Dimensionally Barrett

In the foreground is one of Sonny’s pieces. From Artists Beyond Boundaries Group Exhibit, 2017 Not that there is anything “usual” about these Myanmar updates, but if anything, this one is more personal. One of Myanmar’s great artists passed from this world from COVID. U Sonny Nyein was a great sculptor and a fine human being. I did not know him well, but I liked him and enjoyed our limited time together.   All of these updates are personal, though. Not that I might not have acknowledged the devastation afflicting Myanmar for less personal reasons, but the simple fact is that if you spend time with people in a country so warm and welcoming, especially artist peers and colleagues, this becomes family. I don’t really want to spend much time on the Tatmadaw. I don’t want to pay them any mind today nor do I particularly want to discuss COVID and how these twin disasters are laying waste to this beautiful country and its people.  I do want to offer support to my friends and the...

Source:  https://www.citizen.org/news/texas-and-the-cost-of-climate-change/ Living in one of the premier Red States is not a joy. Being vaccinated while knowing that the state is only at 41% of the population vaccinated is not comforting . The reason you need at least 70% of the populace is to reach that herd immunity that so many of the unvaccinated, gaslit, ill-informed, my freedom over your well-being, idiots tout.   I am weary from the state’s attack on  voting rights and their fervent desire to damage and damn my home state, to reduce it to a hellhole beyond the climatic one it is swift becoming (along with much of the western and southwestern states ). Shrugging shoulders at the latest stupidity issuing from Austin is a great work-out, but a useless political stance.  Sadly, it’s not just that Texas is red because of a sizable Republican population and voter turnout is often disappointing; there really is very much an intransigent sense of “going it ...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2011. Photo by Bonnie Jenkins. Source:  https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-issues-for-2011/october/remembering-the-kindness-of-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-and-the-courageous-people-of-tibet/ On July 6, 1935, the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara emanated into a small village in Amdo, Tibet. The child was recognized as the fourteenth Dalai Lama and enthroned as the leader of Tibet on his turning fifteen years of age, three years ahead of schedule.   With no exposure to the geopolitics of the world at the time and an inquisitive and far-reaching mind, Tenzin Gyatso assumed the duties of a leader of a state that was on the precipice of destruction. Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China had already made overtures and incursions to “peacefully liberate” the Tibetan people and bring Tibet back into the Motherland. There are enough lies in that last sentence to choke ten ...

Zooming out from the roiling strife in Burma, cause and effect are playing out on a vaster canvas than might seem immediately apparent. As much as despots and dictators would like to hew to the narrative that “our conflict is only internal and doesn’t involve anyone else/is no one else’s business”, this lie has been put to rout repeatedly.   With the Tatmadaw, it is especially egregious given that the military is still receiving support from multinational corporate funding(1), employment of tech from China(2), and purchasing arms from Russia(3). The stage is set for Burma to return to the bad old days for military despotism. Also, it’s important to remember that this is not a civil war. Right now, the various ethnic groups that form Myanmar’s polity are united against this brutal military force. That the unrest in the country is directly tied to support from regional and global players out to make a buck is one side of the story on the international field; the other is the effec...

  As Sonali Kolhatkar writes , “Making Juneteenth a holiday was the easy part — but will real justice follow?” Yes, it’s wonderful that it’s a holiday, but it’s difficult to feel like this is more than a feel-good piece of legislation that is more performative than substantive. There is a lot of hype and hypocrisy surrounding the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, not the least of which is that the narratives purporting its reaching Texas late because “news traveled slowly in those days” is bunk. Christopher Wilson, Experience Design Director at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, writes for the Zinn Education Project : "Very often Juneteenth is presented as a story of “news” of the Emancipation Proclamation “traveling slowly” to the Deep South and Texas, but it was really a story of power traveling slowly, and of freedom being seized. Due to the telegraph, newspapers and the United States Army spread out all across the country to put down the sla...

  If the past year and a half has been brutal for most, it has been several magnitudes of uglier for refugee populations. Imagine fleeing your country for fear of your life because of natural disasters, war, or violent social environment. Refugee crises have expanded because of climate change, civil wars, violent coups, and situations where families and individuals are threatened with execution for attempting to speak truth to power and to fight for change(1). Let’s be clear: no one wants to be a refugee . However, few seem willing to show support to refugee populations, despite a majority around the world being in favor of allowing refugees into their countries(2). In so-called “developed” nations, we denigrate or dehumanize those fleeing political persecution or war. We turn them back at borders (3), we leave them adrift at sea (4), and this puts a lie to the values of inclusion and assistance we purport to believe in. Recently, Vice-President Kamala Harris had a succinct mess...

“Each/Other” by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger In Denver recently, I had a chance to take in the “Each/Other” exhibition by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, both Native American artists whose work - separately and together - rest on collaboration as both an operative term, as well as a point of departure for inspiration and reflection.   As part of the mission statement at the Denver Art Museum’s installation, the wish was that each piece on display would foster a sense of the scope of each person’s experience in being part of the process. This is adds several levels of depth and dimensions to the work before us. This should be a guiding principle in viewing most large-scale works; the understanding that any given piece is not merely the result of one person’s effort adds a richness to the experience of engaging with that piece.  However, this is not something that many artists tend to emphasize, despite the number of assistants big name artists (and sometimes not ...