Ron Athey is one of the most important, prolific and influential performance artists of the past four decades. A singular example of lived creativity, his radical performances are at odds with the art worlds and art marketplaces that have increasingly dominated contemporary art and performance art over the period of his career. Queer Communion, an exploration of Athey's career, refuses the linear narratives of art discourse and instead pays homage to the intensities of each mode of Athey's performative practice and each community he engages. Emphasizing the ephemeral and largely uncollectible nature of his work, the book places Athey's own writing at its centre, turning to memoir, memory recall and other modes of retrieval and narration to archive his performances. In addition to documenting Athey's art, ephemera, notes and drawings, the volume features commissioned essays, concise 'object lessons' on individual objects in the Athey archive, and short testimonials by friends and collaborators including Dominic Johnson, Amber Musser, Julie Tolentino, Ming Ma, David Getsy, Alpesh Patel and Zackary Drucker, among others. Together they form Queer Communion, a counter history of contemporary art.

Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), created by Joan Skinner, is a somatic movement, dance and creative practice with a core underlying principle of releasing blocked energy, held tension and habitual patterns in body mind. It enables us to move with greater freedom and ease whilst awakening creativity and spontaneity. The 21 contributors to this book describe how SRT informs their own movement and/or dance practice and influences wider fields of practice including meditation, architecture, poetic listening, visual art, writing, technology and choreography. For them SRT is a transformative and lifelong practice that deepens connections with self, other, more than human life forms and with natural and urban landscapes. This is a book for anyone drawn to explore body mind, somatic, movement and dance practices, and for those who are exploring ways of living in the world creatively, empathically and with more ease and natural grace.

Enter the glamorous domain of world-famous jewellery house, Harry Winston, and discover the true rags-to-riches story of the immigrant family behind the phenomenon. Harry Winston’s famous slogan for his success was: “knowledge, courage, and the ability to finance.� King of Diamonds: The Flawless World of Harry Winston is the quintessential rags-to-riches success story of a very poor immigrant family emigrating from Ukraine to America. It is the story of how one man, Harry Winston, created a famous name with his company, founded in New York City in 1932. Winston became known for the owning and sales of very large diamonds. At one point, he owned a third of the world’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, which earned him the moniker “King of Diamonds.� The book details how author Ronald Winston’s father got his start and began what would eventually become the most famous jewellery house in the world. Peek inside his first office, an upstairs Fifth Ave location, followed by subsequent locations in Rockefeller Centre, an office across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and finally an image-building store on Fifth Avenue. Known as the “Jewelleer to the Stars,� Winston’s gems have appeared both on the Hollywood red carpet and in famous Hollywood films like Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Viola Davis, Helen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many more have worn Winston pieces on Hollywood’s biggest nights. The story then follows Harry Winston’s successor and heir, Ronald Winston, and his making of the family name. Under Ronald, the company’s name would not remain just famous, but would become world-famous. Ronald built locations in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Japan, and China. Ronald’s saga continued with his entry into the revolution in Angola, buying diamonds from its charismatic leader, Jonas Savimbi. Ronald Winston risked his life in order to make profits that repaid the death taxes caused by his father’s passing. In all, King of Diamonds is a joyous evocation of two men who added an innumerable amount to the image, story, and marketing of luxury products, as well as to the joy of people who love and purchase these objects. After all, as frequent Winston jewellery-wearer Marilyn Monroe would say, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.�

The Handbook of Greek Sculpture aims to provide a detailed examination of current research and directions in the field. Bringing together an international cast of contributors from Greece, Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, the volume incorporates new areas of research, such as the sculptures of Messene and Macedonia, sculpture in Roman Greece, and the contribution of Greek sculptors in Rome, as well as important aspects of Greek sculpture like techniques and patronage. The written sources (literary and epigraphical) are explored in dedicated chapters, as are function and iconography and the reception of Greek sculpture in modern Europe. Inspired by recent exhibitions on Lysippos and Praxiteles, the book also revisits the style and the personal contributions of the great masters.

In a fine assimilation of abstraction, myth, landscape and conceptualization, her art is threaded with the face, form and guration of the `goddess' in various incarnations of Rini's own design. This book is an attempt to understand and appreciate the dramatis persona, review her creative journey and take the reader through the various stages of her life and work until the present, with its focus on an exceptionally impressive and extensively varied repertoire.

Despite the profusion of knightly effigies created between c. 1240 and c. 1330 for tombs throughout the British Isles, these commemorative figures are relatively unknown to art historians and medievalists. Until now, their rich visual impact and significance has been relatively unexplored by scholars. In this study, Rachel Dressler examines this category of sculpture, illustrating how English military figures employ a visual language of pose, costume, and attributes to construct a masculine ideal that privileges fighting prowess, elite status, and sexual virility. Like military figures on the Continent, English effigies represent knights wearing chain mail and surcoats, and bearing shields and swords; unique to the British examples, however, is the display of an aggressive sword handling pose and dynamically crossed legs. Outwardly hyper masculine, the carved figures partake in artistic subterfuge: the lives of those memorialized did not always match proffered images, testifying to the changing function of the knight in England during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This study traces the development of English military figures, and analyzes in detail three fourteenth-century examples-those commemorating Robert I De Vere in Hatfield Broad Oak (Essex), Richard Gyvernay at Limington (Somerset), and Henry Allard in Winchelsea (Sussex). Similar in appearance, these three sculptures represent persons of distinctly different social levels: De Vere belonged to the highest aristocratic rank, where Gyvernay was a lesser county knight, and Allard was from a merchant family, raising questions about his knightly standing. Ultimately, Dressler's analysis of English knight effigies demonstrates that the masculine warrior during the late Middle Ages was frequently a constructed ideal rather than a lived experience.

The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where pre-modern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Lanterns fashioned after miniature shrines, incense burners in the form of domed monuments, earthenware jars articulated with arches and windows, inkwells that allude to tents: through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts to locate its subjects in a cultural landscape where the material, visual and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, Margaret Graves develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arguing for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament, Arts of Allusion asserts the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history.

Combining a broad overview of Jean-Jacques Lebel’s coming-of-age among Surrealists and his rupture with the movement, Laurel Jean Fredrickson focuses on two landmark happenings in this book: the first, “Funeral of the Thing of Tinguely� (1960), and the most scandalous, “120 Minutes dedicated to the Divine Marquis� (1966). This study illustrates the development and significance of French happenings in relation to cultural and political changes of the 1960s. Research in Lebel’s archives, and others like the Archives nationale d’outre-mer are indispensable in the telling of this extraordinary historical and theoretical narrative. It illuminates sensitive, often veiled dimensions of postwar French society, from torture during the Algerian War, to government censorship, to the sexual politics of nudity in art. This volume shows how Lebel synthesized the lessons of Dada and surrealism and 1960s experimentalism, electrified by political radicalism, to participate in shaping the erotics and forms of revolution in May 1968.

From the 17th century, ajami decoration was prevalent in the interior adornment of the houses of Damascene merchants and notables. This study, done from the stylistic, historical - as well as the technical, points of view, has resulted in a unique and valuable document on the history of Damascus decoration.

This work tells the story of the spectacular artistic and engineering project of carving the American presidents' portraits on Mount Rushmore. It describes how it was conceived and carried out. The author was brought up in sight of Mount Rushmore and witnessed the work in progress.

Lois van Baarle is a freelance animator/illustrator from the Netherlands who graduated in 2009 from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. Since then, her work has become very popular across the internet, with her Facebook followers closing in on one million and her Twitter account watched by over nineteen thousand eager eyes. The Art of Loish is her first "art of" book, and will examine her inspirations while showcasing some of her early work. Following this, the reader will learn how she developed her very distinctive style and discover advice as she discusses her working methods, offering tips on a variety of techniques that she utilizes in her art every day! The additional exclusive content of this book makes it a must-have for any lover of Loish's work!

Illustrator and character designer Lord Gris takes us on a guided tour of her world, where her anime-style characters exude emotion, attitude, mystery, and beauty that can be both bizarre and fragile. Her characters are already appreciated by over 750K followers on Instagram, and have garnered 1.5M likes on TikTok. A flair for connecting with her fans, and being open about the ups and downs of being an artist, has resulted in a highly engaged and enthusiastic fan base. Having already shared videos showing her at work, including her popular Skillshare tutorial, Lord Gris is perfectly positioned to create this beautifully produced book.  3dtotal Publishing excels at helping artists to communicate both the motivations behind their unique creativity, and the technical tips and tricks they use. Therefore, step-by-step tutorials specially commissioned for the book are accompanied by galleries of Lord Gris’s fan favourites, unseen gems, and brand new and exclusive pieces. With a love for digital art using Procreate, acrylics on MDF board, and artist-staple pens and pencils, she shares a host of skills and techniques to offer something new to every artist.

For Neophytes - to learn the fundamentals, and appreciate the main features of a model, its qualities and weaknesses. For amateurs - to create the desire to know more about fine watches. For connoisseurs - to revise important concepts and even increase their knowledge. This new edition includes new illustrations. What is a beautiful watch? How do you make a good choice? The Magic of Watches explains how and why these little objects are so precious, fascinating and exciting. The book presents paradoxes: why a one-million-dollar watch might be less precise and more fragile than one that costs 15 dollars. It comes back to the origins of the measurement of time: how did we go from the water clock to the wristwatch? The book goes on to technique: how does a mechanical movement work? How does a quartz one work?; delves into details: what is a 'complication' and when do we speak about 'chronometer'?; showcases art: how do we enamel a dial? The Magic of Watches is unique: it focuses in detail on the basics in order to understand and love watches better.

A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword. The sword is the most iconic of all weapons. Throughout history, it has connected various, sometimes conflicting, dimensions of human culture: physical combat and representation of political power, definition of gender roles and refinement of body techniques, evolution of craftsmanship and mythological symbolism. The articles collected here explore these dimensions, from a variety of disciplines, among them archaeology, medieval history, museum conservation, and linguistics. They cover topics from the production and combat use of Bronze Age swords via medieval fencing culture to the employment of the sword in modern military. They question traditional sword typologies and wide-spread theories about sword making, discuss medieval sword terminology and the use of swords as royal insignia, and describe the scientific methods for approaching original finds. Arising from an international conference held at Deutsches Klingenmuseum Solingen (the German Blade Museum), the volume provides fresh insights into the forms the sword can take, and the thoughts it inspires. LISA DEUTSCHER and MIRJAM E. KAISER work in prehistoric archaeology, specialising in La Tène and Bronze Age swords, respectively. SIXT WETZLER is the deputy director of the German Blade Museum; his research focuses on the history of edged weapons, and their use. Contributors:Matthias Johannes Bauer, Holger Becker, Jan-Heinrich Bunnefeld, Rachel J. Crellin, Vincenzo D'Ercole, Andrea Dolfini, Raphael Hermann, Daniel Jaquet, Robert W. Jones, Ulrich Lehmann, Claus Lipka, Stefan Maeder, Michael Mattner, Florian Messner, Nicole Mölk, Ingo Petri, Stefan Roth, Fabrizio Savi, Ulrike Töchterle, Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis, Marion Uckelmann, Henry Yallop

Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954) is one of the leading figures of modern art. His unparalleled cut-outs are among the most significant of any artist's late works. When ill health first prevented Matisse from painting, he began to cut into painted paper with scissors as his primary technique to make maquettes for a number of commissions, from books and stained glass window designs to tapestries and ceramics. Taking the form of a 'studio diary', the catalogue re-examines the cut-outs in terms of the methods and materials that Matisse used, and looks at the tensions in the works between finish and process; fine art and decoration; contemplation and utility; and drawing and colour.

South African beadwork has a rich and diverse history and is abundantly represented in the beaded art pieces in the Wits Art Museum (WAM) collection. Some works date back to the 4th century CE but most date from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Currently numbering over 9 000 items, the three major collecting areas of classical, historical and contemporary African artworks are broad in their geographical range and deep in some local areas of specialisation. Paying homage to this collection, Beadwork, art and the body is a compilation of essays by scholars who have researched and written about the traditions, practices and aesthetic forms of beadwork in southern Africa. The book covers an expansive history of beadwork in South Africa from the 19th century to the contemporary moment. The artists and the beadwork featured range from Sotho-, Tsonga-, Xhosa- and Zulu-speakers, ending with a focus on fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo, whose work has been inspired by Xhosa beadwork. Questions of ethnic affiliation and beadwork patterns are explored in relation to the different aesthetic forms of beadwork and its use as a marker of identity and status within and beyond communities.

What to do with the fragments of a love affair? A postcard from a childhood sweetheart. A wedding dress in a jar. Barbed wire. Silicone breast implants. Red stilettos, never worn. These objects and many others make up the inspiring, whimsical, sometimes bizarre, and always unforgettable population of the real-life Museum of Broken Relationships. A decade ago, two lovers were struggling through their own painful breakup, desperate to heal their heartbreak without destroying the memory of the love they had shared. Then, an idea struck: they would create a communal space, a kind of refuge for - and cathartic celebration of - the everyday objects that had outlasted love. These items, along with the anonymous, intimate stories each piece represented, quickly captured hearts and imaginations across the globe. As word spread, the tiny museum became a worldwide sensation. Collected here are 203 of the best, funniest, most heartwarming and thought-provoking pieces that offer an irresistible experience of human connection. The Museum of Broken Relationships is a poignant celebration of modern love - and a must-read for anyone who has ever loved and lost.

The only comprehensive textbook on dance research methodologies that covers all the main areas of dance research, previously only covered in individual books with narrower scope. Spans all areas of academic dance, including the main disciplines of dance studies and dance education. Provides practice-based chapters with rich examples on how to navigate research design and implementation, as well as a practical workbook.

Schreiner is a luxurious book offering the first concise history of one of North America's foremost designers of high-end costume jewellery, a genre of jewellery popularised by Coco Chanel and today one of the most collectable. Organised chronologically, the book begins in 1932 with founder Henry Schreiner and follows the company through the ups and downs of the next several decades. The unusual colour combinations, hand-made settings, and use of custom-made stones set the company apart from their contemporaries, leaving behind a legacy for jewellery experts and admirers to study, covet, and collect to this day. With hundreds of breath-taking colour photographs, this volume examines not only the cultural context and significance of Schreiner jewellery but also offers object-based analyses and archival documentation of various Schreiner pieces.

Scenography and Art History reimagines scenography as a critical concept for art history, and is the first book to demonstrate the importance and usefulness of this concept for art historians and scholars in related fields. It provides a vital evaluation of the contemporary importance of scenography as a critical tool for art historians and scholars from related branches of study addressing phenomena such as witchy designs, Early Modern festival books, live rock performances, digital fashion photography, and outdoor dance interventions. With its nuanced and detailed case studies, this book is an innovative contribution to ongoing debates within art history and visual studies concerning multisensory events. It extends the existing literature by demonstrating the importance of a reimagined scenography concept for comprehending historical and contemporary art histories and visual cultures more broadly. The book contends that scenography is no longer restricted to the traditional space of the theatre, but has become an important concept for approaching art historical and contemporary objects and events. It explores scenography not solely as a critical approach and theoretical concept, but also as an important practice linked with unrecognized labour and broader political, social and gendered issues in a great variety of contexts, such as festive culture, sacred settings, fashion, film, or performing arts. Designed as a key resource for students, teachers and researchers in art history, visual studies, and related subjects, the book, through its cross-disciplinary frame, does consider, implicitly and explicitly, the roles of both scenography and art in society.

Gracing the cover jacket of Rachel Harrison's highly anticipated second monograph is an informal monument to the man who holds the Americas' namesake. The only hint to this memorial for the 15th century Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, is an apple resting on an outcropping of neon-green cement; of course the fact that the apple is not only artificial but has a bite taken out of it suggests otherwise to the discovery of these "Edenic" continents. This slight yet important fact raises the basic conceit of if i did it: the active disavowal of art's political function as a museological testament to the "progress" of social history. By tossing off this monumental propensity, Harrison builds "antimonuments;" not so much sculptures but lumpen aggregates of pop psychology. In addition to Vespucci, throughout the book, one finds that celebrities Johnny Depp and Tiger Woods are included in a pantheon with John Locke and 18th century Corsican revolutionary Pasquale Paoli, meanwhile Al Gore checks the temperature, Claude Levi-Strauss checks the door with a taxidermied hen and rooster and a bi-curious Alexander the Great is the master of ceremonies. The title, taken from O.J. Simpson's infamous "hypothetical" account of his murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Donald Goldman, groups this role call of high- and low- brow idols into a nonhierarchical tableau where cultural and political value are allotted only where one sees fit.

This important book forms part of the Handmade in Britain partnership between the V&A and the BBC. Published as the culmination of a year-long season of programming over three series, it explores the history of making in Britain, looking across all media within the decorative arts. Handmade in Britain expands on the programmes, featuring key objects and makers in the V&A's collection as well as contributions from contemporary practitioners. It traces Britain's status as an unsophisticated importer of luxury Renaissance goods, to becoming one of the leading worldwide exporters of decorative arts by the end of the nineteenth century, and discusses present-day making - particularly the relationship between industrialized and craft-based processes and practice. It also shows how the history of making in Britain is not a London-centric story, but one of regional centres across the country often suited to different manufacturers for specific reasons. Like the programmes, the book takes each tradition in turn, looking at ceramics, metalwork, wood, textiles and stained glass.

A unique set of 100 cards with over 200 TikTok challenges for you to shoot and upload, from lip synchs, dances and dares to ridiculous pranks.

This is the first biography and reference book dedicated to Samuel Percy, a modeller who produced an impressive oeuvre of wax portraits and tableaux in the mid-to-late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Based in part on the author's own substantial collection of Percy waxes, this book follows Percy from his beginnings in Dublin, at the Dublin Society Drawing Schools, working with the famed statuary John Van Nost; to England, where he journeyed from town to town, putting advertisements in regional newspapers. These revealing advertisements have been gathered here for the first time, in order to track his travels. Whether taking the likeness of Princess Charlotte of Wales, or falling victim to a highway robber in Birmingham, these fragments of Percy's history paint a fascinating picture of his life as a wandering artisan. As well as a chronological narrative of Percy's life, this book commits an entire chapter to an area of his work that has never been studied before: his miniature tableaux. These portray various subjects, both religious and secular, from Christ on the Cross to playing children. They are catalogued in an appendix, and almost thirty are illustrated. Based entirely on original research, Mr. Percy: Portrait Modeller in Coloured Wax features over a hundred illustrations, celebrating both Percy's accomplishments and the works of other modellers for comparison.