At Art From Us we are constantly on the look-out for new ways to see the world we live in. Art Highlights is a place where we curate that which has caught not only our attention, but imagination as well. Human life and our personal and collective histories are intrinsically tied to the creative practices within our cultures. Through Art Highlights we bring you hand-picked cultural and creative events that we find to be significant to our journey.
Each event, news, and/or happening eventually tells a larger story. Both personal and social, both individual and communal, both local and global.
We’ve picked certain themes that we come back to year-on-year that guide us in this exploration. We invite you to join us for this internal dialogue with the external world. So, put on your critical thinking caps and participate in the conversation.
ARCHITECTURE
Etienne Boullee and his Monument to Newton
‘Cenotaph To Newton’ only exists in the imaginings of Boulle which he then scribbled on paper. There is a certain haunting madness to this that calls to worship and fandom, to appreciation and wonder.
CULTURE
The Free Party Culture
The 1980s saw a great rise of the youth, especially in the UK, creating spaces of free movement, expression, dance and an all out rave. These were in fields, warehouses and abandoned spaces. It was only in the 1990s that the law caught-up and the Free Party Culture began to disband and in its place was born the first iteration of the modern club.
DESIGN
BRUTALISM
A movement that we first saw in the 1950s, that was born out of a need to re-construct and re-imagine identity and nation post World War II, especially in the UK. Today we see this as a style that is everywhere for it is in-your-face, unapologetic, raw and brutal.
EDUCATION
NCERT & THE NEW SYLLABUS
As the international and national communities are in shock at the Indian national curriculum getting a make over, there are those who see this as a much needed editing out process of repetitive topics and ideas that are borderline indoctrination.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
THE ART OF TAXES
With every government in the world looking out to tax-the-rich, there is more and more focus, here in India as well as overseas, on the Art Collector. This luxury consumer is very much in the sights of the tax-man, and in India this translated to a 12% tax with the introduction of GST in the year 2017.
IDEAS
MYTHOLOGY IN INDIAN ART
The idea is – ‘What would Indian Art Look like if we moved away from representations of religion, icons, divinities and events from our Epics – such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana ?’ What would we even paint? And more importantly who would be the consumer, the buyer, the collector of this post-mythology Indian Art.
PEOPLE
ELON MUSK : TRUTH SAYER OR MASTER MANIPULATOR
If you haven’t seen the most recent attempt by BBC to interview Elon Musk and challenge his Twitter take-over then pause reading, go see that and come back. Our age looks nothing short of a satire playing out on a revolving stage that is balanced on the whims of extreme reactionary voices and opinions. Where is logic, reason and critical thinking?
SCIENCE
THE RECYCLING MYTH
How many of us remember the classroom training on separating trash. The 8-bit computer games specifically designed to help us identity different types of waste. Or even better – the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle mantra that many of us strive to follow. We did a deep dive into the science and the myth of recycling and found perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong questions, hence ending up with incomplete and inefficient solutions.
TECHNOLOGY
BLACKROCK, AI & GLOBAL TAKEOVERS
Since Macron passed a bill to increase the retirement age in France (he did this without calling a vote) – there have been nationwide protests. This bill would directly impact each working citizen of France and would deplete their pension. This has been directly linked to the BlackRock organisation and its ties with receiving a tender to manage the county’s pension fund. This situation and the existence of an entity like BlackRock is a direct threat to democracy, sovereignty and liberty itself.