Upon opening the doors to the exhibit, you immediately lock eyes with a pale woman in a turquoise robe who looks out from her ornate frame with a small smile. She is one of the few in the gallery who will actually make eye contact with you; the rest of the women gaze demurely at things out of sight as if they are wishing for something their gilded world cannot give them.
Posts published in “Arts and Culture”
“Concinnitas” was a term used by 15th-century scholar and architect Leon Battista Alberti to describe beauty in architecture, which he believed existed when — and only when — parts of a building cohered to a harmonizing whole. It was also used to name The Concinnitas Portfolio, to which Professor Pau Atela responded in his Re(Creations) and MathStudio. Both the portfolio and Atela’s work will be displayed at the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass until Dec. 9.
I have a complicated relationship with the word “slam.” Every time I hear the word qualifying some literary event — a poetry reading or a storytelling event — I feel my stomach lurch, as though I caught a whiff of some food that once gave me torrential runs. Not that I only have bad experiences with slams, not at all. But for every poem I’ve heard that revelled in the snap of a word as it rolled off the tongue, for every story I listened to that sparked against the speaker’s animated telling, there were five, ten, fifteen others that made me cringe back into my seat.
“The answer.”
The room is abundant with mixed media, geometric patterns and vibrant colors, but this phrase is what stands out in particular while walking through the Nolen Art Lounge. It is on one of the several collages in the gallery, bold against a backdrop of urban architecture, floating limbs and plates of food. And the answer is just as ambiguous as the question artist Ronnie Schwaller seeks to ask with this collaborative exhibit, “Im(permanence).”
Like them or not, you probably have some experience with Alt-J’s music. Whether it’s the mumbled lyrics, the unusual instrumentation or the twee habit of referring to their band as just “∆,” most people who are familiar with the indie music scene immediately recognize Joe Newman’s airy vocals and intertwining harp melodies.
Jacqueline Richardson ’21 | Assistant Arts Editor
Oh, the lesbian movie! If there exists a genre more fraught and loved to the people it tries to portray, I haven’t heard of it. Dead lovers, sex scenes so obviously shot with a man panting behind the camera and straight actresses fumbling through flat performances fill the film’s minutes, and yet we continue to watch. Of course some successes exist. But these are few.
Phoebe Lease ’21 | Arts Editor
Shemekia Copeland’s strong and powerful vocals rang out over a full house at the Iron Horse Music Hall last Saturday. Amidst witty banter and her thoughts on politics, Copeland performed both old hits and new work to an enthusiastic crowd.
Phoebe Lease ’21 | Arts Editor
William Fitzsimmons is no stranger to heartache and once again tackles the issue with grace in his newest album.
Phoebe Lease ’21 | Arts Editor
Like many in my generation, middle school is a memory I would like to keep far, far away from any part of my conscious mind. Yet, when I saw the trailer for “Eighth Grade,” an indie film quickly gaining an enthusiastic audience, I was drawn to the honesty with which director Bo Burnham deals with his young characters.
Phoebe Lease ’21 Walking into to the Oresman Gallery on a dark and windy afternoon felt like entering a separate world. My footsteps echoed on…