Anatomy as architecture


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New York has always provided a haven for conceptual art, and recently a few well-publicised projects have infiltrated the city's elite cultural institutions. Earlier this spring at the Guggenheim, Tino Sehgal staged a piece entitled This Progress, in which so-called "interpreters" approached museum-goers with a question: "What is progress?" As the visitors ascended the Guggenheim's ramp, they were handed from interpreter to interpreter and met with a more complex set of questions.

If the success of Sehgal's project depended on the quality of conversation, then Marina Abramovic's solo piece at the Museum of Modern Art depends on the quality of silence. As part of the retrospective The Artist is Present, Abramovic sits silently at a table from the time the museum opens until it closes, and visitors wait in line for the chance to sit across from her, one at a time. Both projects are designed to seem somewhat confrontational, but they still cater to a rarefied audience: anyone viewing either exhibit has paid a fee to enter a museum with the expectation of seeing art. The same cannot be said for the thousands of Manhattanites who walk the streets of the Flatiron district daily, yet they are currently privy to an even more radical art installation.

The English sculptor Antony Gormley's Event Horizon, which will last until August 15, plants 31 naked life-size sculptures of the artist on the rooftops and sidewalks of the Lower Manhattan business centre. The element of surprise is crucial to the project, and so none of the sculptures is labelled or signposted for easy comprehension. Gormley envisions the installation as a way to disturb the average New Yorker's daily routine and force a reconsideration of the urban landscape. Most of all, he wants people to stop and talk.

"There are two kinds of things going on," Gormley said, introducing his United States public art debut in Madison Square Park. "One is the inert, silent sculptures, and the other is what's happening on the ground, and how people stop each other and say: 'Hey, what's going on?'" The project is a reprise of the 2007 Event Horizon in London, in which Gormley arranged the sculptures along the Thames river, but the current installation is already provoking eerie resonances specific to New York. The police had to assure the public officially that the sculptures perched atop the New York Life Insurance Building, Metropolitan Life Tower, and Empire State Building were not potential suicide jumpers. (These are not irrational fears. At the end of March, the same week Gormley's project went up, a college student leapt to his death from the Observation Tower of the Empire State Building.) And of course, any imagery that combines skyscrapers with human figures in peril cannot help but call to mind the horrors of September 11, 2001.

Like its predecessors in free public spectacle - Olafur Eliasson's Brooklyn Bridge waterfalls and Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park "Gates" - the Gormley installation aims to define public art in New York as an inextricable part of the environment. (An earlier Gormley idea that never came to fruition would have placed the sculptures all over the island, and not just in the current, narrowly circumscribed area.)

One of his particular concerns is the ways that architecture interacts with the human body; he sought out specific buildings with historical or aesthetic significance, and made sure the sculptures were exact replicas of his 1.9-metre frame. To combat the sense of human life as isolated from the imposing structures that define the metropolis, Gormley has attempted to transform the body into architecture.

The most legitimate criticism of Gormley's art is that he tends to repeat himself. Not only is this the second iteration of Event Horizon, but his Another Place similarly (and permanently) mounted 100 cast replicas of the artist on Crosby Beach in England, where the sculptures are sometimes submerged by water. Still, he sees his work defined less by its own materiality than by the surrounding environment and the people who pause to interact. "Traditional statues are not about potential," Gormley told The Times newspaper in the UK, "but about something that's already complete. They have a moral authority that is oppressive rather than collaborative. My works acknowledge their emptiness."

To Gormley's apparent delight, visitors to Another Place on Crosby Beach fitted some of the sculptures with bikinis and hard hats. So far the New Yorkers I have observed contemplating Event Horizon have mainly expressed their appreciation (and befuddlement) by taking cell phone photos.

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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush

Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”

A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.

“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”

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Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

List of alleged parties

 

May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff 

May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'

Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff 

Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson 

Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party

Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters 

Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz 

Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party 

Tips for taking the metro

- set out well ahead of time

- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines

- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on

- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers

F1 2020 calendar

March 15 - Australia, Melbourne; March 22 - Bahrain, Sakhir; April 5 - Vietnam, Hanoi; April 19 - China, Shanghai; May 3 - Netherlands, Zandvoort; May 20 - Spain, Barcelona; May 24 - Monaco, Monaco; June 7 - Azerbaijan, Baku; June 14 - Canada, Montreal; June 28 - France, Le Castellet; July 5 - Austria, Spielberg; July 19 - Great Britain, Silverstone; August 2 - Hungary, Budapest; August 30 - Belgium, Spa; September 6 - Italy, Monza; September 20 - Singapore, Singapore; September 27 - Russia, Sochi; October 11 - Japan, Suzuka; October 25 - United States, Austin; November 1 - Mexico City, Mexico City; November 15 - Brazil, Sao Paulo; November 29 - Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi.

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Profile

Company name: Jaib

Started: January 2018

Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour

Based: Jordan

Sector: FinTech

Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018

Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups

MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
  • Riders must be 14-years-old or over
  • Wear a protective helmet
  • Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
  • Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
  • Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
  • Do not drive outside designated lanes
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters

The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.

 Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.

A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.

The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.

The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.

Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.

Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment

But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.

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