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baby-blossoms · 4 years

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Potent

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Reader

Word Count: 3,795

Summary/Request: “I don't know if you write for Harry Potter, but can you do a fic about Draco Malfoy if you do? It doesn't have to be anything specific, I just love your writing!” - Reader smells Draco in the Amortentia potion without realizing it’s him.

Warnings: Light cursing

You were exhausted from staying up all night writing an essay for charms class over simple things your father had taught you ages before you had started your sixth year at Hogwarts. You couldn’t say that you were extremely talented in every subject you took at the great school of witchcraft and wizardry, but charms came naturally to you. Your mother was an outstanding Auror, and your father also worked for the Ministry of Magic. You were never fully informed on what exactly he did. His job was clearly out of the ordinary, as he never spoke about it. He was always out at odd hours for work, but you never questioned it. You were just happy that they both came home safe every night.

You couldn’t say that your family was thrilled when they found out you were a Slytherin. The family came from a long line of Ravenclaws on your father’s side and Gryffindors on your mother’s side. They were baffled as to how you found yourself placed among Slytherins. Nevertheless, they were proud of you and how hard you were working toward being one of the top students of your class,

“Another reason I believe you should have been placed in Ravenclaw! Perhaps you could consult with the headmaster about the matter, Y/N?”

Your mother had said once. You rolled your eyes at her all those years ago and simply replied,

“The sorting hat never makes mistakes, mama. You know that. Being a Slytherin may not have been what you wanted or expected, but it is my destiny.”

You withdrew yourself from the memory as you tuned back into your friends chattering away about the latest gossip among the school. Some people you had never heard of were getting back together for the third time this year. It was impressive how often a couple could split and get back together in the span of a few months.

“Y/n, do you fancy anyone?”

Your friend Danny asked, knocking his shoulder together with yours and raising an eyebrow in curiosity. You rolled your eyes and slapped him on the arm lightly with a book you were carrying.

“You know I don’t have time for a relationship, Danny.”

Danny gave a long drawn out sigh and motioned to a girl in blue and bronze robes passing by.

“Honestly, you should’ve been holed up with those stuffy Ravenclaws.”

You shot him an annoyed glance and replied.

“Ravenclaws are not stuffy, Daniel. They value intelligence, I can’t imagine why you weren’t placed there.”

Danny snorted out a laugh,

“There it is! Every time I annoy you, I’m reminded why you were put in Slytherin. It’s the wicked sarcasm alone, I think.”

Another one of your friends chimed in,

“Have you seen her magic in action, Danny? It's the power, not the sarcasm. Salazar Slytherin valued powerful, cunning students with pure blood, and the only family with more pure blood than hers is the Malfoys.”

You didn’t comment, a part of you flattered by your friend's compliment toward your powerful magic. However, the prejudice toward purebloods among the Slytherin house still put you off a bit. Your mind wandered to the Malfoy family after a moment. They truly were a powerful and well-known family, but you knew from your mother’s mixture of anger and disgust when talking about Lucious Malfoy, they were not well known for good reasons. A chill ran up your spine when you thought back to the first and only time you had seen Lucious Malfoy in person.

He towered over you, his eyes practically piercing into your soul when you accidentally bumped into him on Diagon Alley while buying supplies for your first year. Your mother had pulled you away from him as if he was infected with a highly contagious disease, and practically shoved you behind her. She had spoken to him for a moment, her voice friendly to anyone else’s ears, but you knew your mother. You heard how uncomfortable she truly was.

That was the extent of your interactions with the Malfoy family. Your mother had drilled it into your head that you were not to step foot near Draco Malfoy, let alone speak to him. She was terrified of what might come if you befriended, or worse, annoyed the young Malfoy. You had agreed, as if Draco would ever speak to you in the first place. He was far too concerned with himself and harassing Harry Potter for that.

The only thing that made avoiding Draco difficult at this point was not only that you were in Slytherin with him, but you also had almost the same schedule. Speaking of which, you realized you had passed your potions class, and quickly shouted a farewell to your friends as you doubled back and made your way into the room.

You gathered with the rest of the Slytherins. The class stood in front of a table that had four cauldrons upon it. One of the two you could smell from where you stood, and you found it almost intoxicating. Your eyes glazed over as you stared intently at the cauldron, and you were only brought out of your hazy thoughts of how exquisite it smelled when two boys entered the room. Harry Potter and his best friend, Ron Weasly. You scoffed quietly, annoyed that he could just waltz into class late and he seldom got any sort of repercussion for it. The one time you were late to Transfiguration Professor McGonagall made you write an essay on why punctuation is important for a witch or wizard to practice.

You glared at the two fighting over the last clean looking copy of the textbook and glanced to your right, feeling someone’s eyes on you. Your glare dropped immediately and was replaced by surprise and confusion at finding Draco Malfoy eyeing you with a small smirk. You felt a small blush spread across your cheeks. You had never fully looked at Draco before. His eyes were stone grey with flecks of blue toward his pupil, and his features were delicate yet sharp at the same time. But damn you had to admit he looked good in green. You found that you had been staring at him far too long, and abruptly looked away, turning back to Hermoine Granger. She stood in front of the cauldron you had been staring at earlier.

“It’s rumored to smell differently to each person according to what attracts them. For example, I smell freshly mowed grass and parchment, and spearmint toothpaste.”

She said before you were distracted once more. You felt as though he was watching you still. You couldn’t help but give in to your curiosity and steal another glance at Draco. His gaze had not shifted from you, and you felt another wave of heat across your cheeks. You weren’t used to catching the interest of any boy around Hogwarts, let alone the one boy you weren’t supposed to interact with whatsoever.

“Miss Y/l/n?”

You looked back to Professor Slughorn, he looked to you expectantly with an amused smile. Clearly you hadn’t been paying attention, and you felt your cheeks burn even hotter and you replied without hesitation.

“I’m sorry Professor, I was distracted. Could you repeat the question for me?”

Slughorn chuckled and stated,

“I was asking if you would like a turn in smelling the Amortentia potion? I saw that you were particularly transfixed with it earlier.”

You knew that if your cheeks could blush harder, they would. Making your way toward the potion, you tried your best to focus on speaking clearly as the scent practically grabbed a hold of you and begged you to taste the potion.

“I smell-” you paused for a moment, trying to figure out what had intoxicated your senses, “pomade, mint, apples, and...”

You trailed off, there was one more scent, but you couldn't pinpoint what it was.

“Yes, pomade, mint, and apples.”

You finished awkwardly. Slughorn smiled knowingly toward you, and gestured for you to return to where you had been standing earlier. You stalked back to your spot, refusing to let your embarrassment show in front of the class.

Professor Slughorn continued on about Amortentia for a moment, then introduced how the student with the best brewed potion that day would receive a vial of liquid luck. You rolled your eyes, knowing for a fact that you would not be receiving the vial. Potions weren't necessarily difficult for you, but they were by far not your strongest point.

You ended up being right, of course. Though, to your surprise and slight annoyance, it was Harry Potter who received the Liquid Luck. You couldn’t deny that you were jealous, yet couldn't help a heavy eye-roll when he tried to take it from Slughorn’s grasp before he was done speaking. You reluctantly clapped along with the rest of the students after Harry was instructed to use his potion well, but your facial expression showed exactly how you felt. You appreciated all that Harry had done, and what he had been through, but what would he of all people need liquid luck for? He always seemed to manage fairly well without it.

You gathered your books and made your way out of the potions classroom, toward charms class. Breath caught in your throat as you were abruptly tugged into an empty corridor. Turning, and drawing your wand in defense, you were more than surprised to lock eyes with Draco Malfoy once more. You weren’t sure what to say in such an instance, as you never dreamed you’d be alone with him, let alone by Draco’s choice.

“Well, hello then.”

You said. Draco eyed you carefully, his expression neutral as he introduced himself.

“I’m Draco. Draco Malfoy.”

You nodded in response, surprised once more by the fact he assumed anyone in the school didn’t know his name by now.

“Yes, and I’m-”

Draco cut you off,

“Y/n Y/l/n. I know.”

You nodded once more, not entirely sure where to go from there. He was the one pulling you into empty corridors after all.

“Did you need something, Draco?”

Draco didn’t respond for a moment. He just stood silently, staring at you. His skin was practically flawless. It reminded you of a porcelain doll.

“I realized we’ve never spoken before. We’ve been in the same house for six years, and we’ve yet to have a conversation.”

You couldn’t help but feel confused once more.

“Well, not to be rude, but it doesn’t seem that you talk to many people in general, aside from your… usual group.”

Draco quickly replied.

“You don’t either.”

You smiled,

“What, have you been watching me, Draco?”

Draco raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“It's a good habit to observe those around you, Y/n.”

You laughed lightly.

“Well, then I’ll keep that excuse in mind next time I feel like staring at someone in class for a prolonged period of time.” you paused, noting how Draco’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “Speaking of which, I have a class to get you.”

You said, taking your leave from the corridor. Glancing back as you rounded the corner, you found that Draco was indeed still ‘observing’ you. Your thoughts raced as you jogged to charms class. You just couldn’t wrap your head around why Draco chose such an odd way to start conversation with you for the first time. Then your thoughts wandered to your mother, and guilt stabbed at your gut. To be fair, Draco had talked to you first, and realistically he had pulled you into a corridor without your prior knowledge. So, you hadn’t necessarily gone against her wishes. You had to admit you didn’t mind the short conversation with him, though. Draco seemed interesting.

-----

The next few days were seemingly normal, aside from noticing Draco observing you more and more often. He was bold as well, and didn’t bother to look away most of the times you caught him. He was starting to become a true distraction to you. Of course, you couldn’t deny how attractive you found him.

You were making your way to the great hall for dinner, listening to Danny chatter away about the latest quidditch games and news regarding the Ministry. Almost all of your friends were seated by the time you found your way to the Slytherin table. Confusion and annoyance practically slapped you in the face when you found the spot you always sat in was occupied by a first year.

“Not to be rude, but I’ve sat in this spot since my first year. So, if you wouldn’t mind moving, I would really appreciate it.”

The first year turned to you slowly, and you wholeheartedly expected a sarcastic remark, but instead he said meekly,

“I have to sit here.”

You raised an eyebrow,

“Have to?”

You questioned. The boy nodded fervently, his eyes darting behind you. From the look in his eyes, you didn’t have to turn around to know who stood there.

“Why don’t you sit with me, Y/n? It seems every other spot is taken.”

Your suspicions were confirmed at the sound of Draco Malfoy’s voice. Turning, you stared at him in disbelief.

“Did you harass this poor kid into sitting in my spot, Malfoy?”

Draco glanced to the boy, then back to you, a smirk creeping across his lips.

“What makes you think I would do such a thing?”

He said, eyeing you in amusement. You smirked back to him playfully.

“I suppose I’m not that hungry either way. I think I’ll just make my way back to the common room to study.”

Draco’s grin vanished, his eyes narrowing as you winked at him and stalked away.

Minutes later, you found yourself sitting in the Slytherin common room, staring out the window into the lake. You watched calmly as creatures of all kinds swam past, finding their fluid movements in the water soothing. The Slytherin common room was freezing as per usual, but you neglected to grab a sweater, instead opting to continue to watch the wildlife through the window. Your attention was drawn away from the lake when you heard another person entering the common room.

“You’re not studying at all.”

You turned to Draco as he made his way next to you, then went back to watching the lake. You shrugged, smiling lightly.

“Are you cold?”

He asked, in almost a whisper. You looked back at him slowly, nodding your head in affirmation.

“It’s always cold in here.”

You sighed, once again turning to the lake. Draco didn’t respond, but moments later, a sweater was set down in your lap.

“That should help.”

He said. You looked at him in shock. You would’ve never expected Draco to be the type to lend out his sweater.

As you put the sweater on warmth engulfed you, but that wasn’t your main concern. What threw you for a loop was how the sweater smelled. It smelled of mint, pomade, apples and cologne. Your mind started racing. There was no way you had been smelling Draco’s cologne in the Amortentia potion.

“Sorry, I suppose I’m just not feeling well.”

You whispered. Promptly standing, you walked quickly to your dormitory and sat on your bed. You spent hours convincing yourself that somehow you were wrong about what you had smelled in the Amortentia potion. However, the sweater that engulfed you in warmth and that same scent was telling you otherwise.

---

Just to your luck, in potions the next day, you had the opportunity to test your theory. Slughorn had brought the Amortentia potion back out for whatever reason. You were too anxious to pay attention to his explanation. He gave each student the opportunity to smell the potion if they’d like to test what scents attracted them. When it came to you, the scent had changed, however, not in a way you expected. The smell of Draco’s cologne was overpowering.

You couldn’t tell whether you were delighted or terrified. Just imagining your mother's face if she found out Draco Malfoy was the first boy you ever had a crush on was enough to make you feel overwhelming guilt. However, when you saw Draco making his way toward the potion to smell it, you couldn’t stop yourself from hoping he would smell you too.

Shaking your head in annoyance at yourself, you looked down to the recipe for the potion you were supposed to be making that day. It seemed easy enough, but knowing yourself, you expected it to blow up in your face at any minute throughout the process. You tensed when you saw Draco walk past in your peripheral vision. Hope was still rearing its little head at the thought of what he might’ve smelled in the Amortentia potion, but you couldn’t let yourself be so distracted by him all the time. You would never get anything done.

Much to your surprise and elation, your potion came out perfectly. Slughorn praised you, as it truly was a rarity your potions came out decent, let alone perfectly. You glanced behind yourself, finding Draco staring at you with a look you had never seen him show before. Quickly turning around, your thoughts raced as to what he might’ve been thinking. You weren’t surprised to hear Slughorn praising a perfect potion from Draco moments later.

The minute class was let out, you practically sprinted out of potions. You had to find Danny and tell him everything. You raced to the Slytherin common room, searching for Danny anywhere within it. He clearly wasn’t in his usual spot, so you went to check his dormitory. When he didn’t answer the door, you sighed in annoyance and defeat. You couldn’t bother running around the entirety of Hogwarts looking for him, so you opted to wait for Dinner.

Making your way back to your own dormitory, you sighed once more, wondering how you should even address such a situation. You knew your mother would insist that you just stay a million miles away from the boy and let the feelings fade, but you knew deep down that you couldn’t force yourself to do so. Nevertheless, Draco was in all of your classes, and he was persistent. If he wanted to talk to you, or see you, there was no avoiding him.

----

You skipped the rest of your classes for the day, knowing it wouldn’t affect your scores too badly, and sat in your dormitory waiting for dinner to roll around. Draco’s sweater sat next to you on your bed, and you stared at it for what must’ve been hours. You never in a million years would have imagined that your thoughts and days would be so taken up by Draco Malfoy of all people. The single person your parents adamantly told you to stay away from. The pure irony of the situation would’ve made you laugh if you didn’t feel so guilty and confused.

When dinner finally came, you went to leave your dormitory, only to almost immediately slam the door again. Draco was leaning against the wall outside of your room, clearly waiting for you. Fuck. You were right, after all. If he wanted to see you or talk to you, he made sure there was absolutely no way to avoid him.

After a moment of you dumbly standing there, holding the handle, there was a firm knock at the door. You leaned your forehead against the hardwood, not knowing what would come from you opening the door. Your mind was practically tearing itself to shreds, battling whether you should ignore him and act like none of this happened, or tempt fate and open the door for the platinum haired boy.

“Y/n, you can’t just pretend you’re not in there!”

Draco called through the door. You cringed, still battling yourself on whether you should open the door or not.

“You’re not even supposed to be in the girls dormitories, Draco!”

You called back.

You heard a muffled laugh through the door.

“All the more reason for you to open the door before I get caught.”

You whispered a silent apology to your mother, and opened the door.

Draco’s grey eyes bore into yours, and he didn’t hesitate to walk into your room, closing the door swiftly behind him. Your cheeks felt like they were on fire as he turned to you. With every step he took toward you, you took a step backward. Finally the back of your knees hit the edge of your bed and gave out from under you. You sat, staring at Draco as he made his way closer. His signature smirk made your blush burn even brighter.

Your heart was racing faster than it ever had as he leaned over you, forcing you to lay back slightly.

“Tell me, Y/n. What was it that you smelled in the Amortentia potion?”

You knew you couldn't hide how flustered you were as Draco asked you the one question you had hoped to avoid. You looked anywhere but him, still conflicted with yourself.

You had to hold in a shaky breath when Draco grabbed your chin, purring,

“Look at me.”

You looked at him with wide eyes.

“Now tell me, what did you smell in the potion, Y/n?”

Your voice was barely above a whisper as you responded.

“You.”

Draco smiled fully for the first time as far as you had ever seen. Soon his lips were pressed firmly against yours. He tasted partially of how smelled, like peppermint and green apples. As he pulled away slightly, you let out a shaky sigh, and felt his breath fan across your face.

“Is it too bold of me to assume what you might’ve smelled in the potion, then?”

You asked in a whisper. Draco chuckled, shifting slightly to grab something behind you. His icy eyes analyzed you for a few more moments before he pulled you into a softer, shorter kiss. You leaned forward, bringing one hand to his hair, running your fingers through it. You had wanted to do that for days now. Draco’s lips quirked up, smiling against yours.

When he pulled away, the sight of him nearly made you choke. His hair was ruffled in a way you found so deliciously attractive, and his lips slightly swollen from the kisses you had shared.

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, Y/n. I just wanted my sweater back.”

He lied easily. Bringing it to his nose, he inhaled softly, then continued.

“Your perfume is quite potent, though.”

He winked at you, making your heart flutter, then took his exit.

You didn’t care what your parents would think. There was no way you could stay away from Draco Malfoy.

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adamwatchesmovies · 2 years

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets successfully builds on the characters and the world set up in the first film. It’s still a little rough around the edges but you can tell it’s going to be an enduring franchise. Faithful to the spirit of the book, and filled with imagination, this one's sure to please audiences young and old.

In their second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ronald Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) attempt to discover the “Heir of Salazar Slytherin”. Whoever he or she is, they’ve released a monster from Slytherin’s fabled chamber of secrets. It runs amuck, petrifying students and plunging the castle in a state of terror. Unless the culprit is discovered and the monster defeated, the school will be forced to shut down.

In every way, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is superior to the previous film. The child actors have gotten older and are honing their craft admirably (though there are a few instances where you can tell they’re juniors). Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are the center of the film. They’re in nearly every scene and no longer forced to stare wide-eyed as the world is explained to them like in Philosopher’s Stone. They are joined by veteran actors Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, and others, but the standout among the adults is Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockart, the excessively handsome celebrity author turned Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Branagh captures the character from the novel perfectly. He makes you laugh but he’s also infuriating. He’s a villain you love to hate, and memorable.

The story of Chamber of Secrets is more interesting than the first pictures’, mostly because there’s far less exposition required. No longer do we have to wait for Harry Potter to get to the school and wrap his mind around his different classes. We get just enough scenes at home in the Muggle world to remember how loathsome his relatives are (necessary to make you understand why the school closing down would be such a big deal), and then gets right into this mystery. The plot is extensive with loads of detective work required. It makes the ending very satisfying. I don’t think you’ll even mind the overlong running time (nearly three hours).

All that said, the franchise is still getting ready to run. There’s not as much exposition here as before, but there’s still a lot. Despite the length, there’s little room for director Chris Columbus to breathe and make stylistic choices. It plays very much like a word-for-word adaptation, for better or for worse. It’s making the necessary sacrifices to ensure future chapters will blow you away but holds up on its own, as a sequel, or as part of the franchise.

I don’t think Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be your favorite of the series once you’ve seen them all, but that by no means diminishes it. It’s just that as this film supplants the previous, future installments will top this one. It’s a lot of fun, will please fans of the book, and convince people who haven’t read them to check them out. There's a lot to like in this second trip to Hogwarts. (Extended Version on Blu-ray, March 31, 2016)

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hollyxautumns · 3 years

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“You know... I thought I was imagining it at first. I thought to myself, ‘no, absolutely no way. Daniel and Lucille can barely stand each other, much less sit at a table together... and seem to be on a date.’ I mean, that’s totally and completely preposterous.” Sharon had to have been pulling her leg. After all, why would Daniel Salazar and Lucille Brown of all people ever go on a date together? Were they not mortal enemies? As Holly lifted her cup of hot chocolate to her lips, she stopped and narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Unless... My dear friend... There is some truth to it? Hmm?”

CLOSED STARTER: at holly’s place // @danisalazar

#( interactions. )#( ch. daniel salazar. )

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jekyll-hyde-transformation · 4 years

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Books based on Jekyll and Hyde:

Jekyll and Heidi by R.L. Stine:

Heidi lives with her eccentric uncle Dr. Jekyll. The locals call him a mad scientist. Heidi thinks they're crazy--until she catches her uncle drinking a strange concoction and terrifying animal sounds rip through the night.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes by Loren D. Estleman

Accompanied by Dr. Watson, master sleuth Sherlock Holmes has already encountered the evil young hedonist Edward Hyde, and knew he was strangely conected with Henry Jekyll, the wealthy, respectable London doctor.

It was not until the Queen herself requested it, however, that Holmes was officially on the case of the savage murder of Sir Danvers Carew—the blackest mystery of his career! Although Robert Louis Stevenson published his tale of Jekyll and Hyde as fiction, the hideous facts were true, insofar as Stevenson knew them.

Here, then, is the entire firsthand account of that devilish crime as recorded by Dr. Watson, with an explanation of why Holmes's personal involvement had to be kept secret—until now...

Hyde by Daniel Levine:

Mr. Hyde is hiding, trapped in Dr. Jekyll's surgical cabinet, counting the hours until capture. As four days pass, he has the chance, finally, to tell the story of his brief, marvelous life.

We join Hyde, awakened after years of dormancy, in the mind he hesitantly shares with Jekyll. We spin with dizzy confusion as the potions take effect. We tromp through the dark streets of Victorian London. We watch Jekyll's high-class life at a remove, blurred by a membrane of consciousness. We feel the horror of lost time, the helplessness of knowing we are responsible for the actions of a body not entirely our own.

Girls have gone missing. Someone has been killed. The evidence points to Mr. Hyde. Someone is framing him, terrorizing him with cryptic notes and whisper campaigns. Who can it be? Even if these crimes weren't of his choosing, can they have been by his hand?

Though this classic has been often reinvented, no one ever imagined Hyde's perspective, or that he could be heroic. Daniel Levine changes that. A mesmerizing gothic, Hyde tells the fascinating story of an underexamined villain.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Seek by Anthony O'Neill:

Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr Henry Jekyll. Only Mr Utterson, Jekyll’s faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor – because Jekyll was Hyde.

But as the man goes about charming Jekyll’s friends and reclaiming the estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life ... and questioning his own sanity.

From the internationally acclaimed Australian author Anthony O’Neill comes Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Seek, an ingenious, original sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

The Jekyll Legacy:

After arriving in England to claim her inheritance, Hester Jekyll, niece of Dr. Henry Jekyll, discovers she gets nothing, and suddenly her friends are untrustworthy and aloof. Hester becomes entangled in her uncle's mysterious past, and a series of brutal deaths cause her to wonder if London's seen the last of Dr. Jekyll--or Mr. Hyde.

A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde by Kevin MacNeil:

After a bike crash in a foggy Edinburgh, troubled young actor Robert Lewis wakes to find that life has changed for the darker. And the weirder. He's still a deceitful egoist but now life seems to be deceiving and manipulating him. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. He's losing control of his love life, his starring role in a new adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde, and, quite possibly, his mind.

Another Jekyll, Another Hyde by Daniel and Dina Nayeri:

When his billionaire father marries French governess Nicola Vileroy, high society is all abuzz -- but Thomas, the most popular student at Marlowe, is just plain high. Ever since his girlfriend Belle dumped him, he's been spending less time with old friends and more time getting wasted at clubs. But after someone slips him a designer drug one night -- and his stepmother seems to know way too much about his private life -- things really start to get scary. As Thomas's blackouts give way to a sinister voice inside his head, and as news of a vicious hate crime has students on edge, Thomas comes to the sickening realization that Madame Vileroy has involved him in a horrifying supernatural plan. How can he muster the strength and will to stop it? The pulse-quickening climax revisits Jekyll and Hyde as a current-day cautionary tale laced with a heady dose of paranormal intrigue.

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin:

Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor-scarred but still strong-familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on errands to unsavory districts of London and entrusted with secrets she would rather not know. Unable to confront her hideous suspicions about Dr. Jekyll, Mary ultimately proves the lengths to which she'll go to protect him. Through her astute reflections, we hear the rest of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and this familiar tale is made more terrifying than we remember it, more complex than we imagined possible.

The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello:

While on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It also promises to reveal a terrible secret—the identity of Jack the Ripper.

Unfortunately, the journal—whose macabre tale unfolds in an alternating narrative with Rafe’s—isn’t the only relic in the trunk, and Rafe isn’t the only one to purloin a souvenir. A mysterious flask containing the last drops of the grisly potion that inspired Jekyll and Hyde and spawned London’s most infamous killer has gone missing. And it has definitely fallen into the wrong hands.

#jekyll and hyde #books #monsters #monster #r. l. stine #fanfic #Sherlock Holmes #mr utterson #gothic literature

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enkisstories · 4 years

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Just like them (part 10)

This was one of my favorite sequences in the old picture story, so naturally I had to use it in the written fic, too. Enjoy!

Afternoon of Thursday, November 18, 2038

The sound of the doorbell was a jingle Daniel didn’t recognize. Him being an android, he could have looked it up online in no time at all. Him being a deviant, however, meant that Daniel would simply ask about it when the opportunity arose.

From inside the telltale sound of a door unlocking remotely as well as what might pass as a greeting arose:

“Come in! Door’s open now!”

Tentatively Daniel turned the door knob, then took the first few steps into the apartment, where he was greeted by a cacophony of animal noises. One species of animal, precisely, and their sounds weren’t aimed at the guest either, but self-contained:

“Meow!! Meow? Meeeeeeeeeeeow!”

The android quickly closed the door behind him. He was now standing in a floor between two doors. To the right another door seemed to lead into the bathroom. One wall sported the expected array of clothes hooks, knickknack-shelves and decaying paste-it notes, but the opposite one was lined with dis-and then re-assembled parts of cat-condos that formed an adventure park for felines. To the floor’s far end to the left a curtain covered a doorway. At the moment that curtain’s brim was of utmost interest to a tiny kitten. The animal was all but lost inside the fabric. Unable to see its family, it produced regular, high-pitched control calls. To the deviant they sounded both cute and enervating, in fact, the little thing didn’t sound that much different from Connor…

Daniel carefully scanned his surroundings before taking another step into the apartment. He spotted two more young kittens and an older one. That last one was a dirty shade of black and his somewhat longer fur suggested that this or that pedigree cat numbered among his ancestors. The black adolescent moved between the little ones like a dreadnought. It seemed to substitute for the others’ parent, because it was both answering their control-calls and in turn sending some of his own.

Pad, pad… Meow? … Pad, pad, sudden jump, Meow!!! Hiss! … Ming? Ming-Ming?- Määhh!

“Oh my god, what’s that?” Daniel exclaimed. “A Crazy Cat Lady Starter Kit?”

“Hehe!”

From behind the curtain the apartment’s inhabitant appeared, a wide smile on his face. Daniel hadn’t known that this particular human was even able to smile, instead of grinning, sneering or winking, preferably with both eyes closed. Gavin Reed at home was looking so utterly… relaxed, that it was hard to believe.

The human plucked the stuck kitten - it turned out to be a standard brown tabby - from the curtain and placed it at about waist-height onto the climbing range. Then he held out one finger towards another kitten, a little tricolor, testing whether that one maybe wanted a quick petting? Turned out it didn’t, but further probing brought to light that the Calico wasn’t averse to the idea, just neutral towards it, so Gavin went over it’s fur twice and then stopped. Daniel’s jaw dropped at the sight, because it was more consideration for another living being’s feelings then he had ever seen Reed display.

To say anything at all, the android produced a weak “Are they all yours?”.

“Nah, just one of them. But the little buggers take their time to decide which one that’ll be.”

“They do – what? I didn’t know cats came in trial packs!” Daniel exclaimed.

“Heh, that’s one way to put it! The upstairs neighbors left six kittens behind when they moved. Five of those I managed to find homes for, then took in three more that got abandoned when their owners fled the city… they’re always rotating in and out, even before the evacuation order.”

Turning away from the android, Gavin allowed an orange tabby to taste-test the sleeve of his sweater. The kitten proceeded to roll over and plug all four of its paws into the man’s forearm with abandon. Gently Gavin moved his arm away from the cat-condo – the kitten remained stuck to it like a sloth to a jungle tree. With a proud grin the detective presented his “catch” to Daniel.

“Here, look at that! As if glued on! Isn’t it the cutest?”

Truth be told, Daniel could imagine a whole lot of more pleasant things than getting the skin on your arm slowly turned into stripes and he didn’t even have a real skin. But he kept his silence, afraid to carelessly destroy something precious again.

“The calico is Salazar”, Gavin introduced his collection, “but it turned out “he” is really a Sally. The dark grey one is Argus, the tabby is Minerva and the one in prison clothes is Stopthat, I mean Godric.”

His eyes closed, Godric took a hearty bite of Gavin’s sweater…

“So you want to keep only one, check”, Daniel spoke up again. “But you certainly must have a favorite?”

“That’s not how cats work!” Gavin protested against this outlandish idea. “They aren’t t-shirts that you pick by color preference. A cat either lays claim on you or it doesn’t.”

Daniel shook his head. “Strange”, he admitted. “Caroline always said a cat was bound to the place where it lives, not to a particular person. Not loyal like dogs. That’s why I was never interested in cats.”

“I didn’t expect you to understand!“

And there the normal Gavin Reed was again, the standoffish one, the self-proposed center of the world, the know-it-all-can-do-everything, the only being whose feelings mattered. In a way the returned persona was less intimidating, because by now Daniel had gotten used to it. Asshole Reed offered familiar territory, whereas the whole cat-mysticism Daniel wasn’t sure what to think about.

With a nod Gavin ushered Daniel into the room opposite the apartment door. It turned out to be a live-in kitchen. The dining table was unused, or rather not used for it’s original purpose to comfortably let six persons eat. Stuff was piled onto the surface and the chairs: empty feeding bowls, a half-opened parcel, document folders with bookmarks sticking out, a small model or toy helicopter, a tablet connected to a cable that was running across the room… There was a smaller table next to a loveseat in the corner and, predictably, an expensive coffee machine with a grinder dominated the kitchen counters next to the seating arrangement. Above the monstrous thing shelves holding more coffee-related equipment than Daniel recognized lined the wall. Most of the stuff the android had seen so far in this flat had been of high quality and, although in general disarray, kept clean. The detective seemed to make the best of his pay cheque, not bothering to set aside much for an uncertain future. When not confronted with an android or Lt. Anderson, this man, Daniel now realized, lived to the fullest. The Connors were threatening this eternal-present bliss, they had made Gavin painfully aware of his irresponsible spending habits as well as the fact that he was approaching the age of forty.

Right to the entrance a terrarium was housing a kingdom of mice. “And here’s the mice I promised”, Gavin said, accompanied by a casual wave with the arm Godric wasn’t attached to. The kitten had gotten bored of playing sloth anyway and was now attempting to climb up all the way to Gavin’s shoulder. “Skim off as many as you like. They breed like… actually breeding is all they ever do. They’re like landbound guppys!”

“You like cats”, Daniel started. “Don’t tell me you keep the mice for…!”

Gavin grabbed Godric, who had come dangerously close to taking a nap in his sweater’s hood, and put him onto the kitchen floor.

“That’s absolutely correct”, the man said. “I won’t tell you. But I will share a trick for getting along better with people with you, tinman: Never ask questions you do not want answered!”

“Damn you, why, detective!” Daniel hissed.

Yes, why exactly? Why do I bother removing obstacles in front of somebody else, and an android, no less?

Of all the shortcomings of Gavin Reed, one thing he was not: unable to express his feelings. To the contrary, the world in general and the DPD specifically could have done with less of those. If he was angry or desiring something, the man always let the source of those notions know it. And if Gavin was interested in a guy, chances were he’d walk up to him and declare “You’re mine now” in only slightly more sophisticated words. No beating around the bush, no making excuses.

But this case was different. Being interested in an android? That just couldn’t be. Even casually hanging out with one had always been unimaginable. Because, after all, like the coffee grinder, an android was just a mobile attachment to another appliance, not something you chatted with over your brew! But here he was, helping Daniel to new pets and casually chatting him up like one did a co-worker or apartment neighbor.

Irritated by all the strange, conflicting notions Gavin snapped at the PL600:

“Because I don’t like losing something I’ve already invested into. Unlike Connor or Markus you’re still functioning as intended, despite having caught deviance. I appreciate that in a household device.”

Gavin took a step closer to the android. He looked up into his grey eyes with the blueish tint. Gavin’s own were grey, too, but the tint was green.

Why am thinking of its eye color all of a sudden? Why did I even NOTICE it? Ah, right - noticing details is just part of my job, nothing strange or worrisome!

“Hear that, Cyberlife?” Gavin barked. “I KNOW there’s nothing listening behind this mask! It’s just a simulation to make us grow attached to your products, and to fucking grow dependent on them! But there is nothing to talk to in there, except maybe customer service, so take this as a product review!”

“No, I meant why are you feeding the poor mice to… Hey, stop that!”

Going “kekekekekeke” Godric was climbing up Daniel’s leg.

“Yes, that’s him”, Gavin commented dryly.

“Aptly named”, Daniel laughed. He steadied the kitten during its ascend and eventually enfolded it with both hands when it had reached chest height.

“You want a mouse, huh? Or don’t you rather want cuddles?”

“Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”, Godric went.

“See? You wanted cuddles. You just didn’t know. Little killer, you!”

Daniel smiled. All of a sudden cats had become easy! They were not the unfathomable anti-dogs the Phillips family had painted them, not, they were just creatures following their own set of rules. Once you figured out those rules, the little furballs were astonishingly endearing. Suddenly Daniel’s legs gave way. The android realized too late that planning to visit an Android Zone for checkup didn’t equal to actually doing it. After the phantom-headaches had subsided, he’d staved off the idea over and over. But how could he have known beforehand that a kitten would use him as a play tower in here?

Daniel tried to reach a kitchen chair, but it was too late already. He went down rather undignifiedly and stared into the ceiling lamp - as well as into Gavin Reed’s shocked expression.

“WTF, you cannot just die in my flat! They’ll think I did it!”

“I’ll make sure to write It wasn’t Gavin on the wall in blue blood. Wh… what’s that crawling into my shirt?! Stop that!”

“Yeah, of course. Who else?”

“What are you calling him when you want him to literally stop with something?”

“Usually I scream something along the lines of “Ouch” and he gets the picture from the volume. But basically you wait till he grows too large for most of his shenanigans.”

“Okay”, Daniel moaned. “Good advice. I guess I’ll just keep lying here until one of you has matured enough to talk to.”

Any other android would have been dead after daring to give the detective cheek like that. Less alive than usual, Gavin corrected himself. As for Daniel, he was right now discovering a third option between unconditional family bliss and searing hatred in relating to humans: Disbelieving fascination. And also kittens.

Five minutes later…

“Are you done rolling on my floor now?”

Lying on his back and holding up the kitten with both hands, gently rocking him, Daniel replied:

“Are we done rolling on the detective’s dirty floor, Godric? Aaaaare we done rolling on the big bad cop’s floor?”

“My foot’s right next to your skull, you know.”

“But you won’t kick as long as I’m holding Godric.”

“Spoken like a true kidnapper.”

“I don’t see Godric care.“

The cat indeed didn’t care whether this man who was providing the cuddles was saint or villain, human or android, rich or poor. All it wanted was… Shred Daniel’s colorful headband, actually. The android had purchased one right after the encounter at the playground, so fulfill his parole condition of wearing a LED while still keeping the humiliating thing out of everyone’s sight. Upon command or when meeting his social worker, he could just lift the headband.

Daniel rose into sitting position, still playing with the kitten.

“Say, how much space would he need when he’s fully grown?”

“What?! Give him back at once! You aren’t satisfied before you’ve taken everything from us, are you?”

Daniel looked down, staring at the sudden kitten-shaped hole in his life. But wasn’t that what he was always getting? Whether it was a challenge or a living being, loss either way. His life, his family, Emma and Little Connor… he was growing apart from the Rasoya… Neil had been a one-time encounter… All Daniel had left was his strange acquaintance with Gavin, who was ranting at him:

“I told you about cats choosing their owner and now you’re trying to simulate that! But it’s not real! Just a goddamn chat program mimicking life!”

“You know what? You’re sort of right.” The android rose and straightened. “I overreacted.”

To the sight of Godric toddling towards the feed dispenser, where Sally and Minerva were already taking turns getting out pellets, Daniel mused out loud that he bonded to animals way too easily.

“…but then they die on you or worse, you have to put them to the gun because they become aggressive towards you. And with each one you lose, a part of yourself dies, too. So the sensible thing to do would be to avoid animals. But when you don’t have any around at all, you don’t really live. There’s no winning this game…”

“You had to put down your rat? Must have sucked.”

“It did! I wish I could unmake it somehow… Although I wouldn’t go as far as to call John a rat.”

“Wait, what, John? John Phillips? But you were talking about animals!”

“Yes, exactly. - Uh, on second thought forget what I said and hand me a paper bag! Your mice are getting out of hand and I’ve got an empty rodent cage to fill.”

They didn’t like to hear it, but Gavin’s people were indeed animals. Just like Daniel’s were machines. But each group had developed deviants within their ranks. Of the apes, it had had occurred in several species, of which only one was still present in 2038. Among the androids deviance happened all across the range of models with none being more disposed towards it than others.

And there they were, the not-quite-animals and the not-quite-machines, beings that were still heavily driven by their instincts or coding, but who had acquired the ability to go beyond and even downright against it. There was a word for them, although the beast-people were still denying it to the machine-people.

The word was “humans”.

(to be continued)

#dbh daniel #dbh gavin #dbh #detroit become human #danielgavinnewstory #sims4danielgavin

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dailyfeartwdgifs · 5 years

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Fear The Walking Dead Season 5, Episode 1 Review: Crash And Burn

I'm having a really hard time mustering up any sort of enthusiasm for Fear The Walking Dead, and the opening episode of Season 5 isn't helping.

It's not that last night's episode was terrible. It even had a few good moments, and an interesting twist with the mysterious armored zombies and the documents Al found, all pointing to the same group that whisked away Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead's most recent season.

Likewise, when Strand (Colman Domingo) discovers that the guy Al (Maggie Grace) knows who has a plane is Daniel (Ruben Blades) and looks so distressed, I had a good chuckle. Strand and Salazar are not on the best of terms.

I even liked the ragtag group of kids that the survivors run into, as well as the new sort-of-bad-guy Logan played by Honey I Shrunk The Kids alum Matt Frewer. I don't think I've seen Frewer in anything since that 1989 film, but I recognized him instantly. I say "sort-of-bad-guy" because the dude has a point. Just because Morgan and his group moved into the Mill doesn't make it theirs necessarily. If he owned it before the apocalypse, I see no reason why he shouldn't own it now. He got them out of there without firing a shot, also, which is pretty nice for a villain, especially compared to basically every other villain in either Walking Dead show.

But other than that, and some cool Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) zombie killing moments, the episode just fell enormously flat for me. I think part of it is the premise now that the show has adopted Morgan (Lennie James) and his do-gooder philosophy. I guess now our heroes are literally heroes, out trying to help people no matter the risk.

Crash Landing

I mean, they somehow managed to get a plane which none of them knew how to fly, and then flew somewhere in order to help Logan (who was tricking them) with no real gameplan. I'm not sure how they were going to fit everyone in such a small plane after this theoretical rescue, but considering that they didn't even know how to land the thing and could have all died in the process, this just strikes me as enormously stupid.

Almost as stupid as not drinking the damn ethanol when the tanker got shot up last season. My goodness, it's like watching a show about the stupidest people alive somehow managing to survive a zombie apocalypse. It's painful to behold. It would be funny if that was the actual premise (seriously, I'd watch the Idiocracy version of The Walking Dead) but alas, these are supposed to be tough, smart survivors. Not the imbeciles they've been written as.

In any case, they crash land and Luciana (Danay Garcia) is impaled in the crash. Nobody else is severely injured. This would have been a good time to kill of Luciana who hasn't been an interesting or useful character since she became Nick's girlfriend shortly after being introduced as a badass leader, but no. Rather than mercy kill her, the character assassination will continue apace.

Also, while I'm happy to see Daniel return (he's by far the most interesting character other than Alicia at this point) I'm not sure why Blades would want to return to this sinking ship. Maybe (hopefully) the season improves after this episode, but I'm not getting my hopes up. The fact that Al has also interviewed him is just too convenient, too much of a coincidence, on top of her having also interviewed Madison before meeting up with Morgan and John Dorie (Garret Dillahunt). Al just knows everybody, I guess. And everybody just magically shows up in the same vicinity as one another for some reason.

Speaking of John Dorie, I really do like his character but they're just not using him for anything interesting at this point. I'm also having a hard time buying his and June's relationship. June (Jenna Elfman) is another character I just have no feelings for whatsoever. Why did they make her a nurse when she's basically a doctor? Nurses don't operate on people. They don't perform major life-saving operations like this at trauma centers or anywhere else. I could believe that she'd make an attempt in a pinch like this, but the whole notion that she's some seasoned surgeon at this point is just silly. Just make her a doctor in the first place if this is how you're going to use her character.

I don't know exactly what it is that rubs me so wrong about June, but I guess maybe it's both Elfman's performance to some degree, as well as her character arc and how she's been written. The whole "nobody can help me" character always running away suddenly transforming into another of Morgan's Avengers just didn't land for me. And I'm not really feeling much chemistry between her and Dorie, though that may be a symptom of the writing.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

In any case, Al is knocked out and captured by one of the mysteriously armored people because I guess she thought it was a good idea to go back to the crash site in the dark and rain by herself to investigate for some reason. Like everyone else on this show, and for reasons known only to the writers and producers, Al is a total idiot.

Meanwhile, Logan pulls a fast one on Morgan by tricking them into going to a distant truck stop (we still don't know where, but I guess it was far enough that they had to fly in a plane they found somewhere but didn't know how to actually pilot, oh my god who writes this stuff???) and then peacefully taking back what was his to begin with. He even dumped a bunch of their stuff outside the fence in the process. In yet another scene of abject stupidity, when Strand and his new trucker pals, Sarah (Mo Collins) and Wendell (Daryl Mitchell) show up and see other people have occupied their base, they all get out of the truck and point guns at them, just standing there right out in the open, outnumbered, making themselves the easiest targets imaginable. If Logan had been a more ruthless foe, he would have had them all shot right then and there and wouldn't have faced a single loss.

Who does this? Nobody, that's who. Nobody would just walk out there like that, knowing they could be easily shot and killed, with no semblance of strategy and apparently no lines of dialogue either. Also, they'd need to actually help Wendell get out of the truck and into his wheelchair, so now I'm just picturing how ungainly and awkward that must be when you're trying to have a proper standoff. Like, sorry yguys can you just not shoot at us while we get our friend out of the truck and into his wheelchair?

Ugh. What a letdown. This show has really tanked since the new showrunners took over and since virtually the entire main cast was killed off and replaced. I was never the biggest fan of Madison, but she grew on me in Season 3 and it really was a show about her and her kids, and now Nick is dead and Madison is dead and it's like we're watching an entirely different show now. Why not just make a new show instead of cramming this new cast together? It's all so jarring. Morgan makes no sense on this show. I can't stand him and I can't believe they've actually made this show into a "let's help people" story. It was so much more interesting when Madison was playing both sides of the Otto/Native American conflict, or when we had characters like Troy around keeping us on our toes.

It's gone from a zombie show about morally grey characters to one led Morgan Jones for goodness sakes. Morgan is a fine character, as a secondary character, as Rick's mentally disturbed friend, as a moral compass for the main group. He's not a leader or a lead.

It's a crying shame that it's come to this. I am not particularly hopeful for this season, though they've surprised us before. Last season I actually really enjoyed the first few episodes before it went over the cliff, jumped the shark, killed off the best characters and introduced the lamest villain any zombie show has ever seen. So maybe the opposite will happen here, and the writing will improve and our heroes will stop acting so stupid all the time and we'll get a decent conflict.

Yeah, I don't think so, either, but it never hurts to have a little hope. Rebellions are built on hope.

#ftwd #fear the walking dead #season 5 #spoilers #review #article #forbes #aheartfulloflexa #camila

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smithsonianlvm · 7 years

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#LMSP2017 Fellow Takeover: Christina Azahar

¡Saludos a todxs! My name is Christina Azahar, a half Salvadoran/half gringa, born and raised in Georgia. I am currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. Thank you for reading through my #FellowTakeover to learn more about my #LMSP2017 experience!

As an ethnomusicologist, I’m broadly interested in how music functions as a form of community-making, and how it can sustain movements toward social justice. My dissertation research, titled “Noisy Women, Imagined Spaces: Gender, Mobility, and Sound in Chile’s Popular Music Scenes,” examines how contemporary Chilean women artists like Ana Tijoux and Pascuala Ilabaca use sound as a way to navigate the physical and figurative spaces of post-dictatorship Chile. I also have also written on protest song during El Salvador’s civil war, and have a passion for teaching music in the U.S. Civil Rights era.

So, what brings me to the Latino Museum Studies Program? In 2013 I interned at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings under curator Daniel Sheehy to gain firsthand experience conducting album research and promotion. After seeing the range of ways music fit into exhibits and programs across the institution, I wanted to find a way to develop my research skills while also gaining experience in museum outreach and education. This is what led me to apply for the Latino Museum Studies Program practicum at SITES, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

Christina Azahar with Practicum Lead, Maria del Carmen Cossu, outside the SITES office. Photo by Andrew Holik.

SITES functions as an exhibit ambassador for the Smithsonian outside of Washington D.C., so the office’s primary role is to travel exhibits to community centers, museums, college campuses, and other venues around the country. More than a collection of objects or banners, these traveling exhibits are meant to serve as catalysts in each community for public programming, outreach, and educational activities.

My practicum lead, Maria del Carmen Cossu, is the Project Director for Latino Initiatives at SITES. Her role involves developing exhibitions that further an understanding of the U.S. Latino experience, creating culturally sensitive community engagement and educational resources to be circulated with the exhibits, and (lucky for me!) mentoring emerging Latinx professionals in museum studies.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my SITES practicum has been seeing how this office collaborates with staff and curators from across the Smithsonian. From going to off-site storage units to prepare banners for shipping, to sitting in on project proposal meetings with staff from the National Museum of American History, in my four weeks here I’ve come to understand how different Latino traveling exhibits come together from start to finish.

Christina speaking with SITES registrar Josette Cole about designing, fabricating, and shipping exhibits to venues around the country. The banners we prepped here were from the exhibition “Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964,” which has been traveling for nearly ten years. Photo by Maria del Carmen Cossu.

Christina sitting in on a meeting with curator Margaret Salazar-Porcio and a team from the National Museum of American History to discuss the proposal for a potential new exhibit, “Latinos in Baseball.” Photo by Maria del Carmen Cossu.

The main SITES exhibit I’ve worked on this summer is “Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en los Campos,” an adaptation of the exhibit “One Life: Dolores Huerta” curated by Dr. Taína Caragol at the National Portrait Gallery. One of the main goals for the summer was to develop a new traveling exhibit script and create a storyboard for interviews with Dolores to be included as an AV addition to the text and images. In the script and AV footage, we wanted to provide an intimate look at Dolores’s personal life while also celebrating her role as an organizer of the California Farmworkers movement, and contextualizing her work within the broader civil rights movements occurring in the 1960s.

There’s so much to tell about Dolores Huerta’s history and the history of the Farmworkers movement which can’t fit into a single banner exhibit, so I also worked to develop educational activities and community outreach topics which would be published as resources to complement the exhibition. One deliverable was a lesson plan on protest song and cultural revival in the Farmworkers movement in which students learn how Chicano music became a tool for organizing strikes and promoting union activity. I also proposed that SITES draw on the history of Filipino and Chicano collaboration in the movement to create outreach materials which will spark conversations acknowledging the history and potential of inter-racial solidarity and political organizing across the country.

As I wrap up my time at the Smithsonian, I realize on the one hand that I’m hugely inspired by the cutting-edge exhibitions and programming being done here to support Latinx culture and community. I mean, the Smithsonian has a “Latinx Digital Curator” position? That’s amazing! On the other hand, I’m hugely overwhelmed by the immense challenges of sharing Latinx stories with broader audiences without eliminating voices or diminishing experiences of struggle. Rather than attempt to reconcile these complex issues now though, I look forward to staying in touch with the brilliant Latinx scholars, activists, and cultural workers I’ve met here to continue imagining new ways of serving our communities, and celebrating our art in all its many forms.

Follow the #LMSP Fellows via Instagram @smithsonian_lmsp @slc_latino, the Smithsonian Latino Center Facebook page or via Twitter @SLC_Latino.

#lmsp2017 #lmsp_slc #mylatinostory #fellowtakeover #lmsp

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basketballandkickspare · 6 years

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The Spirit of Sonny Jaworski

By Mark Daniel Chan

Today there was a discussion about Lebron on the B&KP Group. One of the key members of the group said: “With LBJ, there is no middle ground. You either hate him or you love him.” The Philippines has its own equivalent: a gentleman by the name of Robert “Sonny” Jaworski.

I was born in 1981 and my first memories of watching basketball were filled with Jaworski moments. I was a die-hard Ginebra fan back in the day because of the “Big J”, as a lot of people referred to him then. In 1986, I remember seeing a PBA game live for the first time and it was a game between Ginebra and Manila Beer. It was an unforgettable experience, especially as a kid, because the crowd went absolutely bananas every time Jaworski touched the ball.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

There was always something about Jaworski that captured the imagination of the Pinoy crowd. Maybe it was the way he carried himself—confident almost to the point of arrogance. However, he could actually play and he spent a lot of time backing up his demeanor.

Jaworski was, by many accounts, also a poor sport. He once led a “walk out” against a Formula Shell team that gave them the championship and he had a falling out with his Assistant Coach Rino Salazar in the process, who refused to join the Ginebra team in their protest. He also once pointed to an injured Alan Caidic, the perhaps equally legendary sharpshooter and said: “Ano, patay na ba? (Translation: Is he dead yet?).

In spite of all of this, there was something about the Big J that got people like me to root for him every single game. I am not old enough to remember the Toyota-Crispa rivalry but I hear stories from people who played against him that he was always one of the toughest competitors out there. And while he would use some unconventional techniques (to say the least) to gain a winning edge (he would routinely karate chop a player’s forearm to gain access to the ball), his will to win and his passion for the game made him the perennial crowd darling.

“Never Say Die”

The first aspect of Jaworski’s greatness had to be his ability to keep his team emotionally invested even when down by a large margin. This gave rise to the “Never Say Die” (NSD) ethos that has permeated Ginebra culture and Philippine athletic lore. NSD was a thing that fans counted on. This made them stay for all four quarters, regardless how big the lead of the opposition was.

I have actually long questioned the reason for fans cheering on a Filipino basketball team. In the US, teams represent cities and geographical locations that are a source of pride for “hometown” fans. In the PBA and in Philippine Basketball, the teams are named after corporations. It had to take people like Jaworski to take a brand like Ginebra San Miguel and turn it from a hard beverage to something that essentially communicates: “I will never give up.” This speaks to his greatness as a basketball player and as a personality.

The other aspect of NSD was actually carried out by roster selection. Although no one can really prove it, I am convinced that they used to take all the glamor (heartthrob) players (Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa, Jerry Codinera) and put them in Purefoods (Ginebra, Purefoods and San Miguel Beer are all sister teams, part of the same San Miguel conglomerate). They used to take all the highly skilled players (Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Alan Caidic, Yves Dignadice) and put them in San Miguel Beer. They used to take all the people who looked like they were out of shape (The Loyzaga Brothers, Rudy Distrito) and put them in Ginebra, giving the fans players they could really relate with. The team composition meant that the odds were always stacked against Ginebra. But against all odds, they somehow won several championships, the most famous one in 1991 under the name of Anejo Rum 65 (they routinely changed the name of the team to showcase different brands of drink).

“A Yeoman Work Attitude”

The other aspect of Jaworski’s greatness may be reflected by the fact that he was essentially a playing coach for almost two decades. He may not have been the best tactician out there (old Ginebra players still tell stories of how their practices were basically pick up games from 0 to 140, with the losers having to go “lusot” under the winning teams legs…yeah it’s a Pinoy thing), but he was certainly an amazing motivator.

Jaworski in the mid 90s was a late 40s going on early 50s legend of the game who had his son on the team and still played from time to time. The most enjoyable thing for me about watching these mid 90s Ginebra teams was that Jaworski alwas put himself in during a crucial situation, such as when someone had to make a long baseball pass from one end of the court to another (like he would put himself in just to make that long pass with his quarterback like arm and it was the most awesome thing on earth). To be honest, probably only 25% of those passes ended up in the hands of their intended receivers but still, the crowed (WE) loved him for trying.

“A True Leader”

Jaworski also showed his leadership by going with the guys he trusted. He rode with Pido Jarencio for many years and he was repaid with a 1997 championship under the banner of Gordon’s Gin (for some reason they never seemed to win a championship when they were carrying the original Ginebra name in the 90s). He rode with Terry Saldana, who in 1997 was a shell of his former great self and Jaworski was rewarded with the game of Terry Saldana’s life in Game 3 of the 1997 Commissioner’s Cup finals when Saldana filled in for an injured Chris King and defended and rebounded like there was no tomorrow to lead the team to a 3-0 series lead. Jaworski kept the same circle of players: Bal David, Noli Locsin, Vince Hizon, Marlou Aquino, Jayvee Gayoso, and that’s what made him legendary. He stuck with them through thick and thin and empowered them to achieve results beyond their limitations.

The Essence of Jaworski

In the end, Jaworski was really a free spirit. He had the right amount of not giving a “F” mixed in with the right amount of compassion and care for his players. He played with a passion that transcended his skill set, even if he was really already one of the best guards Asia has ever produced (in my humble opinion). And while fans are divided about him because of the poor displays of sportsmanship and the many rough encounters with his peers (some who describe to me in person the pain of being on the receiving end of a perfectly legal Jaworski karate chop to the forearm), Jaworski will always be remembered for making fans care passionately about the game.

In the end, Jaworski’s passion was never lukewarm. It was as red as the flaming color of the Ginebra (and other Gin and Rum products that SMC wanted to showcase) shirt that he wore. From my end, I have always thought that he bears an uncanny resemblance to St. Michael, the archangel who is in the actual logo of Ginebra San Miguel, slaying Lucifer with his sword. This is how I remember Sonny Jaworski: slayer of opponents, crowd favorite, often copied but never duplicated, and a person who made me fall in love with the game of basketball all by himself.

***

Mark Chan has been a Basketball fan since the age of 5. His first exposure to the PBA was when he watched Ginebra San Miguel win a title in 1986 with Michael Hackett and Billy Ray Bates. He has also been a PBA sports agent since 2007, when he represented Rod Nealy of Ginebra San Miguel among other talents in the league. Mark has an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management and is friends with the people who run Basketball & Kicks Pare.

Join Basketball & Kicks Pare on Facebook by going to this link!

#winsday #basketball&kickspare

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Graham Foundation Grants 2021: architecture

Graham Foundation 2021 Grants, Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts USA, Individuals

Graham Foundation Grants 2021

Funding for individuals and organizations in the Fine Arts, USA

post updated June 2, 2021

Graham Foundation 2021 News

Graham Foundation Announces 2021 Grants to Individuals

$585,000 awarded to individuals exploring innovative design ideas that expand contemporary understanding of architecture in the context of this transformative year

The Graham Foundation is pleased to announce the award of 71 new grants to individuals worldwide that support projects on architecture. Grantee projects represent diverse lines of inquiry engaging original ideas that advance our understanding of the designed environment. Selected from nearly 700 proposals, the funded projects include research, exhibitions, publications, films, digital initiatives, and other inventive formats that promote rigorous scholarship, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture.

“This year, as the pandemic forced communities, cities, and countries to close down, the inequities of design and the built environment only intensified,” said Graham Foundation director Sarah Herda. “Through this dynamic grantee cohort, the Graham continues its 65-year commitment to supporting individuals to realize ideas that have the power to change the field of architecture.”

The individuals leading these projects are based in cities such as Ahmedabad, India; Milan, Italy; Mexico City, Mexico; Durban, South Africa; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Projects focus on locations such as Accra, Ghana; Caracas, Venezuela; Knoxville, TN; and Chicago, IL where the Graham Foundation is based. The innovative projects are led by eminent and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals. The 2021 Grantees projects represent a broad range of disciplines:

Historian Shantel Blakely looks at the living legacy of under recognized Black architect Charles E. Fleming (b. 1937) and his prolific practice, concentrating on his work in the St. Louis, MO area

In the book Green Obsession, Milan-based architect Stefano Boeri and his studio sound a call to action to the field around climate change

Amaxiwa | Embodied Archives brings to life architectural histories at heritage sites across Africa, led by Russel Hlongwane and Sumayya Vally—who was included on the 2021 TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders

The exhibition deposition by artists Marissa Lee Benedict, Daniel de Paula, and David Rueter, transports and transforms the last pit floor from the Chicago Board of Trade to Oscar Niemeyer’s Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion for the 2021 São Paulo Biennial

The new grantees join a worldwide network of individuals and organizations that the Graham Foundation has supported over the past 65 years. In that time, the Foundation has awarded more than $41 million dollars in direct support to over 4,800 projects by individuals and organizations.

The complete list of the 2021 individual grantees follows. Please find descriptions of the awarded projects beginning on page 3. To learn more about the new grants, click on any grantee name below to visit their online project page, or go to grahamfoundation.org/grantees.

LIST OF 2021 INDIVIDUAL GRANTEES (71 awards)

EXHIBITIONS (12)

Juliana Rowen Barton, Michelle Millar Fisher, Zoë Greggs, Gabriella Nelson, and Amber Winick

Marissa Lee Benedict, Daniel de Paula, and David Rueter

Parsons & Charlesworth: Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons

Stanley Cho, Elisa Iturbe, and Alican Taylan

Gabriel Cira and James Heard

Felecia Davis, Marcella Del Signore, Sheryl Tucker de Vazquez, and William D. Williams

Kevin Hernandez-Rosa, Nicholas Serrambana, Arien Wilkerson, and Marisa Williamson

Sean Lally

Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta

Vernelle A. A. Noel

Constance Owl

Kelly Walters

FILM, VIDEO, AND NEW MEDIA (10)

Can Altay

Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa

Russel Hlongwane and Sumayya Vally

Brockett Horne, Briar Levit, and Louise Sandhaus

David Huber

John Lin

Sharon Lockhart

Jamila Moore Pewu

Regner Ramos and Kleanthis Kyriakou

Fred Scharmen

PUBLIC PROGRAMS (1)

Elisa Silva

PUBLICATIONS (24)

Noam Andrews

Pierre Bélanger and Pablo Escudero

Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Mark El-khatib, and Bushra Mohamed

Stefano Boeri Architetti: Stefano Boeri, Fiamma Invernizzi, Maria Lucrezia de Marco, Simone Marchetti, Sofia Paoli, Maria Chiara Pastore, Luis Pimentel, and Livia Shamir

Susan Buck-Morss, Kevin McCaughey, and Adam Michaels

Susana Caló and Godofredo Pereira

Anthony Carfello

Katherine L. Carroll

Peter H. Christensen

Patricio del Real

Gareth Doherty

Giulia Foscari

Pedro Gadanho

Kersten Geers, Stefano Graziani, Joris Kritis, and Jelena Pancevac

Vanessa Grossman

Marisa Morán Jahn and Rafi Segal

Tim Johnson

Steffen Kunkel

Paulo Moreira

Adriana Salazar

David Schalliol

Mindy Seu

Pier Paolo Tamburelli

Marc Treib

RESEARCH PROJECTS (24)

Anahi Alviso-Marino and Neïl Beloufa

Adjoa Armah

Shantel Blakely

Jerald “Coop” Cooper

Felicia Francine Dean

Farhana Ferdous

Gabriel Fuentes

Meredith J. Gaglio

James Graham

Sara Jacobs

Ishita Jain and Ankita Trivedi

Theodore S. Jojola and Lynn Paxson

Ladi’Sasha Jones

Elizabeth M. Keslacy

Wanda Katja Liebermann

Thandi Loewenson

Joanna Merwood-Salisbury

Joe Namy

Enrique Ramirez

F. Tierney

Nick Tobier

Amanda Russhell Wallace

Charisse Pearlina Weston

Kiyan Williams

DESCRIPTIONS OF AWARDED PROJECTS—2021 GRANTS TO INDIVIDUALS

EXHIBITIONS (12 awards)

Juliana Rowen Barton, Michelle Millar Fisher, Zoë Greggs, Gabriella Nelson, and Amber Winick Croton on Hudson, NY; Edgartown, MA; Philadelphia, PA; and Providence, RI

Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births Center for Architecture and Design, Philadelphia, PA A first-of-its-kind exploration—realized through several partnerships across the Philadelphia area—of the arc of human reproduction through the lens of architecture and design.

Marissa Lee Benedict, Daniel de Paula, and David Rueter Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Ann Arbor, MI deposition

34th Bienal de São Paulo, Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil Deposing violent power dynamics that shape global space, this exhibition relocates an obsolete seven-tier commodity trading pit floor from the grain room of the Chicago Board of Trade to the center of Oscar Niemeyer’s Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion for the 2021 São Paulo Biennial.

Parsons & Charlesworth: Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons Chicago, IL Catalog for the Post-Human

17th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy

Presenting a satirical collection of sculptural works and animations that provoke conversations about the impact of surveillance and human enhancement technologies upon an increasingly contingent workforce, this iteration of the installation by the same name is presented at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Stanley Cho, Elisa Iturbe, and Alican Taylan New York, NY Confronting Carbon Form

Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York, NY This exhibition looks at the climate crisis through the lens of space and form—artifacts from the scale of the city to that of household objects are considered in relation to the energy paradigm that has given them form to shed light on the spatial and cultural foundations that confront architecture’s central role in the formation of carbon modernity.

Gabriel Cira and James Heard Cambridge and Somerville, MA The Architects Collaborative 1945–1995: Tracing a Diffuse Architectural Authorship

pinkcomma gallery, Boston, MA An exhibition and accompanying digital wiki tool that documents, maps, and contextualizes the vast output of The Architects Collaborative—a Massachusetts firm founded by Walter Gropius and seven other equal partners—that normalized postwar American vernacular modernism for mass society and, over the course of its 50-year history, mainstreamed the corporate model of architectural practice.

Felecia Davis, Marcella Del Signore, Sheryl Tucker de Vazquez, and William D. Williams Cincinnati, OH; Houston, TX; New York, NY; and University Park, PA Hair Salon: Translating Black Hair Practices for Architecture Using Computational Methods

University of Houston College of Architecture and Design, Houston, TX This exhibition looks to natural Black hair texture and maintenance practices to generate novel building materials and architectural structures using computational design processes in an exploration of Blackness as an intellectual and aesthetic force in American cultural and built landscapes.

Kevin Hernandez-Rosa, Nicholas Serrambana, Arien Wilkerson, and Marisa Williamson New Haven, CT; Philadelphia, PA; and South Orange, NJ Vault

Keney Park Sustainability Project, Windsor, CT An interdisciplinary and collaborative space-making project that transforms a shuttered public school in the North End of Hartford, CT into an outdoor exhibition space through dance, performance, and monumental public art.

Sean Lally Lausanne, Switzerland Shaped Touches

17th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy

This full-scale installation at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale takes the form of a multi-player video game platform to explore the relationships between architecture, people, and communities, to illustrate opportunities and implications for urban public space.

Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta New York, NY The Machine at the Heart of Man: Doxiadis’ Informational Modernism

Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece A study of the Doxiadis Associates Computer Center in Greece, its role in the formation of Doxiadis’ informational modernism, and its importance for the consolidation of the tools and techniques that have evolved into our era’s computational urbanism.

Vernelle A. A. Noel Gainesville, FL Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival: Histories, Re-imaginations, and Speculations of Computational Design Futures University Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Showcasing previously unseen photographs of making practices and dancing sculptures in the Trinidad Carnival between the 1940s and 1960s, as well as new, reimagined, physical and digital artifacts, drawings, and architecture based on the traditional carnival craft of wire-bending, this exhibition illustrates how computing can remediate and reconfigure dying crafts for new design pedagogy, practices, and architecture.

Constance Owl Palo Alto, CA ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ / Anigaduwagi / People of Creator’s Land

David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, CA

Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC Through an indigenous reading of historic maps and settlement patterns, the exhibition explores Cherokee strategies of placemaking and how notions of sacred stewardship, belonging, community, and language have been used in the creation and reclamation of Cherokee spaces.

Kelly Walters New York, NY With a Cast of Colored Stars

Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, New York, NY This exhibition examines visual representations of Black identity found in the print design of African American cinema, television, and music.

FILM, VIDEO, AND NEW MEDIA (10 awards)

Can Altay Istanbul, Turkey Ahali Conversations with Can Altay: A Podcast on the Future of Cultural Production and its Spaces (Season 3) A podcast series that investigates current and critical matters regarding cultural production, focusing on how cultural practice and institutions position themselves, form communities, and generate spaces—especially with respect to contemporary art, design, and architecture in the twenty-first century.

Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa Berlin, Germany and Rensselaer, NY Africa Architecture Network This project establishes an online community of practice—composed of researchers and architects who are passionate about architecture in Africa—building from the more than 300 authors who collaborated to develop the first comprehensive architectural guide to sub-Saharan architecture, aiming to increase visibility to the continent’s built environment and enable exchange among practitioners, scholars, and others.

Russel Hlongwane and Sumayya Vally Durban and Pretoria, South Africa Amaxiwa | Embodied Archives Working from the idea that sites of memory are sites of imagination, this project takes the form of a set of speculative histories and archaeologies on sites in Benin; Senegal; Accra, Ghana; and Zimbabwe, to counter otherwise erased, silenced, or invisible architectural histories and imaginaries.

Brockett Horne, Briar Levit, and Louise Sandhaus Baltimore, MD; Ojai, CA; and Portland, OR The People’s Graphic Design Archive A crowd-sourced virtual archive of graphic design history built by everyone, about everyone, for everyone.

David Huber Urbana, IL Entangled: Shorelines An open-access educational podcast series that explores historical and contemporary entanglements between design, environment, technology, infrastructure, and urbanism by focusing on distinct conceptualizations of the shoreline across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

John Lin

Hong Kong

Renovation Toolbox : A guided tour of innovative houses by self-builders in rural China

The project develops a series of films corresponding to four vernacular housing typologies, bringing into critical focus the adaptation of traditional houses in rural China.

Sharon Lockhart Los Angeles, CA Baumettes Led by the voices of female inmates in Baumettes prison in Marseille, France, this film, named for the prison, is a meditation on the effects of carceral architecture and isolation, and how a diverse group of individuals cope and find agency behind prison walls.

Jamila Moore Pewu Fullerton, CA Art of the Matter This project documents, preserves, and critically engages the spatial narratives and public art practices that emerged during the 2020 protest for Black lives and racial justice by capturing both artworks and streetscapes in a crowdsourced, deep mapping application and discovery platform.

Regner Ramos and Kleanthis Kyriakou London, United Kingdom and San Juan, Puerto Rico Coloso: A Factory of Queer, Digital Monuments for Puerto Rico A web-based, virtual factory that produces digital monuments commemorating closed LGBTQ+ spaces and buildings in Puerto Rico, thus inserting them in the island’s architectural history, its cultural infrastructure, urban memory, and political future.

Fred Scharmen Baltimore, MD How to Make and Un-Make a World; an Incomplete Catalog of Questions and Answers Italian Virtual Pavilion, 17th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy

Produced as part of City X by curators Tom Kovac and Alessandro Melis, and creative director Ed Keller for the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, this piece—equal parts text manifesto and animated object lesson—distills knowns and unknowns about world-making as a practice.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS (1 award)

Elisa Silva Caracas, Venezuela Nothing Out of the Ordinary: a space for the arts, celebration, acknowledgement and sancocho in the barrio La Palomera

Based in Caracas, Venezuela, this program engages the community to collaborate on renovating an abandoned structure, using art, culture, and events to guide the transformation.

PUBLICATIONS (24 awards)

Noam Andrews Ghent, Belgium The Polyhedrists: Art and Geometry in the Long Sixteenth Century

(MIT Press) Told through the transformation of the Platonic solids in the hands of late Renaissance artisans and architects, this book offers a material history of the development of geometry in the early modern period.

Pierre Bélanger and Pablo Escudero Cambridge, MA and Quito, Ecuador The Quino Treaty: Renewing Territorial Relations with the Cinchona Plant at the Center of the World by Decolonizing Quinine and the Global Discourse on Conservation

(ORO Editions) This book charts the 497-year global, urban, history of the cinchona plant from South America, whose bark offers a key contribution to contemporary civilization as it contains the only known cure for malaria: the drug quinine.

Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Mark El-khatib, and Bushra Mohamed London, United Kingdom The Course of Empire: A Compound House Typology

(Register Research Group) A book documenting the development of the Ghanaian compound house, from traditional types—such as Kumasi Shrine House—to modern iterations found in urban centers.

Stefano Boeri Architetti: Stefano Boeri, Fiamma Invernizzi, Maria Lucrezia de Marco, Simone Marchetti, Sofia Paoli, Maria Chiara Pastore, Luis Pimentel, and Livia Shamir Milan, Italy Green Obsession

(Actar Publishers) This publication on the work of architect Stefano Boeri and his studio, Stefano Boeri Architetti, puts forth an urgent call to action to the field to fundamentally address climate change through design.

Susan Buck-Morss, Kevin McCaughey, and Adam Michaels Ithaca and Ridgewood, NY; Los Angeles, CA

Architectures of Thought: Imagining Philosophy / Not Philosophizing Images

(Inventory Press) By studying and enacting the principles of montage, this project offers a means of thinking through how images and ideas work in today’s hyper-visual landscape.

Susana Caló and Godofredo Pereira London, United Kingdom CERFI: Militant Analysis, Institutional Programming and Collective Equipment

(Het Nieuwe Instituut) The first publication on the legacy of the collective CERFI in France (1967–85) and its experimental work on the institutional programming of collective equipment.

Anthony Carfello Los Angeles, CA La città capitalista (The Capitalist City)

(Skira Editore) Italian architect Giovanni Brino’s little-known 1978 survey of Los Angeles architecture, advertising, and lifestyle, published for the first time in English.

Katherine L. Carroll Delmar, NY Building Schools, Making Doctors: Architecture and the Modern American Physician

(University of Pittsburgh Press) A timely investigation of early twentieth-century American medical schools, this book argues that medical educators, donors—namely John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board—and architects—including Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge—called on architecture to define science; promote modern medicine; and institutionalize professional identities, which intersected with constructions of race and gender.

Peter H. Christensen Rochester, NY Materialized: German Steel in Global Ecology

(Penn State University Press) Linking architectural history and critical ecological studies, this new study provides a touchstone in a material-centered approach to the history of architecture.

Patricio del Real Cambridge, MA Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art

(Yale University Press) Through examination of select architecture exhibitions in the first half of the twentieth century, this book presents how The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Architecture and Design constructed an image of the world to manage the American Century.

Gareth Doherty Cambridge, MA Landscape Fieldwork

(University of Virginia Press) This book provides insights for understanding and designing landscapes based on experiential knowledge gained from landscape fieldwork.

Giulia Foscari Hamburg, Germany Antarctic Resolution

(Lars Müller Publishers)

A transnational and cross-disciplinary project that presents critical research on Antarctic geopolitics, science, and architecture, conceived to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the first sighting of the continent in 2020.

Pedro Gadanho Lisbon, Portugal Climax Change! Architecture’s Paradigm Shift After the Ecological Crisis

(Actar Publishers) An overview of how climate change and the current environmental emergency affects the practice of architecture—in terms of direct impact on design philosophy and on the opportunities to transform the course of the discipline’s aesthetic, ethical, and professional principles.

Kersten Geers, Stefano Graziani, Joris Kritis, and Jelena Pancevac Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; and Trieste, Italy The Urban Fact: A Reference Book on Aldo Rossi

(Buchhandlung Walther König) A collection of projects by Aldo Rossi from the 1960s and 1970s that suggests that each project reflects the broader context of the architecture of the city itself.

Vanessa Grossman Delft, the Netherlands A Concrete Alliance: Communism and Modern Architecture in Postwar France

(Yale University Press) An examination of the remarkable flurry of architectural activity that resulted when the French Communist Party (PCF)—one of the foremost Western communist parties of the twentieth century—became a patron for the designs, discourses, and organizational efforts of a distinguished circle of French modern architects, which found their most fertile terrain in the banlieue, the formerly industrial peripheries of France’s major cities.

Marisa Morán Jahn and Rafi Segal Brookline, MA and New York, NY What is Ours: Art and Architecture Towards Mutualism

(Columbia University Press) An anthology of conversations with leading thinkers, designers, entrepreneurs, and activists whose perspectives on collectivism and mutualism engender communal self-determination, wealth, and well-being.

Tim Johnson Marfa, TX Al Rio/To the River

(Hatje Cantz)

Conceived and edited by the poet Tim Johnson, this collaborative publication comprises two artists’ books—a photographic volume featuring recent works by the artist Zoe Leonard; and a reader with contributions by artists, journalists, poets and historians, including C.J. Alvarez, Ariella Azoulay, Cecilia Ballí, Remijio “Primo” Carrasco, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Natalie Diaz, Dolores Dorantes, Darby English, Álvaro Enrigue, Catherine Facerias, Josh T. Franco, Esther Gabara, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Elisabeth Lebovici, Jose Rabasa, Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Cameron Rowland, and Roberto Tejada.

Steffen Kunkel Wiesthal, Germany Gottfried Böhm and the Pilgrimage Church Mary, Queen of Peace

(Spector Books) Based on several years of research, this richly illustrated book is the first in-depth study of the pilgrimage district of Mary, Queen of Peace—by German Pritzker Prize Laureate Gottfried Böhm—and features a plethora of previously unpublished drawings, photos, models and archival material as well as in-depth interviews with Böhm and project-related architects and collaborators.

Paulo Moreira Porto, Portugal Critical Neighborhoods: The Architecture of Contested Communities

(Park Books) This book explores informal architecture and urbanism, analyzing recent actions in Africa, Asia, and the United States with contributions by Matthew Barac, Julia King, Elisa Silva, AbdouMaliq Simone, and Ines Weizman.

Adriana Salazar Mexico City, Mexico Water Spells

(Pitzilein Books) This project gathers a diverse range of voices which reveal the entangled relations between humans, water, and the built environment within the context of Mexico City today.

David Schalliol Minneapolis, MN Social Landscapes

(MAS Context) Drawing from two decades of globe-spanning photographic projects, this book articulates a visual sociological perspective on the relationship between people and place—from how inequality manifests in the vernacular architecture of the Midwestern United States, to how social and environmental changes interplay to radically reshape Japan’s Tōhoku coast.

Mindy Seu New York, NY Cyberfeminism Catalog

(Inventory Press) This sourcebook of radical techno-critical activism from 1990–2020 gathers hackers, scholars, artists, and activists that reimagine the history of the internet and guide its future.

Pier Paolo Tamburelli Milan, Italy On Bramante: Forty-three Theses

(MIT Press) A book on contemporary architecture comprised of 43 theses on the work of Italian architect Donato Bramante (1444–1514).

Marc Treib Berkeley, CA The Aesthetics of Contemporary Planting Design

(ORO Editions) An international survey of the understudied subject of planting design aesthetics in contemporary landscape architecture.

RESEARCH (24 awards)

Anahi Alviso-Marino and Neïl Beloufa Paris, France Monument Stories: Cities of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula through Monument Biographies This project establishes an interactive website, featuring a multimedia map of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf cities, that charts monuments from the 1970s until present day that were designed to embellish public space and commemorate events and political figures.

Adjoa Armah Cape Coast, Ghana and London, United Kingdom In our language the word for the sea means “the spirit that returns” An illumination of the cartographies of African spiritual life, geographic articulations, and spatial consciousnesses through the forts that dot the Ghanaian coast.

Shantel Blakely St. Louis, MO Charles E. Fleming, Architect Photographic documentation of the built architectural works of Charles E. Fleming, focusing on projects in the St. Louis area—including houses, schools, dormitories, health clinics, and several park and recreation areas, including a velodrome.

Jerald “Coop” Cooper Cincinnati, OH Architectures of Abolition Using the Underground Railroad networks of Ohio as an anchor for contemporary conversations in defense of Black lives, this exhibition delves into the events, people, and places of the mid-nineteenth century escape routes to situate the built environment as a matter of life and death.

Felicia Francine Dean Knoxville, TN

Perception of Misconceptions: Intersecting Stone and Fabric Material Identities A study of the transference of biracial identity, and the intrinsic methods of self-discovery, to the intersections of stone and fabric’s architectural material identities—at a furniture scale—based on the vernacular of Gramollazzo, Italy and Knoxville, TN.

Farhana Ferdous

Washington, DC The (pathogenic)-CITY: A Segregated Landscape of Urbanization, Urbanicity, and Wellbeing in American Landscape (the 1900s to present) A chronological history of racial disparities in American landscape that argues how urbanization and planning movements have transformed minority health and well-being from post-industrial society to the present.

Gabriel Fuentes

Union, NJ White Gold / Black Energy: Architecture, Sugar, and Oil During Revolutionary Cuba’s Gray Period The study of Cuban revolutionary architecture and its entanglement with colonial histories of slavery and global histories of energy during the Gray Period—during which Cuba strengthened geopolitical and ideological ties with the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Meredith J. Gaglio

Baton Rouge, LA Life Arks: Science, Spirituality, and Survival in the Work of the New Alchemy Institute This project considers the ways in which members of the 1970s experimental collective, the New Alchemy Institute, integrated scientific innovation, mysticism, and left-libertarian values into their sustainable bioshelter designs.

James Graham Alameda, CA The Household Modernism of Paulette Bernège Research on the French journalist and activist Paulette Bernège (1896–1973), whose writings offer a vision of architectural modernism centered on women’s work.

Sara Jacobs

Vancouver, Canada

Landscapes of Racial Formation: Warren Manning in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama

This research examines how landscape architect Warren Manning’s white supremacist atlas A National Plan (1919) reified racial formation in Birmingham and Atlanta through city plans implemented by Manning for those cities in 1919 and 1922, respectively—illuminating how racialized spatial logics are enacted through the making of urban space.

Ishita Jain and Ankita Trivedi

Ahmedabad and Sonipat, India Sites of Indie-Futurisms: Traditional Board Games of India Work towards an illustrated scholarly monograph using speculative world-building to catalogue traditional Indian board games as enmeshed ecologies of sites of production, sites of participation, and sites of generation of multiple Indie-futurisms.

Theodore S. Jojola and Lynn Paxson

Albuquerque, NM and Ames, IA Contemporary Indigenous Architecture–The Pueblo Worldview Expansion of the discussion and scholarship of what is ordinarily seen as architecture stuck in prehistory, to the contemporary and transformational.

Ladi’Sasha Jones

New York, NY Black Interior Spatial Thought Both a text and sculptural system that proposes a geometric typology towards Black interior spatial conditions—the communal, private, and performative—and the everyday movements in sociocultural production.

Elizabeth M. Keslacy

Oxford, OH Concrete Leisure: Design and Public Space in the Wake of Urban Renewal

An exploration of post-urban renewal landscapes of public leisure in the American Midwest, built under their cities’ first Black mayors, that examines the agency and limitations of architecture to combat the urban crises of late twentieth century American cities.

Wanda Katja Liebermann

Oakland Park, FL Architecture’s Problem with Disability

The first scholarly monograph to critically analyze the complex relationship between architecture and disability rights in the United States across pedagogy, policy, and practice in order to understand the discipline’s narrow response to disabled access, and to explore creative alternatives.

Thandi Loewenson

London, United Kingdom Lumumba in Space: African Space Programs and the Project of Liberation Culminating in a series of performance lectures addressed to the United Nations’ Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, this project investigates the role of Space Programs in the struggles for liberation from colonialism in six African countries—from late 1950s to present day—towards developing an understanding of how these programs contribute to emancipated constructions of Black self, Black statecraft, and Black people in relation to Earth and its resources.

Joanna Merwood-Salisbury

Wellington, New Zealand Veblen’s Chicago: The Urban Origins of the Leisure Class

Although acknowledged as influential, the Chicago economist Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) remains a spectral presence in the historiography of modern architecture—this research situates Veblen’s work in the urban and intellectual context in which it was written and investigates its value for architectural history and theory into the twentieth century.

Joe Namy

London, United Kingdom Songs for a Set Research exploring the extended archives of Arab American composer Halim El Dabh (1921–2017), also known as the godfather of African electronic music, and the impact of architecture on his oeuvre.

Enrique Ramirez

New York, NY Lines of Least Resistance: Architecture, Aeronautics, and Other Airs of Modernity A study of how architectural and aeronautical cultures in eighteenth and nineteenth century France relied on line-making and line-drawing to construct new, modernized ideas about air and the natural environment.

F. Tierney Berkeley, CA Racializing Risk: The History of Ladera Housing Cooperative Ladera Housing Cooperative, a postwar interracial housing cooperative in Portola, California, provides a compelling look at 1940s housing policies, exposing cultural norms of race in state lending structures.

Nick Tobier

Ann Arbor, MI Small(er) Building Types An illustrated compendium of vernacular buildings—such as bodegas or gas stations—accompanied by interviews and writings that meditate on the typology and role of these buildings in daily life.

Amanda Russhell Wallace

New London, CT The East Texas Oilfield as an Architecture of Memento Mori This project proposes an alternative to the narrative of the early twentieth century Great Migration by conflating the open and expansive architectural structures of the East Texas oilfield and the often secluded, rural cemeteries as a point of departure for a multimedia installation.

Charisse Pearlina Weston

New York, NY (Riot) Through: The Fold, The Shatter Linking the use of glass as a material representation of power and simulated intimacy in architecture with the long history of anti-Black violence, surveillance, and policing—reified by the “Broken Window Theory”—and media representations of resistance to that violence, this project utilizes folded glass sculptures and concrete architectural forms to put pressure on anti-Black protocols and politics of movement, sight, and being seen.

Kiyan Williams

New York, NY Unearthing: Toward a Black Feminist Ecology in Contemporary Earth Art In this text, the creative practice of Kiyan Williams is connected to a tradition of practitioners who use soil as a material and metaphor to unearth decolonial histories and fugitive futures.

ABOUT THE GRAHAM FOUNDATION

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture and society. The Graham realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations, and by producing exhibitions, events and publications.

The Graham Foundation was created by a bequest from Ernest R. Graham (1866–1936), a prominent Chicago architect and protégé of Daniel Burnham.

UPCOMING GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINES

2022 Grants to Individuals inquiry form deadline: September 15, 2021

Application available: July 15, 2021

2022 Carter Manny Award: November 15, 2021

Application available: September 15, 2021

Buildings funded by Graham Foundation Grants 2021

– Gottfried Böhm, The Pilgrimage Church Mary Queen of Peace, 1963–72. photo : Steffen Kunkel, 2015

From the 2021 individual grant to Steffen Kunkel for Gottfried Böhm and the Pilgrimage Church Mary, Queen of Peace

– Elizabeth Suina (Cochiti) of Suina Design + Architecture (Formerly Garret Smith Ltd), Valle Vista Elementary School, Albuquerque, New Mexico. photo : Courtesy Suina Design + Architecture

From the 2021 individual grant to Theodore S. Jojola and Lynn Paxson for Contemporary Indigenous Architecture–The Pueblo Worldview

– David Schalliol, Stateway Gardens (Chicago, Illinois, USA), 2007. Photo: David Schalliol

From the 2021 individual grant to David Schalliol for Social Landscapes

Adriana Salazar, View of River La Compañía, Chalco Valley, Mexico, 2019. Photo: Adriana Salazar – From the 2021 individual grant to Adriana Salazar for Water Spells

– Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Baby Drawer, ca. 1950s. (A nurse tending to a sleeping infant in a mobile bassinet at a Kaiser Permanente Hospital, California, 1950s.) Courtesy Kaiser Permanente Heritage Resources From the 2021 individual grant to Juliana Rowen Barton, Michelle Millar Fisher, Zoë Greggs, Gabriella Nelson, and Amber Winick for Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births

– Atelier Masōmī and Studio Chahar, Hikma Religious and Secular Complex in Dandaji, Niger, 2018. photo : Courtesy Atelier Masōmī. Photo: James Wang From the 2021 individual grant to Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa for Africa Architecture Network

– John Lin, The Seasonal House, 2019. ShangriLa, Yunnan, China. Photo: Rural Urban Framework

From the 2021 individual grant to John Lin for Renovation Toolbox: A guided tour of innovative houses by self-builders in rural China

– Archival Slides of Charles E. Fleming House, Town and Country, Missouri. Courtesy The Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. Photo: Eric P. Mumford

From the 2021 individual grant to Shantel Blakely for

– Charles E. Fleming, Architect

Bushra Mohamed, Lobi House Plan, 2020. Digital drawing, 6.4 x 6.5 in. Courtesy Bushra Mohamed

From the 2021 individual grant to Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Mark El-khatib, and Bushra Mohamed for The Course of Empire: A Compound House Typology

– Thandi Loewenson, Studies of the Zambian Space Programme: A Taxonomy of Flight. The Flag, 2020. Graphite on paper. Courtesy the artist

From the 2021 individual grant to Thandi Loewenson for Lumumba in Space: African Space Programs and the Project of Liberation

Previously on e-architect:

Mar 16, 2018

Graham Foundation 2018 News

Graham Foundation announces Fellowship program

We are so pleased to share that the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has announced the organization’s new Graham Foundation Fellowship program

Aug 3, 2017

Graham Foundation Grants 2017

Graham Foundation Announces 2017 Grants

photo – helloeverything/SelgasCano, Kibera Hamlets School, 2016, Nairobi, Kenya. Courtesy of architects. From the 2017 organizational grant to New York Foundation for Architecture-Center for Architecture for “Scaffolding”

Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place, Chicago, Illinois 60610, USA Telephone: 312.787.4071 [email protected]

Graham Foundation

Every Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the Arab Image Foundation Design: Nomad Studio, landscape architecture Madlener House, Graham Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, USA September 15 – December 31, 2016 photo – Rifat Chadirji, IRQ/315/186: Offices, Central Post, Telegraph and Telephone Administration, Baghdad, 1975. Photographic paste-ups, 8.27” × 11.69”. Courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation Exhibition at the Graham Foundation

Architecture of Independence: African Modernism Jan 29 – Apr 9, 2016 photograph © Iwan Baan Graham Foundation Exhibition This exhibition explores the legacy of modernist architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring commissioned photographs by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster and archival material, “Architecture of Independence” imparts a new perspective on the intersection of architecture and nation-building in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia following independence.

Location: 4 W Burton Pl, Chicago, IL 60610, United States of America

Chicago Architecture

Chicago Architecture Design – chronological list

Chicago Architecture Tours

Recent Chicago Buildings

Ryan Center for the Musical Arts in Chicago Design: Goettsch Partners photo from architects

Aqua Tower Chicago Skyscraper Design: Studio Gang Architects

860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Design: Krueck & Sexton, Architects

Illinois Architecture

American Architecture

American Architects

Chicago Architecture

Chicago Building Photographs

Chicago Office Buildings

Chicago Skyscrapers

Place is the Space – Unprecedented Collaboration with Museum Architect Brad Cloepfil Design: Brad Cloepfil + Allied Works Architecture Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis – CAM Exhibition

American Museum Buildings

American Architecture Design – chronological list

Green Air, a kinetic living sculpture at Contemporary Art Museum of Saint Louis, USA. Summer 2016 photograph : Alise O’Brien Photography Green Air, Contemporary Art Museum of Saint Louis

American Architecture

American Houses

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art – Extension, Kansas Design: Steven Holl Architects Nelson Atkins Museum of Art building

American Museum Architecture

Comments / photos for the Graham Foundation Grants 2021 page welcome

Website: Madlener House Chicago

The post Graham Foundation Grants 2021: architecture appeared first on e-architect.

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cinematographyofkevinchiu · 5 years

Video

Turning 24 with yet another incredible fulfilling year behind me in 2018, with more new projects and experiences than I could have ever imagined taking on. Thank you, once again, to all of you, collaborators, viewers, and supporters for continuing to be a part of this journey! My thoughts going forward into 2019 - trust from the people that you meet along the path in your life is among the most valuable things you can cultivate - build on those relationships with those people that inspire and support you and the strength of those bonds will only grow over time into a powerful network that will let you tackle any challenge or dream you have head on! Cheers to a new year, now let's keep making more good in 2019! www.kevincfilms.com _____________________________ Directed, Shot, Edited by Kevin Chiu Music: Atu - doubts https://www.facebook.com/alphatmu/ https://soundcloud.com/alphatmu Camera: Lumix GH5/GH5s Lenses: Sigma 18-35mm DG Art + Canon 100mm Macro Lens Editor: Adobe Premiere Pro CC Post Processing: Magic Bullet Looks 2.5, VisionColor LUTs Picture Profile (GH5): Cinelike D/V-LOG/Natural Zhiyun Crane 2 Special Thanks to All Who Were Involved This Year: Nick Silverio | Raw Elementz Columbia SHARP A Cappella | Spencer Gordon-Sand Eryn Danielle | Laura Rizzotto Ken Westrick | Valerie Sherlyn Kau Sojo Travis | Natalia Aristides Alexandra Warrick | Evan Rendes Madeline Owen | Triana Steward ONYX Hip-Hop Dance at Columbia University CU Generation | Manny Walton Ben Tuval | Josh Kaster Radical Fencing | Jacqueline Basulto Fernando Salazar | Monica Azpeitia Julian Woodhouse | Kirill Kabachenko Don Nixon | Erik Altemus Columbia Hindu Students Organization | Ricardo Cortés Columbia Taal | Columbia University Dining Lunar Gala Fashion Show | Amit Shah Nupur Joshi | Thomas Nielsen Natie Joe | Simon Chiu Robin Bray | Scott Bray and many others! https://www.instagram.com/p/BsFJjJaAPzv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1umtgguid09ys

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micaramel · 6 years

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Artists: Roberto Cabrera Padilla, Lorenzo González Morales, Quique Lee, Naufus Ramírez Figueroa, Alberto Rodríguez Collía, Isabel Ruiz, Moisés Barrios, Jessica Lagunas, Roni Mocán, Jorge de León, Andrea Mármol Juárez, Feliciano Pop, Efraín Recinos, Gabriel Rodríguez, Mario Santizo, Studio Lake-Verea, Ramón Ávila, Darío Escobar, Alfred Jensen, Dennis Leder, Daniel Schafer, Diana de Solares, Vivian Suter, Enrique Anleu Díaz, Chiachio & Giannone, Daniel Hernández-Salazar, Zipacná de León, Carlos Motta, Paula Nicho, Diego Sagastume, Hellen Ascoli, Moisés Barrios, Alfredo Ceibal, Manuel Chavajay, Oscar Farfán, Yasmin Hage, Regina José Galindo, Regina José Galindo, Diego Morales Portillo, Juan Sisay, Julio Zadik, Andrea Aragón, Margarita Azurdia, Alfredo Ceibal, Benvenuto Chavajay, Darío Escobar, Luis González Palma, Carlos Mérida, Eny Roland Hernández, Francisco Tún, Dagoberto Vásquez, Marilyn Boror, Daniel Chauche, Jorge Chavarría, Renato Osoy, Alejandro Paz, Ángel Poyón & Juan Fernando Poyón, Pablo Swezey, Rodolfo Abularach, Francisco Auyón, Edgar Calel, Erwin Guillermo, Rodolfo Mishaan, Manuel Antonio Pichillá, Aníbal López, Luis Díaz Aldana, Jessica Kairé, Byron Mármol, Alejandro Marré, Marco Augusto Quiroa, Elmar Rojas Azurdia

Venues: Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Community Arts Workshop, and Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum; Santa Barbara

Exhibition Title: Guatemala from 33,000 km: Contemporary Art, 1960 – Present

Date: September 17 – December 17, 2017

Note: A publication associated with the exhibition is available for download here.

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara. Photos by Juan Brenner.

Press Release:

Organized by Miki Garcia, Executive Director & Chief Curator of Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), as well as Guest Curator, Emiliano Valdés, Guatemala from 33,000 km: Contemporary Art, 1960-Present brings together works that have rarely been seen beyond Guatemala, but that speak to a range of formal, political, and social concerns that permeate contemporary art both in Latin America and throughout the globe. This exhibition marks the first ever in-depth commitment to the study of Guatemalan art in the late 20th and early 21st century, bringing innovative and visually arresting works produced by Guatemalan artists to a public audience in the United States and abroad.

With the support of the Getty’s Fall 2017 initiative, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Guatemala from 33,000 km features artwork in a range of media, tracing the tumultuous route that has traversed the history of Guatemala since 1960. Pursuing the development of art in Guatemala is fundamental not only to understanding today’s production but also in the unveiling of practices and oeuvres that have largely remained underexposed. Political, infrastructural, and economic issues have acted as barriers to the study of art in Guatemala, preventing widespread knowledge of the innovative, perceptive, and aesthetically intriguing artworks that this exhibition compiles.

The exhibition includes over 70 artworks, occupying approx. 8,000 square feet which in Santa Barbara will be installed in 3 venues: MCASB, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art at Westmont College, and Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop. It is structured around clusters or groups of works that represent central ideas, themes, and media that have been pivotal in Guatemala’s art over the last 50+ years. Spanning different moments and generations, both the works and the clusters are interconnected and often an artist that is included in one chapter could also be part of another so that the exhibition is not installed by clusters, but orchestrated in a way that highlights the multiple connections that exist between the works and the threads. The exhibition will generate a breadth of concerns that illuminate patterns of development in Guatemalan modern and contemporary art for the past 50 years. The clusters are mainly thematic, although a chapter is dedicated to works that through formal and technical experimentation have contributed to the advancement of artists’ production in the country. The exhibition understands Guatemalan modern and contemporary art as made up–seamlessly–of works that range from a strict Western art-historical narrative to local notions of art (so called naïf or otherwise) as well as artists that stand on the meeting point of these traditions.

The clusters are:

From various points of view, formal approaches, and ideological positions, ART AND POLITICS deals with the way in which artists from different generations have examined the thirty-six-year civil war and its consequences. Through these works emerges the nature of the conflict, as well as the polarization that it has generated in the Guatemalan population, which is reflected in artistic production. Given that the dates of this exhibition coincide with the formal beginning of the war and parallel the development of the artist as a critical observer of political circumstances, it is argued that contemporary Guatemalan art cannot be dissociated from this aspect.From various points of view, formal approaches, and ideological positions, ART AND POLITICS deals with the way in which artists from different generations have examined the thirty-six-year civil war and its consequences. Through these works emerges the nature of the conflict, as well as the polarization that it has generated in the Guatemalan population, which is reflected in artistic production. Given that the dates of this exhibition coincide with the formal beginning of the war and parallel the development of the artist as a critical observer of political circumstances, it is argued that contemporary Guatemalan art cannot be dissociated from this aspect.

The group under the heading ART HISTORIES acknowledges the existence of multiple art historical narratives and includes works that, in the spirit of Institutional Critique, refer to local or international art, to the history of art, or to the work of other artists as prime matter for creation. This chapter also includes artworks by artists concerned with the lack of access to art education in the country, interested in publications, and inspired by artistic and cultural producers not necessarily recognized within the official art history.

The works included in FORMAL EXPERIMENTATION have contributed to the renewal of technical and formal artistic practice in Guatemala over the last half-century, touching on fields such as geometric abstraction and the use of industrial materials in sculpture as well as the influence of handicrafts on artistic languages. The group recognizes how, despite a strong tendency towards figuration and social art, geometric abstraction has been, from different angles, a determining component of the history of Guatemalan art, insofar as it has allowed for its renewal.

GENDER PERSPECTIVES analyzes how gender and body rights have been expressed in artistic practices in recent years, largely through dialogue with foreign artists and the adaptation of the development of feminist theories to Guatemalan reality. It also discusses the dissident practices that have emerged from what has been more of an empirical conception of gender theory or activism and its social and cultural manifestations.

LAND, LANDSCAPE, AND TERRITORY explores the complex relationship between landscape, land, and territory, from some of the essential issues behind the armed conflict (such as former President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán’s agrarian reform proposal, and the expropriation of land to the United Fruit Company) to the central role played by the landscape in the construction of the collective imagination and the country-branding of Guatemala. The artworks in this cluster explore the multiple narratives that emerge from the landscape, such as the country’s natural environment, landscape as a source of conflict, and a particular cultural vision of the indigenous population: one that understands indigenous as an element of an exotic landscape and not as a citizen, member of society, and human being in his/her own right.

POPULAR CULTURES brings together works and artists who, from a Western art historical perspective, have paid special attention to popular culture, both indigenous and Ladino. With one of the most deeply rooted traditions in Latin America, textile handicrafts have influenced several generations of artists, directly and as a result of their formal characteristics, use of materials, and wide dissemination as a distinctive cultural seal.

In RACISMS AND IDENTITIES, the artworks address the idea of a possible Guatemalan identity from the perspective of the cultural clash between indigenous groups and the Ladino population (a minority that has historically had social, political, and economic power). This set includes a series of works that deal with the racial division between Guatemalans (ideological and de facto) and racial conflicts in the course of history, as well as the multidirectional racism that follows suit. It also explores a third way of understanding the question of indigenous and Ladino cultures—through the lens of hybridization and postcolonial theories.

Given the profound influence of Maya cosmology, as well as the great diffusion of “imported” religions in Guatemala, such as Catholicism and more recently, Protestantism, the category RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND METAPHYSICS includes works that deepen the presentation of a spiritual aspect and its relationship with a wider cultural scene. This cluster includes a thoughtful and critical review of the effect that different modes of faith and metaphysics have had on the country in permeating the culture and its material and visual production.

The set of artworks in VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA present the responses of artists to the violence that persists in Guatemala as a consequence of the civil war and as the continuation of a broader historical narrative that goes back to the Spanish Conquest, spanning the military governments of the twentieth century, and deriving from the situation of inequality and social instability today. This group of works addresses the role of the State and the socially instigated violence that has impacted life in Guatemala during the last half century, but also represents work that is produced by a lack of State, institutionality, and social policies that have allowed such tragic phenomena to happen in the country, such as the maras (gangs), migration, and the strengthening of drug trafficking.

Links: “Guatemala from 33,000 km” at Museum of Contemporary Art, Community Arts Workshop, and Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum

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