Tag Archives: OddBox

Exhibition Highlight | ABOUT US. Young Photography from China

Chen, Ronghui,  Freezing Land 30,  2016-2018, Archival inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Three Shadows +3 Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

Chen, Ronghui, Freezing Land 30, 2016-2018, Archival inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Three Shadows +3 Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

What does photography tell us about the life experiences of the individual faced with a radical transformation of society? What visual languages does a generation of younger artists in China invent in its search for self-understanding?

A selection of seventy photographs by fourteen Chinese artists is presented in this exhibition — all works that Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek has acquired for the foundation on her numerous trips to China. After Robert Rauschenberg’s great series in the last exhibition, Study for Chinese Summerhall of 1983, with its Western look at China, these photographs offer inside views of the artists living in that country. Their themes revolve around self-perception, subjective experiences, and everyday ways of living. They range from documentation of the explosive social change by way of critical perception of the new living conditions in the metropolises and in the countryside to attentiveness to its vanishing cultural heritage. Whether in quiet, black-and-white aesthetic suggestive of documentaries or as a dramatic presentation in color, they all tell of the artists’ own experiences: About Us. With themes such as memory and history, melancholy and resistance, dream and vision, body and individuality, they concern the search for one’s own identity. They are mirrors of ideas and fears, of isolation and lust for life, of curiosity and depression, of coolness and confusion of their authors.

Chen Wei,  Dance Hall (Blueness),  2013, Archival inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

Chen Wei, Dance Hall (Blueness), 2013, Archival inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

Yang, Fudong,  International Hotel No. 11,  2010, Inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

Yang, Fudong, International Hotel No. 11, 2010, Inkjet printImage | Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery. Collection Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

A new generation of artists completely transformed their artistic production in the 1980s and 1990s after the Cultural Revolution in China ended. After Socialist Realism, ideology and propaganda, they developed new concepts and visual languages and a wealth of styles and techniques. The concept “experimental photography” attempts to sum up the complex and yet very different experimental and conceptual works produced from the 1990s to the present. Their diversity is also reflected in the selection of artists represented in the exhibition, several of whom are internationally renowned, while others are largely unknown outside of China.

This exhibition is intended as a contribution to the discourse on contemporary photography in China, a country that is increasingly a decisive political and economic power internationally, though its visual worlds are little known in the medium of photography in the Western world. These photographs, where their autobiographical narratives, subjective worlds of ideas, alternative models and visions offer insight into the individual complex emotional and experiential worlds of a generation of young artists who use photograph as their medium in diverse ways in their search for identity in the turbulences of a changing society.

Exhibited artists: Adou . Birdhead . Cai Dongdong . Chen Ronghui . Chen Wei . Gao Mingxi . Jiang Pengyi . Liang Xiu . Ren Hang . RongRong . RongRong & Inri . Wang Ningde . Yang Fudong . Zhang Xiao


More information:
About Us. Young Photography from China
27 March 2020 to 30 October 2020
Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Karl-Theodor-Straße 27, 80803 Munich (Germany)
www.atutsek-stiftung.de

LET’S NOT USE THE COVID-19 CRISIS TO FUEL THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Well, one good thing about sheltering at home and everything being closed: I can do more social media, including blogs. I’m sitting at home trying to imagine what its like for gig economy workers, for all those who’ve been laid off and don’t know how they’ll make ends meet. Then I read about the enormous bail outs the Trump administration is trying to get passed—billions to the multi-billion dollar airlines industry. $3 billion for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. One existential crisis must not be used to fuel another! The companies that are poisoning the planet and its people and climate shouldn’t receive a penny! The Democrats are fighting mightily to stop the corporate bailouts, calling for things like immediate cash transfers of $2000 to all adults and $1000 to every child every month till the crisis is over as well as more aid to small businesses and not to huge corporations who will recover more easily and money for medical necessities, protective gear for health workers, and so much more. Just as I am writing this, news came that the Democrats have managed to halt this egregious bill –for now. . . All the American citizens who read my blog, please call your senator tomorrow and tell them you demand the coronavirus package support 1.) the direct cash assistance I just mentioned, 2.) no unaccountable corporate bailouts, 3.) stronger economic supports for families,4.) no bail out of the fossil fuel industry at all, 5.) vote by mail and 6.) immediate assistance to the healthcare workers and hospitals.

Not all quid pro quos are impeachable. For instance, if the aviation industry wants a bailout, make them agree to lower their carbon footprint and support their laid off workers…or no money. I signed a letter saying just that which is going to the Senate but you can tell your Senator. They’ll listen if so many of us call their phone lines go down so call 1-877-969-2590.

On the lighter side, a group of my neighbors and I gathered around a fountain at the end of our street, standing 6 feet or more apart, and had ‘quarantinis’ while Frank Sinatra songs wafted out one of their windows. We’re making its weekly routine. It helped.

Everyone seems to have a different reaction to the crisis and how it’s changed our lives. I can’t imagine how hard it is for professional women who work from home and now have several kids to deal with, homeschool, entertain. I wonder hopefully if the guys ho are also sequestered will start going some of that child care work themselves. I read that one husband who now is homeschooling said that after a few days, he thought teachers should earn CEO salaries. YES! Or think of the women with abusive husbands in ‘shelter at home’ situations. Some folks are going stir crazy. Some are in deep panic. I am in panic but it’s about the climate crisis which will be far more devastating but people find it hard to react to things that aren’t right there in front of them like COVID 19 is right now. Of course the climate crisis is ‘right there’ for a whole lot of people in the world.

My very smart daughter, Vanessa, says this: “The deforestation we cause in the name of cattle feed and grazing also lets loose a whole world of issues, namely exposure to viruses and other pathogens that normally would remain in the animal world. All the great pandemics, from AIDS to Ebola and SARS started in animals. Diseases that have been contained in the natural, wild areas of Earth are now let loose upon the human species who of course have no resistance or immunity. That’s just a land-use health impact: in terms of pandemics, the melting of permafrost caused by climate warming also releases plethora of pathogens that have not seen the light of day in millennia. People who don’t think climate is an issue might think differently next time there is a global flu pandemic.”

She’s right. over population, poverty and food insecurity, make people venture into forests and kill things like monkeys and bats and bring them to what are called ‘wet markets’ where people and other food are exposed to these disease-bearing animals. It’s not the animals fault. Lyme disease became a real problem in certain parts of this country when woods were cut down for development, weather got warmer and tick-bearing deer and other animals came into more frequent contact with humans. These things are interrelated

So let’s use this virus crisis as a teachable moment and find ways to fight against the lobbyists and politicians who stand up for corporations and the already rich instead of working people, families, nurses, small businesses and the climate. We need a strong Federal government that work for the people and that is prepared for crisis.

Till next time, stay safe, stay healthy and stay strong. Use this time productively. ❤


 

The post LET’S NOT USE THE COVID-19 CRISIS TO FUEL THE CLIMATE CRISIS appeared first on Jane Fonda.

Break the chain

For The Spinoff, Toby Morris illustrates how individuals can break a chain of events:

The good news is, we can do things that will reduce the chances of us spreading the virus. That means we can break these chains and potentially stop hundreds or even thousands of people getting Covid-19. Check out The Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris’ excellent illustration to understand how individual discipline can have an outsize impact.

Of course infection between people in a community is more complex. Just because one chain is broken doesn’t mean people further down won’t be infected by others in some other way. The goal though is to break as many chains as possible.

Tags: animation, cartoon, coronavirus, Spinoff

Dr. Fauci Is Doing a Good Job So It’s Only a Matter of Time Before Trump Fires Him

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has emerged as a lone voice of reason during President Trump’s daily covid-19 press briefings. He’s the one person Americans have been able to rely on to separate fact from administration-ordained fiction, and that’s…

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Fact-Check: 5 Times President Trump’s Statements On Coronavirus Were Off The Mark

5e77e365e56fcc00089d56fa-eight.jpgPresident Donald Trump speaks as Vice President Mike Pence looks on during Sunday’s daily briefing on COVID-19 (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

By Brian Naylor | NPR

President Trump has made a lot of promises about actions that his administration is taking to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Not all of them have been exactly on the mark — and some have yet to pay off as advertised.

NAVAL HOSPITAL SHIPS

The president announced on Wednesday that the Navy would dispatch its two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy, to help treat patients and free up land-based hospitals for coronavirus patients.

“So those two ships are being prepared to go, and they can be launched over the next week or so,” Trump said, calling the ships in “tip-top shape.”

Well, not so much.

The Navy said that the Comfort was actually undergoing repairs in Norfolk, Va., and it would be weeks before it would be ready to sail to New York. And the Mercy, based in San Diego, would take several days before it was staffed with doctors and nurses and be ready for deployment somewhere on the West Coast.

Although the deployments may still go ahead, the ships likely won’t sail right away.

[Note: In his Sunday news briefing, Trump again said the Mercy and an East Coast-based ship would be heading to L.A. to “to add emergencies surge medical capacity.” A FEMA official at the Sunday briefing said Mercy could be in place in a week or less.]


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FDA DRUG APPROVAL

On Thursday, Trump touted that the Food and Drug Administration had “approved” use of an anti-malaria drug called chloroquine to treat patients afflicted with the coronavirus.

The president sounded excited.

“We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately,” Trump said, calling it “a tremendous breakthrough” and a potential “game-changer.”

But FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn tried to tamp down Trump’s enthusiasm, saying that “a large, pragmatic clinical trial” would be needed first to determine the drug’s usefulness before making it available to coronavirus patients.

Hahn said he couldn’t “speculate about a timeline” for the drug’s availability.

Trump’s enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine spilled into another press conference on Friday, when he again described it as a potential wonder drug.

And again, a public health official — this time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top immunologist on the White House’s response team — tried to rein in the optimism by echoing the need for clinical proof that it would make a difference.

On Thursday, Trump said another drug, Remdesivir, had “also been approved, or very close to approved” by the FDA for treating patients coronavirus. In fact, that drug is undergoing a clinical trial and is months away from being ready for use.

THE WEBSITE

Last Friday, Trump said at a Rose Garden news conference that Google has 1,700 engineers developing a new website that would help Americans determine whether they should seek testing for the coronavirus.

The president sought to cast his own project as a triumph compared with the initial failure of President Barack Obama to roll out a website as part of the changes to the health care market enacted in 2009.

“Google is helping to develop a website,” Trump said. “It’s going to be very quickly done — unlike websites of the past — to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.”

Within hours, Google attempted to clarify the president’s comments. It said an affiliated company, Verily, was working on the project but on a limited scale only for people in the San Francisco area.

“Verily is in the early stages of development,” Google said, “and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.”

The website is now functional in “select counties in the Bay area.”

MEDICAL SUPPLIES

On Wednesday, Trump met with a group of nurses at the White House, telling them that the administration had arranged for a major new supply of the type of respirator in high demand during the pandemic.

“We’ve ordered 500 million N95 masks to drive private production,” Trump said. He also said that construction companies were being asked to donate unused masks. The next day at a briefing, Vice President Pence stated: “We’ve vastly increased the supply of medical masks.”

But hospitals continue to report that they are running short of masks, as are pharmacists. Authorities are taking donations from unlikely sources, including financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs.

Loose-fitting surgical masks aren’t appropriate for dealing with the pandemic authorities say; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a graphic detailing the important differences between a surgical mask and an N95 respirator.

Trump acknowledged the shortfall in supplies on Friday when he said he had invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act, which permits him to direct production of essential items.

“We are using it,” Trump said, “for certain things that we need,” citing ventilators and masks.

It still isn’t clear how much equipment is needed to respond to current and future patients in the pandemic beyond what’s in hand today and when or whether the demand will be met.

TESTING

One of the most frequent exaggerations coming from the administration is the availability of coronavirus tests.

When he visited the CDC in Atlanta earlier this month, Trump claimed that “They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test.”

Pence made a similar claim last week, saying that “a million tests are in the field” and that “by the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.”

Even so, anecdotal reports abound about Americans who feel sick struggling to be able to confirm a diagnosis with an actual test. Fauci acknowledged that there clearly is a gap between the supply and the demand.

At the same time, he echoed assurances by Trump and Pence that the situation is improving.

“I get the same calls that many of you get … for one reason or another they can’t get [tests],” Fauci said on Friday. “That is a reality that is happening now. Is it the same as it was a few weeks ago? Absolutely not.”

The anecdotal nature of the accounts means it’s difficult to assess what the spread might be between the testing capacity available now, or set to come onstream soon, and the pool of people who satisfy the administration’s guidelines to request one.

Trump and Pence say they don’t want every American — particularly those who are feeling well — to be tested. It still isn’t clear, however, how big the gap remains between requests for tests considered valid under Trump’s and Pence’s conditions — and the capacity to support them.

This article was originally published by NPR on Saturday, March 21. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


SOME STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT COVID-19

We’re all living through this extraordinary and frightening pandemic. The vast majority of our newsroom has been working from home (here’s some advice on that) since March 11 to bring you calm, helpful reporting. We are answering your questions and taking more.

We’re here to help. And if you can help support that effort financially, we’d be grateful.


Ohio’s Asshole Attorney General Orders Stop to Abortions Because of Coronavirus

Vote blue in November! Send message to these a-holes they can’t miss. dfvydmgzmaiyltmc8epk.jpg

There’s a lot of bullshit going on at the hands of politicians right now. In the face of a global pandemic, Republicans in Idaho have been using their time to attack trans student-athletes, and in Ohio, it appears that politicians are using the covid-19 outbreak directly as an excuse to suspend abortion services in…

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I’ve been sick for three days with a confirmed bout of the flu. Luckily, Tamiflu has been helping. I…

I’ve been sick for three days with a confirmed bout of the flu. Luckily, Tamiflu has been helping. I have paid time off I can use, access to healthcare, and childcare. I’ll go back to work tomorrow. These things should be available to everyone, but instead are viewed as a privilege or luck and not a guaranteed right.

I don’t have Coronavirus but if I did, I’d probably be ok and would maybe be able to weather the 14 day quarantine. But how many others couldn’t? How many will push through, thinking it’s just a bad cold? How many will think, I CAN’T miss one paycheck and CAN’T afford the test or treatment, so I’ll just deal? Are we comfortable with those numbers above zero?

I’m not.

The senate just declined to hear a bill that would guarantee sick time, treatment coverage, etc. because Sen. McConnell said they’ll have a better idea after an 11 day recess of what we’re dealing with, so they’ll address it then.

We don’t HAVE 11 days to wait if epidemiologists are correct. By that point, we’ll likely be looking like Italy. But we will never know the full scope because we’re under testing, under-reacting, and the cases that will present for hospitalization are the most critical, meaning those for whom it presents mildly will still be coughing on our food, our public spaces, our grandparents, our children, etc., often for no other reason than they can’t afford to stay home. They don’t have childcare. They don’t have paid time off. They have no insurance or insurance with high deductibles and copays they can’t afford.

So now we wait, hoard supplies, wash our hands, and hope we’ll be okay. Meanwhile, Prince Prospero and his aristocrats ignore the skulking masked figure moving silently from city to city, only confronting it once it’s too late. We are only as safe as our most vulnerable, and I hope in several weeks you’re all mocking me as being overly anxious instead of woefully correct.