Disorder.

It took all weekend, but we finally managed to empty out the office. I knew that room was densely-packed, but I had no idea how much stuff was actually in there: it wasn't a spring cleaning, it was an excavation. I think we uncovered a corner of that Bosnian stargate...

Anyway, the important thing is that it's done, though now the rest of the apartment is re-styled in "Katrina chic," with stuff everywhere. I can't wait until this whole process is finished so we can start living again, instead of just subsisting amidst the teetering towers of miscellanea that have sprung up, toadstool-like, in every room.

To that end, we swept and dusted the now-echoing office, mopped the floors and scrubbed the walls. A friend came over and, in exchange for pizza and beer, helped us lay down two thick coats of primer everywhere except the floor; even the ceiling got done, which was a first for me. I'm indebted to C for her patience: try as I may, I can't seem to paint particularly well and I'm sure it drives a pro like her nuts. I think it's a testament to our bond that we were still smiling at the end of the day.

* * *

Given the speed with which the Sri Lankan situation has been evolving and our own government's departure from historical precedent, I think it's important to try and get some alternative perspectives on the conflict. The Asian Tribune is running "Open warfare erupts in Sri Lanka," an article originally featured on the World Socialist Web Site.

Both the government and the LTTE claim to be for "peace" and neither side has officially abrogated the ceasefire. But all the signs are pointing toward a rapid slide back to all-out civil war that will have devastating consequences for working people on the island—Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim alike. More than 65,000 people were killed in two decades of brutal conflict prior to 2002. Many more were maimed or turned into refugees.

Both sides are threatening war. LTTE spokesman S. Pulidevan told the media: "They are firing with artillery and cannons. It is like a war situation in Trincomalee. If the attacks continue, the LTTE will be forced to take military defensive action." LTTE leader in Trincomalee S.S. Elilan warned: "We are in a state of readiness and are waiting for the instruction from our leadership to respond with force that will be catastrophically disabling and devastating to the enemy."

Government defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella was no less bellicose, declaring: "There’s no duration or limits on defence matters. If the LTTE continues its attacks, there will be coordinated retaliation or defence. This will continue as long as the LTTE targets the security forces." In his comments, Media Minister Anura Priyadarsahna Yapa denied that the ceasefire was in a shambles after the first open breaches by the Sri Lankan military, saying only "it’s a bit of a low".

Understatement of the week, bar none. If you're accustomed to the biases of mainstream news outlets, the biases of this article may strike you as particularly glaring, but really the latter are no more severe than the former. Regardless, it provided some productive modifications to my own internal model, so on that basis I recommend it you.

In addition, the Hindustan Times provides more information on more technical aspects of the conflict and ensuing negotiations, as well as delving into the specifics of the Norwegian facilitating team's efforts to hurry peace talks along.

Constant craving.

Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this; as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard.

- John Le Carré

Those are the final words of The Constant Gardener, not spoken by any character but written on the screen at the end of the closing credits. A fitting conclusion to a movie which simultaneously terrifies and enchants with its beautifully-filmed portrait of greed, mendacity and profound inhumanity nesting in the heart of the African AIDS crisis.

Lauded by British cinephiles, critics and awards associations, this is a real gem of a movie: polished, precise and stunningly gorgeous, with crisp, hard edges; clear, polished surfaces; and a dimly-glimmering center. Hands down the best film I've seen in 2006, The Constant Gardener accomplishes the nigh-impossible by acting as both a powerful political statement and an arresting piece of art. On top of that, the movie manages to be both A) a nuanced, profoundly human and deeply-affecting love story and B) an engaging, complex thriller with double agents, diplomatic intrigue and smatterings of quick & dirty violence.

Tessa Quayle: I thought you spies knew everything.
Tim Donohue: Only God knows everything. He works for Mossad.

Rachel Weisz (recently in the forgettable Constantine) delivers an amazing performance as Tessa Quayle, the hunter hunted. Making her quixotic quester relevant by infusing her with furious energy, integrity and a wild intellect, Weisz earns her Best Supporting Actress Oscar several times over. She steals every scene she's in, injecting vitality and immediacy into even the quietest scenes. Fiennes is excellent (as usual), channelling some of his Tony-winning portrayal of Hamlet into Justin Quayle, another doomed man haunted by ghosts. Danny Huston is impeccable as the archetypal bureaucratic villain and Herbert Koundé's star continues to rise (watch for him to get bigger, faster).

I can't recommend this movie strongly enough; if you haven't seen it yet, don't delay.

So much to do, so few people to do it for me.

I feel like I've maybe been neglecting this space a little lately, what with everything else going on. With a new arrival on the way, we've had to do some major feng shui on the apartment in order to save as much space as possible: seems like every week I'm assembling, mounting, screwing, hammering, measuring or moving something different. Not that I'm complaining; it's actually been kind of fun and the results are impressive. It's just left me with very little time for things like editorializing...

* * *

However, I can still find time to watch brilliant video mash-ups like George Bush singt "Imagine", courtesy of Pacanukeha.

* * *

In case you missed it, the aboriginal protests in Caledonia have finally brought out the ugly side of the locals: the CBC reported that shortly after the County Mayor implied that local Native activists were lazy welfare junkies, a mob confronted the protesters. Hundreds of locals, incensed that their lives were being disrupted by the demonstartors, showed up spoiling for a fight:

About 500 residents headed to the site after a rally, at which they called on authorities to end the seven-week-old native demonstration at a housing development in Caledonia, which is about one hour west of Toronto.

(...)

At the meeting, about 3,000 non-native residents voiced their mounting frustration over the blockade.

"As Caledonians we feel that we have had our lives disrupted," one angry man said.

Since this report was released, the town council has formally censured the mayor and there hasn't been a repeat of Monday's fracas, but the situation is still tense and the OPP is standing by, as is the ghost of Dudley George.

* * *

Hey, check it out: I've been blogging for a year and a week!

Shadow.

After a three-month lull, C and I have started renting movies again; it's amazing how easy is it to drop out of pop culture when a sudden, urgent priority inserts itself into your lives.

Anyway, after watching The Aristocrats, we opted for something a little more cerebral and settled in with critical darling and Oscar contender A History of Violence. Ostensibly a meditation on violence and identity, it shares similarities with Cronenberg's last film, 2002's underrated Spider: both follow an unremarkable man's path through a life fraught with explosions of violence both literal and allegorical.

Spider was compelling despite its clouded themes and messy denouement, while A History of Violence maintains a crystal-clear focus throughout its length, a testament to Cronenberg's growth as an artist. I've always found his films to be muddled and unfocused, weighed down by blubbery subplots and meandering narrative cul-de-sacs. In History, he manages to stay on track and the result is a taut, engaging movie that rarely drags or deviates from its central premises. Surprisingly, he also manages to avoid getting bogged down in the barely-concealed misogyny which so often plagues his work.

Viggo Mortensen is excellent, underplaying his part (no small feat for the male lead in a Cronenberg picture) and saving his "King" look for just the right moment. C and I both like Maria Bello and it was cool to watch her in a nuanced role, a lead performance which would really let her show her chops. she acquits herself admirably and the relationship she paints with Mortensen is nothing short of amazing. While both Ed Harris and William Hurt are solid, I don't understand how Hurt got himself an Oscar nomination for this... he's barely i the movie at all!

All in all, a strong movie that actually lives up to most of the critical hype.

On your marks.

Neil Gaiman is a very popular author in my social circle and though I loved Good Omens, I never got around to reading any of his other works. Given that everything seems to come highly recommended, I wasn't sure where to begin so I thought I'd start with something small: "Books have sexes; or to be more precise, books have genders" is an essay Gaiman wrote for Powells.com, an online bookseller. Dealing (disppointingly) only peripherally with gender, it's actually about the process by which an author uncovers the book which lurks inside of them.

* * *

~trying to blog it out got me thinking about commitments, choices, struggles and stakes with her musings on motivation and the appeal of work that might, at times, seem fruitless or even masochistic.

* * *

And speaking of thankless work and extended treatment, The Tyee is carrying a series of pieces by David Berner, a "writer, actor and radio talk show host who also happens to have run a treatment program for addicts." "Drug Treatment Can Work" is the second in a three-part response to the BC Liberals' plans for the province's addicts.

Were we able to help everyone? Of course not. Our success rate remained constant at around 25 percent. But there are three important things to remember about that number: 1) According to basic Judeo-Christian belief "If you save one human soul, you save the world!" 2) A batting average of .250 will get you into baseball's hall of fame and a return of 25 cents on the dollar will make you Canada's next billionaire. 3) Our per bed costs were comically low, less than $20,000 per annum, because this was not a "medical model."

(...)

My primary interest in the endless addiction debates is treatment, treatment and more treatment. I know from personal experience that treatment is possible and affordable. I have known every mayor of Vancouver for the past 40 years and most British Columbia premiers. Even though treatment is touted as one of the four famous pillars, I have yet to meet one mayor or premier who is prepared to invest in treatment.

Alley Gory.

It's the singer, not the song.

After a fun and surprisingly exhausting weekend (C's mom has way too much energy -- the woman's a machine), we decided to chill out and watch a few movies last night. The Aristocrats has been on our must-see list for half a year, so we finally bit the bullet and rented it.

There isn't much to review -- it is what it is -- but there were a couple of surprises which made it worthwhile viewing. The Smothers Brothers' deconstructivist non-joke is gently clever and Sarah Silverman's disturbing parallel riff is not only funnier than most other versions in the film, but more shocking too. Hands down the funniest telling is Kevin Pollak's, though. Although we'd smirked and chuckled our way through most other comics' riffing, Pollak's inspired channelling of Christopher Walken had us in stitches, to the point where we had to pause the movie to catch our breath -- then we watched it again. I've always liked Pollak in dramatic features, but I didn't realize he could be so funny (though his brilliant turn as wisecracking Hockney in The Usual Suspects should've tipped me off).

The most interesting versions were almost inevitably told by the women, who modified and mutated the fundamental nature of the joke so as to turn it inside out and make a whole series of other points beside, before and behind the joke.

* * *

Mea culpa: I should have given due props to Ann Spam for the "Say No to Pants" video -- thanks, Ann!

Happy Easter.

Short and sweet, like a creme egg.

I know I'm a little kid-focused lately, but surely humour this sophisticated would appeal to anyone (N.B.: although completely work-safe, the movie at the end of this link is on the loud side and will launch automatically; colour yourselves warned).

* * *

C's mother is in town for Easter weekend, and between the laughing and the lattés I'm swamped. Ergo, along with the previous link all you get from me today is the Silent Hill trailer. Cheers.

Pillars of Society.

As an addendum to yesterday's post regarding the rationalizations for war in the Middle East, here's an interesting news tidbit: Reuters is reporting that two more retired US generals are asking for Rummy's head on a stick.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two more retired U.S. generals called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign on Thursday, claiming the chief architect of the Iraq operation ignored years of Pentagon planning for a U.S. occupation and should be held accountable for the chaos there.

As the high-ranking officers accused Rumsfeld of arrogance and ignoring his field commanders, the White House was forced to defend a man who has been a lightning rod for criticism over a war that has helped drive President George W. Bush's public approval ratings to new lows.

Complete Reuters article here.

* * *

Pacanukeha reminds us that the Easter Bunny's relentless campaign to spread juvenile diabetes is only the tip of a malevolent iceberg: witness exhibit A.

* * *

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favourite authors. A luminary amongst speculative fiction writers and an outspoken feminist, anarchist, anti-racist hellion, Le Guin has left an indelible mark on her genre with books like the classic The Left Hand of Darkness and the beautiful Earthsea series. A recipient of the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for "her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage," Le Guin remains a vital & dynamic force in SF.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is one of her best-known short stories and I just found a free online version of it so I thought I'd share with the class. Spot-on and sharper than a serpent's tooth, the story shouldn't take you more than ten minutes to read. Go ahead, everything will still be here when you get back.

Flex.

A professor at someplace called GateWay Community College created a neat JavaScript interactive diagram of the human muscle system. It's just a tutorial, but the level of detail is surprisingly good and it's completely intuitive. Check it out.

* * *

For years, I subscribed to The New Yorker: sophisticated editorial content broken up by pretentious marketing campaigns and self-congratulatory navel-gazing urbanite wit. I enjoyed the monthly window into a world wholly unlike my own and they did have a remarkable ability to attract some of the finest short-story writers in America.

Anyway, I've since dropped my subscription but I still check out their site occasionally. This month, they're carrying an excellent piece by Seymour Hersh:"The Iran Plans: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?" is a crystal-clear summation of the White House's plans to go to war with Iran in the enar future. Citing one source after another, from DoD officials, to senior intelligence analysts and members of the House, Hersh leaves little room for argument: G.W. Bush, with what one senior member of the House Appropriations Committee referred to as a "messianic vision," is hell-bent on pockmarking Iran with blackened craters and filling the autumn siroccos with radioactive dust.

All emphases are mine.

The rationale for regime change was articulated in early March by Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert who is the deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and who has been a supporter of President Bush. “So long as Iran has an Islamic republic, it will have a nuclear-weapons program, at least clandestinely,” Clawson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 2nd. “The key issue, therefore, is: How long will the present Iranian regime last?”

When I spoke to Clawson, he emphasized that “this Administration is putting a lot of effort into diplomacy.” However, he added, Iran had no choice other than to accede to America’s demands or face a military attack.

(...)

“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”

(...)

The lack of reliable intelligence leaves military planners, given the goal of totally destroying the sites, little choice but to consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons. “Every other option, in the view of the nuclear weaponeers, would leave a gap,” the former senior intelligence official said. “ ‘Decisive’ is the key word of the Air Force’s planning. It’s a tough decision. But we made it in Japan.”

He went on, “Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout -— we’re talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years. This is not an underground nuclear test, where all you see is the earth raised a little bit. These politicians don’t have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out” -— remove the nuclear option -— “they’re shouted down.”

The entire article, in a printable format for the evening commute home, is right here (will launch in a new window).

Women are the fulcrums.

Lately, most news outlets have been running stories about the new pope's surprisingly mellow reign, using the one-year anniversary of his bureaucratic apotheosis as an opportunity to say, in a nutshell, "look, he's not nearly as big a fascist as he could have been." Tell that to reverend Cachia in Peterborough:

A 56-year-old Ontario priest celebrated one of the holiest days in the Roman Catholic calendar under the roof of his own breakaway church this weekend, after learning he had been excommunicated for his support of women being ordained as priests.

Rev. Ed Cachia's newly formed Christ the Servant Catholic Church was declared to be a schismatic church by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough yesterday (...)

The National Post story continues here.

While it's true that the "German Shepherd" (still a great pun) hasn't been quite as rabid in his defense of orthodoxy as many had predicted, the bottom line is that he's been firm in his refusal to change one single comma in the church's teachings on homosexuality, the place of women in the church and birth control. The dog may be licking your hand, but he's still guarding the gate.

* * *

So the long-awaited parliamentary debate over Canada's mission in Afghanistan finally took place and... nobody showed up. All these opposition MPs who'd been screaming blue murder over the absence of any forum to discuss and debate the mission apparently decided it was more important to start their Easter vacations two days early.

Although I trust Ignatieff about as far as I can throw him, he did have some choice words in defense of Canada's role in the region: "What I've learned [in my travels] is that you cannot do development in Afghanistan unless you control the security situation." I agree completely and I think the fundamental reasons behind the mission are sound. That doesn't mean I don't have some grave reservations about the execution and planning, however.

The Globe & Mail article is a pretty good summary of the "debate," if you want a closer look.

Atmosphere.

Published in 1946, "The Moon Under Water" is George Orwell's timeless description of his ideal watering-hole. I first read it years ago, during my own Quixotic search for the Platonic brass-and-oak refuge, and I was happy to find a complete version freely available online (will launch in a new browser window).

Impératif présent.

I'm fucking stunned. Even though the protests had grown to near-1968 proportions, I really hadn't let myself believe that Chirac's regressive contrat première embauche would be defeated by anything so prosaic as popular dissent. Apparently, my pessimism was misplaced: as both Le Monde and the CBC report, the law "will be replaced" (i.e. scrapped and quickly forgotten) and another, more flexible alternative will be explored. Excerpts from Prime Minister de Villepin's speech demonstrate his shortsightedness, desperation and colossal arrogance:

Depuis plusieurs mois, toute mon action et celle du gouvernement ont été guidées par un impératif : apporter une réponse efficace aux milliers de jeunes de notre pays, à qui on ne propose aucun emploi.

(...)

J'ai voulu agir vite (...) J'ai voulu proposer une solution forte (...) seul un meilleur équilibre entre plus de souplesse pour les entreprises et plus de sécurité pour les salariés nous permettra de rompre avec le chômage dans notre pays.

Cela n'a pas été compris par tous, je le regrette.

Actually, I think they understood it very fucking well. The students, workers and citizens who took to the streets understood that in order to create the illusion of higher employment rates, their government was willing to sacrifice the most basic aspect of job security: the responsibility of the employer to provide a defensible reason for dismissal. This wouldn't create jobs (in the sense of steady, reliable work for which one is fairly remunerated), it would create McJobs: disposable work made for disposable people; one more odious aspect of the latest wave of globalization that French society has steadfastly rejected. Lest you forgot, this is the same country where a farmer who tore the roof off a McDonald's was lauded as a populist hero; the country which invented the "slow food" movement; the country where six weeks of vacation time per annum is an entitlement, not a reward for five years' service.

While I'm happy the law was defeated, I'm curious why no-one discussed the gendered implications of strip-mining job security. Granted, Parisian culture is notoriously chauvinistic, but I still would've expected someone to point out that a law which allows an employer this kind of latitude will necessarily make it much harder to prosecute sexual harassment at the workplace. With this law in place, how many (more) women would have had to swallow their indignation and quietly suffer at the hands of abusive bosses? "Without cause" would translate to "if the bitch says no."

Naturally, this would apply to any marginalized group you can think of. Ironically, a law designed in part to combat the fifty percent unemployment among non-white youth would only further entrench employer's perceptions that these bougnoles have no place in their society.

Affectionate-Squeeze Lad to the rescue!

Have you heard of cuddle parties? The logical inverse to online dating, speed dating, hook-up parties and the like, cuddle parties have the potential to be a huge trend.

Given the impending arrival or our own little wriggling bundle of needs, C and I have been pricing slings and carriers, and I've been thinking a lot about touch and the degree to which an inability (or unwillingness) to engage in physical contact inhibits socialization and neuters the human capacity for empathy. "I wasn't held enough as a child" has transcended the epithet of therapeutic gobbledygook to become merely cliché, but it's clear that we're starved for affection if healthy, upwardly-mobile twenty- and thirtysomethings are using their Blackberries to schedule cuddle time with total strangers.

* * *

This little piece in Maclean's about pulp genius Stan Lee led me to read about the California Science Center's Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition, a great idea and a brilliant piece of marketing. In a nutshell, it uses the four-colour allure of comic books as an introduction to cutting-edge science in the fields of prosthetics, the effects of different types of energy on the human body, chemistry, etc.

• Lift a sports utility vehicle, just like a real life Iron Man! By experimenting with simple levers and pulleys to lift weights, learn what the future holds for increasing human strength.


• Explore the wonders of Spider-Man while learning about the elasticity and strength of spider webs. Test the strength of spider silk to Technora™, one of the strongest materials ever created.


• See if your senses are as sharp as Daredevil’s when you navigate through an alleyway using your sense of touch and hearing clues (“psst over here”).

Daredevil's exhibit sounds kinda lame, no? I mean, compared to bench-pressing a truck or spinning webs of any size -- which, I've heard, can catch thieves just like flies -- wandering aimlessly around a dark hallway is pretty weak.

Also, I'm not sure how visible the exhibits will be amidst the sea of tiny (TM) signs floating around, but it sounds kinda neat.

Dialogue, what?

One of this blog's limitations was made apparent to me by the following e-mail, reprinted here without the author's express permission (but I'm pretty sure consent is implied; if not, mea culpa):

I wanted to respond to something you wrote on your blog - but it necessitates images - and the comments window would not allow me to upload them.... so via email...

Just a small example to add to your excellent analysis. This type of image (as seen on the cover) goes back a long way in art history as well. I am most reminded of Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe painted in the late 1800's. At the time his works were very controversial, because they depicted nude women in contemporary settings (rather then historical, religious, or mythical realms). Also because the women depicted in a number of his works were known sex workers, and because those women were depicted as actively returning the gaze of the viewer.

A hundred years later, this image - like so many others - has been reified, and transformed into conservative cannon - and reproduced on magazine covers. If Vanity Fare is interested in challenging the status quo in this genre they should look to contemporary artists like Renée Cox - who are able to embrace some of the original transformative intent of these type of images - while taking it much farther by challenging the still prevalent desires/norms that works like Manet's perpetuate.

anyways - I have to get back to work....
I was just really struck by your post....

I was blown away by these images and I couldn't agree with the author more: any subversive or disruptive potential of the VF images (a legacy imparted by Manet et. al.) is entirely voided by Tom Ford's obnoxious machismo and the magazine's persistent racism.

It's times like this that I really appreciate the potential of a blog: friends spread out across multiple countires, continents and even hemispheres are able to continue some of the same discussions we started over pints at the corner pub, or ribs and bruschetta on a backyard terrace.

Thanks for the insight, JW.

Dispatches.

As much as I missed blogging while I was away, I haven't been able to get back into the groove since I've returned. There's just so many things going on around here that I literally can't set aside the hour or so it would take to just post a quick catch-up riff. I finally decided to just suck it up and use my lunch hour to blog from work; I don't have the time to get into any of the stuff that happened in California, but I can at least provide a little fresh content for the (treasured!) handful of loyal readers who keep coming back to the same headline every day.

So without further ado, here are a couple of stories that caught my eye while I was away:

* * *

Reimburse living organ donors in Canada: commentary

Compensating living organ donors makes financial sense and can save lives, doctors say in a commentary published Tuesday.

(...)

Dr. Scott Klarenbach, a kidney specialist and health economist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, thinks the financial burden is one reason more people aren't coming forward to donate kidneys and livers.

The entire CBC story may be read here (will open link in a new window).

Given the enormous cost incurred by organ donors, this seems like a no-brainer. Granted, any attempt to create more expenses for an already-taxed health care system will be met with resistance; but considering the paper's claim that each donated kidney saves the government $100,000, there doesn't seem to be any firm rationale to continue imposing unnecessary burdens on donors.

* * *

On the subject of cultural innovation, the government of France took a huge step toward legitimating video games as an art form:

France has elevated three video game creators to its prestigious Order of Arts and Letters, the first time electronic games artists have achieved France's highest award for culture.

Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres honoured three game creators on Monday – Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, Ubisoft's Michel Ancel and Frédérick Raynal, director of the original Alone in the Dark game.

(...)

The Order of Arts and Letters was established in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers and people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

Complete CBC article here.

While I'm not familiar with Ancel and Raynal, Miyamoto is a living legend -- a titan in his field (and, AFAIK, not a French citizen). To be recognized by France in this way is a nice feather in his cap and, more importantly, sets a beautful precedent. Maybe next time they'll even nominate a woman or two, hm?

* * *

While in San Francisco, I'd wanted to visit some of the many amazing exhibits being held in the city's galleries and museums. Home to a vibrant and ever-changing art scene, San Franciscio's many exhibit halls have always been a siren's call for me during my visits. Unfortunately, I was kept too busy during my trip to visit more than a couple of small galleries. One exhibit that I'd really wanted to catch was A Brief History of the "Clenched Fist" Image, held at the gorgeous Intersection for the Arts.

Tracking this "persistent symbol of resistance and unity" throughout its storied history, the artist offers a comprehensive study of a powerful emblem of struggle. Take a quick look.