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    Best of Scotland: 20 of the most stylish places to eat, drink and stay – HeraldScotland - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Scotland boasts some of the most stylish restaurants, bars and hotels in the UK. Here, Paul Trainer and Ailsa Sheldon reveal their personal top 20 of our best new and long-established venues.

    Its easy to walk past Divino Enoteca, nestled into a dark corner of tiny Merchant Street though once youve discovered this cavern of delights you wont forget how to find it. With its dark walls, exposed brick, walls of wine bottles, leather seating and mood lighting, this restaurant certainly knows how to set the scene especially on live jazz nights. The heated secret courtyard is lovely too. With classic, sophisticated Italian cooking and an impressively long and interesting wine list (including 32 by the glass), Divino Enoteca is an atmospheric delight. (AS)

    5 Merchant Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2QD

    A stylishand contemporary brasserie and bar on St Vincent Place, the venue underwent a complete refurbishment and rebrand during lockdown. An impressive marble bar is the focal point for the dining room with a separate whisky room and private dining area named The Boardroom, in a nod to the buildings history as the former Scottish headquarters of the Bank of England. Ask for a table in the elegant but relaxed garden room where you can enjoy panko crusted bass or roasted butternut linguine. (PT)

    25 St Vincent Place, Glasgow G1 2DT

    A Speyside hotel with modern and traditional stylish nods to the Highlands of Scotland, Craigellachie is a comfortable, rural retreat with an impressive food offering. Guests are quickly distracted by The Quaich Bar, a celebration of whisky equipped with over 800 bottles. It was opened 120 years ago and exemplifies romantic Scotlands vision for hospitality, seen through a progressive, modern lens. Take a seat in this cosy sitting room built into a bar, and allow staff to guide you through a single malt odyssey. (PT)

    Seton a 520-acre estate overlooking St Andrews, Fairmont is known for its dramatic cliff-top views, peaceful setting and championship golf courses. Theres destination dining at its St Andrews Bar & Grill with River Tay cured rainbow trout, Crail crab salad, whole grilled St Andrews Bay lobster and dry-aged steaks cooked on a Josper grill. An extensive refurbishment in 2016 brought a new sense of space to the hotels huge atrium, incorporating a 60-metre-long ceiling sculpture by artist George Singer, eclectic furniture styles, and softer furnishings. Upholstery, fabrics and art in the hotel is influenced by local history and landscapes with the fishing villages of Fife providing inspiration and a sense of place. (PT)

    With stained glass windows, nautical ephemera and a giant Bjrk print, it shouldnt really work - but somehow it really does. This is Nobles, a lovingly restored familyrun pub where contemporary art meets Victorian glamour with some of the best food and drink in Edinburgh. Its stylish and sophisticated, without taking itself too seriously. Enjoy a cracking Bloody Mary with brunch, pop in for a pint, or book a table in the evening to explore the delights of the a la carte menu. Whatever the occasion, Nobles is always a good port of call. (AS)

    44a Constitution Street, Leith EH6 6RS

    THE 485-acre The Macallan Estate is a world-leading hospitality destination set in serene countryside. Alongside the focus on single malt whisky, there is fine dining, fishing, tours and events. The distinctive distillery experience was designed by architects Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners and unveiled in 2018. It features an imposing circular vault warehouse and a dining room where you can enjoy pan-seared Highland venison, west coast scallops and locally-caught salmon. (PT)

    Italianbrewer Doppio Malto has transformed a landmark location on Glasgows George Square to create its first venue in the UK. The kitchen brewery includes a basement bar with a ceiling installation featuring colourful umbrellas and a 180-seat restaurant, complete with traditional terrazzo flooring and terracotta plant pots. The menu offers a wide selection of Italian dishes including pizza, pastas, speciality meats cooked on the grill, and desserts. Visit for 16 variations of Doppio Malto craft beers from Erba and Iglesias. (PT)

    Thecalm minimalist interior of Argyle Place has made this family-run coffee shop a firm favourite with Edinburgh aesthetes think exposed brick, concrete, elegant wooden furniture and plenty of plants. Squint and you could be in Copenhagen, not Marchmont. With Mr Eion roasting coffee in the basement and super-skilled baristas, this is the perfect place to savour a flat white near the Meadows. Stay for the food, too enjoy generously filled homemade focaccia, tasty tarts and brioche bacon rolls. Grab a seat by the window and savour the friendly atmosphere. (AS) 25-28 Argyle Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1JJ

    A tearoom on a working farm, the rustic setting is revealed within a glass greenhouse with grape vines on the ceiling and interior walls. Your neighbours are 130 dairy cows that provide the milk to make the award-winning Isle of Mull Cheddar and Hebridean Blue. Enjoy homebaking and sourdough bread alongside pork and cheese from the farm. A short drive from Tobermory, the cafe and shop provide scenic views over the Isle of Mull. (PT)

    Sgriob-ruadh Farm, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, PA75 6QD

    Inventive tasting menus are the order of the day at Aurora and are best suited for adventurous palates. The floor and shelving in Aurora are crafted from reclaimed scaffolding wood, with wine racks made from repurposed bread cages. Simple furniture, industrial-style lighting and bold paintings by Edinburgh-based South African artist Jonathan Freemantle complete the look. This little gem of a restaurant is not in the trendy part of Leith, but definitely deserves a place on the radar of Edinburgh food-lovers. With only 20 covers it can be hard to get a table but for those who do, the culinary journey through the menu and the intimate setting make for a memorable evening. (AS)

    187 Great Junction St., Edinburgh, EH6 5LQ

    21212 is a delightful boutique hotel in a leafy Georgian terrace in central Edinburgh. With just four bedrooms above the Michelinstarred restaurant, this is a truly special place to stay. The look is dark, glamorous and decadent without the chintz, and rooms are the epitome of luxury. Dinner is five courses dont let the apparent simplicity of the menu fool you. Supremely talented Paul Kitching, right, is at the helm of the elegant restaurant so prepare to be dazzled, and very well taken care of. Make sure you take time to wander in the private gardens by Calton Hill, a special secret spot in the heart of the city. (AS)

    3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, EH7 5AB

    Elliotts is a proud neighbourhood cafe, where seasonal salads, tasty brunch dishes and delicious home baking are served in an effortlessly chic but relaxed style. Run by food stylist and cookbook writer Jess Elliott Dennison, every detail has been considered and the overall modern rustic feel is stylish and homely. Menus are chalked up and change with the seasons, fruit and vegetables take centre stage with inventive salads and baked dishes, plus plenty of pickles, jams, homemade cordials and ice creams all of which you can enjoy on the benches outside. There are plenty of lovely groceries, plus beautiful and useful kitchen utensils to take home, too. (AS)

    27 Sciennes Road, Edinburgh, EH9 1NX

    Whatis better than wine and cheese? Well, how about sitting in elegant wine bar Smith & Gertrude in Edinburghs popular Stockbridge and enjoying the best of both? Wine flights are the speciality every two weeks the team formulates two different wine flights, with optional but heartily encouraged cheese pairings. This is a wonderful way to try new and unexpected wines and hopefully discover some new favourites. With a warm wood interior, perfect people-watching windows and a very warm welcome, Smith & Gertrude is the ideal combination of sophistication and relaxation whether youre popping in for a glass of something delicious, or settling in for the evening. (AS)

    26 Hamilton Pl, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, EH3 5AU

    TheGothic glamour of the dining room at The Witchery continues across nine luxury suites hidden in a historic tower in Jollies Close, just off the Royal Mile. Each is theatrically decorated to fit with a theme, including the dramatic, velvet-draped Sempill room and The Guardroom with rooftop views to Princes Street, a salon-style sitting room, and a four-poster bedroom. The Witchery is one of the most atmospheric places to stay in Scotland, displaying a total commitment to flamboyant style. Each room is bedecked with antiques, luxurious drapes and baronial decor. An immersive experience, when you stay here you will be blissfully unaware that you are in one of the busiest tourist areas of the capital. (PT)

    352 Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NF

    How many of us in busy working and homeschooling households in these busy months of Covid have dreamed of escaping to a spa? No children or Zoom calls, no distractions and only relaxation on the schedule. At Stobo Castle, your daydreams are a reality. From the beautiful pool overlooking trees and hills to the gorgeous gardens and ornate art-filled drawing rooms, every detail in this stately home-style hotel is designed to calm and restore. Book a massage or wallow in the Jacuzzi and steam rooms. With its multiple spa of the year awards, Stobo is worth saving up for. (AS)

    Stobo Castle Health Spa, Stobo, Peeblesshire, EH45 8NY

    The Grandtully Hotel in rural Perthshire is sister hotel to Ballintaggart Farm but has a distinctive style and personality all of its own. The Grandtully has only eight rooms, all individually designed some with roll-top baths or riverside views, one with a record player but all equally perfect for a much-needed relaxing break. Downstairs, the elegant bar The Tully serves up some of the finest cocktails in Perthshire. Try a perfect Negroni with some Loch Fyne oysters or Great Glen charcuterie. Move into the dining room all warm wood and flickering candles and be treated to a delicious seasonal and inventive menu thats perfect for sharing. (AS)

    The Grandtully Hotel, Grandtully, Perthshire, PH9 0PL

    Seaviews dont come better than this. With glass walls overlooking the beautiful West Sands beach (as well as the world-famous Old Course), this is seaside dining at its best. The Seafood Ristorante specialises in the best of Scottish seafood with an Italian twist. Currently holding the title of Catering in Scotlands Scottish Restaurant of the Year, this airy, elegant restaurant is becoming an iconic dining destination. Enjoy the panoramic views with delicious garlicky Anstruther lobster, Pittenweem halibut straight off the boat, or perhaps enjoy a crisp glass of Gavi out on the terrace. (AS)

    Bruce Embankment, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AB

    Hotelier James Thomsons Prestonfield House in Edinburgh is a riot of elaborately ornamental decoration and rococo antiques. Set in a private park at the foot of Arthurs Seat, you find yourself minutes away from Edinburgh city centre but transported into another world of Scottish country house splendour. Think four-poster beds so high they require steps, imposing oil paintings, ornate ceiling cornices, rich fabrics and antique furniture. The individuallycharacterful bedrooms are a delight and you will enjoy impeccable service and five-star Scottish hospitality. Prestonfields Rhubarb restaurant showcases Scottish produce in gloriously opulent surroundings with monkfish, smoked salmon, Tweeddale Scotch lamb and Angus beef among the homegrown delights on the menu.(PT)

    Priestfield Rd, Edinburgh, EH16 5UT

    TheDowans Hotel sits in the heart of Scotlands malt whisky industry, instilling its impressive bar with a sense of purpose. Set high above the Spey Valley, with views across the village of Aberlour, this magnificent family-owned hotel boasts a collection of over 500 bottles, displayed in a beautifully designed whisky library. Its one of the most impressive settings for a dram in Scotland and a must visit on every whisky aficionados bucket list. (PT)

    A recentarrival on Lynedoch Street in Glasgows west end, Fly South is a wall-to-wall celebration of cocktails featuring bespoke cabinets that house a range of interesting spirits. Six months of refurbishment on the first floor of a period property included restoring the original cornicing, adding a marble top bar, parquet wood flooring, chandeliers and stained glass. Dundee-based Macmerry 300 opened the bar following the debut of its two other stylish properties in Glasgow, The Bull on Great Western Road and The Luchador in the southside. Abandon Ship on Mitchell Street will complete the set in September. (PT)

    Best of Scotland magazine is published monthly in The Herald on Sunday and Sunday National newspapers.

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    Best of Scotland: 20 of the most stylish places to eat, drink and stay - HeraldScotland

    Greater New York, a Show of the Moment, Dwells in the Radical Past – The New York Times - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Three things stand out about the current edition of Greater New York, a survey at MoMA PS1 of artists living and working in New York, which happens every five years: pitch-perfect politics, intense nostalgia and an underwhelming display of new art.

    Organized by a curatorial team led by Ruba Katrib, Greater New York which opened Thursday is both a show of our moment and one that attempts to escape it through the trap door of history. In the art world at the moment, its safer to celebrate the underknown, underrecognized and under-acknowledged artist who was radical half a century ago than to dive into the actual messy politics of the present.

    The best work here, overwhelmingly, is the art made decades ago, not within the last few years. That is unfortunate, because it gives the impression that great art isnt being made right now. Meanwhile, art in New York is vibrant, which you can see on any given day, particularly in galleries on the Lower East Side, Chinatown and TriBeCa, and in pockets of Queens.

    However, this is still a deeply political show. Every large exhibition trains you how to observe it, and here you quickly learn to look at the wall labels, which focus in many cases on the ethnicity of artists. This is interesting information but the hazard is that art is turned into a rhetorical instrument rather than a bearer of illuminating or speculative ideas.

    The show features the work of 47 artists and collectives and bridges documentary photography, surrealism, painting and video. Here are dominant threads and standout contributors.

    The excavation of history weighs so heavily in Greater New York, it calls to mind classic narratives of our metropolis: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallaces masterpiece, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (1999); Luc Santes Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (2003); the film Downtown 81 (2000), which starred a young Jean-Michel Basquiat and a pre-gentrified Lower East Side.

    Some of the work here is directly linked to these histories. Alan Michelson (a Mohawk artist) has created an installation, Midden (2021), in which a video created along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn and Newtown Creek on the border of Queens glides over a pile of oyster shells, a food mainstay in New York for millenniums, until the oyster beds were stripped away during colonization and industrialization.

    Two installations by the collective Shanzhai Lyric draw from the history of Canal Street, which started off as a swamp and a waterway and later became an artery for commerce, including bootleg luxury goods and T-shirts. A dedicated room at MoMA PS1 displays the contents of the collectives Canal Street Research Association storage unit: foam Statue of Liberty crowns, miniature Empire State Buildings and other tourist curios. Near the museums entrance, their installation of T-shirts manufactured in China and printed with odd phrases in English creates a disjointed poem.

    Hands down the best paintings in the show are the bright, colorful abstractions by Paulina Peavy (1901-1999), an artist who said she had an encounter with a U.F.O. while attending a sance in California in 1932 and later moved to New York, where she lived and worked until age 97. Peavys paintings here, made between the 1930s and 60s, are part of a wave of resurrections of lesser-known women artists in the 20th century, including Agnes Pelton, Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz, whose abstract paintings were based in spiritual or healing practices rather than the formal arguments and battles of mainstream art movements.

    The best photographs in Greater New York are also historical ones. Hiram Maristany served as the official documentary photographer for the Puerto Rican Young Lords, a group that arose from the Black Power movement in the 1960s. His black and white images from that period are a powerful representation of an artist preserving his own community, as he says in the wall text. After a year of the most documented protests in history (Black Lives Matter), it would be nice to see more recent documentation of the current social justice movement.

    Marilyn Nance traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977 to document FESTAC 77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture that drew thousands of artists, writers and activists. A range of her New York street photographs from the 70s and 90s are on display, capturing people jumping subway turnstiles, musicians and circus elephants sauntering down a nocturnal city street.

    A 1989 video of the poet Diane Burns (identified as Chemehuevi and Anishanabe) reciting a punk poem on the Lower East Side crackles with humor around Indigenous politics, gentrification and displacement. Regina Vaters two Saudades do Brasil videos, from the mid-70s and mid-80s, compare New York with gritty Brazilian cities. There are also drawings, photographs and paintings from the 80s by artists like Ewao Kagoshima, Julio Galn, Peter Hujar, Andreas Sterzing and Luis Frangella that offer a window into an edgier, largely pre-AIDS New York as well as the rise of various aesthetics around graffiti and L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. art.

    While many of these artists have been overlooked, a fraction of the historical displays would suffice. They allude, however, to art being produced right now. Swing by the gallery Higher Pictures Generation in Dumbo for a tutorial on contemporary photography. For queer art and work that explores and celebrates intersectional identities check out Queer Thoughts, Company, Fierman, PPOW or the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. For overlooked artists of all stripes, go to Ortuzar Projects in TriBeCa. And for painting by emerging artists, check out small galleries like 56 Henry, Jack Barrett, Charles Moffett or Housing, at 191 Henry, which aims to support Black artists in particular.

    A wave of anti-Asian hate crimes, Donald Trumps presidency and the reinvigorated #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have challenged curators and institutions to highlight diversity and right historical wrongs. Here are some notable presentations that intelligently address these issues.

    The Seneca author and artist G. Peter Jemisons excellent works on paper reference the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794, its impact on the Haudenosaunee the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and campaigns by churches and schools to eradicate the culture and language in northeast North America. His use of humble paper bags is what is most exciting about his work.

    Similarly, Curtis Cuffies sculptures from the 90s address where art flourishes and is displayed. He saw the sidewalk as his primary venue and used scavenged materials clothing, objects and trash items. They were originally installed around Astor Place and the East Village, which was undergoing intense gentrification. (If Cuffie, who died in 2002, were a young artist today, his witty assemblages and costumes would likely appear on Instagram or TikTok.)

    Yuji Agematsus impactful wall of detritus collected on daily walks during the pandemic and stuffed into cellophane cigarette-box wrappers is a scruffy update of On Kawaras conceptual Date Paintings, which marked the days, starting during the Vietnam War.

    Steffani Jemisons Similitude (2019) is a wry commentary on cultural appropriation filmed in anonymous sites across New York. The video, starring a Black actor trained in mime, recreates gestures and actions of people carrying out daily activities. Politics here are drawn from everyday life and question the idea of language and mimicry.

    Some of the most powerful aesthetic statements last year appeared in the form of monuments covered with graffiti, torn down, or removed. Images of activists in Bristol, England, removing the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston last year suggested a wave of empowered community action, joy and possibility.

    I thought of this when viewing Doreen Garners sculpture Lucys Agony (2021), which references gynecological experiments carried out on African American women by doctors like J. Marion Sims. A statue honoring Sims was removed from its prominent site on Fifth Avenue in 2018, but it was not destroyed.

    Garners sculpture borrows the 90s installation shock tactics of artists like Mona Hatoum, Robert Gober and Pepon Osorio, but it also conjures battles over the Covid-19 vaccine, and modern-day inequities in medicine.

    A typical phenomenon in large surveys is to include merely acceptable art by extraordinary artists. Too often, it gives a lukewarm introduction to people who have made exceptional contributions but whose best works may not be available. This challenge was met here by curators presenting paintings and works on paper by Milford Graves, who started off as a percussionist and became a visionary healer, teacher, visual artist and martial arts master. Graves, who died in February, has an exhibition opening in a few days at Artists Space, where I expect he will be better represented.

    Look, too, for works on paper by Rosemary Mayer (1943-2014), though her recent show at Gordon Robichaux gallery featured examples of her best work: billowing fabric suggestive of womens anatomy.

    The bulk of the art here by younger contemporary artists unfortunately replicates, without much vision, the dreamy, quirky, surrealism of artists like Marc Chagall, Leonor Fini or Remedios Varo; early Modernist abstract painting and sculpture; experimental photography from the 1920s and 30s; and the bodily sculpture of Kiki Smith.

    One of the most enduring and important factors in the art world class remains largely invisible in this show. Rents are still high in New York, and artists are expected to have costly graduate degrees. The wealth of museum patrons and trustees, has become a sticking point among protesters and groups like Decolonize This Place. While wall labels describing the ethnicity of artists feels quaint at this point, what would be truly radical would be to include the artists debt load, which literally determines many contemporary artists ability to participate in the studio-based art world. (Moreover, the faulty assumption that artists from so-called developing nations are not among the wealthy classes in their countries of origin is a huge oversight.)

    One of the dont-miss works addressing class is Marie Karlbergs satirical video The Good Terrorist (2021), which updates Doris Lessings 1985 novel of the same name. It features several well-known artists (Nicole Eisenman, Jacolby Satterwhite) playing entitled revolutionaries occupying a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side.

    Here, identity politics actors include people of color and some who are gay are seamlessly woven into a work in which radical leftists attempt to coexist and effect change in the world. Perhaps the most telling feature is that their privilege as famous artists cozy in the museum world goes unmentioned in the wall text.

    Greater New York 2021

    Through April 18, 2022, MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave., Queens; (718) 784-2084; moma.org. Entry to MoMA PS1 is by advance timed ticket.

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    Greater New York, a Show of the Moment, Dwells in the Radical Past - The New York Times

    COP26: The sculpture created from 1765 Antarctic air – Yahoo News - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Wayne Binitie displays his sculpture

    Antarctic snowfall two-and-half centuries old forms the basis of a new artwork by Wayne Binitie, titled 1765 - Antarctic Air. It forms the centrepiece to the Polar Zero exhibition in Glasgow throughout the UN climate summit COP26. Binitie says he wants his piece to provide an artistic marker of how much the earth's atmosphere has altered since the crucial date of 1765.

    The slightly battered old statue of the inventor James Watt on Glasgow Green stands a couple of miles from the city's modern Science Centre. There's an obvious connection: Watt (who died in 1819) has long been acclaimed as one of the great figures of Scottish science and engineering.

    But thanks to Binitie, a Royal College of Art PhD candidate, there's currently a more specific link as well.

    In 1765, crossing the parkland where the statue now is, Watt successfully thought through how steam engines - increasingly vital to industry - could be redesigned to become hugely more efficient.

    The year 1765 is regarded by some as the start of the Industrial Revolution.

    But Binitie says it's also when humans started to do serious damage to the atmosphere which sustains us all. In an unusual artistic collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) he's built the significance of that year into the small but striking installation 1765 - Antarctic Air at the heart of the Polar Zero exhibition.

    1765 - Antarctic Air

    "We wanted to offer some proximity to what's quite a remote conversation now taking place about global warming," he says. "Because of COP26 the Glasgow Science Centre was the obvious place to do it. We're offering a sense of touch and what it means to be in touch with ice and air.

    "As you enter the oval-shaped room there's a cylindrical glass sculpture on one side, housed in a floor-to-ceiling black steel frame. The cylinder contains a visible area of liquid silicone and above that is air, carefully extracted from polar ice dating from 1765.

    Story continues

    The ice core mined from deep in the snow of the Antarctic

    "On the other side of the room is a second cylinder of Antarctic ice. It's intact but you see it melting all the time: it will be replaced during the run of the exhibition with other ice we have in store."

    Visitors can touch and hear and if they're brave even taste the second lot of ice. In addition there is a highly evocative soundtrack in the room, blending music and the sounds of nature.

    The man who mined the ice for the British Antarctic Survey is glaciologist Dr Robert Mulvaney. He's been visiting the Antarctic for 25 years, staying for up to 80 weeks in a tent to drill out ice-cores before returning to the British base station.

    "The essence of what we're doing as scientists is to record what happened to the ice-sheet over a period of many thousands of years: that way we can investigate what happened to the climate and to the atmosphere.

    Artist Wayne Binitie documents his work with the Antarctic ice

    "For instance next spring I shall be making a trip to Greenland where the ice-sheet can give a record going back around 120,000 years. But in Antarctica we've already been back over 800,000 years and a new project will we hope take us back up to 1.5 million years."

    Given those mind-boggling figures the water dripping slowly from Binitie's installation - the ice had already been in storage for 30 years - may seem of minor importance. "We've done all the science on it now and it was surplus to requirements.

    "So the British Antarctic Survey was delighted to cooperate on the art project because we want people to understand what's happening to the polar regions. 1765 is usually accepted as the beginning of the period in which human beings changed the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels on an industrial scale."

    Robert Mulvaney (left), Graham Dodd and Wayne Binitie examine their collaboration on the sculpture

    Dr Mulvaney makes uncovering ice from 256 years ago sound like child's play - once you've set up your tents around 1,000km from the home comforts of the Antarctic base station.

    "Snow falls in Antarctica year by year - but there's no melting going on. So the snow builds up and compresses all the years of snow beneath. As we drill down we're driving further and further into the past - a bit like counting the rings of a big tree.

    "What helps is that every so often we know that a certain volcano blew up in a particular year and we may find evidence of that. So using our drills to find a specific year isn't quite as hard as you would imagine."

    Analysis shows that in 1765 carbon dioxide made up 280 parts per million in the air. By the 1960s that had already increased to 315 parts per million. But today the figure is 415 per million - an obvious increase in the rate of change.

    The ice supplied for the Binitie artwork came from 110 metres down. The deepest Dr Mulvaney has drilled is around 3,200 metres.

    The Antarctic gas being extracted

    Binitie was meant to experience all of this courtesy of the BAS but Covid got in the way. It's obvious how much Dr Mulvaney delights in describing the experience of being there. Asked if satellite phones keep the small team safely in touch with the world he says he does his best not to use them: "It brings the troubles of the world onto the site and I need to be focused on the work."

    Once the ice core was extracted, the job was to release the flecks of air trapped in the Antarctic in 1765. Binitie's concept is to establish this as a starting line: the purest possible air trapped in ice just before the modern world started to pollute it. The international engineering company Arup helped out with some of the practicalities.

    Graham Dodd of Arup says encasing 256 year-old air within glass was a challenge. "After a lot of thought we decided the right technique was to make a casing with a void inside which we then filled with fluid. We had to find a way so Robert could then inject into that space the air extracted from the ice that the BAS had given us.

    Antarctic air up close

    "The other artistic challenge was to find a way to display the other column, which is simply ice. As an artist, Wayne needed visitors to see and hear the ice dripping away very slowly as that makes the point about global warming. Arup's engineering job was to ensure it doesn't disappear too quickly."

    Binitie thinks the global warming conversation can sometimes feel too generic, with issues almost too big to comprehend. "So I hope our installation in Glasgow will persuade people that the polar regions are a sufficiently precious thing to care about. Some perspectives are political or theoretical or economic but we're trying to supply a poetic perspective too.

    Binitie hopes some of the VIPs attending COP26 nearby will come to see his installation. "We'd like 1765 - Antarctic Ice to surprise them. I want to do something to encourage a collective conversation: if we move forward collectively we know we can achieve a lot."

    Polar Zero is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

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    COP26: The sculpture created from 1765 Antarctic air - Yahoo News

    Meow Wolf Denver: Is it worth the hype? DU Clarion – DU Clarion - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    There are two words that best describe Denvers new Meow Wolf exhibit: sensory overload. From a hall of mirrors to self-playing instruments to an extraterrestrial rainforest, the Mile High Citys newest interactive art exhibition is sure to keep your head spinning from the second you enter its psychedelic world to the moment you leave.

    Meow Wolf is a New Mexico-based arts and entertainment company known for its extremely popular immersive and transportive art exhibits. The companys first permanent exhibition opened in Santa Fe, N.M., in 2016, followed by a Las Vegas establishment earlier this year. Denvers permanent location, called Convergence Station, opened Sept. 17.

    As an interactive art exhibit, Meow Wolfs Convergence Station is rather hard to explain. Imagine hidden rooms to explore, walls camouflaged by galleries of masks and faces, otherworldly creatures hanging from the ceiling, all presented through the lens of a quantum travel themed narrative. The unique textures and ethereal lighting are limitless, with every room leading to a sensory surprise.

    After four years of construction and installation, Convergence Station is located in a 90,000-square-foot building off of Interstate 25, with four stories to display the work of 110 Colorado artists and more than 90 others from around the country.

    The Denver exhibits impressive ticket sales speak to Meow Wolfs celebrity: 35,000 tickets were sold within the first 24 hours. Prices are $45 for general admission; $40 for children, military and seniors; and $35 for Colorado residents. Unfortunately for out-of-state students, you can only receive the state resident price if your billing address is in Coloradonot just your shipping address.

    With such a hefty price tag, is Convergence Station worth it? There is no denying that the exhibition makes for a fun and interesting night outespecially for date night, as the museum-like activity allows you to get to know one another while falling back on the art itself when the conversation runs dry.

    Yet, there were many parts of the exhibit that were confusing. For example, upon entering the building, it is unclear where to go in order to start the experience. One might easily get stuck waiting in a line meant for purchasing additional features, thinking it is the line to the exhibit.

    Furthermore, there were several seemingly interactive installations that were, in fact, not interactive at alltelephones that would not call, despite phone numbers being displayed nearby; screens that would not change when prompted. It is possible that features such as these were unlocked by purchasing the add-ons, but the fact that this was unclear demonstrates poor communication.

    Perhaps the most confusing of all was the underlying storyline of the exhibit. Was the art meant to speak for itself or was there some discernible narrative in the hecticness of all the colorful rooms?

    As it turns out, the four floors of installations are indeed linked through a backstorya tale of dirty politicians, the disappearance of four women, a life-altering cosmic event called the Convergence and the collecting and trading of memories. Yet, this backstory was not easily found on Meow Wolfs website, and while the art can be enjoyed and appreciated without it, knowing the narrative ahead of time would certainly add to the experience.

    A notable point to keep in mind before entering the world of Convergence Station yourself is that limited parking is available at the Meow Wolf building. However, there is a $5 lot just a short walk away. Public transit also makes the exhibition easily accessible from DU, as taking the light rail six stops to the Empower Field at Mile High Station will drop you off five minutes from the exhibitthree minutes if you walk briskly.

    While the tickets are sold by timeslot, the times are rather arbitrary, as nobody monitors how long you stay in the exhibitwhich will likely be around two hoursmeaning the rooms do get overcrowded. You also have to pass through security upon entering, including a metal detector. Fear not though, ladies, because the pepper spray on your lanyard should not pose a barrier to entry. Facemasks are also required at all times, and unlike many places during the pandemic, the Meow Wolf security guards actually enforce the rule.

    While Convergence Station proved a funalbeit wackynight out, this expensive exhibition might leave you questioning whether Meow Wolf lives up to the hype. The exhibits slogan, Arrive as you. Leave transformed feels a little too dramatic for what the experience offers.

    More here:
    Meow Wolf Denver: Is it worth the hype? DU Clarion - DU Clarion

    How Women Made Their Place in Abstract Sculpture – The New York Times - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    As a graduate student of sculpture in the 1970s, Maren Hassinger had little affinity for traditional fibers used in weaving class.

    I didnt like weaving with flexible materials, Ms. Hassinger said in a phone interview from New York. One day in a junkyard I found some wire rope, and it changed my career.

    With wire rope, I could make self-supporting objects with a strength and linearity that appealed to me.

    Ms. Hassinger is one of nine sculptors represented in a show at theWaddington Custot gallery in London during Frieze Week. Titled Making It: Women and Abstract Sculpture, the show tackles the sweeping theme of the artists contribution to the development of abstraction in modern sculpture.

    Two years ago, we had the idea to show women artists who have been forgotten or overlooked by the art world, said Stphane Custot, co-founder of the gallery in an interview from London. We went looking for artists who had brought something new to the history of art with techniques or materials that were unusual, even extravagant, for their time.

    Inside the sprawling 2,260-square-foot gallery, 22 pieces, some historical or sourced from private collections, showcase the varied ways those artists, five of whom are living, explored the possibilities of sculpture, starting in the 1960s and 70s.

    An additional piece, a black and white bronze abstraction by the Greek-born Sophia Vari titled Trouble Essentiel, is displayed outdoors on New Bond Street as part of a public sculpture trail organized by Art in Mayfair and as a teaser for the Making It gallery show nearby on Cork Street.

    It is fun to show sculpture outdoors because you can see how it changes in the natural light and lives with everything that happens around it, Mr. Custot said. It also piques the publics curiosity to come inside the gallery and see what else we are showing.

    Like Ms. Vari, Lynda Benglis, Olga de Amaral and Louise Nevelson are established names, while others like Beverly Pepper, Franoise Grossen, Mildred Thompson, Ms. Hassinger and Barbara Levittoux-Swiderska, are getting new attention.

    Women have been overlooked from the greater narrative of sculpture, a practice long seen as macho and dependent on an ability to wrestle with physical material, said Natalie Rudd, senior curator of the Arts Council Collection, the largest public loan collection of British art, speaking from Nottingham, in the north of England.

    It is interesting to look at artists working in the 1960s and 70s when a collision of interests, starting with the second wave of feminism, the emergence of postminimalism in sculpture, and a move away from solid blocks to a wider range of materials, created a real opportunity for women to carve their own space, Ms. Rudd said.

    Uncommon materials found objects, latex foam, fibers, horsehair or wire rope helped these artists create works that challenged convention by expanding the definition of monumental sculpture and by using abstraction to invent new forms of three-dimensional art.

    A floor-based blob of red and orange polyurethane foam (or melted latex), an early work by Ms. Benglis called Untitled (1970-71), for instance, challenges the verticality of traditional sculpture.

    Some of the artists used fibers, wood or other everyday materials to make arresting objects, applying artisanal techniques often associated with the domain of women and domesticity.

    An oversized woven tapestry in the show titled Manto de Greda (Clay Mantle), made with wool and horsehair using Indigenous techniques, is the work of the Colombian-born artist Olga de Amaral, a figure of postwar Latin American abstraction.

    A wood assemblage by Mildred Thompson, an African American artist from Jacksonville, Fla., reflects her experimentation with found wood.

    Fire, a monumental floor-to-ceiling suspension made of sisal, rope and metal, is one of three large pieces by Barbara Levittoux-Swiderska, an avant-garde artist largely unknown outside her native Poland.

    What is fascinating is the range of these women, Ms. Rudd said, their bodily relationship with the work, their physical engagement with the material and the handmade quality of their pieces.

    There is also a precariousness in their pieces seen in the notion of balance and in the way the works lean or hang.

    Untitled Vessel, (Small Body) (2021) by Ms. Hassinger illustrates her longtime fascination with the rigidity of wire rope.

    I use wire rope because it describe me personally, Ms. Hassinger said. It is tough and unbending, it never disintegrates, and I have to fight it to work with it.

    Ms. Hassinger, 74, a director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, has been a teacher, performance artist and sculptor since the 1970s.

    Back then, very few women showed their sculpture, Ms. Hassinger said. I quickly realized that there were many obstacles in my way as a woman and an African American.

    I felt underappreciated, but I wasnt hostile about it. I decided that I would continue to do my work even if there was no place to show it. So I made art, I was a teacher, and I raised my kids.

    Institutional validation of her work came when Ms. Hassinger was in her 70s. MoMA was one of the first museums to buy my work three years ago, she said.

    In the show Close to You at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Ms. Hassingers piece Embrace/Love (2008/2018) shows her range. A wall installation of pink plastic bags filled with human breath, it is on display through January 2022.

    Today, public institutions are broadening the historical narrative around sculpture and it is becoming obvious that women have contributed so much to that narrative, Ms. Rudd said.

    Fueled by the attention from public institutions, commercial galleries are taking a new look at female artists like Ms. Hassinger, who had her first solo show at the Susan Inglett Gallery in New York last spring.

    I had given up showing my work, Ms. Hassinger said. Suddenly, this year, I was invited to join a gallery.

    The show at Waddington Custot may be well timed, but it is undeniably a gamble for Mr. Custot to present artists without salable name recognition.

    Commercially speaking, the show is 100 percent risky, Mr. Custot said. Art buyers today prefer to buy a certain brand of artist.

    But I see our job as gallerists as complementing the work of institutions, he said.

    We want to be part of the conversation that museums have started.

    Read the original post:
    How Women Made Their Place in Abstract Sculpture - The New York Times

    Judy Chicago Retrospective Brings the Artist Full Circle – Hyperallergic - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    SAN FRANCISCO Artists with shorter and less varied careers have been celebrated with retrospectives, so its hard to believe that an icon such as Judy Chicago has had to wait this long for her flowers. But that injustice makes the experience of seeing Judy Chicago: A Retrospective at San Franciscos de Young Museum the exhibitions only venueeven more rewarding. This blockbuster show spanning six decades of the artists career may actually be worth the wait its expansive and satisfying, leaving the viewer with much to think about.

    The exhibition, curated by Claudia Schmuckli, takes a unique approach by presenting Chicagos work in reverse chronological order, with each room organized around a theme. The first room contains her most recent body of work, The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction (2015-19). One is immediately confronted with Mortality Relief (2016), a life-size bronze relief depicting Chicago on her deathbed holding a bouquet of flowers. A series of small-scale, intimate paintings on black glass show Chicagos meditations on death and dying in other cultures as well as a deeply personal sequence on How Will I Die that asks questions such as Will I die in my husbands arms? Along the opposite wall are companion paintings in the same style on the theme of extinction, lamenting the destructive impact of humans on plant and animal species including rare orchids, endangered elephants, and sharks that are cruelly mutilated to harvest their fins. The parallel focus on her innermost fears what will happen to me? along with the most all-encompassing grief what are we doing to the planet and other living things? is both astute and incredibly moving.

    Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985-1993) is a series of mostly paintings and sculptures and a tapestry mural representing the artists examination of her Jewish heritage and the atrocities of the Holocaust. This body of work culminates in a darkened room with black walls where a magnificent stained-glass piece, Rainbow Shabbat (1992), literally lights up the space with a vision of a more equitable world represented by diverse individuals seated together, heads turned towards a standing Mother Teresa-like figure at the head of the table.

    The huge canvases in the PowerPlay series (1982-87), exemplified by Driving the World to Destruction (1985), portray muscular male figures engaged in acts of aggression, subverting the classical beauty of Renaissance nudes by showing the ugliness of patriarchy and toxic masculinity. Two paintings of oversized, square-jawed faces depict expressions of anguish with the words Hold Me and Help Me appearing in the figures open mouths like a silent wish to express vulnerability. Many of the paintings showcase Chicagos trademark rainbow palette, but whats truly striking is how relevant they are to the present moment and the lingering turmoil of the Trump presidency, even though these works were made more than 30 years ago.

    No one can deny that Chicago tackles big topics like the environment and genocide, but paradoxically its her most intimate and personal work that comes across as universal. While her recent output reflects on the end of life, Birth Project(1980-85) contains some of her most famous artwork celebrating female bodies, the act of childbirth, and various creation myths. These tapestry and mixed-media works exemplify Chicagos interest in elevating fringe techniques such as needlework and embroidery, often maligned as too domestic or feminine for serious art. Many of them were created collaboratively with women who specialized in needlepoint, weaving, and quilting.

    Its impossible to write about Judy Chicago without mentioning The Dinner Party (197479). This monumental installation consisting of a large, triangular table adorned with intricate embroidery and 39 sculptural place settings named for important women in history such as Virginia Woolf, Georgia OKeeffe, and Sojourner Truth, along with a tiled heritage floor inscribed with more than 900 additional names was first exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1979 and is now permanently housed at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. While the installation itself is not included in the De Young exhibit, an entire section is devoted to a variety of test plates featuring suggestive floral and vaginal imagery that caused a huge sensation when first exhibited, plus sketches of some of the designs and a short film. The work is essential to an understanding of Chicagos career and influences, although she has expressed her frustration that it tends to overshadow the rest of her oeuvre. Indeed, it was created more than 40 years half her lifetime ago.

    Chicagos work has been written about extensively, and more recent scholarship pays tribute to the breadth and ambition of her achievement while acknowledging shortcomings. She has said that she intentionally creates art that will be legible to mainstream viewers, eschewing the cool detachment and irony of postmodernism. That accessibility is both a blessing and a curse it has the potential to reach a broader audience, but its literalness is also its downfall. For example, her effort to be inclusive with The Dinner Party by listing hundreds of women from history only served to highlight who was noticeably left out. There are only a handful of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx women, and no women at all from Asia, South Asia, or the Pacific Islands (unless you count the Hindu deity Kali). Notable women from the most populous region of the planet are completely absent. Its a perfect example of the limitations of art with a social justice lens: The more noble the intention, the more harshly it will be judged.

    The works featured in the Feminist Art Project section offer a fascinating glimpse into Chicagos feminist awakening. Theres a memorable advertisement from a 1970 issue of Artforum in which the young artist, then known as Judy Gerowitz, publicly divested herself of the patriarchal convention of taking her fathers and then husbands name in order to freely choose her own name: Judy Chicago. A short film documents Womanhouse (1972), a collaboration with Miriam Schapiro that was a house in Burbank, California filled with installations focused on conventionally female topics such as the body and domesticity made by Chicago and her art students as part of the feminist arts education program she established at Cal State Fresno, which later moved to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). The work from this period is important as it marked her radicalization and subsequent focus on making art outside of and often in opposition to the male gaze. Although celebrated as one of the pioneers of feminist art, Chicago speaks candidly about being rejected by the male-dominated art establishment and the difficulty of forging her own path largely unsupported.

    The final room in the exhibition presents Chicagos earliest work under the theme of Minimalism and Atmospheres, which includes the large-scale sculpture Rainbow Pickett (1965, recreated 2004), groovy painted car hoods, and a playful series of lifesaver paintings and other minimalist compositions. Videos of her Atmospheres (smoke performances) play in the adjacent hallway.

    Just outside the main exhibition space, past the museum gift shop, is a set of large banners in jewel tones hanging from the ceiling, on the theme of What If Women Ruled the World? It was unclear to me whether these were actually part of the retrospective they are excluded from the catalogue and audio tour, and I had to ask museum staff for more information. The banners are from The Female Divine, a project commissioned by Dior for its 2020 spring couture show held at the Rodin Museum in Paris. My first thought was that the banners didnt fit the overall narrative for the exhibit one focused on Chicagos outsider-ness and pursuit of a vision that was oblivious to trends and uncorrupted by the art market. The invitation to collaborate with a prestigious high fashion brand was the greatest creative opportunity of my life, according to Chicago, and perhaps a prelude to her recent resurgence. (In addition to the De Young retrospective, Chicagos work is currently featured in at least two other Bay Area venues an exhibit on art and feminism at the Berkeley Art Museum, and an exhibit focused on the lyrics of Leonard Cohen at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.) One cant claim to be anti-fashion and then suddenly show up on a Dior runway.

    But the more I thought about it, the pieces from The Female Divine provided a more fitting close to the exhibit than her early experiments with minimalism. They echo the utopian impulses of her most explicitly feminist work and bring us full circle back to the present. The banners speculate on what life might be like if women were in charge Would God be female? Would men and women be equal? Would there be equal parenting? Would the earth be protected? and they invite us to imagine a future that is better than the hyper-polarized, pandemic-ravaged world we live in today. With everything weve been through, its undeniably appealing to dream of being reborn into a society thats less divided, less hostile to women, and more just for everyone. To me, Chicago is at her most powerful not when she shows us what is, but when she asks us, what could be?

    Judy Chicago: A Retrospective continues at the de Young Museum (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco) through January 9, 2022. The exhibition is curated by Claudia Schmuckli.

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    Judy Chicago Retrospective Brings the Artist Full Circle - Hyperallergic

    Surface Tension: Tabitha Soren’s photographs touch on politics, culture and the natural world – Berkeleyside - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    A mural wallpaper of an eye (psychology.about.com) is applied directly to a temporary wall as part of Tabitha Sorens Surface Tension installation at Mills College Art Museum. Credit: Michael Halberstadt

    Berkeley photographer Tabitha Soren wants us to slow down and consider the images we absorb with our eyes and then pass along on our devices. In her new series Surface Tension, 45 images on view at the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland until Dec. 12, Soren questions how contemporary society consumes and disseminates information.

    There is a connection between what troubles us and what distracts us, Soren said. We use what distracts us to evade what troubles us.

    Using a large-format camera, Soren captures screenshots of images culled from text messages and web searches on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. Some are private moments: a child blowing an emailed goodnight kiss to her mother, another asleep in bed. Others are more public: a man raising his fist in a Black Lives Matter protest, buildings ablaze in the Paradise fire. A process of applying colored gel to the surface of her iPad before she shoots reveals patterns of fingers and handprints that resemble abstract brushstrokes. These are the grimy traces left behind as the images are apprehended, then swiped through on a digital screen. The result is a tangible, forensic record of what compels attention, what is consumed, manipulated, and dismissed in a constant search to feed an endless craving for entertainment.

    Soren is well versed in the intersection of technology and culture. Before moving on to fine art photography, she was a Peabody Award-winning journalist and former reporter for MTV, ABC, and NBC News. Her layered approach allows her to explore the interactions between the viewer and the image, between the authenticity of the source, and the whims and desires of the consumer.

    Surface Tension is Sorens first solo museum show in the Bay Area, where she makes her home in Berkeley with her husband and children. Its wonderful to have my art world family view the work in such a gorgeous space, Soren said. Additionally, she was excited by the museums impressive exhibition history, which has included shows by renowned artists such as Jay Defeo, Faith Ringgold, and Hung Liu. Motivated by the venue and its participation in the Feminist Art Coalition, Soren created three new pieces specifically for the installation.

    A mural-sized close-up of an eye greets the viewer as soon as they enter the museum. The image was sourced from psychology.about.com. Across the surface of the eye, traces of white fingerprints have left a residue of trail marks in their wake. Touch, Soren suggests, has become less physical and more virtual as we constantly meander through the digital realm.The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation Soren refers to as Hall of Mirrors. Commissioned and acquired by the museum, Soren crafted an immersive environment of resistance: 15 images culled from the Black Lives Matter protests, the Womens March, the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the recent insurrection at the Capital. Hanging each image from the ceiling on thin cables enabled Soren to back them with mirrored plexiglass. Using a reflective material on the back allows the viewer to be reflected into the protests, Soren said. Yet surfing the web is also a way of not interacting. It steals the time we might actually enact change, she added.

    Continuing the theme of reflection, the multi-channel video and sound installation Narcissus serves as a space contemplation in the back room. Three light-boxes positioned on the floor project images of colored thumb and fingerprints that look like rocks scattered at the bottom of a river bed. The title refers to the Greek myth of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who yearned after his reflection until he pined away and died. Scientists are studying how our interaction with these devices affects the way we treat each other, Soren explained. One result is a condition they call digital narcissism.' She is referring to the habit so prevalent now of posting and sharing selfies and other intimate moments on social media.

    Finally, a dramatic cluster of large-scale photos of the natural world: the Great Barrier Reef, shrinking glaciers, and the Arctic Ocean reminds us that human interaction human touch can be dangerous. A dark blue photo of Greenland is overlaid with swirls of yellow and red fingerprints that burst across the surface like consuming flames over the ice. Like forensic evidence gathering at a crime scene, these shots, with their greasy coating of human marks, imply that our fingerprints are on everything. We have not left any part of our planet untouched and unharmed in our quest to consume and populate information around the globe.

    Surface Tension is an ambitious series that maps our pervasive reliance on technology to engage in the most basic human interaction: touch. The forgotten traces that Sorens camera makes visible remind us that touch can be as delicate as a good night kiss, it can be dismissive, and it can be harmful. Touch is, in the end, a record of our existence.

    Gabrielle Selz is an award-winning author. Her books include the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis,Light on Fire,andUnstill Life: Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction. Her essays and art reviews have appeared inThe New Yorker,The New York Times,The Los Angeles Times,Hyperallgic, Art & Object, Art Papers, The Rumpus,andThe Huffington Postamong others. She makes her home in Oakland, California.

    Berkeleyside relies on reader support so we can remain free to access for everyone in our community. Donate to help us continue to provide you with reliable, independent reporting.

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    Surface Tension: Tabitha Soren's photographs touch on politics, culture and the natural world - Berkeleyside

    Wind farm owners denied turbines were too loud, yet claimed compensation for them – The Age - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    I still hear the turbines over everything. Whenever theres been a few really bad nights in a row, I drive my car down to the beach and sleep in it. Your body feels tight, your head feels in a compressive state. You just have to get out of the place.

    For Mr Uren, who moved to a different property three years ago, it was the unpredictability of the turbine noise that most triggered him.

    It was worse in cold weather and when the wind came from a certain direction. Some days Id look at the forecast, see cold days and dread the roaring I knew was on the way.

    The duos grievances have culminated in a challenge in the states highest court that will hear both sides final arguments on Tuesday.

    The case typifies an increasingly common dispute in Victoria: residents protesting against the installation of noisy wind farms in what is a rapidly expanding sector.

    As the Andrews government pursues its emissions reductions targets of 28 to 33 per cent by 2025 and 45 to 50 per cent by 2030, at least 14 of the states 34 wind farms have been built since 2015. A further 22 are under construction or awaiting approval.

    Similarly to Mr Zakula and Mr Uren, the construction of a 215-turbine, $2 billion wind farm in Golden Plains Shire, west of Melbourne, has been unsuccessfully challenged by local farmer Hamish Cumming on three occasions.

    Wind farms have surged as Premier Daniel Andrews government pursues ambitious emissions reduction targets.Credit:Getty Images

    A Supreme Court challenge against a 26-turbine wind farm by 25 residents from Hawkesdale, south-west Victoria, was also unsuccessful in August.

    Win or lose, Mr Zakula, represented by Dominica Tannock from DST Legal, hopes his case emboldens others in his situation to question how the industry operates.

    Its costing us a fortune against these big multinational mobs. Id like the entire compliance regime to be investigated and reconsidered after this, he says.

    On the second day of the trial, Justice Melinda Richards started by noting her associate received a phone call that morning from Andrew Dyer, the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner and former national wind farm commissioner.

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    Mr Dyer apparently wanted to let me know that there is a range of resources on his offices website and he also offered to speak with me about issues in the case, she said.

    Needless to say, I will not be consulting the website and I will not be speaking with Mr Dyer.

    Mr Dyer apologised to the court later that week.

    After starting the case as a group of 12 last year, Mr Zakula and Mr Uren are the only remaining plaintiffs following mediation and the death of two group members.

    Living off-grid, Mr Zakula is keen to dispel any suggestions he or his neighbours are anti-renewables.

    I live down here to enjoy the environment. I havent been able to do that for years.

    The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.

    Continued here:
    Wind farm owners denied turbines were too loud, yet claimed compensation for them - The Age

    If Youre Looking for an Excuse to Visit Paris, FIAC Is Back. And Theres a Lot of Art to Love in the South of France, Too – artnet News - October 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Yes, Paris is for art lovers, and its not hard to see whyin the City of Light, anything and everything can be elevated to an art form, from the Arc de Triomphe to a loaf of bread.

    Of course, the capital is hardly the only place in France with an art scene. From the gritty port city of Marseille to the countryside idyll of Aix to the ever-splashy Cte dAzur, Provence has long been a magnet for creatives of all stripes.

    For discerning travelers looking to rediscover the joys of a quick jaunt to Paris and the South of France (with as little as 10 hours notice, no less), NetJets offers personalized service with heightened attention to detail gained from more than 55 years of experience, industry-leading standards, and a multilingual team dedicated to anticipating your every need.

    Bon voyage!

    Pariss Grand Palais phmre. Patrick Tourneboeuf.

    See and Do: After going online-only last year, Pariss Foire Internationale dArt Contemporain (FIAC) is back IRL with 160 Modern art, contemporary art, and design galleries from 25 countries participating in its 47th edition (from October 2124, 2021).

    The fair will occupy the Grand Palais phmre and the Galerie Eiffel, sustainably designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to mimic their namesake monuments on the Champ-de-Mars. (The temporary structures are hosting all of the exhibitions, fashion shows, and sporting events that would normally be held in the glass-roofed Grand Palais Nave, which is closed for renovations until the 2024 Olympic Games.)

    Fifty additional galleries will present exclusive digital exhibitions via FIACs online viewing rooms. And October 10 will see the return of Gallery Night, with 100 art spaces across Paris open late (until 10 p.m.). Meanwhile, FIAC Hors les Murs will bring art outdoors and across the city, from site-specific installations at the Jardin des Tuileries to Alexander Calders monumental sculpture Flying Dragon (1975) on the Place Vendme.

    Urs Fischer, Untitled, 2011 (detail) in the Rotonde of Pariss Bourse de Commerce, the new museum of the Pinault collection. Urs Fischer. Courtesy Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich.Photo: Stefan Altenburger.

    Beyond the fair, following a three-year restoration led by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, the ca.-1889 Bourse de Commerce (Pariss former stock exchange) reopened this spring as a museum with 10 galleries to house Franois Pinaults 10,000-work-strong collection of contemporary art. The inaugural show, Ouverture, contains nearly 200 pieces, from a group of never-before-shown works by the elusive David Hammons to a quasi-replica of Giambolognas Renaissance statue The Abduction of the Sabine Women, which the Swiss artist Urs Fischer sculpted in wax. Doubling as a candle, it melts in dialogue with the 19th-century iconography painted on the walls of the glass-domed Rotonde (until December 21, 2021).

    Inside Galleria Continua Pariss Truc a faire, curated by JR. Photo: Sara De Santis. Courtesy of the artists and gallery.

    The Marais recently welcomed a couple of fun Italian imports, including the Kengo Kuma-designedMassimo De Carlo Pice Unique, which shows just one artwork at a timecurrently from the American multimedia artist Doug Aitken (until October 17, 2021). Situated in a former leather wholesaler,Galleria Continua is running its inaugural, JR-curated showTruc Faireuntil October 31, 2021, featuring works by the likes of Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei displayed alongside books and groceries on hundreds of shelves in a presentation that is, as the French photographer and street artist put it, halfway between a cathedral and a supermarket.

    Lvy Gorvy also recently set up in the Marais, tapping Luis Laplace to restore a space originally designed by Jean Nouvel. From October 7 until November 13, 2021, the gallery is showing the third chapter in its four-city exhibition, Mickalene Thomas: Beyond the Pleasure Principle. It is premiering a series of the artists large-scale Resist paintings, which feature silk-screened images and archival photos focused on Black American Civil Rights activism from the 1960s to the present.

    Mickalene Thomas, Jet Blue #25, 2021(detail). Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

    Nearby, Lafayette Anticipations Fondation des Galeries Lafayette gave Martin Margiela carte blanche for Martin Margielanot as a designer, but as an artist (October 20, 2021January 2, 2022). The legendary and legendarily enigmatic fashion figure designed the exhibition as a total artwork that visitors enter through the emergency exit, with disappearance and transformation as themes. More than 40 of his multimedia works are on public display for the first time.

    Avenue Matignon is becoming something of an art hub in the 8th arrondissement. Home to the expanding headquarters ofChristies, it recently welcomed new locations from Marais galleriesAlmine Rech andEmmanuel Perrotin. And it is here that LondonsWhite Cube has its Paris office, which is hosting a show featuring Georg Baselitz, Tracey Emin, and Takis during FIAC (October 18November 12, 2021).

    Two influential galleries focused on African contemporary art are also moving in. The Abidjan- and Dakar-basedLa Galerie Cecile Fakhoury will open its first space outside the African continent at 29 Avenue Matignon later this month, showing new works by Senegalese painter Kassou Seydou and Ivorian American mixed-media artist Ouattara Watts (who worked closely with Jean-Michel Basquiat), among others.

    Mariane Ibrahim has a new gallery on Pariss Avenue Matignon. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim Gallery.

    Star Chicago art dealerMariane Ibrahimwho lived in France before moving to the U.S. in 2010 and has championed Black artists from across the African diaspora, from the Ghanaian market star Amoako Boafo to the American photographer Ayana V. Jacksonis unveilingher first international outpost in a three-level Haussmann building at number 18. The first exhibition, Jai Deux Amours, pays homage to the namesake Josephine Baker song, with new works by the gallerys roster of multicultural artists (until October 13, 2021).

    Eat and Drink: Food lovers have been flocking toForest, the new restaurant at the Muse dArt Moderne, where the young Parisian chef Julien Sebbag serves up a menu that is an artful and eco-conscious ode to plant life along with cocktails inspired by the elements. After spending the summer on the terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower, the restaurant has moved into a minimalist indoor-outdoor space.

    Rose Chalalai Singh, chef-owner of the fashion worlds favorite Thai restaurant in Paris, Ya Lama, recently opened her tiny Rose Kitchen at Le Marche des Enfants Rouges, the citys oldest covered market, in the Marais. With a menu of Thai comfort foods featuring recipes passed down from her grandmother, it is already a go-to spot for the art and style sets, hosting dinners for everyone from Chanel to Gagosian.

    Stay: Leave it to LVMH to open the most stylish new hotel in town. Designed by the architects Peter Marino and Edouard Franois with 72 rooms and suites, not to mention its Dior Spa,Cheval Blanc Paris has the vibe of a private residenceone that just happens to be ideally situated between the Marais, le de la Cit, and the Louvre. Between the Vik Muniz canvases and the staircase featuring woven metal crafted by Sophie Mallebranche, art is a central part of its appeal.

    The pool inside the new Cheval Blanc Paris has mosaics handcrafted by Michael Mayer and a virtual Oyoram fresco. Alexandre Tabaste.

    Worth a quick detour: Airelles Chteau de Versailles, Le Grand Contrle recently opened as the first and only hotel within the Palace of Versailles grounds. Built ca. 1681 by Jules Hardouin-Mansartthe preferred architect of Louis XIVto host European ambassadors and artists, the site was restored to its original splendor over the course of four years. Expect 14 old-meets-new rooms and suites with Baroque art and objets, plus exclusive access to the palace, the Trianon Domain, and the Orangery gardens. Airelles also has a new hotel in Saint-Tropez, Chateau de la Messardire.

    Travel safely without the hassles of crowded airports and maximize your leisure time with NetJets. With global access to more than 760 aircraft worldwide in 5,000-plus airports across 200-plus countries and territories, the travel possibilities are infinite. Enhanced aircraft cleaning protocols, the most experienced pilots, and an unparalleled commitment to safety mean you can relax en route to your destination with total peace of mindthe ultimate luxury.

    Frank Gehrys stainless-steel Luma Arles tower was inspired by the regions rock clusters and Van Goghs Starry Night. Iwan Baan for LUMA Arles, 2021.

    See and Do: After more than a dozen years in development, June saw the launch ofLuma Arles, a 27-acre campus devoted to creativity and contemporary art in the ancient Roman city of Arles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its centerpiece is a twisting, 12-level tower that Frank Gehry designed from 11,000 gleaming, stainless steel panels inspired by the regions rock clusters as well as Van Goghs Starry Night. Selldorf Architects turned four former train factories into performance spaces to accompany the galleries inside, which host commissions by artists Etel Adnan, lafur Elasson, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, while Koo Jeong A created a glow-in-the-dark skatepark outside. All of this is the brainchild of Swiss mega-collector and philanthropist Maja Hoffmann, with Tom Eccles, Philippe Parreno, and Hans Ulrich Obrist as advisors.

    Since it opened ca. 2013 along the seaport in Marseilles, with an exhibition space designed by Roland Carta and Rudy Ricciotti and another in the historic Fort Saint-Jean, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, orMucem, helped bring a new wave of interest to the gritty capital of Provence. Its collections span all things Mediterranean, from Neolithic artifacts to contemporary art. The latest exhibition, The grand Meze, focuses on the food (until December 31, 2023).

    The new Richard Rogers Drawing Gallery appears to float above the vineyards at Chteau la Coste, in Provence. Photo: Stphane Aboudaram | We Are Content(s).

    Halfway between Aix en Provence and the Luberon Regional Nature Park, youll find Chteau La Coste, a biodynamic vineyard that has grown into a destination for site-specific art and architecture. Over the past decade, Louise Bourgeois, Renzo Piano, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and others have been invited to choose a part of the landscape that speaks to them and create a work to live there. This year, the Chteau unveiled the Richard Rogers Drawing Gallery, cantilevering off a hillside above the ancient Roman ruin of La Quille. On view there now are abstract works by the Korean artist Park Seo-Bo (until November 15, 2021). Next year will see the opening of an Oscar Niemeyer pavilion.

    In the Cte DAzur, the late, great Eileen Grays seasideVilla E-1027 just reopened to the public after a 5.5 million ($6.4 million) restoration spearheaded by the Association Cap Moderne, a local nonprofit that also saved Le Corbusiers nearby Cabanon. The multidisciplinary Gray designed the airy villa, inside and out, to foster a sense of well-being; built between 1926 and 1929 with her companion and fellow architect Jean Badovici, it had since fallen into disrepair, in part due to wear and tear from the Mediterranean climate. Artisans from six countries repaired and recreated every aspect of the Modernist masterpiecefrom the concrete structure to the nickel-plated steel writing table to the abstract natural-fiber rugsusing the Irish designers original methods and materials; a few of its Le Corbusier murals were also restored.

    Eileen Grays Villa E-1027, newly restored on the Cote dAzur. Photo: Manuel Bougot.

    The Paris-based Fondation Carmignac has turned the tiny, protected Ile de Porquerollesthe setting for Jean-Luc Godards French New Wave classic, Pierrot le Fouinto a contemplative destination for contemporary art. After a 15-minute ferry ride from the mainland, visitors are greeted with an herbal tea made from local flora and asked to remove their shoes before exploring the Villa Carmignac and its sculpture gardens, which are hosting The Imaginary Sea until October 17, 2021. Partly inspired by the villas architecture, with its water-filled ceiling, the exhibition features aquatic works such as Bruce Naumans One Hundred Fish Fountain and a new, Neptune-like installation by Miquel Barcel; afterwards, youre invited to wade barefoot into the actual sea.

    Eat and Drink: The renowned French chef Hlne Darroze just took over the kitchens at Chteau La Coste and its on-site hotel, with its 28 villa suites. Set in a terraced, glass-walled pavilion that seems to levitate above a mirror basin with a Louise Bourgeois sculpture of an embracing couple suspended from the ceiling, her new restaurantHlne Darroze at Villa La Costefocuses on fruits and vegetables from the region, with a wine list featuring the estates own organic varietals.

    Make time to visit Menton, the pearl of the French Riviera, even if only to dine at Italian-Argentine chef Mauro ColagrecosMirazur. The biodynamic restaurant holds three Michelin stars, a Michelin Green star, and the number one spot on the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list. Its new CosmoCuisine menu follows the lunar phases: Depending on the day, youll be immersed in one of the four Mirazur UniversesRoot, Leaf, Flower, or Fruitfeaturing plant-focused dishes that largely pluck from the kitchen gardens.

    Chef Mauro Colagrecos Carrot dish, part of his Root menu at Mirazur, in Menton. Matteo Carrasale 2021.

    Colagreco has a new restaurant, Ceto, that takes inspiration from the sea, which it overlooks from the top floor of the soon-to-openMaybourne Riviera. Built on a rocky peninsula above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the Jean-Michel Wilmotte-designed hotelfrom the London-based group behind Claridges and The Connaughtwill have specially commissioned art, objects, and furnishings from local artists and makers alongside work by everyone from JR to Le Corbusier and Gray.

    Stay: The Luma Foundations Maja Hoffmann brought the Cuban American artist and sculptor Jorge Pardo to Arles, where he turned a historic htel particulier intoLArlatanwhich is basically a bookable work of art. Pardo designed each of its 34 rooms with handcrafted mosaic-tile floors and walls (at least in the bathrooms) as well as doors that double as canvases for his figurative paintings. Almost all of the furnishings and fixtures were made by hand in his studio.

    The family-run, art-filled Hotel Lou Pinet recently opened with sunny 1960s vibes in Saint-Tropez courtesy of the Paris-based architect and interior designer Charles Zana. Expect 34 bright, spacious rooms and suites with abstract tapestry headboards and bespoke ceramic lamps, each with its own private garden and outdoor lounge.

    A suite at Hotel Lou Pinet, recently opened in St. Tropez. Courtesy of the hotel.

    To learn more about the advantages of flying with NetJets, visitnetjets.com.

    Excerpt from:
    If Youre Looking for an Excuse to Visit Paris, FIAC Is Back. And Theres a Lot of Art to Love in the South of France, Too - artnet News

    Take a look inside the all-new, technology-filled YouTube Theater next to SoFi Stadium – San Bernardino County Sun - August 11, 2021 by Mr HomeBuilder

    YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood is now officially open for business.

    Located at the southern tip of the sprawling roof canopy that also covers SoFi Stadium and the open-air American Airlines Plaza, the 6,000-capacity YouTube Theater will host a myriad of events including concerts, awards shows, comedy sets, eSports competitions, community events and conferences.

    Related: Metro adds free SoFi Stadium bus shuttle from Hawthorne/Lennox Station for game days

    The venue fits in seamlessly with SoFi Stadium the 3-million-square-foot centerpiece of Hollywood Park with the ability to host up to a 100,000-capacity crowd with fixed seats and added floor seating as well as the adjacent multi-level, two-and-a-half acre American Airlines Plaza that serves as the breezeway between the two venues.

    Inside the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. This two-story chandelier made of Kaynemaile architectural mesh from New Zealand hangs from the balcony level to the plaza. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 but the already intimate setting can be reduced to 4,400 or 3,400 capacity, using house reduction curtains. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    There are many modern and artistic touches to the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 and the farthest seat in the venue is only 164 feet from the stage. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The YouTube Theater stage and signage in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 but the already intimate setting can be reduced to 4,400 or 3,400 capacity, using house reduction curtains. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    VP of YouTube Brand Marketing Angela Courtin speaks to the media during a sneak peek of YouTube Theater, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park Managing Director Jason Gannon speaks to the media during a sneak peek of YouTube Theater, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    Inside the YouTube Theaters artist guest area or Green Room, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    VP of YouTube Brand Marketing Angela Courtin speaks to the media during a sneak peek of YouTube Theater, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The screen Courtin is standing in front of will is an interactive digital wall that will showcase YouTube creators and artists. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    Inside the YouTube Theaters artist guest area or Green Room, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. speaks to the media during a sneak peek of YouTube Theater, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    VP of YouTube Brand Marketing Angela Courtin speaks to the media during a sneak peek of YouTube Theater, in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The screen Courtin is standing in front of will is an interactive digital wall that will showcase YouTube creators and artists. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The entrance of the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The 13X10 ft. Digital signage display o the YouTube icon allows guest to interact witty mirroring themselves on the screen. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view from the patio of YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 but the already intimate setting can be reduced to 4,400 or 3,400 capacity, using house reduction curtains. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 but the already intimate setting can be reduced to 4,400 or 3,400 capacity, using house reduction curtains. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The theater seats 6,000 but the already intimate setting can be reduced to 4,400 or 3,400 capacity, using house reduction curtains. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater looking toward SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater looking toward SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The view inside the YouTube Theater looking toward SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Friday, August 6, 2021. The official ribbon cutting ceremony is Monday, Aug. 9 for the venue that will accommodate concerts, community events, award shows, comedy shows and more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

    The outer sections of the theater are beautifully designed with bright white paint abutting hammered silver or black metal back splashes at the bars and painted black, silver or mirrored accents. There are also several large art installations that standout in the structure including a two-story Kaynemaile mesh chandelier that hangs over the west balcony bar and a colorful and textured art wall designed by artist Sandeep Mukherjee.

    The indoor/outdoor balcony gives a ton of space for concert goers to grab a drink and chill at numerous standing cocktail tables in a space that overlooks the American Airlines Plaza and into SoFi Stadium. The extended balcony also offers a cool breeze near the west balcony bar and a view of the man-made Lake Park and the future location of eateries, shops, apartment homes and a hotel that will complete the over 300 acre Hollywood Park.

    Jason Gannon, managing director of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, said during a media walk-thru of the venue that the flexibility of all of the indoor and outdoor mixed-use spaces was vital to the overall plan. However, the area, which is right next door to the 18,000-capacity Forum, truly needed a more medium-sized, indoor concert and events space.

    Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., who was also on hand during the media tour, agreed. Butts noted that when he became mayor in 2011 the city that was once known as The City of Champions before the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings had moved to downtown Los Angeles, had become known as the place with the Sizzler and the big doughnut, he added.

    What this has done is rounded out the rich tapestry that we have here that says you can come to Inglewood and do anything, he said referencing all of Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenkes vision coming to life with Hollywood Park, including bringing the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers to SoFi Stadium, as well as The Forum returning to a full-time concert venue and the all-new Los Angeles Clippers arena thats set to open in the area in 2024.

    Its perfect, too, that YouTube will be a sponsor [of the theater] because they have the capacity to provide coding training and other services that will benefit the development of youth in the community, he said. The most important thing for us is that one, residents are trained and employed and two, that the youth benefit from all of these different entities that come here to enrich life and culture in the city.

    YouTube Theater is a 227,000 square-foot, three-story venue. The exterior, facing the plaza, is covered in a conical, sloping glass facade that creates a more open feel.

    The place is packed with amenities including a 3,500-square foot private club with dark wood accents and a heavy, floor-to-ceiling art installation/accordion-style door that separates the hallway from the club space. It includes 140 premium seats and six 12-person luxury boxes. Theres also a 68-capacity art deco-style Industry Room with a speakeasy vibe for extra VIP guests and a full-service catering kitchen capable of serving up to 2,000 people.

    Need a drink or a snack? There are bars everywhere. There are a total of 47 points-of-sale scattered throughout seven different full-service bars.

    Inside the venue, house reduction curtains have been hung to allow the space to be divided into three crowd capacities with the full house accommodating 6,000 seats as well as 3,400 and 4,400-capacity settings. The stage itself is 6,100 square-feet, which is massive in person, and includes a rigging capacity of 200,000 pounds which will allow for a variety of larger-scale touring productions. There are also large screens hung on either side of the stage for optimal viewing. The sight lines are great, but a little steep, with the farthest seat in the house being only 164 feet from the stage.

    The space is also equipped with its own three-bay loading dock and production room to allow it to run independently with its own programming or function as an extension of SoFi Stadium and the American Airlines Plaza as part of a larger event.

    YouTube Theater is the first physical venue the online streaming platform with over 2 billion users has invested in.

    It offers a unique business opportunity for us to combine a digital world with a physical one, Angela Courtin, vice present of brand marketing for YouTube, said on the tour. I think if we can dream it, it can exist here.

    The idea, she continued, was to bridge the gap between what users experience on YouTube with what can be experienced in real life. Theres also plenty of opportunity for YouTube content creators, artists, comedians and gamers to create unique content at the theater to share with their virtual audiences.

    Thats what we conceived when imagining what this event space could be, Courtin said. The technology is state-of-the-art, the cameras and sound, everything. That way when we work with artists and creators we can partner with them and say How can we take this experience and put it out to our 2 billion users worldwide?

    The venue is fully stocked with premium audio and visual equipment that will make livestreaming an option for all event types. Theres a large interactive digital wall inside as well that can be used to showcase the work of YouTube creators and artists in a gallery-like setting. It can also be uploaded with exclusive curated content to match whatever is happening inside the theater on any given evening. Outside the venue, in the American Airlines Plaza, fans can interact with the 13-foot-by-10-foot digital signage display of the YouTube icon by mirroring themselves on the screen and watching highlights from YouTube.

    COMING TO YOUTUBE THEATER

    For now, YouTube Theater is set to kick-off on Friday, Sept. 3 with the Hollywood Black Comedy Festival led by comedian Deon Cole along with Corey Holcomb, Luenell, Earthquake and Tony Roberts.

    Other performances include: Caifanes on Sept. 4; Pitbull on Sept. 22; Black Pumas on Sept. 23; Devo on Sept. 25; Juanes on Oct. 2; TLC with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on Oct. 9; Alejandro Sanz on Oct. 29; Keith Sweat on Nov. 5; and Elvis Costello & the Imposters on Nov. 13

    The venue is also booking its 2022 season with Erasure on Feb. 26; Marina on March 9; and a pair of already sold-out evenings with One Directions Louis Tomlinson March 12-13. For tickets and event updates, go to YouTubeTheater.com or Ticketmaster.com.

    Read the original:
    Take a look inside the all-new, technology-filled YouTube Theater next to SoFi Stadium - San Bernardino County Sun

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