Edward Tufte, “Magritte’s Smile,” aluminum casting, 2009 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
258 Main St., Ridgefield, CT
Tuesday-Sunday 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Sculpture garden tours with Edward Tufte: Saturday, April 3, 2:00 & 3:15
Admission: $7 (Tuesdays free)
203-438-4519
www.aldrichart.org
It’s promising to be a beautiful weekend, so it’s a great opportunity to make a little detour north and see the wonderful Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The indoor part of Edward Tufte’s “Seeing Around” exhibition closed January 17, but his show in the outdoor sculpture garden is still up through April 17, although deinstallation will begin April 5. On April 3, Tufte will be on hand to lead tours at 2:00 and 3:15, discussing such intriguing pieces as “Skewed Machine,” “Porta the Dog,” and “Magritte’s Smile.” The group exhibition “Paying a Visit to Mary” (through June 6) examines the perception and interpretation of reality through works by Dexter Sinister, Melissa Gordon, William Oorebeek, Guido van der Werve, and others. “Tom Molloy” (through June 13) is the first museum survey of the work of Irish artist Tom Molloy, who repurposes existing objects and images to make social and political commentary. “Swarm” consists of folded dollar bills placed into the wall (in an unintentional flaglike pattern that echoes the nearby “Flag”). “Globe” is a small, crushed-up map that dangles from the ceiling, encouraging visitors to “blow the world away,” as Molloy told us at the opening. And the blood dripping from “Sweep” is indeed the artist’s own. Also on view is Jo Yarrington’s site-specific color installation “Ocular Visions,” Jeanne C. Finley + John Muse’s multimedia “Sleeping Under Stars, Living Under Satellites,” and Adad Hannah’s video project “Masterpieces in Motion.” The Aldrich is a charming, very manageable museum in a quaint part of town, making for a terrific little excursion from the city.
At the Palm Springs International Film Festival earlier this year, China withdrew Lu Chuan’s CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH and Ye Kai’s QUICK, QUICK, SLOW in protest of the festival’s inclusion of the pro-Tibet documentary THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS. CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH, which examines the 1937 Rape of Nanking, was scheduled to open at Film Forum on March 31, but the distributor could not guarantee that China would allow it to be shown, so Film Forum filled the open slot with THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS. Subtitled TIBET’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, the seventy-nine-minute film, made by husband-and-wife team Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, delves into the battle between those Tibetans who follow the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way Approach, in which Tibet would seek autonomy from China but not full independence, and those that want their country back completely. Sarin and Sonam, who have been documenting the situation in Tibet for nearly twenty years in such films as THE TRIALS OF TELO RINPOCHE (1994), THE SHADOW CIRCUS: THE CIA IN TIBET (1998), the narrative feature DREAMING LHASA (2005), and THE THREAD OF KARMA (2007), focus on the March 2008 uprising, the biggest since the Chinese invasion of 1959.
A cult classic that spawned three sequels, Shunya Ito’s highly stylized SCORPION has everything a women-in-prison flick needs: sex, torture, rape, lesbianism, riots, sadistic male guards, shower scenes, gory violence, and lots and lots of unnecessary nudity. Set up by corrupt cop Sugimi (Isao Natsuyagi), to whom she gave her virginity, young and innocent Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji) is sent up the river, where she refuses to say anything about her case, leading to constant brutalization, including a harrowing hole-digging scene and some hog-tying. Afraid that she might eventually talk, Sugimi enlists another inmate, Katagiri (Rie Yokoyama), to kill her, but Matsu is not about to let anyone get in the way of her plan for revenge. Solid sexploitation all the way, SCORPION lays out much of the groundwork for Quentin Tartantino’s KILL BILL flicks; in fact, he even used the film’s theme song, “Urami-Bushi” (“Her Song of Vengeance”), which is sung by Kaji. Kaji went on to make several more FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION films with Ito and played Lady Snowblood in two movies directed by Toshiya Fujita, both of which are also part of the “Meiko Kaji: A Mad, Bad Unholy Easter Weekend” section of the Japan Society’s “Mad, Bad . . . & Dangerous to Know” film series.
