“The aesthetic experience is a simple beholding of the object . . . you experience a radiance. You are held in aesthetic arrest.” - Joseph Campbell
Aesthetic Arrest is our weekly dip into the Epicurean pleasures we’ve been enjoying lately. Here we go!
Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:
Reading: I’ll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones
“If you are a fan of doing the unexpected, and I am, then it is an advantage to be highly skilled at changing your mind. If you do not want to limit yourself, then be prepared to change your mind—often.” - Grace Jones
“Those who demand that you conform the most to how they live are the ones who are the most scared and intimidated by life.” - Grace Jones
Read Grace Jones’ infamous rider here!
Listening: Cymande (1972) by Cymande (and the documentary Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande)
Looking: The Art of Jorge Severino
Jorge Severino at Artístico RD
To see more of Jorge Severino’s work, as well as many other great Caribbean artists, check out Caribbean-Painters.com.
Viewing: The Mahabharata (1989 film) and Battlefield (play) by Peter Brook
Peter Brook Obituary in The Guardian
Tasting: Gostilnica Barik Restaurant, Skopje, North Macedonia
Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:
Reading: Omeros by Derek Walcott
“Your wanderer is a phantom from the boy's shore.
Mark you, he does not go; he sends his narrator;
he plays tricks with time because there are two journeys
in every odyssey, one on worried water,
the other crouched and motionless, without noise.
For both, the 'I' is a mast; a desk is a raft
for one, foaming with paper, and dipping the beak
of a pen in its foam, while an actual craft
carries the other to cities where people speak
a different language, or look at him differently,
while the sun rises from the other direction
with its unsettling shadows, but the right journey
is motionless; as the sea moves round an island
that appears to be moving, Jove moves round the heart
with encircling salt, and the slowly travelling hand
knows it returns to the port from which it must start."
- Derek Walcott, from OmerosListening: Resilience (EP) by Yilian Cañizares
Looking: The Art of Althea McNish
“My designing is functional but free, you can wear it, sit on it, lie on it, stand on it.” - Althea McNish
Althea McNish at V&A South Kensington
Althea McNish: Colour is Mine exhibition at William Morris Gallery
Althea McNish Obituary in The Guardian
Althea McNish Textiles at Liberty of London
Great Article about Althea McNish in British Vogue
Viewing: Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain (BBC)
Tasting: Madzo 2.0 Restaurant, Skopje, North Macedonia
Lots of great foodie photos at the restaurant’s Instagram here!
That’s it for this week! What are your reading, listening, looking, viewing and/or tasting recommendations?
Aesthetic Arrest Podcast: Caribbean Theme