On dogs at the Guggenheim and reform in Saudi Arabia.
Recent links of note:
“Guggenheim Museum Pulls Works Involving Live Animals from Chinese Art Survey”
Alex Greenberger, ARTnews
The Guggenheim, it seems, has gone to the dogs. The Fifth Avenue Museum has found itself embroiled in a controversy surrounding its upcoming exhibition survey, “Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World.” Apparently, the museum was set to include video pieces that uses filmed “performances” of a variety of animals. Most notably, one work, Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other (2003) includes a room full of pit bulls leashed to treadmills on which they run. Luckily, PETA and other like-minded animal-rights groups have come out in defense of our furry friends, going so far as to repeatedly threaten the museum staff with physical violence. The Guggenheim responded by pulling the works from the exhibition. This latest demonstration of the ubiquitous offense-production machine (now extended to non-humans) has us stumped—by no means is the suppression of art a good thing, but then again, it’s hard to figure out what exactly the point of these strange pieces was in the first place.
“One step into Modernity”
Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal
This week, Saudi Arabia made the decision to allow women to obtain drivers licenses. As the title suggests, this move is but one step towards modernity for the notoriously backwards and theocratic state. It is a significant step, however, and indicative of Saudi Arabia’s growing (and inevitable) realization that their economy increasingly depends on the mobility and labor of its entire population—women included. Theodore Dalrymple’s take in City Journal unpacks some of the potential ramifications—economic and social—of the decision.
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