to move up and down
Graphic: Stopping the Dead
A statistical look back at the zombie kills and the weapon used in the Walking Dead series so far.
The Toronto Poster Project: Pictograms
Artist Sarah Lazarovic continues her artful series about the city with a local spin on wrapping paper. Each pictogram is representative of a place, person or thing that symbolizes this city. Try your hand at deciphering the icons, and learn your score at the bottom of the poster. Then print the page out for use as it’s intended.
Museum of Modern Art launches video game collection
The Museum of Modern Art in New York appears to have settled the discussion about whether or not video games should be considered “art.”This week, MoMA announced it has acquired a selection of 14 video games, the first batch in a permanent collection the museum hopes to grow to more than 40, which will go on display in its Philip Johnson Galleries beginning in March, 2013.
MoMA’s video game collection includes a range of titles from pioneering arcade classics right up to popular games for the current generation of home consoles.
The original 14 games to be added to MoMA’s collection are: Pac-Man (1980), Tetris (1984), Another World (1991), Myst (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), The Sims (2000), Katamari Damacy (2004), EVE Online (2003), Dwarf Fortress (2006), Portal (2007), flOw (2006), Passage (2008), Canabalt (2009).
What’s 20m high, pregnant and wields a sword? Damien Hirst’s latest sculpture
No stranger to controversy, British artist Damien Hirst has a particular knack of creating a scene. His latest ‘scene’ is a gigantic 20-metre tall bronze statue called Verity that now towers over a sleepy English seaside town.
With her pregnant womb exposed, the skeletal, sword-wielding Verity has not surprisingly ruffled feathers, with residents in the north Devon town of Ilfracombe not exactly welcoming Hirst’s 20-year loan ‘gift’. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images; REUTERS/Toby Melville)
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Toronto artist Erica Brisson sends her civic love
It’s the collective exploration of public space that informs Brisson’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery, Local Colour Info Centre, which opened last week in Toronto as part of the Koffler Centre of the Arts’ off-site gallery. Curated by Mona Filip, the exhibit is inspired by local tourist information centres — something you might see just off the 401 or in the heart of Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square — which acts as both a social space and a gallery. Visitors are greeted with minimalist postcards of the city along with maps and blueprints, all meant to heighten interest in the physical environment around us. [Photo courtesy the Koffler Centre/Erica Brisson]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbqn1avoKN1r59dcio1_1280.jpg)
Toronto artist Erica Brisson sends her civic love
It’s the collective exploration of public space that informs Brisson’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery, Local Colour Info Centre, which opened last week in Toronto as part of the Koffler Centre of the Arts’ off-site gallery. Curated by Mona Filip, the exhibit is inspired by local tourist information centres — something you might see just off the 401 or in the heart of Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square — which acts as both a social space and a gallery. Visitors are greeted with minimalist postcards of the city along with maps and blueprints, all meant to heighten interest in the physical environment around us. [Photo courtesy the Koffler Centre/Erica Brisson]
Photos: Visitors ‘part the rain’ in a surreal experience at the ‘Rain Room’
Imagine walking through the rain deluge without getting wet. In fact, imagine having the rain part around you, as you walk through it. Fiction? Not quite!
In the Curve at the Barbican Art Gallery, London a new installation by Random International is set, inviting people to – well, try to get wet. The ‘Rain Room’ is a hundred square meters downpour area, set at the end of a curving corridor and left intentionally dark to emphasize dramatic spotlight effect. Rain, as it should, falls vertically in straight shower lines.
The Month Ahead: October
We’re just going to tell it like it is: October is the last month of tolerable weather before the winter chill starts to set in. With that in mind, here’s an activity list to keep you going before it’s time to hibernate! Click the image for a full-size version! (Illustration by Peter Diamond)
Kandahar Journal: Canada’s Special Operations Regiment finds new teaching niche in Afghanistan
These aren’t men you’d describe as approachable. Something about their mix of self-assurance, muscular build, facial hair and abundant tattoos keeps you at bay. Something around their eyes warns you off — the dull clarity in their unflinching gaze, hinting at knowledge of things best left unknown. There’s something in their movements, something calculating, something constantly measuring, something pent up, leashed, held in check. These are not men you’d like the look of, but these are the quiet professionals of Canada’s Special Operations Regiment (CSOR).
(Illustrations by Richard Johnson/National Post)
Mona Lisa MkI: Mysterious early version of Da Vinci’s most famous portrait has art experts baffled
GENEVA — The mystery behind the most enigmatic smile in art — Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” — just got a little more complicated.
In a coming-out party of sorts in Geneva, rounds of flashbulbs popped Thursday as the non-profit Mona Lisa Foundation pulled back the curtain to present what it claims is a predecessor of the world’s most famous portrait. (Laurent Gillieron / Keystone / The Associated Press / Files)
Kandahar Journal: Maintaining the Afghan Air Force, by whatever means necessary
The Afghan Air Force (AAF) MI-35 Hind helicopter gunship sits squatting on the runway in the noonday Kabul International Airport (KAIA) heat. The cowlings surrounding the twin engines are open and a mechanic is wrenching – with a wrench – at something that is not properly aligned – yet.
Even with its innards exposed, the Hind still looks threatening. It looks just like the Apache doesn’t. While the Apache looks like a toy, the Hind – even this 30-year-old bird – looks like the grown-up real-deal. It looks like it could take a “young boy’s wish” and crush it.
The look is all illusion though. This Hind is a legacy vehicle of the AAF. It somehow survived the fall of the Soviet Union, the resulting civil war, the abuse and abandonment of the Taliban, and the aerial bombardment by the U.S. in response to 9/11. (Illustrations by Richard Johnson/National Post)
Woman who botched restoration of Spanish fresco now wants to be paid
A Spanish woman who famously botched the restoration of a 19th century fresco of Jesus Christ is now insisting she be compensated because of the number of tourists who now flock to the church and pay to see it.
Cecilia Giménez, according to a report in the El Correo newspaper, has hired a lawyer because the Sanctuary of Mercy Church church is now charging visitors admission to see the work. Giménez feels she should receives royalties for her work because the church made 2,000 Euros over the course of four days.
Kandahar Journal: Just ‘good enough’ for Afghanistan
“It can be hard to swallow for the Canadians. It is hard for them to let go of a soldier when you know he will probably die in the first days of battle, because the training they have received is so limited.” (Illustrations by Richard Johnson/National Post)
Kandahar Journal: Leading by example in Kabul
“Soldiers are soldiers, once you train them they will know their job. The problem is getting good training in a good time period. We are trying to instill as much as we possibly can. But in the end it has to be an Afghan led training team to build an Afghan Army.”
(Illustrations by Richard Johnson/National Post)
Alberta aboriginal rock etchings defaced with drill, power washer, acid
Historians are comparing it to the Taliban’s destruction of massive Buddhist statues in Afghanistan: Ancient aboriginal pictograms and petroglyphs on an Albertan rock formation have been systematically destroyed by cultural vandals using a rock drill, acid and a power washer.
The obliteration of the etchings on the Glenwood Erratic near Pincher Creek in southern Alberta was discovered last week, just as an historian was about to photograph and test the markings.
“The site is part of the earliest heritage of Canada,” said Michael Dawe, Curator of History at Red Deer Museum. “It looks like an ancient ceremonial/religious site at Glenwood, Alta., was deliberately destroyed. If true, this is a shocking and appalling incident.” (Photos: CHRIS DAVIS/PINCHER CREEK VOICE)
Kandahar Journal: Canadian mentors have nine weeks to turn new Afghan recruits into soldiers
As for the prospects for Afghanistan when ISAF eventually pulls out, Lt. Buck feels that the men he has trained have a better chance of holding the country together.
“I worry for them. I’m worried that someone else will take over, or that some of the ANA will turn and take over. But I hope that by training ethical leaders, they will remain patriotic for Afghanistan rather than for themselves.” (Illustrations by Richard Johnson/National Post)
