2013 Arts in the City

Der Rosenkavalier

The Opera was absolutely beautiful, both in the artistry and the set and costume design. The sets were incredibly elaborate, especially the Marshalin’s bed chamber, complete with huge bay windows. The set was designed to evoke the royal courts of the eighteenth century, though the opera was written in a later century. The set immediately established the characters as well as the setting. The luxury present signaled to the audience that the characters are wealthy and powerful.

Anthology by Clifford Owens, Last Poet in Iran by Parvoviruses Tanavoli

Anthology by Cliffod Owens is a series of photographs in which the photographer, Clifford Owens took photo’s of his performance art piece where he kissed random audience members. The images look extremely intimate, but are all very diverse. The audience members range from young women, to men, to older women, older men, etc. The photos have a very voyeuristic quality.

The Last Poet in Iran is a painting by Parvoviruses Tanavoli. The picture is a white canvas with neat rows of amorphous black figures. The figures are indicative of people, but are very abstract. In the bottom right corner is a bright red figure, which symbolizes the last poet of Iran, who stands out of the crowd of nondescript figures.

Storytelling through Dance

In the opening tap number, there wasn’t any single story. There were multiple stories all told through the taps. Tapping back and forth between two dancers created a sort of dialogue, and the story was told through those “conversations”. The motown number was a very dramatic re-imagining of Othello, and so the story was central to the choreography, and was brilliantly acted by the facial expressions and body’s of the dancers. The third number was very somber and fluid, but very open to interpretation, there was no set story. The Rite of Spring followed a very scary, but clear story that was told through costumes, choreography, and music.

Juliet’s monologue

Elizabeth Olsen’s delivery of Juliet’s monologue in act 3 scene 2 (“and when Romeo shall die, take him and cut him out into little stars and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night”) was absolutely perfect. Even though the monologue is very poetic and lyrical, it sounded very natural. All of Juliet’s longing and love was apparent in the acting.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born in Spain in 1904. He studied painting at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he began to receive recognition for his work. In 1928, three of his pieces were shown at the Carnegie International Exhibit in Pittsburgh, and Dali was catapulted into international fame. The following year, Dali met Gala Eluard in Paris, and despite her marriage to poet Paul Eluard, “became Dali’s lover, muse, business manager, and chief inspiration.”(1) Dali soon became a leader in the surrealist movement, but when WWII broke out in 1939, Dali and Gala moved to New York City (as a married couple). This move marked an important shift in her work, as he moved into his “traditional period”. After Gala died in 1982, “Dali’s health began to fail”(1), and he died soon after in 1989.
Dali was an incredibly influencial painter and foremost leader of the surrealist movement. He transitioned fluidly between painting styles and displayed his ever-changing inspirations and maturation. Dali was one of the first painters to paint images that he claimed were “images of his dreams and subconscious”(2), a revolutionary mode of thinking and painting that took the art of the 20th century to a whole new level.

Persistence of Memory 1931

Art is vulnerable

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Art is vulnerable. Yes, I was a mega-creep to get the first photo, but the couple’s public display of affection is the very definition of vulnerability. Not only are they vulnerable with each other in a relationship, but by showing their affection in public, they are vulnerable to the public and society as well. In contrast, the small cottage house is almost completely hidden by flora. It’s beauty is not readily apparent, it is masked instead.