In 1952, J.R.R. Tolkien stopped by to visit a friend and to pick-up a manuscript. While he was there, the friend persuaded the author to record a bit of his novel The Hobbit. The 30-minute recording session wasn’t filmed, but these two Youtube videos were created with visuals and music to accompany the audio recordings.
Peripatetic French street artist JR has just completed a moving work on the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico border. The timely piece—a large-scale photograph of a child looking over the border wall—is a dramatic rebuke to Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.
Nessie on the Net livestream from Loch Ness:
The Mural Arts Philadelphia project recently commissioned this challenging work, which is located in the heart of the city on South Broad Street at the University of the Arts. The piece is by Brooklyn-based street artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh who is known internationally for her “Stop Telling Women To Smile” posters, which attack street harassment.
Here’s what she had to say about the new mural:
“Questioning Whiteness is a public installation that is asking a white audience to find its role in the workings of racism and white supremacy. The questions posed here are attempting to point out whiteness, to name it, to look at, to see how it is complicit.”
Everyone seems to be jumping on the Lisbon bandwagon this summer—with good reason. If you haven’t been to Portugal’s capital, get there before it’s swamped by the tourist onslaught. A wonderful place to take a breather from sightseeing is the lovely Jardim da Estrella near the Basilica of the same name.
In the heart of the park, you’ll discover a sweet pond-side café, sculpture gardens, and a beautiful little lending library. Grab a book and stretch-out in the shade of an old tree.
It seems that every day we hear about a new travel scam or digital threat to worry about when we are away from home. This infographic from the security consulting group Envista Forensics does a good job explaining many common threats and raises so new ones for the wary traveler. Personally, I never knew about the ribbon trick, although I certainly wouldn’t share my password with a stranger.
This month, Philadelphia is launching a year-long+ celebration of the creation of our own version of the Champs Elysees—the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. While it may never be as grand as Paris’ great boulevard, it is a mile-long artery lined with superb cultural institutions and the site of many local celebratory events each year. The tree-lined boulevard is home to the Barnes Foundation, the Rodin Museum, the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Sciences, the historic Free Library, and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. All topped off by the amazing Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Parkway celebration, which will run from September 8, 2017 to November 16, 2018, will begin with a parade of illuminated pedi-cabs created by artist Cai Guo-Qiang. The people-powered cabs will be decorated with hundreds of colrful Chinese lanterns in the form of animals, emojis, rockets, vehicles, and food. The pedi-cabs will provide free rides along the Parkway four nights per week between September 14 and October 8, 2017.
Mexican artist Bosco Sodi is preparing to create his first art installation in New York City, at Washington Square Park. Titled Muro, the installation will be built from 1,600 removable clay timbers, fired at Sodi’s studio in Oaxaca, Mexico, forming a two-meter-high by eight-meter-long wall.
Muro will be displayed on September 7, 2017, for one day only. Park visitors will be able to take home a timber, each signed by the artist. The installation acts as a “communally co-owned work of art”, that expands on Sodi’s “ongoing interest in organic processes beyond the artist’s control”. The wall also elicits metaphors of overthrowing the primary function of a wall as a “device of separation”, and instead “empowers the community to remove this physical barrier and its inherent symbolism.”
The symbolism of constructing and dismantling a wall in Trump’s hometown is a powerful call to action and resistance.
It may not technically be Autumn for three more weeks, however it’s never too soon to start thinking about where and when to view colorful Fall foliage. If you follow this link, it will guide you to an excellent interactive 2017 Fall Foliage prediction map for North America. So don’t lolligag, Autumn days will fly by before you know it.
Artist Claude Cormier created an amazing polychromatic canopy covering one kilometer of Montreal’s central pedestrian street Boulevard Sainte-Catherine for the ongoing Aires Libres Festival. The rainbow installation celebrates the city’s LGBT community, the 10th anniversary of the festival, and the 375th anniversary of Montreal. The event runs through the month of September.
all images ©Claude Cormier
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