50books_poc | Entries tagged with art

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
A classic novel for a reason. A Laguna Pueblo man comes back from WWII with PTSD and works through healing himself and his community as he realizes how far back through colonialism the problems go and how far back he has to go to find a solution. Which is a terrible summary that makes the conclusions sound so pat and perfect, whereas this is a book comfortable with messiness, comfortable with hard answers and the possibility that things won't work out. It's not a hopeless book: it knows that something will come and it might be better, but it also knows there aren't simple answers to these problems. It's very good, though obvious content warnings for PTSD, violence, etc.

Dreaming and Scheming: Reflections on Writing and Politics by Hanif Kureishi
Some of this is essays written on British politics during the eighties, and some of this is notes on the author's experience writing his films. I found the first half more interesting, but I have to admit that I haven't seen any of the films or plays and I might feel differently if I had. There's an immediacy to his impressions of political events that makes them compelling even when his concerns for the future have already played themselves out, and a perspective not seen often enough.

BlackLife: Post-BLM and the Struggle for Freedom by Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi
This short book discusses Black Lives Matter as it happened in Canada and the reasons why it's still relevant in a country that likes to compare itself to the US and assume that we're doing fine because we're marginally better than them in certain ways. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of them. A useful book.

Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art by Soyoung Lee, with Ahn Daehoe, Chin-Sung Chang and Lee Soomi
Essays on various paintings of the Diamond Mountains that are in what is now North Korea, but were once a place of pilgrimage for people from across the Korean Peninsula and, in the 19th century, around the world for their great natural beauty. Lots of gorgeous plates of paintings, and it was very interesting to see all the different artists paint the same places in different views, as well as read about how these different views affected people's ideas of a place that, after all, most people would never see.

opusculasedfera

If I Could Write This in Fire by Michelle Cliff
A series of essays and some poetry. Cliff talks about being queer and Jamaican and light-skinned and a writer and living outside and inside of Jamaica as all of those things, and it's all lovely and furious and important.

nîtisânak by Lindsay Nixon
A memoir in essays of the author's experience growing up queer, non-binary, and First Nations (Cree-Métis-Saulteaux) in the Canadian Prairies. Nixon is open about the messiness of life, about being punk and fucking up and the various complexities of their family situation (adopted by a white couple as a baby, now with a complicated relationship with their birth family as well and a furious relationship with the Canadian system that keeps allowing this to happen).

Special Lecture on Korean Paintings by Oh Ju-seok
This is clearly the book I should have read before I read these books on Korean art, but alas that was not the order in which my library holds arrived. This is about how to read Korean paintings on their own terms: the direction in which your eyes are intended to move, various ideals the artist might have been aiming at, that kind of thing. Lots of color plates make the points very clear and it's very engaging. The author is proud of Korean art to the point of being unintentionally humorous (for example, he insists that a particular picture of a tiger is not merely a world-class picture of a tiger but the best tiger picture in the world), but by the end his insistence that his audience recognize Korean art on its own terms becomes endearing and understandable. Highly recommended.

Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran by Fatemeh Keshavarz
As the title suggests, this is in part a response to Reading Lolita in Tehran. Keshavarz writes a clear and lucid critique of RLiT's central premise and approach, but also waxes lyrical about her experiences with literature that she feels are part and parcel of her Iran, from her whole high-school class breaking down over the death of a favorite poet, to discussing literature earnestly with her devout uncle. Her recollections of her family members are rose-tinted and loving, but she isn't interested in painting a picture of a perfect Iran, merely a more complicated one that contains a literature of its own and a reading public to go with it, as well as an interest in international writing. Her writing is eminently readable and this is an excellent source of further readings in Iranian literature, if that sort of thing interests you.

opusculasedfera

Gullah Home Cooking the Dafuskie Way by Sallie Ann Robinson with Gregory Wrenn Smith
Dafuskie is a small island off the coast of Virginia, and this is a very local cuisine. It's clearly recognizably related to the food of the mainland, but from the food and the author's descriptions of her childhood that begin every chapter, it's clear that Dafuskie was its own little world for quite a while. The food sounds good, though the extreme local nature of some of the ingredients might make it difficult to prepare (even setting aside the recipes for things like raccoon, her pork dishes are all flavoured with various smoked cuts of pork that aren't available to me afaik.) I knew basically nothing about Gullah culture or Dafuskie, however, so this was interesting on that front more than as a usable cookbook.

Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom ed. Soyoung Lee and Denise Patry Leidy
A book of essays intended to accompany an exhibition of art from Silla-era Korea. The kingdom of Silla lasted from 57 BCE to 935 CE and covered a large chunk of the Korean peninsula. Most of the essays here focus on comparing the various Silla-era historical finds to their contemporaries from elsewhere in Asia and drawing conclusions about the reach of trade (right down to Byzantium in several cases) and various kinds of cultural mixing. Super interesting and with great photos of the various pieces.

Chaekgeori: The Power and Pleasure of Possessions in Korean Painted Screens ed. Byungmo Chung and Sunglim Kim
A much more focused Korean art history book, also intended to accompany an exhibition. Chaekgeori are screens painted with still life pictures mostly focusing on books. This volume starts with essays that discuss the history of chaekgeori, their rise in popularity, how they changed from trompe l'oeil images of bookshelves with art objects to fanciful pictures of books accompanied by mythical creatures, and their various influences, and then has large photographs of all the screens included in the exhibition with close-ups of their more interesting features. I really liked how well the essays connected to the specific pieces in the exhibition and explained why all of them are interesting, though this really is a very, very focused book that's only talking about one type of art that was popular in one specific time period. It was reasonably accessible to me, who knows very little about Korean history and art, and the photos are very good.

emma_in_dream

This is bit of a placeholder of a post - I read it, I liked it.

It seemed that the first couple of chapters on African-American art prior to 1900 are different in tone to the later chapters on modern art.

The beginning chapters are the kind of art history which trace forgotten and overlooked artists. My favourite is definitely Dave the Potter who threw large, obviously pretty strong pots (50 have survived). He wrote his own poetry on each jar. 'Great and Noble jar/ Hold sheep, goat, or bear, May 13 1859, Dave'.

The later chapters deal with developments since 1900, and the constant reworkings of the same debate: which is more important, broader artistic traditions or identity as an African-American?

emma-in-oz.livejournal.com

2.3 - Animals: An Indigenous First Discovery Book, artwork by Debbie Austin (2008)

The series was created to help raise awareness of the imortance of using Australian Indigenous symbols to teach stories to the young of our culture. This one, obviously, focuses on animals. Each page shows one symbol and there is a legend at the end so you can translate them.

My toddler was not terribly impressed - possibly she viewed it as too childish as there was no text.

2.4 - Aussie Twos Like To, Magabala Books (no date)

This follows on from Magabala Books’ *Aussie Toddlers Can*. It’s a collection of pictures of kids playing - what I like most about it is the range of skin tones the kids have.

It was less successful with my daughter than the toddler book, perhaps because she now feels too old for a book without text.

emma-in-oz.livejournal.com

The Art of Sally Morgan, Intro by Jill Milroy, 1996

This is a compilation of Sally Morgan's art from the period 1986 to 1995. Her art is a beautiful example of contemporary Aboriginal art. The art is two dimensional and uses a bold palette of mostly primary colours. She works mostly in acrylics or screen printing.

Some of her pictures are obviously political, such as *Another Story* (1988) which shows a squatter's house at the top, with the bones of Aboriginal people in the ground. But, when you look at them thoughtfully, they all deal with the distribution of power in some way (surely the most meaningful way of considering politics). Take *Dancing Women* (1988), a black and white print of dancing women with stars. The image of women together recurs in her work, referring to her own female-headed family and her belief in the strength of Aboriginal women in maintaining Aboriginal culture.

Really beautiful art that considers contemporary Aboriginal and non-Indigenous issues in Australia.

sumofparts.livejournal.com

( Cut for length and mild spoilers )

wordsofastory.livejournal.com

48. B. B. Lal, The Sarasvati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture

A short, easy-to-read (except for one chapter which seems to come from another book entirely) pop non-fiction summary of the Indus or Harappan Civilization, a Bronze Age culture located in the modern countries of India and Pakistan, which had its own writing system, cities, and art, and traded with cultures as far away as Mesopotamia. This is a very nice introduction to the topic, which covers most of the main points and has lots of nice photographs. It's shorter and probably a better book for the non-academic audience than most other summaries of the Indus I know of; on the other hand, Lal is seriously influenced by his personal politics in choosing what and how to discuss. But for someone who is new to the topic, this would be a great book.

49. Lisa Trivedi, Clothing Gandhi's Nation: Homespun and Modern India

A really fascinating investigation of one aspect of the Indian Independence movement. Gandhi was highly in favor of khadi- homemade thread and cloth- and thought that everyone who wanted to see India out from under British rule should not only use and wear khadi exclusively, but should spend half an hour a day making it. He thought that this would restore dignity to the working class, as well as provide a way for India's economy to escape the influence of the British factory system. Needless to say, not everyone actually wanted to spend that much time spinning thread, and the debates around the topic resemble the modern arguments over buying local/fair-trade/organic/etc. Trivedi provides a great account of these debates, the way they changed over time, and how khadi continues to function in the Indian political sphere; she even includes political cartoons about it! This is a non-fiction academic book, but very accessible; highly recommended.

50. Kajri Jain, Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art

Calendar art (aka bazaar art aka chromolithographs aka poster art) is a particular style of vividly colored, mass-produced art popular in India, particularly in calendars and advertisements, usually depicting religious images. Jain's book takes this often-ignored art seriously, investigating multiple realms of the topic: who produces calendar art? who buys it? how has it changed over time? what do artists say about it? how does it circulate? Despite the subtitle, she really doesn't address the economy of it, but instead focuses on meanings and interpretations. This book is another non-fiction academic title, and one a bit harder to get into than Clothing Gandhi's Nation. But it does have lots of pretty pictures!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "Broken Glass" The Crystal Method

sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com

Books #16-19

16. The Trouble with Islam, by Irshad Manji
Manji is a Canadian of Indian ancestry whose early life was in Uganda before Idi Amin expelled the Asian population. The book (which I read in an original edition - it was later renamed as The Trouble with Islam Today, although I don't know if that involved any changes to the text) was first published in 2003. I liked it, and found a lot in it to make me think, and that I admired. However, I also know that this book is *not* highly thought of in many quarters. (It was, therefore, refreshing to find Randa Abdel-Fattah saying pretty much the same main argument in The Age newspaper on the weekend.) More here.

17. Stradbroke Dreamtime, by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Bronwyn Bancroft
A beautiful book - part memoir of Oodgeroo's childhood, and part collection of stories from the Dreaming. Bronwyn Bancroft's artwork is an absolute highlight and, for me, really makes this book something special. More here.

18. Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Recipes from the Heart, by Pauline Nguyen
Far more than a cookbook. A memoir of Nguyen's family, a beautifully produced book, mouthwatering food photography... I can't recommend this highly enough. More here.

19. Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, by Kazu Kibuishi
My first ever comic book/manga! Set in a world that's pretty much Firefly crossed with Star Wars, Daisy is a retired gunslinger lured out of retirement for a Train Job. There's clearly a lot of backstory, but I'm fairly sure that this is the first (currently only, unfortunately) Daisy Kutter comic. As I think both Daisy and her unfortunate sidekick Tom are fabulous characters (very white, though, for those who would find that a problem), I rather hope there are more to come. More here.

emma-in-oz.livejournal.com

Review 4: Bardi Counting Book by Lucy Wiidagoo Dann

This is a children's counting book in the Bardi language. Bardi people live on One Arm Point on the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia.

It is a nicely illustrated children's book. The illustrations are done by Francine Ngardarb Riches. I read it to my four and a half month old baby and she particularly liked the first page showing one blue whale as it is a nice, clear picture with sharp contrasts. She was also impressed by the three saltwater crocs, as I made the page turn into a croc that nom-nom-nomed her.

At first I found the choice of a counting book odd, given that the introduction states that Bardi people count one-two-three-many. But the next paragraph added that part of the purpose of the book is to familiarise Bardi children with counting, as well as offering non-Bardi a little slice of Bardi vocabulary and art.

This children's book was produced by Uupababa books. The word is Karajarri for 'little kids'. I found it in a bookshop in the Kimberley and I've never seen books in this series in mainstream bookshops. However, faffing around on the internet I found that it is available from the National Indigenous Times shop - http://www.nit.com.au/shop/

emma-in-oz.livejournal.com

My latest book for the 50books_POC challenge is bell hooks' *Art on My Mind: Visual Politics*. This is a series of essays, reflective pieces and interviews by bell hooks, meditating on black art and artists.

The main drawback of the book is that it assumes an entry level of knowledge about black artists. The book has only a half dozen colour plates and scant black and white illustrations. This would have been a bigger drawback at the date of publication in the early years of the internet. As it was, I was able to check out some fabulous websites of artists I had not previously known.

Faith Ringgold http://www.faithringgold.com/

Emma Amos http://emmaamos.com/

sanguinity

44. Jacqueline Woodson, After Tupac and D Foster.

Gorgeous.

grrlpup has been after me for a dog's age to read Woodson, and I very much see why: Woodson has a graceful, delicate touch for her characters, a demonstrated awe about folks' inner lives. As a reader, this is the sort of thing I live for.

45. Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects, and Recipes for Families.

Along with Caduto and Bruchac's Keeper series, Native American Gardening is dsigned to be part of an elementary-school practical science curriculum. I liked this one a lot: science is explicitly linked to culture and worldview; the fundamental perceptual unit is the ecology and community, not the organism or individual; cultural elements are presented as part of an integrated whole. They call this a science text, but it could just as easily be a text about culture or philosophy. I can't help but read this and imagine all the lesson-plans I'd piggyback onto it: it's rich.

46. Lucy Lippard (ed.), Partial Recall: Essays on Photographs of Native North Americans.

This book divides into two parts: the materials by Lippard (an introduction about the role of photography in the relationship between colonizers and the colonized, backed by an arresting, and sometimes troubling, collection of photos), and the twelve essays by Native authors, each about a photo he or she found interesting.

Topically, the photos chosen by the essayists span family photos, photos of famous men, photocollages by Native artists, photographs taken by one kind of outsider and another kind of outsider. (I must learn more about Matsura's work.) Taken together, the essays bust out the historical context set by Lippard in her introduction--far from Curtis' "The Vanishing Race", these are narratives of resistance and self-determination.

The collection of photographs appended by Lucy Lippard are... whoa. If you get your hands on a copy of this, definitely spend some time paging through the photos at the end.