Tracey Emin The Memory of your Touch
British visual artist Tracey Emin(1963) studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.
Inspired by inner experiences, dreams and personal life events, her oeuvre feels very intimate, emotional, humorous and honest. The elements of sexual provocation and feminism have caused some controversy.
Painting, drawing, video, installation, photography, needlework and sculpture are being used to convey all the aspects of the human condition, from love to pathos.
In 1999 Emin's installation My Bed was nominated for the Turner Prize. Between 2009 and 2011 the artist worked together with Louise Bourgeois. Her autobiographical work has been shown at the Biennale in Venice(2007), Victoria & Albert Museum(2010), the Hayward Gallery(2011), Malba(2012), Lehmann Maupin(2013), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami (2013), the White Cube(2014) and Tate Britain(2015).
The Memory of your Touch, Emin's current exhibition at Xavier Hufkens, refers to a line in D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928). The show includes video art, paintings, bronze sculptures and neon texts.
The Memory of your Touch
8 September—21 October 2017
6 & 107 St-Jorisstraat, Brussels
Second edition of The crystal Ship
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| The Crystal Ship 2017: Jaune |
The second edition of street art festival The Crystal Ship was officially opened on April 8th.
One can start the free walking or bicycle tour at the Achturenplein in Ostend. Free maps will guide you towards original public artworks that alter your view on creativity and urban environment.
The participating artists came from over the world to share their installations and murals. Belgians Strook, Hell'O Collective and Jaune, French Outings Projects, C215, Nelio and Levalet, Argentineans Bosoletti, Hyuro and Pastel, British Phlegm, Spanish Sebas Velasco and SpY, Portuguese Alexis Diaz, American Axel Void, German Johannes Mundinger , Norwegian Henrik Uldalen left their marks for us to discover.
Thundercat Drunk
The talented Stephen Bruner is known for his work with Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington. Bruners father was The Temptations' drummer.
The album features Lamar, Pharrell,Khalifa and Kamasi Washington.
Tracklist:
1. Rabbot Ho
2. Captain Stupido
3. Uh Uh
4. Bus In These Streets
5. A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II)
6. Lava Lamp
7. Jethro
8. Day & Night
9. Show You The Way (feat. Michael McDonald & Kenny Loggins)
10. Walk On By (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
11. Blackkk
12. Tokyo
13. Jameel's Space Ride
14. Friend Zone
15. Them Changes
16. Where I'm Going
17. Drink Dat (feat. Wiz Khalifa)
18. Inferno
19. I Am Crazy
20. 3AM
21. Drunk
22. The Turn Down (feat. Pharrell)
23. DUI
Existential well being
Western culture focuses on happiness although human beings look for a sense in life, for which they are willing to sacrifice happiness.
Our society highly values materialism and preaches perfectionism, causing prosperity diseases, a diminution of happiness: a focus on lacks instead of positive aspects.
We need to let go of the fixed idea of a perfect life to be able to experience existential reality. Existential well being increases when we create an environment that values natural talents in stead of demanding the unrealisable.
Subjective wellbeing is based on the hedonist approach of satisfaction and happiness whilst eudaimonia focuses on the goal in life and self realisation.
Professor in psychology Mia Leijssen describes existential wellbeing as playing with the dimensions of existence. Empathy, autonomy, freedom of choice and meaningful connections with others are crucial elements of existential meaning.
Leijssens work emphasizes the role of love, that benefits the social, physical, personal and spiritual dimensions of existence, which are essential for existential well being.(Leijssen 2013)
Love influences health. Human beings are naturally directed towards others, towards being appreciated and loved.
We can not survive without others: we need to mean something to them. The harmonious combination of love and knowledge enables people to deal with situations in an appropriate way.
Gratitude, joy and wonder are mostly experienced in life threatening situations or during negative experiences. Gratitude, the attitude of feeling blessed, is closely connected to appreciation, the cognitive recognition of value.
The personal dimension:
Loving, friendly, non critical self reflection is present in the personal dimension of authentic self knowledge. Compassion and self acceptation lead to forgivingness and optimism in case of difficulties.
A sense of inferiority is the main threat of self respect.
The basis of each healing process is self love, the cultivation of positive feelings towards oneself. Self love is a condition for authentic love towards others and the exploration of the world.
Provided that one reflects and accepts oneself, it is possible to feel lonely in a positive way, in contrast with the intrapersonal loneliness characterized by self alienation and dependence of others' judgment.
The social dimension:
The social dimension concerns the non judgmental connection with others.
Empathy is a bare necessity in the social dimension in order to experience authentic attachment relationships and to accomplish a healthy development. Compassion, between empathy and altruism, is essential to feel others' situations with the intent to help.
The physical dimension:
The physical dimension contains elements as the love for the body, nature, vitality and comfort. A healthy eating pattern, exercise and the acknowledgment of the boundaries of the body are useful to feel good.
The spiritual dimension:
The soulful spiritual dimension is characterized by life questions and values as truth and wisdom. The dimension helps us to see our individual existence in a broad context to surpass self interest.
Wise individuals are marked by empathy, emotional concern, listening skills, self knowledge, the realisation of one's limitations, righteousness, tolerance, a non selfish life orientation, insights in human interactions, openness towards new experiences and values aimed at insight, personal development and social engagement.
A peaceful mind is able to stop constant thought, to observe signals without any judgment. Existential well being is to be found and accomplished in human hope and buoyancy.
It all starts with love. Time to reflect and ask yourself how you love in life.
Free course in existential wellbeing:
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| Virtues |
Sampha Process
Singer and producer Sampha released an album entitled Process.
Previously the artist collaborated with Solange, Kanye West and Drake.
Tracklist
1. Plastic 100°C
2. Blood On Me
3. Kora Sings
4. No One Knows Me (Like the Piano)
5. Take Me Inside
6. Reverse Faults
7. Under
8. Timmy's Prayer
9. Incomplete Kisses
10. What Shouldn't I Be?
Run The Jewels 3
Two years after Run The Jewels 2, non conformists El-P and Killer Mike release Run The Jewels 3.
Tracklist:
1. Down (feat. Joi Gilliam)
2. Talk to Me
3. Legend Has It
4. Call Ticketron
5. Hey Kids (Bumaye) (feat. Danny Brown)
6. Stay Gold
7. Don't Get Captured
8. Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost) (feat. Tunde Adebimpe)
9. 2100 (feat. BOOTS)
10. Panther Like a Panther (Miracle Mix) (feat. Trina)
11. Everybody Stay Calm
12. Oh Mama
13. Thursday in the Danger Room (feat. Kamasi Washington)
14. Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters
A Tribe Called Quest We Got it from here. Thank you 4 your service
MC and producer Q -Tip(46) finished the album at his home studio
after the unexpected death of "funky diabetic" Phife Dawg(45) who needed a kidney transplant.
The entire record is dedicated to their old friend Phife Dawg, with the last track entitled The Donald serving as a tribute.
Guests include Kendrick Lamar, Anderson Paak, André 3000 of Outkast, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West, Consequence, Jack White and Elton John.
We got it from here, A Tribe Called Quest’s final album because of the loss of their close friend, sounds warm, jazzy, smooth, poetical, cheeky, easy and is all the time on point, just as Phife was.
Tracklist:
- The Space Program
- We the People....
- Whateva Will Be
- Solid Wall of Sound
- Dis Generation
- Kids...
- Melatonin
- Enough!!
- Mobius
- Black Spasmodic
- The Killing Season
- Lost Somebody
- Movin Backwards
- Conrad Tokyo
- Ego
- The Donald
Shabaka and The Ancestors Wisdom of Elders
Tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and South African band The Ancestors recorded the contemporary jazz album Wisdom of Elders in one single day without any rehearsals.
The legendary British free jazz musician Hutchings grew up in Barbados.
The Ancestors, led by young trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni, include vocalist Siyabonga Mthembu, pianist Nduduzo Mahathini, alt saxophonist Mthunzi Myubu, bassist Ariel Zamonsky, percussionist Gontse Makhene and drummer Tumi Mogorosi.
This energetic tribute to Barbadian calypso music and Nguni rhythms is available via Brownswood Recordings.
Tracklist:
- Mzawandile
- Joyous
- The Observer
- The Sea
- The Observed
- Natty
- OBS
- Give Thanks
- Nguni
Mr Lif and L'orange The Life and Death of Scenery
Following their singles Twenty Fifty Three and The Lost Nova, Mr Lif and producer L'Orange released their first full album together, entitled The life and death of Scenery(Mellow Music Group).
Boston native MC Jeffrey Haynes (1977), better known as Mr. Lif and as a member of The Perceptionists, delivers politically and socially inspired lyrics.
Their collaboration resulted in an eclectic, experimental record about an apocalyptic future.
Track List:
1. The Perfect World Radio Hour: Day 279
2. A World Without Music
3. The Scribe
4. The Perfect World Radio Hour: Day 304
5. Antique Gold
6.The Gentle End
7.The Perfect World Radio Hour: Day 341
8. Strange Technology
9. Five Lies About the World Outside
10.The Perfect World Radio Hour: Day 421
11. A Palace in the Sky
Nao For all we know
Former backing vocalist Neo Jessica Joshua(28) from London released a soulful debut album, entitled For All We Know, referring to her jazz background.
Versatile she is, with a clear passion for music: from having been trained in jazz over grime ghost writer to R&B singer.
Nao's sweet, angel like voice goes hand in hand with the funky productions of British DJ Grades, Loxe, John Calvert and Jungle. The track Trophy features Jai Paul's brother, AK Paul.
A groovy record with a nineties sound, full of interludes, released by Little Tokyo Recordings.
Track list:
1. Intro (Like Velvet)
2. Get to Know Ya
3. Inhale Exhale
4. Voice Memo 161
5. Happy
6. Voice Memo 162
7. Adore You (featuring Abhi/Dijon)
8. In the Morning
9. Trophy (featuring A. K. Paul)
10. Bad Blood
11. DYWM
12. We Don't Give A
13. Give Me a Little
14. Fool to Love
15. Voice Memo 4 (Say Yes)
16. Blue Wine
17. Girlfriend
18. Feels Like (Perfume)
William Bell This is where I live
Stax released William Yarborough's comeback album This is Where I live.
Tracks:
01. The Three Of Me
02. The House Always Wins
03. Poison In The Well
04. I Will Take Care Of You
05. Born Under A Bad Sign
06. All Your Stories
07. Walking On A Tightrope
08. This Is Where I Live
09. More Rooms
10. All The Things You Can’t Remember
11. Mississippi-Arkansas Bridge
12. People Want To Go Home
Material obesity or experientialism
Due to the Industrial revolution and mass production objects became widely available and affordable. Thrift was replaced by enthusiastic consumerism. This over consumption in society was a bare necessity for economic growth.
Nowadays the individual and society suffer from the excess, which results in mobility problems, climate change, credit crisis and stagnation of the economic growth.
Too many possessions distract the mind and crowded rooms have an effect on our peace of mind.
Neuro anthropologist John Allen from the University of Southern California declared that our living space is strongly linked to the view on ourselves. The reorganization of our house gives us the feeling we can change our lives.
There's a need for cultural shifting: to switch over from a high living standard to better quality of life. With material obesity causing stress, a return to the simple life lived in the middle seems to be the essence. Temperentia is the moderate means between asceticism and indulgence.
The essence of life is to be found in the essence of existence(from Latin existere): the experience, the conscious knowledge that derives from personal activity and practice. Inner experiences are reflections, sensory experiences are sensations. The empiricists were guided by experience, to them the sole source of knowledge.
Professor of psychology Daniel Gilbert from Harvard University says experiences make us happy because we first look forward to them, then we're glad to go through them to eventually be left with lovely recollections.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant(1724-1804) believed all knowledge is related to experience, without experience knowledge becomes impossible. Sensory perception and reason as the highest cognitive ability should go hand in hand. His writings focused on critical thinking with the use of self criticism to find truth and enlightenment in ourselves.
Danish thinker Sören Aaby Kierkegaard(1813-1855) gave a new meaning to existence. The founder of existentialism analysed human existence as a reality one should experience instead of a problem to be solved. After Kierkegaard existentialist philosophy, with historical roots in Greek philosophy, was further developed by Sartre, Camus, Marcel and Heidegger, whose existence precedes the essence.
Maslow's fully functioning individual is open to new experiences, people and ideas, for life in general. A healthy individual experiences as a child, wisely using his organism. With his open personality and self knowledge he applies his experience to observe and express himself.
To be intensely involved in the experience of life, its fulfilments and predicaments, is the best way to live consciously. Simplicity helps to maintain the equilibrium of avoiding extremes. Interpersonal relationships colour our lives
Pleasant experiences enrich life, matter can not in long term.
Quality before quantity, or simplified: less is more.
Ugly Heroes: Everything in Between
Mello Music Group released Everything In Between, the newest album of Ugly Heroes on June 24th, with the single Heart Attack. The themes producer Apollo Brown, MC Red Pill and Verbal Kent chose go from self-improvement to honesty.
Tracklist:
1.Today Right Now
2.Daisies
3.This World
4.Notions
5.Peace of Mind
6.Choir Practice
7.Place Called Home
8.Can't Win For Losin'
9.Roles
10.Heart Attack
11.Force Fed
12.Soul Searching
13.Unforgiven
14.Fair Weather
It was like dancing with a ghost
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| BILLY FINDS A BOOK OF RIDDLES IN HIS OWN BACKYARD |
Filmmaker David Lynch( 1946) studied painting at the Museum School in Boston and the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts. During these studies he made the short film Six Men getting Sick.
Although most people know him for his surreal movies such as Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead or Blue Velvet, he has always been involved in painting, music and photography.
Lynch likes his art dark, violent and primitive to represent decay, dreams,distortion, hallucinations.
Previous exhibitions include shows at Musée d'Orsay, Fondation Cartier and the Garage center for Contemporary Culture.
At The Gallery is currently showing his Couch Series(2008), Distorted Nudes(1999), photographs, drawings and oil paintings.
It was like dancing with a ghost
At The Gallery
Leopoldstraat 57, Antwerp
21/5 - 3/7/2016
Six Men getting Sick
Coloring Book Chance The Rapper
Twenty three year old Chance from Chicago released his third mixtape on the twelfth of may 2016. Produced by Brasstracks, The Social Experiment,Francis and the Lights, Stix and Lido. The band he worked with makes you shake everything you got...
2. No Problem (featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz)
3. Summer Friends (featuring Jeremih & Francis and the Lights)
4. D.R.A.M. Sings Special
5. Blessings
6. Same Drugs
7. Mixtape (featuring Young Thug & Lil Yachty)
8. Angels(featuring Saba)
9. Juke Jam (featuring Justin Bieber & Towkio)
10. All Night" (featuring Knox Fortune) Kaytranada
11. How Great" (featuring Jay Electronica & My cousin Nicole)
12. Smoke Break" (featuring Future)
13. Finish Line / Drown (featuring T-Pain, Kirk Franklin, Eryn Allen Kane & Noname)
14. Blessings (Reprise (featuring Ty Dolla $ign)
Identity and appearance in selfie culture
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A sense of emptiness and insecurity about ourselves, caused by the lack of meaningfulness and stable family-ties, seems to evoke an obsession with our body, which we think to control by means of diet, sports and plastic surgery.
Woertman sees selfie culture as a metaphor for society. The focus on the self is prominent in the virtual world, where the appearance in form of a perfect body seems to be of great influence. The urge to expose one's private life, to sell oneself as a sexual object seems to typify our selfie culture. Instead of photographing others or the environment, selfies are taken because we need to be seen.
As genuine social contact has been replaced by being watched, consequences on the quality of sexual relationships have been noted. When an individual is only focused on his image, he becomes an object that dehumanizes the other.
The quality of meaningful sexual relationships declines when an individual is primarily focused on himself and his own arousal as he doesn't pay attention to the other.
This distorted impression of sexual behavior is also caused by porn, often watched before the first actual sexual experience, and by advertising. Television and internet remain the reasons for a negative body image. This narcissist emphasis on appearance brings about phobic behavior, insecurity and panic attacks.
According to sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, social media are often used for the echo of one's voice, for the sense of control instead of the social skills needed to explore the world.
An individual's self-concept includes a personal and a social identity. The development of social identity can only manifest through relationships with others. It is a life-long task that changes along with the social roles that come with age. In order to avoid inferiority and ego problems, a conscious use of social media is advisable. Let's not forget to live together.
Retrospective Karel Appel
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| Vragende Kinderen, copyright Karel Appel Foundation |
The members, such as Karel Appel, Asger Jorn(1914-1973), Constant and Pierre Alechinsky engaged in the spontaneous creation of boldly coloured, expressive, experimental work. The avant-garde group was primarily inspired by Marxist ideoloy, primitive art, children's drawings and the work of Joan Miro and Paul Klee. The artists collaborated in exhibitions, the Cobra magazine and peinture-mot.
After his academic studies, Appel depicted friendly looking animals and childlike creatures. His first major assignment, Vragende Kinderen(1949) caused such an uproar that they covered the painting for ten years. Appel became internationally known whilst living in Paris, where his creations began to be more turbulent and textured.
During the sixties he made colossal sculptures of fantasy creatures out of painted wood, polyester and aluminium. Furthermore his oeuvre includes assemblages, collages, graphic work, glass decorations, theatre and opera decor designs.
All of these can be admired at his retrospective in Den Haag.
Retrospective Karel Appel
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
16-1 - 16-5-2016
www.gemeentemuseum.nl
The James Hunter Six: Hold on
Daptone released James Hunter's fourth album on February fifth.
Hunter and his band delivered a soulful, swinging record, which was produced by Gabriel Roth(eg Amy Winehouse).
Tracklist
1. If That Don’T Tell You
2. This Is Where We Come In
3. (Baby) Hold On
4. Something’S Calling
5. A Truer Heart
6. Free Your Mind (While You Still Got Time)
7. Light Of My Life
8. Stranded
9. Satchel Foot
10. In The Dark
Banksy's latest
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| Banksy's Cosette |
His previous Dismaland project, a parody on Disneyland, was composed of refugeeboats, paparazzi surrounding Cinderella's corpse, dodgems with skelettons and personnel wearing depressed Mickey ears and a dismal t-shirt.
Meanwhile Brendan O'Neill is spreading his disapproval of Banksy's work. He claims the street artist despises the ordinary man with his "puberal criticism on consumption society".
O'Neill seems to think street art is about taking risks. The essence of street art never was as superficial: the content of the work is crucial!
Why should one refer to anonymous people sharing art as being snobby?
Subway Art
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| Copyright Thames and Hudson |
Thames & Hudson published an updated, compact edition of the classic book (1984) with new photographs by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant.
ISBN 9780500292129
Anderson Paak: Malibu
Californian rapper Brandon Paal Anderson released his second album entitled Malibu on January 15 2016. The soulful record includes productions by 9th Wonder, Madlib and Anderson himself as well as an impressive guestlist.
After his first album Venice(2014) Paak featured on six tracks of Dr Dre's Compton.
He now succeeded in delivering an album one wants to keep listening to...
Tracklist
1. The Bird
2. Heart Don't Stand a Chance
3. The Waters (featuring BJ the Chicago Kid)
4. The Season / Carry Me
5. Put Me Thru
6. Am I Wrong (featuring ScHoolboy Q)
7. Without You (featuring Rapsody)
8. Parking Lot
9. Lite Weight (featuring The Free Nationals United Fellowship Choir)
10. Room in Here(featuring The Game and Sonyae Elise)
11. Water Fall (Interluuube)
12. Your Prime
13. Come Down
14. Silicon Valley
15. Celebrate
16. The Dreamer(featuring Talib Kweli and Timan Family Choir)
The world goes pop
Popular art, the avant-garde movement in the United States(1952), rebelled against the egocentric abstract expressionists. Its inspiration is to be found in industrialized mass culture, in the banal clichés of Western society.
Pop artists aimed their art at the real world, as a critical tribute to consumerist society. Their images derived from everyday life: popular mass media such as newspapers, magazines, comic books, television, advertisments, graffiti or design. A large variety of figurative styles and techniques was applied: from screen prints, paintings and photocopies to happenings and sculptures.
In 1956 The Whitechapel Art Gallery(London) organized This is Tomorrow, the first pop art exhibition. In 1962 The Sidney Janis gallery(NY) shared works of Warhol, Oldenburg and Lichtenstein.
Everybody recognizes Andrew Warhola's( 1928-1987) boldly coloured portrait series of Monroe, Mao, Onassis and Presley. He was a master in commercial simplification.
Claes Oldenburg(1929) transformed everyday objects such as basebalcaps, lipsticks, hamburgers or typing machines into comic, lifesize monuments.
Roy Lichtenstein(1923-1997) is best known for his Banday dotted paintings of comic images with black contours and speech balloons.
Until the 24th of January 2016 these monumental pop art creations can be admired in The World Goes Pop exhibition at Tate Modern.
Indie 500
On November 6th the new album of Talib Kweli and 9th
Wonder, Indie 500 will be released.
On the record the duo worked together with Problem, Brother
Ali, Bad Luc, Rapsody, Slug of Atmosphere, Pharoahe Monch etc.
Tracklist:
2. Every Ghetto (Feat. Rapsody) (Produced By Hi-Tek)
3. Pay Ya Dues (Feat. Problem & Bad Lucc) (Produced By
Eric G)
4. Lo-Fi (Feat. NIKO IS) (Produced By Khrysis)
5. Prego (Feat. Pharoahe Monch & Slug From Atmosphere)
(Produced By 9th Wonder)
6. Life Ahead Of Me (Feat. Rapsody) (Produced By 9th Wonder)
7. Great Day In The Mourning (Feat. Add 2) (Produced By 9th
Wonder)
8. Don’t Be Afraid (Feat. Rapsody, Problem & Bad Lucc)
(Produced By 9th Wonder)
9. These Waters (Feat. K’Valentine, NIKO IS, Chris Rob &
Jessica Care Moore) (Produced By Nottz)
10. King Shit (Feat. NIKO IS & GQ) (Produced By E.
Jones)
11. Bangers (Feat. MK Asante & Halo) (Produced By Nottz)
12. Technicolor Easels (Feat. NIKO IS) (Produced By Khrysis)
13. Understand (Feat. Brother Ali & Planet Asia)
(Produced By Khrysis)
Rerelease A Tribe called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm
People’s Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm was released in 1990.
The 25th anniversary remake, remastered by Bob Power, will be available on the 13th of November. The album includes 3 bonus tracks: a Pharell remix of Bonita Applebum, a Cee-Lo remix of Footprints and J-Cole remix of Can I kick it.
Tracklist:
Push It Along
Luck Of Lucien
After Hours
Footprints
I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
Pubic Enemy
Bonita Applebum
Can I Kick It?
Youthful Expression
Rhythm (Devoted To The Art Of Moving Butts)
Mr. Muhammad
Ham ’N’ Eggs
Go Ahead In The Rain
Description Of A Fool
Bonus Tracks:
Footprints (Remix feat. CeeLo Green) (Previously Unreleased)
Bonita Applebum (Pharrell Williams Remix) (Previously Unreleased)
Can I Kick It? (J. Cole Remix) (Previously Unreleased)
Albert Ellis: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
American clinical
psychologist Albert Ellis (1913– 2007) developed the Rational Emotive
Behaviour Therapy (REBT) in 1955. His Institute for Rational Living was founded
in 1959 to promote REBT.
The founder of cognitive
behavioural therapies(CBT) was influenced by philosophy(Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius) and psychologists as Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm and
Harry Stack Sullivan. Rational therapist Ellis also worked with sex researcher
Alfred Kinsey and elaborated on the topic of human sexuality and love in a
number of books and articles .
Rational Emotive
Behaviour Therapy is based on the belief
that the client's philosophy contributes to his emotional life. Emotional
problems occur when we refuse to accept reality.
It is the individual's
perception of reality that causes suffering.
Anxiety, guilt and
depression are caused by how people think about events. Our emotions influence
our view of ourselves and others. Each emotional tension(fear, depression,
anger, guilt, self-pity) comes from irrational thinking. Irrational thoughts
are the crucial causes for psychological problems. Negativity is caused by
rigid self talk.
The REBT method aims at
identifying non-adequate, problem causing, self defeating, irrational thoughts
to replace them with adequate, beneficial, realistic thoughts. As such the
client is able to influence his emotions and behaviour.
Critical thinking and
approaching events in a scientific, logical manner can help to accept reality. The more rational and realistic one becomes,
the less emotional anxiety will occur.
Rational analysis,
cognitive reconstruction and coping strategies are applied to change irrational
beliefs and behaviour to replace catastrophic thinking with seeing stressors as
challenges.
The essence of Rational
Emotive Behaviour Therapy is a hopeful vision on human emotion and includes
taking responsibility for psychological discomfort.
Read more about Ellis'
theory:
The Art and Science of
Love. NY: Lyle Stuart, 1960.
Reason and Emotion in
Psychotherapy. NY: Lyle Stuart, 1962.
A Guide to Rational
Living. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1961.
Humanistic Psychotherapy,
NY McGraw, 1974 Sagarin ed.
Anish Kapoor in Versailles
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| Kapoor at Palais de Versailles |
British-Indian sculptor
Kapoor(1954) was asked to show his creations in the gardens of the palace in
Versailles. He decided to create a dialogue with André Le Nôtre(1613-1700), the
French architect of the gardens(1662-1690).
Known for
three-dimensional objects in steel, fiberglass and stone with voids and excavations, Kapoor wants to divert the public from the material to the
immaterial, the visible and invisible.
Although it had
previously been shown in Milan (2011), Dirty Corner caused some commotion
because the artist had called it the queen's vagina.
To be seen until the
first of November.
Meet Epictetus
Greek
Stoic thinker Epictetus(50-138) believed humans are disturbed by the
irrational and attracted to the rational. With a calm psyche the
endless possibilities of the ratio become visible.
A
layman in the art of life is discontented with what he has and spends
his time on bodily matters such as drinking, overeating and sexual
actions. A good man tolerates everything with bravery, makes the
best of his life.
The
aim in life is to desire nothing but self control, freedom and
contentment.
Epictetus
divided reality in two crucial categories: what is in and what is
beyond our power. The only good is the accurate insight in what we
can and can not control. Good and evil are only present in our
opinions about events, not in the events themselves.
All
unpleasant impressions should be analyzed on accuracy. Fear and
confusion are caused by our negative opinions on what is beyond our
power. Once an individual realizes that things are beyond his power,
they can not affect him anymore.
Each
individual is responsible for his sadness or negative emotions. This
means we can influence and control our own mind. When we engage in
avoiding negative reactions which equal negative emotions, we are
able to positively want each and every event. We can always be free,
righteous, reliable, honest and thoughtful.
Each
striving(orexis: everyone strives for the good) is fixed on the good
while avoidance(ekkisis: avoidance of the bad) focuses on the bad.
Success in striving and avoidance leads to happiness. Apatheia, a
necessity to live a serene life, occurs when the well balanced,
developed mind bans negative emotions and is successful in striving.
There's
one way to happiness: to stop worrying about matters beyond our will.
The essence of a happy life is to want things as they are instead of
what you would like them to be. A wise man wants to accept. The
elimination of desire results in freedom of the mind. The
renunciation of what is not within one's moral choice leads to
imperturbability.
"
All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means with
that life itself. Wisdom is revealed through action, not talk".
Retrospective Harry Gruyaert at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris
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| Copyright uitgeverij Kannibaal |
Belgian
Magnum photographer Harry Gruyaert(Antwerp, 1941)
has
been living in Paris since 1962. After his studies at the School of
Film and Photography in Brussels (1959- 1962), he combined commercial
work with freelance television work.
When
the photographer was living in London(1970- 1972), he broke through
with his TV Shots series, pictures of TV shots to criticize the
medium's power to manipulate. The experimental series include images
of comedy series, the Apollo flights, the Olympics, ... .
His
best known work are the series Made in Belgium(1975-1990). In 1976,
he was awarded with the Kodak Prize. The artist also documented his
trips to Morocco, India, the USA, Middle East and Russia.
Since
1981 Gruyaert may call himself a member of Magnum Photos.
From
1986 to 2001 Gruyaert engaged in taking daily pictures of his
daughters growing up.
His
main motive is the lonely individual in the urban landscape. His
colourful magic realist images rarely show people in front view,
often covering them with balloons or shadows.
His
enchanting work has been shown at the Magnum Gallery in Paris(2013,
2009), the Moscow Photo Biennale(2012), the Photography Museum in
Antwerp(2000), Palais
de Tokyo(1986) and Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels(1980).
The
retrospective of Harry Gruyaert, curated by François
Hébel, can be admired at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie
in Paris until June 14th 2015. Seventy of his photos are
simultaneously shown in Parisian metro stations.
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