Arrabal

Arrabal, at American Repertory Theater (Photo: A.R.T.) Every country has its dark chapters. But once it becomes possible to assemble a narrative, the way those stories are told matters immensely to the ongoing health of a nation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (now called The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation) used a […]

Clew, Redux

“Clew,” installation view by Cheryl Senter Clew, a collaborative installation at the Phillips Exeter Academy, came to an end in the middle of April. The energy unleashed in that collaboration with Todd Hearon, Lauren O’Neal, Jon Sakata and Jung Mi Lee continues to pull me in unexpected directions. Thank you again to all my fellow […]

Incipient Cosmos

Monnara, from a new series July Mountain We live in a constellation Of patches and of pitches, Not in a single world, In things said well in music, On the piano and in speech, As in the page of poetry- Thinkers without final thoughts In an always incipient cosmos. The way, when we climb a […]

The Grid of One

George W. S. Trow (1943-2006) (Photo: Lynn Davis/Pantheon Books) George Trow‘s essay, Within the Context of No Context, occupied the entire issue of The New Yorker in November of 1980. It is a timeless piece of writing, as is the introduction he wrote for the book version several years later, Collapsing Dominant. I reread both […]

The Emotional Terrain

Watery eyes: a micro climate (Photo: Rose-Lynn Fisher) Maria Popova, curator extraordinaire for Brain Pickings, has identified her all time favorite Moth* story: Life on a Möbius Strip, by Janna Levin. Levin is a brilliant scientist who also happens to be a lyrical writer. Her book, How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a […]

Eye Balling and Free Falling

“Portrait of the Artist Listening to Music,” by Howard Hodgkin (Photo: Miriam Perez) Note: Hodgkin passed away on March 9, 2017. I am just back from a week of art viewing in London—special museum exhibitions including Michelangelo, Robert Rauschenberg, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkins, Eduardo Paolozzi and Elton John‘s estimable collection of photographs, plus […]