Latest news with #contemporaryart
ABC News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Illume: Bangarra's dazzling fusion of light, art, and motion
Darrell Sibosado is a contemporary artist from the West Kimberley, who carries forward a rich family legacy through his striking printmaking and large-scale metal and light installations. Darrell and Bangarra Dance Theatre's artistic director Frances Rings share a deep creative kinship rooted in precision, line, and innovation. Together, they are now bridging visual and performative arts — Darrell's structured forms meet Frances's fluid choreography, blending technical rigour with unexpected softness. Their collaboration in Illume is a striking fusion that celebrates cultural knowledge while offering a thoughtful warning. For more information on Illume, click here
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
The Japanese island that was saved by art
Once polluted and suffering from depopulation, Naoshima has become Japan's hottest contemporary art enclave – and there are signs that life there may be finally rebounding. Shinichi Kobayashi has idyllic memories of growing up on Naoshima, one of the nearly 3,000 islands scattered across Japan's Seto Inland Sea. "We would go clam digging," said the 75-year-old, who became the island's mayor in 2018. "During the summer, I would spend entire days swimming in the sea, catching turban shells and fish, getting deeply tanned." "I don't recall seeing any foreign visitors," he added. Kobayashi's home island is no longer off the tourist radar – thanks to the power of modern art. Since the 1989 launch of what has become Benesse Art Site Naoshima – a multi-island art initiative initiated by billionaire Sōichirō Fukutake – more than 500,000 visitors now flock annually to Naoshima, whose fishing villages, rice fields and craggy coastlines have become the canvas for mesmerising art installations and ambitious museums. In 2010, the Setouchi Triennale launched. The contemporary art festival – which is now one of Japan's foremost international art events – attracts roughly one million visitors to the region each Triennale season. The sixth edition kicked off on 18 April this year and will run until 9 November; the longest Setouchi Triennale ever. Forty years ago, few would have imagined such a transformation. In the early 20th Century, Naoshima had cemented its reputation as a copper smelting hub, but by the 1980s, it was heavily polluted; the raw, rocky land around the Mitsubishi Materials industrial plant denuded of vegetation. The population dwindled dramatically as the young left to seek opportunities in larger cities. Fukutake's father, publishing magnate Tetsuhiko Fukutake, and Naoshima's then-mayor, Chikatsugu Miyake, aspired to revitalise the bleak area by founding a children's campground. Tetsuhiko died before the project was completed, leaving it to his son. Shocked by Naoshima's pollution, the younger Fukutake purchased a large swathe of the island's unblighted south side. His new plan: to transform the region by erecting attractive museums against its serene coastal landscapes. To enact his vision, he tapped Osaka-born architect Tadao Andō, who had become known for designing buildings that blended seamlessly into their surroundings. "I was surprised by the idea and thought it would be difficult to achieve," Andō said in a 2018 interview where he and Fukutake discussed the project's origins. "It was so inconvenient! Who would come here?" "This project began as an act of resistance," explained Fukutake in the interview. "It was my conscious intention to build a kind of heaven on Earth – the very first paradise that harmonises art, nature and the local community." In 1989, Andō designed the Naoshima International Camp, fulfilling the elder Fukutake's vision. In 1992 came the Benesse House Museum, a hotel and contemporary art museum housing works by luminaries including Bruce Nauman, Frank Stella and Hiroshi Sugimoto. The island's evolution into a globally renowned open-air museum and international contemporary arts hub was all but assured in 1994, when Yayoi Kusama's yellow and black-spotted Pumpkin was added to the landscape's growing collection of public artworks. This iconic work has since become emblematic of Naoshima itself. "[The] initial goal wasn't to promote tourism," said Soichiro Fukutake's son, Hideaki, who now helms the Fukutake Foundation. "But rather to revitalise the region through art and help locals feel a renewed sense of pride in their hometown." But the mission hasn't just been about building anew. Since 1998 and the start of the Art House Project in the nearby fishing village of Honmura, "using what exists to create what is to be" has been a guiding principle, leading to many defunct buildings on Naoshima and the neighbouring islands of Teshima and Inujima to be reborn as art. These include two projects by artist Shinrō Ōtake: Haisha, an old dentist's building transformed with collage, reclaimed materials and a partial giant copy of the Statue of Liberty; and Naoshima Bath "I♥︎湯", a public bathhouse now plastered in a patchwork of patterned tiles on the exterior to the full-scale model of an elephant striding across the dividing wall between the male and female bathing sections. Some locals were initially sceptical about the general appeal of such artworks. In the 1980s Toshio Hamaguchi worked for Naoshima's town office and guided executives from Fukutake's company around the island when the International Camp was first being planned. "I did not expect that we would attract many people by such a project, and particularly by art," recalls the retiree. "However, we have so many visitors thanks to art now." Since his initial commissions on Naoshima, Andō has designed nine other projects on the island, including the Chichu Art Museum, of which a large portion is built directly into the earth; and the Naoshima New Museum of Art, opening 31 May, which will showcase contemporary art from Japan and Asia. The inaugural exhibition – titled From the Origin to the Future – will feature works by the likes of Japan's Takashi Murakami and Makoto Aida, Cai Guo-Qiang from China and the Korean artist Do Ho Suh. Like the Chichu Art Museum, the Naoshima New Museum of Art blends seamlessly with the environment by burying two of its three storeys beneath the ground. "It's one of the most ambitious and exciting projects we've undertaken," said Hideaki Fukutake. The success of Benesse Art Site Naoshima in attracting visitors to a once-neglected location has been an inspiration for similar projects in other rural parts of Japan. Art Base Momoshima on the island of Momoshima is helmed by renowned conceptual artist Yukinori Yanagi, while on Ōmi-shima, another Inland Sea island, architect Toyō Itō has established the Toyō Itō Museum of Architecture. As mayor, Kobayashi notes the economic benefits: "Thanks to the increasing number of visitors, guesthouses and restaurants have flourished, helping make everyday life more vibrant for the locals." He added: "That said, we've also seen some changes, like more people locking their doors, which wasn't common in the past… For me, what matters most is that the residents can live cheerfully, energetically and happily." Threatening this is the island's persistent issue of depopulation: Naoshima currently has 3,000 residents, around half the number it had in the 1980s. "Personally, I strongly wish to increase it," said Kobayashi. "Even if just by one person." More like this: • How the bullet train transformed Japan• How Japan's tsunami-ravaged coastline is being transformed by hope• Japan's 97-year-old cherry blossom guardian However, there are glimmers of hope; a 2024 Asahi Shimbun article cited that though the island's population was in decline in 2022, the number of newcomers has risen slightly but steadily each year since. Over the past five years, 500 people – mainly married urban couples in their 30s and 40s – moved to the island, attracted by its unique artsy beauty. Many Benesse Art Site Naoshima staff have relocated to the island while others have come to fill jobs in the booming hospitality industry – so much so that Naoshima is now facing a housing shortage. Mitsubishi Materials has also significantly cleaned up its copper smelting operations, improving the overall quality of life. Speaking at a conference on Naoshima in 2023, Eriko Ōsaka, a respected curator and general director of The National Art Center, Tokyo, credited Benesse Art Site Naoshima organisers with changing the island's image "from being a negative one to a positive one through the power of art". In Ōsaka's opinion, visitors to Naoshima "can experience serendipity that they can find nowhere else and discover something unknown within themselves". For her, the success of Benesse Art Site Naoshima means that some of those islanders who have moved away "will come back one day". -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ramsay art prize 2025 finalists: a giant teddy, a Scrub Daddy and a moving meditation on war
The Perth-born, Sydney-based artist explores themes of queer intimacy and desire in their winning work. 'Jack Ball's Heavy Grit impressed us with its experimental processes and sophisticated creative resolve,' the judges said. 'The work evokes a sensual response to the substance and aesthetics of the Australian Queer Archives to which the work refers, while proposing new possibilities for how we understand those archives in relation to contemporary culture and experience. We were particularly struck by the installation's restless, kinetic quality that refuses definition and creates an open opportunity to connect individually with the materials, forms and images the work deploys.' Photograph: Saul Steed Alfred Lowe's practice, which is concerned with contemporary ways of navigating and manifesting identity and culture, is influenced by both the beautiful landscape of Central Australia, where he grew up, and its often-charged politics. These opposing ideals of beauty and pain fuel the artist's exploration of what it means to exist simultaneously in two conflicting extremes. By using radically contrasting materials, textures and colours, Lowe explores what it means to exist outside binary ideals. Photograph: Saul Steed Encompassing moving image, photography, sound and installation, Christina May Carey's practice is rooted in the symbiotic relationship between the natural world, our bodies and consciousness. In this highly charged installation, Carey responds to a series of vivid hallucinations experienced by her during episodes of sleep paralysis. Operating on asynchronous loops, the work prompts a sense that opposing emotional states are playing out against each other. The body of work responds to a feeling of disequilibrium – a loss of our innate sense of our own bodies – as boundaries between work and leisure dissolve in an external world navigated through screens. Photograph: Saul Steed A church pew, re-upholstered in advertising imagery, faces a shrine. The central icon of a Spider-Man painted in transparent washes, has been transformed into a more fragile version where the quiet persistence of the hand-made ascends against the advertising references to aspirational wealth and quick-fix religiosity behind it. Either side, Hoffie's avatar characters stare back, seemingly challenging the viewer's role in this space for contemplation. Hoffie offers poignantly humorous reflections on the capacity of art to ignite reimagined faith in the magical dimensions of life. Photograph: Saul Steed Trained as a sculptor, Miguel Aquilizan uses found, scavenged and collected objects to create assemblages and sculptures. Working with a diverse range of objects, the artist explores environmental issues and social history through poetic narratives. In Post Vitruvian, Aquilizan evokes the Roman architect Vitruvius and Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated drawing, Vitruvian man, a masterpiece of Renaissance art. Da Vinci's drawing represents his concept of the ideal body proportions of a man, with Aquilizan inviting us to ponder the accuracy and relevance of this ideal. Photograph: Saul Steed Western Australian artist David Attwood uses everyday items to create assemblages that explore the influence of consumer culture on contemporary subjectivity. A kinetic sculptural assemblage, Sun (Sculpture for Frances Gabe) utilises a Scrub Daddy sponge attached to a reciprocating motor. The Scrub Daddy, made famous through its appearance on the American reality television show Shark Tank, has become an emblem for popular social media trends about home cleaning hacks and proficiency. Paying homage to Frances Gabe, an inventor who attempted to patent the self-cleaning house, Sun invites us to contemplate the gendered nature of housework and the gimmickry of consumer products that purport to decrease the domestic load. Photograph: Saul Steed Turning the medium of painting against itself, Malik questions the histories of colonialism. Harnessing imitative techniques honed during a childhood spent voraciously copying old master paintings, Untitled recasts and filters Caravaggio's second version of Supper at Emmaus, 1606. Rejecting two-dimensional flatness, this mode of display strips the painting of its traditional aura and disrupts the church-like quality assigned to many exhibition spaces. Photograph: Saul Steed Liam Fleming's sculptural glass works are characterised by a distinctive geometric purity and embody a sense of restraint and refinement, aligning his artistic practice with minimalism and its associated transcendental qualities. Fleming notes that, following years of production glassblowing and training, he 'finds redeeming qualities in [his] practice through the process of letting go. [He] … performs and sublimates his technical approach in the service of a vision that animates the essential enigma of [his] chosen medium and of life itself.' Photograph: Saul Steed Drawing from his queer and Greek Australian background, Gogos's work spans textiles, design and runway shows and blends spontaneity with thoughtful material exploration. His process focuses on repurposing, recycling and sourcing deadstock textiles from friends and collaborators. Using techniques such as layering, compressing, felting and embroidery, Gogos's creations evolve through chance, with form dictated by the interplay of Machine explores cultural and familial timelines, blending nostalgia with a playful, 'campy' spirit, reminiscent of an Austin Powers world. Gogos injects humour, dressing-up play and double entendres into his exploration of memory and identity. Photograph: Saul Steed Pinchuk is a multidisciplinary artist who initiates her works through a phase of extensive research, data collection and fieldwork. Primarily, Pinchuk works with conflict topographies, in dialogue with literary legacies and the politics of translation. In The Theatre of War, the opening lines of Homer's epic war poem The Iliad are recited in three 'theatres of war': a performance stage from the siege of Sarajevo, a combat training camp for Ukrainian soldiers, and the tomb of Homer in Greece. Just as The Iliad commences in the ninth year of the Trojan war, Pinchuk's film was shot in response to the ninth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Saul Steed
Arab News
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Arab News
Balad Al-Fann brings Saudi art to life
JEDDAH: The second edition of the Balad Al-Fann art program has opened in Jeddah Historic District and runs until June 15. The initiative this time presents a captivating series of art exhibitions, held under the theme 'Our Storied Walls,' which celebrate memory, culture and place. It boasts a renewed focus on local narratives with each exhibition looking at the tangible and human heritage of the city. Held at Nassif Boutique, the exhibition is a tribute to the late artist Hisham Binjabi, a foundational figure in Saudi Arabia's modern art movement. Curated by Ayman Yossri Daydban, a former student of Binjabi, the exhibition blends art and memories through archival materials, selected artworks, personal possessions and rare voice recordings. Arab News spoke to Daydban, who is one of the most prominent contemporary artists in Saudi Arabia, with his works featuring in major museums and biennials. He said: 'This is a personal exhibition. My journey with Hisham Binjabi began over 35 years ago when he discovered my work, admired it, and encouraged me. 'For a whole year his name echoed in my mind, until I held my first solo exhibition in 1991. It was his encouragement and appreciation of my boldness — he said I thought outside the box — that pushed me forward. I found myself naturally drawn to contemporary art.' Daydban's art is conceptual, and rooted in ideas and meaning. Binjabi, on the other hand, remained faithful to classical and realist styles. Daydban said: 'For years we observed each other's work from afar, and every time we met I felt like a student reuniting with his mentor. 'But Hisham was more than an artist — he was a social figure, a cultural activist who managed and promoted art within the community, bringing art into social and human contexts. 'His greatest influence was not just in his paintings, but in his presence, personality, and wisdom.' The exhibition does not merely display Binjabi's artworks — it narrates his life story through them. His wife played a part by telling their story through her lens and, for the first time, her works are featured in a dedicated section alongside audio recordings of her and their daughters, reflecting on their lives together as a creative family. An audio room on the upper floor features testimonials from contemporary artists who were his students or peers, and more recordings are added daily. The exhibition unfolds across three levels: a deeply emotional audiovisual experience, a debut showcase of his wife's personal works, and a collective sonic space for shared memory and reflection. Daydban added: 'Hisham was, above all, a socially engaged artist, and this exhibit is aimed primarily at the community of Al-Balad, where he lived and left his mark.' The program also honors the late Safeya Binzagr, one of the first female visual artists in the Kingdom. Curated by Effat Fadag, the exhibition weaves together the visual and literary in a journey filled with nostalgia, history and cultural memory. The exhibition presents rare paintings, handwritten letters, and personal belongings that reflect Binzagr's unique lens on Hejazi life. Her deeply human portrayals of women, homes, attire and rituals offer not only artistic beauty but also historic insight. Titled 'Revealing What Was Hidden,' the exhibition shows how Binzagr used her art to bring the past to life. Her work helps keep Saudi culture and history alive. The event honors her role as an artist and historian, and Fadag said: 'I asked myself: What can I say that hasn't already been said? I wanted to highlight aspects of her journey that aren't widely known.' Binzagr was the first woman to publicly showcase her family and community life, giving a voice to the private lives of Saudi women — a society that was largely hidden at the time. Fadag said: 'I tried to reflect this (voice) through the layout of the exhibition, using the historic Nassif House, starting from the main building to the external annex, with three symbolic doors that narrate her story.' This journey begins with Binzagr's birth and upbringing, moves through her education, the exhibitions she held, and finally her artistic projects on Saudi traditional attire, which are featured on the second floor. Fadag said: 'In the clothing room you see very personal images — she even modeled for her work so she could better understand and express the exact details she wanted to paint. She knew exactly how to translate her vision.' The final section focuses on giving back to the community, and how Binzagr impacted learning, the broader culture and society at large. The initiative also puts the spotlight on a curated selection of winning works from a national photography competition, while Balad Al-Fann also hosts a competition showcasing traditional calligraphy, ceramics, ornamentation, and engraving.
Zawya
4 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
First-of-its-kind art and medicine project 'public health' launched by the American University of Beirut Medical Center
Beirut: The American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), in collaboration with TAP (Temporary Art Platform), launched 'public health,' an art and medicine project which is a first-of-its-kind initiative in Lebanon and the region that consists of contemporary art interventions for the Halim and Aida Daniel Academic and Clinical Center (ACC) at AUBMC. The launch was held in the presence of AUB President Fadlo R. Khuri, AUB Medical Center Director Joseph Otayek, Associate Vice President for Academic Centers, Development, and External Affairs Ali Taher, TAP Founder and Curator Amanda Abi Khalil, along with esteemed AUB and AUBMC faculty and leadership. 'Public health' is a series of site-specific commissions to eight contemporary artists who were invited in 2017 to consider and challenge the medical center setting as a non-place, defined by anthropologist Marc Augé as a space individuals pass through without forming lasting social connections or a sense of belonging. Initiated in 2017 and brought to life through the vision of Curator Amanda Abi Khalil and Associate Curator Nour Osseiran of TAP, the project unveiled six artworks by Tamara Al-Samerraei, Catherine Cattaruzza, Hatem Imam, and Lara Tabet, as well as artist duos Rayya and Zeina Badran, and Nadim Mishlawi and Sharif Sehnaoui. The works explored the unique sounds, bodie s, and stories that inhabit AUBMC's environment. Their site-specific works reframed the medical center's space as one of reflection, interaction, and emotional resonance. By embedding contemporary art within a clinical setting, 'public health' promotes medical-oriented research in the art field, fosters innovative collaborations between artists, curators, and healthcare professionals, and grants patients and visitors access to meaningful artistic engagement in an environment often associated with stress and routine. President Khuri said, 'Today, we are not just launching a collection of art. We are renewing a promise. A promise to build a healthcare system that is compassionate, patient-centered, engaging, and a genuinely human place to receive care. I want to thank everyone who helped bring this vision to life: our partners at TAP, the artists, our generous donors, and, of course, the leadership team at AUBMC—thank you for believing in this project from the start.' "This is not art as an ornament. This is art as infrastructure—as a vital, integrated part of how we imagine healing. Through intentional and inspired interventions—through art—we can reclaim hospitals as places of meaning, of comfort, of connection," Ali Taher added. 'By inviting artists to engage with the medical center as a site, not just a backdrop, 'public health' opens up a field of inquiry that is both urgent and under-explored. The project reveals how contemporary art can intervene meaningfully in the hospital environment: from participatory processes with staff and patients, to sensory and spatial interventions that challenge how we experience care,' explained Amanda Abi Khalil. This idea was instigated by Dina Zameli at the inauguration of President Fadlo R. Khuri and was generously supported by AUBMC, Hamzah Dayyeh, Nafiz Mustafa Jundi, Michel Khallouf, Elie Khalil Khoury, Henrietta Abela Nammour, Mohamad Ali and Dina Zameli, and Commercial Insurance. As a milestone in AUBMC's legacy, this project highlights the institution's commitment not only to medical excellence, but also to cultural innovation and community connection, reaffirming AUBMC's role as a pioneer in healthcare. About AUBMC Since 1902, AUBMC has been providing the highest standards of care to patients across Lebanon and the region. It is also the teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine at AUB (established in 1867), which has trained generations of medical students and physicians, and whose graduates can be found at leading institutions around the world. AUBMC is the only medical institution in the Middle East to have earned the five international accreditations of JCI, Magnet, CAP, ACGME-I and JACIE attesting to its superior standards in patient-centered care, nursing, pathology/laboratory services and graduate medical education. The Faculty of Medicine has graduated over 4,000 medical students and physicians; the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing provides excellent education for the nursing staff, and the Medical Center meets the healthcare needs of over 360,000 patient visits annually. For more information, please visit our website or contact: The AUB Office of Communications Email: praubmc@ Memac Ogilvy Public Relations at: Hadi Attar - 01-486065
