Hockney’s Turandot
Anyone who has seen opera sets by David Hockney remains fairly breathless for days on end. Sometimes years. Rarely has a practicing artist shown such a keen understanding of, and fascination with the playful possibilities of visual storytelling. His sets summon the...
Being There
Have we lost contact with the tangible world? Look around. What do you see? Screens! Information gleaned through hand-held electronic devices. Through those screens we love to look at animals, our friends, mouth-watering foods, faraway landmarks, natural wonders. What...
Bill Viola in Florence
Here was a long-awaited experience—the chance to finally see the great Pontormo Visitation along with Bill Viola's haunting video response made five hundred years later. There in a single darkened room was the newly-restored Mannerist painting portraying the moment...
On the Other Hand
My bags are always packed! To go from here to there is to indulge in a blend of aesthetic schizophrenia, wanderlust, and bad faith. Insisting that I love exactly where I live, I still climb onto a plane roughly once a year to become whatever the next large foreign...
Bilocation and other travel puzzles
Ah the unavoidable psycho-physical malaise of bilocation—the doubling of oneself that happens between travel and homecoming. Think of it as a variation on the mind/body problem. Our body is spatially bound but our consciousness is adrift; e.g. somewhere near the...
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.