 2b trial, we believe Descartes-08 has the potential to transform the current MG treatment paradigm with just a single course of therapy.' 'Marked by chronic use of steroids and other immunosuppressants while often delivering only limited efficacy, the current standard of care for patients with MG is inadequate,' said James (Chip) F. Howard, Jr., M.D., Cartesian Clinical Advisor and Professor of Neurology, Medicine, and Allied Health at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. 'Supported by compelling results from the Phase 2b trial, I firmly believe that Descartes-08 has the potential to serve as a safe, flexible, and durable treatment option for patients with MG. I look forward to helping advance this important study.' The Phase 3 AURORA trial is designed to assess Descartes-08 versus placebo (1:1 randomization) administered as six once-weekly outpatient infusions without preconditioning chemotherapy in approximately 100 participants with acetylcholine receptor autoantibody positive (AChR Ab+) MG. The primary endpoint will assess the proportion of Descartes-08 participants with an improvement in MG Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL) score of three points or more at Month 4 compared to placebo. In April 2025, the Company announced updated efficacy and safety data from the Phase 2b trial of Descartes-08 in participants with MG. After a single course of therapy, Descartes-08-treated participants were observed to sustain deep responses through long-term follow-up, with an average 4.8-point reduction in the MG-ADL score at Month 12. The deepest and most compelling sustained responses were observed in Descartes-08-treated participants who did not have prior exposure to biologic therapies, with an average 7.1-point reduction in MG-ADL and 57% of patients in this subgroup maintaining minimum symptom expression at Month 12. The safety profile of Descartes-08 was consistent with previously reported data and continues to support outpatient administration. About Cartesian Therapeutics Cartesian Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company pioneering cell therapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The Company's lead asset, Descartes-08, is a CAR-T in Phase 3 clinical development for patients with generalized myasthenia gravis and Phase 2 development for systemic lupus erythematosus, with a Phase 2 basket trial planned in additional autoimmune indications. The Company's clinical-stage pipeline also includes Descartes-15, a next-generation, autologous anti-BCMA CAR-T currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 trial in patients with multiple myeloma. For more information, please visit or follow the Company on LinkedIn or X, formerly known as Twitter. Forward Looking Statements Any statements in this press release about the future expectations, plans and prospects of the Company, including without limitation, statements regarding observations and data from the Company's clinical trials, the anticipated timing or the outcome of ongoing and planned clinical trials, studies and data readouts, the ability of the Company's product candidates to be administered in an outpatient setting or without the need for preconditioning lymphodepleting chemotherapy, the potential of Descartes-08, Descartes-15, or any of the Company's other product candidates to treat myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus, juvenile dermatomyositis, multiple myeloma, or any other disease, the anticipated timing or the outcome of the FDA's review of the Company's regulatory filings, the Company's ability to conduct its clinical trials and preclinical studies, the timing or making of any regulatory filings, the novelty of treatment paradigms that the Company is able to develop, the potential of any therapies developed by the Company to fulfill unmet medical needs, and enrollment in the Company's clinical trials and other statements containing the words 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'continue,' 'could,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'hypothesize,' 'intend,' 'may,' 'plan,' 'potential,' 'predict,' 'project,' 'should,' 'target,' 'would,' and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, but not limited to, the following: the uncertainties inherent in the initiation, completion and cost of clinical trials including proof of concept trials, including uncertain outcomes, the availability and timing of data from ongoing and future clinical trials and the results of such trials, whether preliminary results from a particular clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of that trial, whether results of early clinical trials will be indicative of the results of later clinical trials, and whether results observed in certain patient subgroups will be indicative of the results in such subgroups in later clinical trials or are reflective of a product candidate's overall characteristics, the ability to predict results of studies performed on human beings based on results of studies performed on non-human subjects, the unproven approach of the Company's technology, potential delays in enrollment of patients, undesirable side effects of the Company's product candidates, its reliance on third parties to conduct its clinical trials, the Company's inability to maintain its existing or future collaborations, licenses or contractual relationships, its inability to protect its proprietary technology and intellectual property, potential delays in regulatory approvals, the availability of funding sufficient for its foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements, the Company's recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows, substantial fluctuation in the price of the Company's common stock, risks related to geopolitical conflicts and pandemics and other important factors discussed in the 'Risk Factors' section of the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and in other filings that the Company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views only as of the date of its publication and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any intention to update any forward looking statements included in this press release, except as required by law. Contact Information:Investor Contact:Megan LeDucAssociate Director, Investor Media Contact:David RosenArgot in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Industrial Robotics Market is Set to Surpass Valuation of US$ 235.38 Billion By 2033
Industrial robots are rapidly transitioning from motion-centric devices to data-rich cyber-physical assets. The most meaningful catalyst behind the growth of industrial robotics market is the commoditization of high-resolution 3-D cameras and time-of-flight lidar modules, whose average selling prices fell 27% between 2021 and 2023. When combined with on-arm AI inference chips such as NVIDIA's Jetson Orin Nano or Intel's Movidius Myriad X, robots can now perform simultaneous localization, part identification, and collision avoidance with millisecond latency. IFR surveys indicate that 41% of factories deploying robots in 2024 rely on embedded AI vision for at least one production step, up from just 12% four years earlier. Simultaneously, articulated platforms are evolving into multi-purpose workhorses rather than single-task machines. End-users now expect fast tool-change couplers, built-in vision cabling, and native OPC UA connectors out of the box. Over 45% of new articulated shipments in 2024 ship with integrated force-torque sensors versus just 18% in 2020, according to Omdia. That sensory leap enables fine assembly, customized palletizing, and surface finishing—applications that were once ceded to SCARA or Cartesian models. Moreover, shrinking controller footprints mean an articulated cell occupies 30% less floor space than 2018 equivalents, freeing valuable square meters for ancillary machines. These continuous product-level improvements, layered on deep supply-chain maturity, keep articulated robots at the strategic core of the industrial robotics market. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports that articulated robots captured approximately 64% of the 590 000 new industrial robots installed worldwide in 2023, extending a six-year streak as the preferred mechanical architecture. Their six-axis flexibility enables a wide reach envelope, high payload capacity (up to 800 kg in the latest automotive units), and repeatability below 0.02 mm, making them the default choice for complex, high-throughput tasks. Tier-one automakers in Japan, Germany, and the United States each surpassed 10 000 annual articulated-robot deployments, while China alone integrated nearly 180 000 such units—equal to the next three countries combined. This scale advantage creates a virtuous cycle of component volume discounts, further solidifying articulated systems' cost leadership. Chicago, May 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Industrial robotics market was valued at US$ 26.99 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$ 235.28 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 27.2% over the course of forecast period, 2025–2033. Industrial robotics surges on articulated dominance, AI-driven adaptability, and relentless APAC demand, transforming automotive stability and electronics agility while spawning new revenue in pharma, food, and recycling, energizing competitive giants and nimble innovators alike. Story Continues Edge connectivity further amplifies this capability stack. 5G SA private networks, increasingly rolled out in brownfield plants, give robots deterministic 1-ms round-trip times, enabling real-time cloud model updates without sacrificing safety. Meanwhile, next-generation servo drives embed functional-safety over Ethernet (FSoE), allowing dynamic speed limiting and safe human-robot collaboration within open cells. Collectively, these technological building blocks broaden the industrial robotics market from repetitive motion automation to adaptive manufacturing platforms. Integrators can thus offer 'capability as a service,' whereby firmware updates unlock new skills post-installation, preserving CapEx while boosting return on invested capital. As enterprises prioritize resiliency and mass customization, the convergence of sensors, AI, and edge control will remain the foremost innovation lever through 2028. Automotive Body Shops Remain Largest Application For Industrial Robotics Deployment Despite headline-grabbing deployments in electronics and logistics, welding and sealing inside automotive body-in-white (BIW) shops continue to anchor global industrial robotics market growth. Automakers accounted for roughly 25.40% of total industrial robot installations in 2024, IFR data show, with over 70% of those units slotted into BIW framing, spot-welding, and paint lines. High-duty-cycle articulated or gantry robots achieve utilization rates above 92%, justifying investment even under cyclical vehicle demand. Notably, battery-electric-vehicle (BEV) production intensifies automation needs; aluminum and gigacasting components require longer, more precise welding seams, which robots consistently deliver at ±0.1 mm path accuracy. Automakers are also raising the bar on digital traceability. Each weld now carries a unique identifier logged through real-time IO-Link and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) handshakes, helping OEMs in the industrial robotics market meet stringent crash-test and regulatory documentation. With average trim-and-final lines now integrating 600+ robots—up 17% from 2019—ecosystem complexity explodes. Consequently, major integrators such as Comau, Dürr, and ATS deploy digital twins during design, saving up to eight weeks of commissioning time while trimming rework by 15%. As BEV investment cycles extend into North America, Europe, and Asia, BIW lines will preserve their status as the industrial robotics market's single largest application cluster, creating stable demand streams for high-payload arms, vision-guided sealing heads, and Industry 4.0 management software. Electronics Manufacturing Emerges As Most Prominent End-Use Growth Frontier Today in Industrial Robotics Market Whereas automotive provides volume stability, electronics manufacturing fuels the market's fastest unit expansion. Global smartphone and server facilities added an all-time-high 125,000 robots in 2024, a 24% year-on-year jump, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research. Miniaturization trends—think 0201 surface-mount components and 0.35-mm-pitch connectors—necessitate placement repeatability below 10 µm, pushing adoption of compact SCARA, Delta, and collaborative robot (cobot) models. In Foxconn's flagship Zhengzhou plant, cobots now perform delicate camera module insertions side-by-side with technicians, trimming defect rates from 2.1% to 0.6%. Equally significant is the rising demand for advanced-packaging back-end processes such as wafer bumping, testing, and micro-LED transfer. Here, robots equipped with vacuum-based micro-grippers and dual-arm architectures cut cycle times by 30% over conventional pick-and-place machinery in the industrial robotics market. Coupled with intense reshoring incentives in the United States (CHIPS Act) and Europe (IPCEI projects), electronics manufacturers are accelerating lights-out factory roadmaps to hedge geopolitical risk. The resulting multiplier effect extends beyond hardware; software vendors providing inline defect AI analytics and ECAD-to-robot path converters enjoy rising attach rates. Taken together, these dynamics underscore why electronics manufacturing has become the most prominent end-use frontier, reshaping payload, precision, and clean-room specifications across the broader industrial robotics landscape. Competitive Landscape Led By Fanuc, ABB, Yaskawa, KUKA, Mitsubishi Electric Market concentration remains relatively high in the industrial robotics market: the top five suppliers collectively shipped over 55% of global units in 2024, based on IFR shipment audits. Fanuc leads with a differentiated dual offering—a proven R-30iB Plus controller line for high-speed articulation and a versatile CRX cobot series for greenfield SMEs. ABB follows closely, leveraging its OmniCore controller and RobotStudio digital-twin software, which cuts average programming hours by 25%. Yaskawa, meanwhile, capitalizes on its Sigma-7 servo Technology to deliver class-leading energy savings, reducing power draw up to 30% during idle states. European industrial robotics market leader KUKA intensified its focus on pre-configured cells such as the KUKA Cell4 family, compressing delivery times to eight weeks. Mitsubishi Electric differentiates through deep integration with its iQ-platform PLCs and servo drives, creating a seamless motion ecosystem favored by Japanese Tier-2 automotive suppliers. Competitive intensity is rising from emerging Chinese vendors—Inovance, Estun, and Efort—whose price-performance ratios resonate with cost-sensitive buyers. To defend share, incumbents double-down on software ecosystems, preventive maintenance algorithms, and global service networks. Partnerships with cloud hyperscalers (e.g., ABB-Microsoft Azure) broaden analytics revenue while open-architecture moves, such as KUKA's aim to lock in developers. This dynamic yet concentrated landscape ensures that innovation cycles accelerate, pricing remains disciplined, and end-users benefit from a robust selection of mature, future-proof solutions. Emerging Opportunities In Service Integration, Retrofits, And Collaborative Workcells Worldwide As hardware margins compress, service integration has become a key profit lever in the industrial robotics market. Astute Analytica estimates that lifecycle services—spanning remote monitoring, digital twin optimization, and AI-based predictive maintenance—can generate 30% of total project value by year three. Vendors now bundle warranty extensions with condition-based service contracts priced on uptime rather than parts, aligning supplier incentives with plant KPIs. Simultaneously, retrofit kits breathe new life into installed bases: smart end-effectors, vision upgrades, and open controller retrofits allow customers to repurpose decade-old arms for modern tasks at one-third the cost of new equipment. Collaborative workcells represent another high-growth pocket for industrial robotics market, with cobot unit shipments climbing 18% CAGR between 2022 and 2024, per Interact Analysis. ISO / TS 15066 safety guidelines and category-3 PLe redundancy enable mixed-mode operation, allowing operators to enter cells without lengthy lockout procedures. Such flexibility reduces takt time variance and unlocks high-mix, low-volume production economics. Forward-looking integrators offer 'cobot-in-a-box' solutions that include vision, grippers, and pre-validated safety configurations, cutting deployment from months to days. Together, integrated services, retrofit pathways, and collaborative platforms create enticing opportunities for robot OEMs, system integrators, and value-added resellers to diversify revenue while helping manufacturers extract maximum ROI from automation assets. View the Table of Contents to select and purchase individual chapters: Asia-Pacific Offers Lucrative Revenue Streams With Policy-Backed Automation Surge Today Asia-Pacific (APAC) industrial robotics market commands nearly 71% of global robot installations, with China contributing two-thirds of that volume. Beijing's 'New Productive Forces' blueprint enables accelerated tax deductions for automation, effectively shortening payback periods to below two years for mid-sized factories. Simultaneously, Japan's Robot Revolution Initiative and Korea's K-Robot Strategy earmark billions in low-interest loans, spurring small-to-medium enterprises to automate. India, chasing its 'Make in India 2.0' goals, recorded a 54% spike in robot imports in 2024, predominantly in automotive, electronics, and pharmaceutical segments. Beyond policy, APAC also benefits from dense supplier networks and rapid equipment-maker iteration cycles, which shorten lead times in the industrial robotics market. For example, Shenzhen-based component suppliers can turn around custom harmonic reducers in four weeks, enabling quicker prototype phases than Western counterparts. Meanwhile, ASEAN countries like Vietnam and Thailand offer favorable labor-cost arbitrage, prompting multinational electronics firms to establish parallel manufacturing lines equipped with lightweight SCARAs and cobots. These intertwined factors—policy incentives, local supply chains, and shifting global value networks—position APAC as the most lucrative geography for revenue generation within the industrial robotics market through 2030, particularly for vendors adept at aligning with local standards and service expectations. New Revenue Pockets Emerge In Pharma, Food, And Circular Economy Pharmaceutical manufacturing is rapidly embracing robotics to meet stringent Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and aseptic regulations. Research by ISPE shows 38% of sterile drug-fill lines installed since 2022 employ robotic isolators, eliminating manual interventions that can introduce contaminants. Robots with ISO Class-5 clean-room ratings handle vial loading, capping, and lyophilization tray transfers, boosting batch yield consistency by 12%. Food and beverage in the industrial robotics market likewise accelerate adoption; wash-down-rated Delta robots equipped with hygienic stainless-steel frames now debone 140 chicken fillets per minute, outperforming human crews while ensuring traceable handling data for retailers. An emerging frontier lies in the circular economy, where robots disassemble smartphones, EV batteries, and e-waste to recover critical minerals. Apple's 'Daisy' system exemplifies this trend in the industrial robotics market, dismantling 1.2 million iPhones annually while capturing 80% of rare earth content. Start-ups like Li-Cycle deploy robotic gripper-cutting hybrids to strip battery packs before hydrometallurgical processing, achieving 95% material recovery rates. Government grants in the EU's Horizon Europe program explicitly fund robotic circularity projects, signaling long-term growth potential. Collectively, pharma sterility demands, hygienic food lines, and sustainability-driven disassembly create fresh, high-margin revenue pockets that reward solution providers capable of combining materials science expertise with robotics engineering, ultimately broadening the industrial robotics market's addressable scope and societal impact. Global Industrial Robotics Market Key Players: ABB Limited DAIHEN Corporation Denso Corporation Epson America Incorporated Fanuc Corporation Kawasaki Heavy Industries Limited Kobe Steel, Limited Kuka AG Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Yaskawa Electric Corporation Other Prominent Players Key Segmentation: By Type Articulated Cartesian SCARA Cylindrical Others By Industry Automotive Electrical & Electronics Chemical Rubber & Plastics Machinery Food & Beverages Others By Function Soldering & Welding Materials Handling Assembling & Disassembling Painting & Dispensing Milling, Cutting, & Processing Others By Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America Have Questions? Reach Out Before Buying: About Astute Analytica Astute Analytica is a global market research and advisory firm providing data-driven insights across industries such as technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and more. We publish multiple reports daily, equipping businesses with the intelligence they need to navigate market trends, emerging opportunities, competitive landscapes, and technological advancements. With a team of experienced business analysts, economists, and industry experts, we deliver accurate, in-depth, and actionable research tailored to meet the strategic needs of our clients. At Astute Analytica, our clients come first, and we are committed to delivering cost-effective, high-value research solutions that drive success in an evolving marketplace. Contact Us: Astute Analytica Phone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World) For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Website: Follow us on: LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube CONTACT: Contact Us: Astute Analytica Phone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World) For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Website:
New York Times
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Artists Finding New Ways to Depict the Human Body
IT'S A CONFUSING time to have a body. On the one hand, we have more ways to modify flesh than ever before. We regulate hormones and heartbeats, restore lost hearing, replace faulty livers and reconstruct faces. And yet the body feels increasingly vulnerable. Between deepfakes and the distortions of social media, appearances are subject to scrutiny and doubt. Covid-19 revealed how even slight physical differences can be fatal. Subject to changing laws and environmental crises beyond our control, few of us have much authority over our corporeal selves. Amid this uncertainty, artists are depicting the body with fresh urgency. 'The idea of the body as material and not as something necessarily coherent is something that I see artists taking up in really compelling new ways,' said the curator Lanka Tattersall, who organized the recent exhibition 'Vital Signs: Artists and the Body' at New York's Museum of Modern Art. In their work, she continued, the body reveals itself as 'matter that can be molded and looked at, made pliable and shifted.' 'Did you know the word 'norm' came from a carpenter's tool?' asked the Canadian-born artist Jes Fan, 34, who was raised in Hong Kong and lives in New York City. In his studio, an industrial loft in the Brooklyn Army Terminal, supposedly normal bodies were nowhere in sight. We stood surrounded by cascading piles of partial casts of friends' torsos, an undulating resin form derived from a CT scan of Fan's pelvis and a metal armature draped in crinkled folds of yuba, the rubbery skin that forms on the surface of heated soy milk. In Fan's work, soy has served as a symbolic androgyne. A source of both pharmaceutical estrogen and testosterone, it reappears in various forms — from solid bean to simmering liquid. A literal and metaphorical fluidity pervades the sculptures: They tend to look as though they're oozing, dripping, melting and merging. 'Everything's transitory, nothing is stagnant,' he said. That philosophy, more and more, is guiding current approaches to the body. The artists pursuing figurative sculpture today don't share a unified strategy, style or concern. They work with plaster, bronze, resin, fabric, motors, glass and clay. They use everyday objects and sometimes more corporeal materials: semen, urine, teeth and hair. Some make legible figures, while others skew toward abstraction, creating works that don't even resemble bodies in the traditional sense but remain eerily, unmistakably real. What they do have in common is a suspicion of physical perfection. Ideals that suffused Western art for centuries — statuesque proportions, whiteness — are in their hands no more desirable than they are attainable. Young sculptors are poking holes in 'the idea of the Cartesian man as the center of the universe,' said the curator Cecilia Alemani, who made physical metamorphosis an organizing principle of the Venice Biennale in 2022. But in the absence of bygone standards emerge bold new freedoms. HUMANS HAVE BEEN depicting bodies for thousands of years, but figurative sculpture grows more conspicuous at moments when physical fragility becomes impossible to ignore. The mechanized slaughter of World War I shredded old notions of decency and valor, and the shattered, burned and blind survivors who emerged from the rubble made a mockery of classical ideals. Cyborg blends of human bodies, machines and mass-produced goods defined Dada and Surrealist art in the years that followed, capturing the trauma of the era but also the thrill of reinvention. Androgyny, queer culture and a new sexual freedom flourished in the wreckage. Figurative sculpture filled galleries again during the 1980s and '90s, when the AIDS crisis transformed certain bodies into objects of fear and distaste. The artist Robert Gober responded to the panic over contagion, cleanliness and the seepage between public and private spheres with a series of realistic legs and feet that protruded from walls, usually at floor height, as though the bodies to which they belonged had collapsed. Some sprouted phallic candles, which seemed to suggest a vigil for and of the flesh, while other limbs were penetrated by lesion-like sink drains. At the time, the idea of a universal body had become passé. 'There is no 'human' body anymore,' the art historian W.J.T. Mitchell wrote in 1995, 'there is the gendered body, the desiring body, the racialized body, the medical body, the sculpted body, the techno-body, the body in pain or pleasure.' Many young sculptors today are continuing to address how bodies are represented in public discourse. Today, however, sensuality and leisure have eclipsed images of abjection and vulnerability. Portraying the body at ease has become a means of dismantling pervasive representations of minorities as victims and villains incapable of rest or everyday intimacy. Tschabalala Self, for example, makes sculptures of self-possessed Black figures in repose. At the most recent Paris edition of Art Basel, Self, 34, who was born in Harlem and lives in upstate New York, presented 'Heroine Inspired by the Fantasy of Saartjie Baartman in Paris,' a pair of life-size sculptures completed in 2023. Each depicts a fictional character based on a young Khoekhoe woman from what's now South Africa who was exhibited as a freak and a sexual object in Europe during the early 19th century. After her death in 1815, Baartman's genitals and other organs were stored in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where her skeleton remained on public view until the 1970s. With her sculptures, Self imagines a different life for Baartman, portraying her as a free Parisian woman enjoying the safety and privacy of her home. In one sculpture, the voluptuous seated figure is topless. In the other, she stands, wearing a fishnet bra, a self-assured smile and a sheer polka-dot skirt over a turquoise thong, as though she were preparing for a night out. The semi-nudity might startle viewers sensitive to the hypersexuality that was projected onto Baartman during her life, but Self rejects a logic in which Black dignity hinges on modesty. 'I don't feel like I need to cover them as a means of elevating them,' she said of her sculptures. FOR MUCH OF art history, figurative sculpture was steeped in a sense of the eternal. Ancient statues of leaders, heroes and gods tended to embody what their creators believed (or hoped) would endure forever. Now figurative sculpture reflects profound anxieties over permanence. Our bodies are bombarded by stuff — for example, the microplastic particles of broken-down goods that lodge in our testicles, guts and lungs — and our eyes by an onslaught of images. 'When I think about all the garbage that is made and bought on Amazon every day, I find it absolutely terrifying and overwhelming,' said the Romanian-born artist Andra Ursuta, 45. 'As someone who makes objects, I need to resolve that for myself, or whatever I make needs to engage with that.' Ursuta, who is based in London and New York, is known for unpredictable, darkly humorous work in which the body is usually a site of tragicomic degradation. In recent years, she has created monstrous cast-glass creatures that combine her own face, limbs and torso with cheap Halloween props, plastic bottles, bondage masks and other kinds of fetish gear. The detritus of overproduction that lingers on in landfills is part of us, her work suggests, an extension of our physical selves and a monument. Ursuta first exhibited the series in 2019 at the Venice Biennale, as she entered her 40s. 'Your body starts to change, you become aware of all the indignities that are coming down the pike,' she said. 'Some things are going to spill out or leak or droop despite your best efforts.' The sculptures, with titles like 'Yoga Don't Help,' distill the anxiety of inevitable bodily failure. In Venice, Ursuta poured a little alcohol inside the hollow works — a riposte to the cliché of female bodies as vessels. The booze, fittingly, ate through the adhesive inside the sculptures, threatening to dribble out. The perils of self-presentation in an age of heightened exposure find keen expression in the seductive, disconcerting sculptures of the American artist Kayode Ojo, 34. To create 'Ice Queen' (2020), Ojo sheathed two chairs with chrome-plated legs in matching white sequined dresses. The identical chairs face each other, the dresses linked at the wrists by chains of steel key rings emerging from the sleeves, as though two headless divas were holding hands — or as though a single woman were coldly regarding her own reflection. Swiss Army knives, blades out, dangle in place of fingers. The various components of 'Ice Queen' are balanced on vertical stacks of rectangular plastic boxes — Ojo never fastens, glues or screws together the elements in his sculptures. A sense of precarity haunts the work, 'whether it's economic precarity or social precarity,' said Ojo, who was born in Cookeville, Tenn., and currently lives in New York. 'Anything could move at any point.' Sculpture is audacious in its demands. Painting tends to hang politely on walls; sculpture takes up space. We take representations of the body personally and react with a curiosity, empathy or disgust rarely elicited by abstract cubes or hunks of metal. In our doubles, we recognize our own vulnerability or recall the intrinsic marvels of being inside breathing, sensing bodies in constant flux — works in progress shaped by labor, genes, vanity and, ultimately, time.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RBI buys out partners' stakes in Burger King China, seeks new partner to invest
TORONTO — Restaurant Brands International Inc. says it has bought its partners' stakes in Burger King China for US$158 million and is seeking a new local partner. The company says it acquired the interests from TFI Asia Holdings BV (TFI) and Pangaea Two Acquisition Holdings XXIII Ltd. (Cartesian). RBI says it now owns nearly 100 per cent of the business and is looking for a new local partner to invest in the operations and become the controlling shareholder. The company says TFI helped Burger King grow in China from around 60 restaurants in 2012 to about 1,500 today and will continue growing its operations in Turkey as one of RBI's largest business partners. RBI will also continue to be a partner with Cartesian in growing Tim Hortons in China. RBI is the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025. Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR) The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
