7 h. ago Artist who created Chicago’s ‘Bean’ sculpture laments his work being used in CBP photos: ‘I find it utterly horrific’

Anish Kapoor called the decision to pose outside of his iconic sculpture a ‘self-congratulatory photo-op’

Culture

13 h. ago ‘We got hate mail after the Proms!’ The towering visions of UK jazz legend Mike Westbrook

Having worked alongside everyone from Laurence Olivier to a French circus, the 89-year-old is still composing, learning church bells, and using AI to resurrect a lost epicMike Westbrook is reflecting on his 89-year life from his cottage by the sea in Devon. Sitting with him in his cosy, book-lined sitting room under a signed picture of Duke Ellington, and next to his Broadwood grand piano, the experience is calm and peaceful.His version of jazz is anything but. For more than six decades, Westbrook has been composing vast, cinematic works. He was the first jazz artist to play at the BBC Proms, created theatre alongside Laurence Olivier, and in the 1970s merged his entire ensemble with the avant-rock band Henry Cow to form the groundbreaking Orckestra. The result is music full of brass fanfares, unusual time signatures, poetry, free improvisation, and genre-bending jazz that invites the listener into a continental circus full of elephants, acrobats, and clowns. Continue reading...

Politics

39 h. ago Michael Jackson's Thriller creates history and makes him the first artist with Top 10 hits in six decades

Interest in MJ continues after the release of the trailer for his biopic also broke records recently.

Events

4 d. ago Artist sparks controversy for installation showing a crucified Donald Trump dubbed 'Saint or Sinner'

Mason Storm created the controversial work that has left many 'disgusted.' The British artist has left the interpretation up to the viewer to determined if Trump is a sinner or a saint.

Politics

8 d. ago Pennsylvania artist sorry for including Nazi camp arch on school parade float

‘I made a mistake’ says artist who included cloned archway on Halloween float for a Catholic school A Pennsylvania artist’s efforts to create a Halloween float for a local Catholic school went awry when he inadvertently included a replica of the gateway arch from a Nazi concentration camp, prompting a hasty apology from the diocese of Harrisburg.In apologizing for the fiasco, Galen Shelly told PennLive that a lighted archway and lanterns he ordered to decorate a parade float he was building for Hanover’s St Joseph’s school did not arrive in time – so he searched the internet for images of cemetery gates to represent the idea that “none of us get out of this life alive”. Continue reading...

Culture

8 d. ago Three decades later, The Truman Show feels freshly disturbing – and astoundingly prescient

Peter Weir’s dystopian comedy, starring Jim Carrey as the unwitting star of his own reality TV series, takes on new resonance in the techno-capitalist eraGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe great Australian director Peter Weir is perhaps underrated as an auteur, simply because his filmography doesn’t follow any thematic or stylistic principle; each of his contributions feels like a complete work of art unto itself. While Picnic at Hanging Rock remains his finest work, his foray into Hollywood culminated in the utterly transfixing, intermittently horrifying Jim Carrey vehicle The Truman Show. Almost 30 years after its theatrical release, the film has only grown in stature and prescience.Ostensibly a dark satire on voyeurism and the inexhaustible manipulations of the media, The Truman Show predated the television juggernaut Big Brother by a single year, and it’s hard not to see something causal in that. Both are about surveillance and the murky line separating reality from ...

Politics

2 w. ago 'I braved one of the world's scariest theme park mazes and was nearly sick'

Universal's Halloween Horror Nights is scaring the life out of punters with Terrifier. Kelly Williams decided to give it a go and left with goose bumps and utterly horrified

Politics

2 w. ago Simon Amstell review – time to move on after Hollywood party crush

Arches London Bridge New show I Love It Here is billed as a departure from the comedian’s familiar neurotic self-analysis, but it proves frustratingly unchallenging“An exciting departure from [his] previous work,” claims the publicity for Simon Amstell’s new standup show – but it’s a claim that proves hard to substantiate. Like any Amstell set, I Love It Here is self-analytical to an absurd degree – and this level of forensic solipsism, from this clever and funny a man, can’t help but be engaging. But departure it is not – and indeed, I found it frustrating how Amstell’s concerns have not moved on a jot in a show largely about his disappointment (“pain”, he would call it) that his crush on a famous singer isn’t reciprocated.The abiding impression, of a show set at a star-studded Hollywood party, is of an artist whose life (and creative output) might benefit from a little more friction. We encounter Amstell at the start of this set blissful with his partner of 14 years, increasingly ...

Politics

2 w. ago Boy George on ‘taking ownership’ of criticism by putting it in his artwork

The music artist has created a a new collection of punk-inspired portraits titled Punky Doodle Dandies.

Politics

3 w. ago Statue of Jane Austen unveiled to mark 250th anniversary of her birth

Artist Martin Jennings created the sculpture installed in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral.

Politics

4 w. ago From Grammy winner to children's author: Laufey's new book is 'Mei Mei the Bunny'

Laufey, the Grammy-winning artist, is creating a children's story inspired by her mascot-alias, Mei Mei The Bunny

Culture