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Graziadaily
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
Marina Abramović: ‘The Secret To Life? Don't Compromise.'
As far as aphorisms go, 'never meet your heroes' tends to hold up. Until it doesn't. Enter Marina Abramović, the godmother of performance art. She's in New York. I'm in London. Zoom, naturally. What does one expect from a woman who once invited strangers in an art gallery to point weapons at her, walked the Great Wall of China to put a symbolic end to her relationship and, decades later, turned a silent stare into the most talked-about installation at the MoMa during her performance of The Artist Is Present? Marina Abramovic during her 2010 performance "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" at The Museum of Modern Art. ©Getty When the Zoom screen blinks to life, there she is: severe and still, in a crimson Yohji Yamamoto top – not unlike the gown she wore for her MoMa piece. For a moment, silence. Then, abruptly: 'So, ask me questions, then I answer, and then we go,' she declares, voice clipped. So far, so Abramović. 'My life is insane,' she tells me. 'I think the planet is speeding up, and I really try to cope, because it's more work than I ever had in my entire life.' Is she enjoying the madness? 'That's not even a question. It's my duty. I really take work seriously. I never had children, I just wanted to be an artist. And now I have more opportunities than I ever got before. I have no time off until 2028.' Next year, Abramović turns 80. You wouldn't know it. Born in the former communist Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to politically active parents (they were partisans during WWII; she's often described her upbringing as emotionally arid) she's outpaced nearly every one of her peers. 'You relax when you die,' she laughs. 'My generation stopped working at 60 already. Nobody's doing anything. But the idea of pension never crosses my mind. I really think that work is something that we humans should do until the last breath. Yes, your body is getting older but this is something that you have to get used to. And you're going to get old, too, my dear,' she says, suddenly matriarchal. 'At 30, you don't think about dying and, until I turned 70, it never crossed my mind. But turning 80 next year, it's a big deal. This is the last stage in your life.' Is she afraid of the inevitable? 'Of course, who isn't scared to die? Anyone who says they're not is lying. Every time there's turbulence on the plane, I write my testament. But it's something you have to deal with. The more you accept the idea of impermanence, the more enjoyable every day of your life becomes. How can you confront your fear, and how can you make it meaningful?' Speaking to Abramović is like watching centre court at Wimbledon: ideas volley from left to right with impossible agility, bouncing between the philosophical and hilariously blunt, but never deadly serious. The laughs are myriad, as are her nuggets of wisdom. 'There are three Marinas. One who is heroic and likes to go for danger. The second is highly spiritual. The third loves fashion, chocolate and bullshit.' It's this trifecta that helps Abramović to not just stay relevant, but shapeshift with the cultural moment. It's why she can stage a sell-out opera one minute and launch a high concept NFT (a non-fungible token, or digital asset) drop the next, as she has done in partnership with the curated digital art marketplace Taex. Called the MAE Project, the aim is to bring her art to a new generation. 'I've always been interested in how I can apply the limits of my body to new technology, but I'm also interested in how I can connect with the younger audience,' she says. Marina Abramovic during her opera performance "7 Deaths of Maria Callas" wearing Burberry. ©Getty 'Kids are really technological. And the way to get to them is to use the same technology they're using. We've lost control of our life because of how addictive technology is. It was invented to give us more time, but we don't know what to do with it. So it's a war for me to introduce kids to silence and meditation.' Marina's Avatar from The MAE Project ©The MAE Project / Marina Abramović / Taex Does she know she's a social media muse meme, reference point, cultural shorthand? She waives it off. 'I don't have Instagram, I don't look at social media. I can hardly cope with my emails.' Still, when I show her Lorde's new album cover – rumoured on the internet to echo Abramović's infamous MoMa performance – she says, 'Wow. I didn't see that. Nobody showed me. It's pretty identical.' Is she flattered? 'Art is there to be referenced, to be used. Art is for everybody. I'm very democratic about that.' Marina Abramović and Lady Gaga, 2013 ©Gett In this, too, she's defied the stereotype of the tortured artist, wary of the mainstream. She's front row at fashion week, collaborates with Lady Gaga and delivers TED Talks, appears on Bella Freud's Fashion Neurosis podcast and attends the Met Gala. 'In the '70s, artists who loved fashion were said to be shitty, lousy artists. But when I sold my work to Pompidou for the first time, I went to the Yamamoto shop and bought a suit and blouse… I said, 'Yes! Fuck that. I'm an OK artist. If I like fashion, what's the problem?'' Her opera costumes were Burberry, last year she was the face of Massimo Dutti, and the wardrobe for her next project is made by fellow Serbian-born, London-based designer Roksanda Ilinčić. So, what is her secret to dealing with everything life throws her way? 'I don't give a shit. I suffered so much, been put through so much emotional bullshit and lost time to nonsense. I don't do that any more, this comes from wisdom and with age. The secret is simple: really love what you're doing. Don't compromise. Have radical new ideas, good food, lots of humour, and good sex.' The MAE NFT's are minted on the ethereum blockchain via the platform Henrik Lischke is the senior fashion features editor at Grazia. Prior to that, he worked at British Vogue, and was junior fashion editor at The Sunday Times Style.
Toronto Sun
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
HBO's Mountainhead will make you laugh as the world burns
Published May 31, 2025 • Last updated 10 minutes ago • 4 minute read (L-R) Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, Jesse Armstrong, Ramy Youssef and Steve Carell attend HBO's "Mountainhead" World Premiere at The Museum of Modern Art on May 22, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Over Succession's four seasons, series creator Jesse Armstrong made a name for himself as television's go-to chronicler of the uber-rich. The HBO show depicted the inner workings of a powerful, Murdoch-esque media clan and the way its members lived, travelled, celebrated and humiliated one another. It was a tantalizing look at what it might be like to have wealth so profound that it sets you apart from everyone and gives you the power to influence politics worldwide. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Now, after two years off the air, Armstrong returns to HBO on May 31 with a new movie, Mountainhead, which almost feels like it could be a Succession spinoff. (He says he even contemplated having ATN, Succession's Fox-like news channel, playing in the background.) The cool color palette is the same; so are the zingers. Nicholas Britell is back to compose the score. Instead of media scions, however, Armstrong has turned his attention to the newest generation of powerful elites — tech bros — and raised the absurdity of the scenario. And while Mountainhead can be a bit slapdash at times, it once again proves that if you want a glimpse at the masters of the universe — one that will make you wince and laugh in equal measure — Armstrong is your man. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Mountainhead came together quickly. Armstrong cast the movie while writing it in January and February of this year and shot for just five weeks in the spring. On-screen you can feel the urgency as well as the messiness that comes with such a compressed timeline. This is an extremely timely film about the dangers of artificial intelligence, the world falling apart and powerful men who care only about their own portfolios. It could be tighter, but it's still ridiculously entertaining. The plot revolves around a boys trip to the title's namesake location — a Utah estate owned by Jason Schwartzman's Hugo Van Yalk and named for The Fountainhead. (One of his buddies jokes that it was designed by 'Ayn Bland.') Hugo, known to his pals as 'Souper' or 'Soups,' is the founder of a mental health app more interested in hooking users than actually solving mental health crises and the least wealthy of the group, which means he is mocked for only have a net worth in the hundreds of millions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The rest are billionaires. There's 'Papa Bear' Randall, the elder statesman hiding health issues, played by Steve Carell, and Ramy Youssef's Jeff, the most conscientious of the gang, who still believes his tech can be used for good. But the biggest whale in this toxic foursome is Venis, an Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerberg hybrid portrayed with an odious air by Cory Michael Smith. In the opening moments of the film, Venis launches an AI update to the software of Traam, his Facebook-like social media platform, called 'F***' but spelled with an extra 'u,' which is part of the gag. The explicative serves to highlight his obnoxiousness, but it's also apt in another way. Essentially, Venis has created a fake-news machine, and almost as soon as he arrives at Mountainhead, it's clear his latest creation is sowing worldwide chaos. People are using its functions to falsify images, resulting in murders and coups. While this could ostensibly put a damper on the four friends' poker night, instead it turns into an opportunity, as the men start to strategize on how to use this instability to their advantage. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Jeff also has an AI tool, which has more guardrails on it — a 'filter for nightmares,' as he puts it. Venis wants Jeff to sell it to him, to help solve the global crisis he helped create; Jeff sees more money in keeping it close. But quickly the scheming inside this austere but somehow tacky mansion — there's a bowling alley downstairs — starts to move beyond simple dealmaking. Lives are on the line inside and outside the structure. Left alone to their own devices, the men grow increasingly deluded about their own power, and Mountainhead goes from satire to a more overt critique of the greed that's currently shaping our world. The actors have a great time sinking their teeth into this fantasy. Schwartzman is hilarious as Soups, who has a massive inferiority complex that the others fuel. Carell takes on a professorial air as Randall, who quotes philosophers to support his own self-interest, which involves preserving his consciousness after his death. And Youssef is endearing as the closest thing we have to a 'good guy' — who also happens to be a megalomaniac. Smith is perhaps the least famous of the bunch but the standout of the cast, his face oozing smarm as the loathsome Venis. The shagginess of the plot starts to weigh things down as the movie heads toward its conclusion. Certain moments, especially those related to the characters' outside lives, are underdeveloped, and there's an immediacy to Armstrong's satire that's almost impulsive. But the anger that spurred Mountainhead's creation is also its best quality. Armstrong is pissed off and has decided to channel that into brutal jokes. If we can't laugh at these people, what else can we do? Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Canada World
National Geographic
22-04-2025
- General
- National Geographic
The blackout that nearly broke New York—and the logo that saved it
In the summer of 1977, New York City was burning. A 25-hour blackout, triggered by lightning striking key transmission lines, led to widespread looting, riots, and more than a thousand fires. That night alone, the fire department battled blazes across Harlem, Brooklyn, and the South Bronx, a shocking surge in a city already averaging four dozen fires a day. New York City was at an all time low. But what saved the city wasn't a bailout or sweeping reform. It was a simple sketch—drawn in the back of a yellow cab by designer Milton Glaser. His now-iconic 'I ❤️ NY' logo became a rallying cry, a symbol of pride at a time when the city was desperate to believe in itself again. 'It was the perfect storm of need and meaning coming together,' says Steven Heller, a design historian and former New York Times art director who has chronicled the logo's cultural legacy. Milton Glaser's original 1976 sketch for the 'I ❤️ NY' logo was drawn in a taxi on the back of an envelope. The design would go on to become one of the most recognizable symbols of New York's resilience. Photograph by The Museum of Modern Art, Licensed by SCALA, Art Resource, NY Milton Glaser created this refined version of the 'I ❤️ NY' logo in 1976 using ink and tape. He originally designed it for a tourism campaign, but the symbol quickly captured the city's spirit. The Museum of Modern Art now preserves it as part of its permanent collection. Photograph by The Museum of Modern Art, Licensed by SCALA, Art Resource, NY New York's 1970s decline New York's decline didn't happen overnight. First, the factories closed, causing 300,000 manufacturing jobs to vanish in just six years. Wealthy residents fled to the suburbs, taking with them their tax dollars. The city started borrowing money to make payroll. Then came the budget cuts. Teachers got pink slips. Sanitation trucks sat idle as garbage rotted on street corners. 'The city was closing fire departments because it didn't have the money to maintain them,' says Ryan Purcell, a history professor at Sarah Lawrence College and the creator of the Soundscapes NYC podcast. 'They chose which neighborhoods to abandon.' (Here's how New York has changed—through the eyes of someone who never left.) Crime spiked to more than a thousand murders annually, and arson became a business model. 'Landlords were burning their buildings to collect insurance,' says Purcell. 'It was more profitable than collecting rent.' The South Bronx lost more than 97 percent of its buildings on some blocks to flames and abandonment. It became the epicenter for what officials coldly called 'planned shrinkage,' a controversial urban planning strategy that pulled services from poor neighborhoods to force depopulation. By 1975, police handed visitors pamphlets titled 'Welcome to Fear City,' at every entry point to Manhattan—Grand Central, Penn Station, Port Authority—warning tourists to stay away until things change. Subway cars were coated in graffiti and plagued by breakdowns. When the city begged Washington for help, the Daily News captured President Ford's infamous response: FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. 'If 'I Love New York' came about and nobody felt that New York was worth saving, it might not have worked,' says Heller. 'But people loved New York and wanted it to be a better place.' The 1977 New York blackout Summer 1977 brought new horrors. The Son of Sam serial killer was taunting newspapers with chilling letters, and a sweltering heat wave pushed the power grid to its limit. At 8:37 p.m. on July 13, lightning struck a power station in Westchester County. New York went dark. (Can we fix the infrastructure that powers our lives?) The following 25 hours set records with a thousand fires, 1,600 stores looted, and 3,700 arrests. Damage topped $300 million. TIME magazine eventually dubbed it 'The Night of Terror,' while outside observers called New York 'the new Rome in decline.' The blackout forced a reckoning: the city didn't just need more police or cleaner streets—it needed a comeback story. One that could make people believe in New York again. 'I [Heart] NY' origins Faced with a full-blown image crisis, New York's Department of Commerce turned to advertising agency Wells Rich Greene with an impossible task. 'They were trying to rebrand the city away from this climate of fear,' says Purcell. What emerged would change design history. The campaign began with three simple words: I Love New York. William S. Doyle, the state's deputy commissioner of commerce, asked native New Yorker Milton Glaser to create the visual identity. Though originally designed for a state tourism campaign, the logo quickly came to represent the city's soul. Glaser was already a giant in the design world—co-founder of New York Magazine, the mind behind psychedelic Bob Dylan posters, and a designer who brought fine-art sensibilities to commercial work. The fee was $2,000, but Glaser never cashed the check. (This the forgotten history of New York's first electric taxi fleet—in the 1800s.) His first attempt played it safe with no symbols and clean typography. But Glaser had a breakthrough a week later, riding in a taxi. As the cab lurched between potholes, he pulled a red crayon from his pocket and sketched on the back of an envelope: bold stacked letters with 'I' on top, a red heart in the middle, and 'NY' beneath, replacing the word 'love' with the universal symbol. The inspiration came from the carved initials of young lovers in tree trunks. 'It was a visual pun,' says Heller. 'He took something so common it was almost invisible—how people wrote 'I love you' in yearbooks and greeting cards—and applied it to this definitive idea that we all love New York.' The heart carried all the weight. What made the design extraordinary wasn't just what it said—it was how quickly it communicated feeling. In a moment of despair, it offered something rare: hope. Days after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, a New Yorker reads the Daily News featuring Milton Glaser's updated design: 'I ❤️ NY More Than Ever.' Photograph by Viviane Moos, Contributor, Getty Images How 'I [Heart] NY' became a global phenomenon New Yorkers initially met the campaign with skepticism. 'When that slogan first appeared, Son of Sam was still killing people,' says Purcell. 'But as it filtered into municipal publications and tourism materials, people began to see the change it represented.' Hotel occupancy rose through 1978. Tourism numbers rebounded. The design drew its power from perfect timing. 'The logo gave New Yorkers permission to show civic pride before they truly felt it,' says Purcell. Once it caught on, it wasn't just advertising. It was an act of resistance—a quiet declaration that their city was still worth loving. Glaser gifted the design to the state, never trademarking it himself. By 2011, the logo generated $30 million a year in merchandise revenue for New York. The logo spread organically, finding new life with each crisis. After 9/11, posters across Manhattan declared 'I ❤️ NY More Than Ever' with a small black smudge on the heart's lower left corner symbolizing the wounded downtown. During COVID, the design resurfaced again, modified but instantly recognizable. 'Milton knew [the logo] had relevance and resonance with everybody who looked at it,' says Heller. 'Like Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture, it ended up having a life of its own.' The logo resonated because it didn't just rebrand the city. It reminded New Yorkers that love could be a rallying cry even in collapse. A message that, as Heller says, 'will never go away.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A New Nike Air Max 95 Big Bubble Colorway Is Arriving at Retailers Right Now
Air Max 95 season continues. After Nike surprised fans with a 'Reverse Gradient' Air Max 95 Big Bubble release Wednesday in partnership with The Museum of Modern Art and teasers began emerging of a 'Bright Mandarin' colorway, yet another version of the sneaker is arriving at select retailers this week ahead of a wider release. Available now at retailers including Footpatrol is a new Air Max 95 OG in 'Obsidian/Obsidian/Varsity Maize.' The look's navy and yellow combination has drawn comparisons to the Michigan Wolverines, and while not an original colorway, the design itself is reminiscent of some of the model's popular 2000s-era styles. More from Footwear News Bo Jackson's Iconic Nike Air Trainer SC Sneaker Is Coming Back in Time for Summer This Nike Collaboration Was Released in an Unusual Place - and Every Single Pair Is Customized It's colored in a predominantly obsidian upper with maize accenting throughout, including contrast stitching which highlights the Air Max 95's human anatomy-inspired design. The yellow shade also fills in the sneaker's enlarged Air units, which have been tweaked to more closely resemble the classic running sneaker's original look. While this sneaker does not bear any official Wolverines branding, Nike has a long history with the University of Michigan. The school was featured in Nike's groundbreaking 1985 Dunk High 'Be True To Your School' pack. Later, as endorsement wars heated up, Michigan left Nike for Adidas in 2007 before realigning with the Beaverton, Oregon-based company in 2016 — to the tune of up to $173.8 million. The school's football team was the first Jordan-backed team. With a stateside release unconfirmed, this Air Max 95 OG Big Bubble 'Michigan' style is available now from retailers including Footpatrol for a retail price of 175 pounds, which, as of publishing, converts to around $229 before overseas shipping is factored in. The sneaker's SKU is IB7936-400. Best of Footwear News Allen Iverson's Reebok Deal: The Details of His Lifetime Contract NBA All-Star Weekend's Most Iconic Sneakers of All Time Super Bowl Halftime Show Shoes Through the Years: From Michael Jackson's Loafers to Rihanna's MM6 Maison Margiela x Salomon Sneakers
Boston Globe
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Inaugural $100,000 Meraki prize for women artists awarded to Sarah Sze
Sze's work often weaves together elements of painting, sculpture, and video into outsized installations held together with wire, string, and slim wooden armatures. Always on the edge of chaos, its precarious nature both beguiles and unsettles as a reflection on the instability of the modern world and the random accretion of memory across the slippage of time. Sze's work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum, and The Tate Modern, among others. Advertisement Demoulas, a long-time supporter of the ICA, has been a member of the museum's board since 2009; the prize, and the gift of artworks, is a culmination of that longstanding relationship, an ICA spokesperson said. Sze, a professor of visual arts at Columbia University and former MacArthur fellow, will accept the award at the ICA's annual Women's Luncheon on May 5. Murray Whyte can be reached at
