Every week, WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen sums up the exhibitions, theater, movies and music you should check out in and around Boston.
Walden: Four Views - Abelardo Morell, on view at the Concord Museum through August 20, 2017
Synopsis: The Concord Museum is marking the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau's birth with a photography exhibition by Abelardo Morell, whose work is inspired by Thoreau’s journals and his book Walden. Morell shares in this exhibit panoramic photographs that look at Walden Pond from a new perspective. Morell uses several techniques to accomplish this goal, including 'camera obscura' and cliché verre pictures.
Jared Says: "To see the [Thoreau] legacy traced in beautiful photography is a fascinating experience."
2017 James and Audrey Foster Prize, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston through July 9
ICA's Synopsis: "First established in 1999, the James and Audrey Foster Prize (formerly the ICA Artist Prize) is key to the ICA’s efforts to nurture and recognize Boston-area artists of exceptional promise. ... The 2017 prize and exhibition features the work of Sonia Almeida, Jennifer Bornstein, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, and Lucy Kim—artists working at a national and international level whose work has received limited exposure here in Boston. In media including painting, sculpture, printmaking, film, and video, and exploring a range of themes and subjects, each of the artists engage the human body with a tactile approach to its cultural, psychological, and historical resonances. Each of the artists is presenting a major work, or group of works, for the first time in Boston."
Jared Says: "Four artists working in very different ways!"
Steve McQueen: Ashes, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston through February 25, 2018
ICA's Synopsis: "A standout from the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, Ashes presents footage on two sides of a freestanding screen. One side, originally shot on soft, grainy Super 8 film, shows a young, carefree fisherman named Ashes balancing playfully on a pitching boat against a horizon of blue sky and water. The other side shows a second projection, shot in 16mm film, that chronicles Ashes’s unexpected fate. Never seen together, yet linked by a shared soundtrack, the videos conjure an easy vitality and a vivid description of place against the darker forces of society and fate."
Jared Says: "A strange, surreal, and emotional experience... One of my favorite pieces of art that I've seen in this town in quite some time."
The Red Turtle, Oscar nominee for best animated feature film. In theaters tomorrow!
Synopsis: The Red Turtle is an animated film with no dialog, featuring a man who is shipwrecked at sea. He makes several attempts to escape the island he lands on, and each time his raft is destroyed by a red turtle. The man attacks the turtle in revenge as it comes to shore, but he feels guilty. He then attempts to reconcile with the turtle, which transforms into a woman.
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This post has been updated.
