Arts, Books, and Activism

Zocalo: The Rural Brain Drain

April 21, 2010
By Saskia Vogel
Zocalo: The Rural Brain Drain

“Brain drain” was once good for America. The great minds — Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann — that fled fascism during the 1930s reaffirmed the idea of the U.S. as a land of opportunity, and a haven for scientific progress and intellectual advancement. But today, a brain drain is hurting America’s heartland. The alarming picture that...
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Jenny Saville at the Gagosian

April 20, 2010
By Saskia Vogel
Jenny Saville at the Gagosian

Buoyant with Ruinart’s dry bubbles, good company on the Dunhill patio, and smiling because I could answer “Yes” to Lord Saatchi’s three questions (Are you working toward something you believe in? Is it going well? Do at least you think it’s important?), I pressed my face against the window of the Gagosian. Inside the...
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Zocalo: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

March 12, 2010
By Saskia Vogel
Zocalo: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

High-profile divorces are usually thrilling tabloid fodder. But in Nujood Ali’s case, the act of asking for a divorce — not to mention getting it — shook the Muslim world, caused the Yemeni parliament to raise the age of consent to 17 for boys and girls, and earned the then-10-year-old international press attention, including...
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Zocalo Review: No Size Fits All

February 9, 2010
By Saskia Vogel
Zocalo Review: No Size Fits All

In the movies, all it takes to crack the in-crowd is one savvy make-over. If only it were so easy. In a consumer landscape where every crowd is the in-crowd — and the mass market made of many in-crowds — marketers need to shape-shift constantly, and hock their wares one niche at a time. In...
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Zocalo Review: Sisters in War

January 15, 2010
By Saskia Vogel
Zocalo Review: Sisters in War

Sisters in War reads like a serial drama, kicking off with the fall of Saddam Hussein in a time of naïve hope. Christina Asquith’s breezy style still captures the complexities of the 2003 invasion and its aftermath, particularly how one can be anti-Republican, think that war always has an especially negative impact on women,...
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Zocalo Review: Alchemy of Paint

December 25, 2009
By Saskia Vogel
Zocalo Review: Alchemy of Paint

Does Jerry Buss know just how fitting the purple and gold of his Los Angeles Lakers are? These elite athletes are draped in symbols of immortality and beauty sent from God. Or so you would think if you were a scientist or painter in the Middle Ages. Spike Bucklow’s articulate yet academic The Alchemy of...
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On Beauty and Desire

December 25, 2009
By Saskia Vogel
On Beauty and Desire

I’m watching Canada’s finest real lesbians do it. Maybe they aren’t Canada’s finest. But they’re real lesbians. In a beard-stroking kind of way, I’m selecting scenes from this all-girl website for an erotic compilation for women that doubles as a showcase for female directors. The brief? No fisting. No one who looks too butch....
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LArt Magazine: A Feeling to Die For – a note on the muse

December 20, 2009
By Saskia Vogel
LArt Magazine: A Feeling to Die For – a note on the muse

Sex, drugs, and, well, rock and roll wasn’t yet invented when Lizzie Siddal took her place as a Pre-Raphaelite muse. But if there were a Sid and Nancy in Victorian London, it was Lizzie and her rebel painter/poet paramour Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Now, Rossetti didn’t discover her, but he made Lizzie the first supermodel. Lizzie...
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Art Installation: One Woman’s Hell

December 15, 2009
By Saskia Vogel
Art Installation: One Woman’s Hell

Coco de Mer’s activist arm Bondage for Freedom have teamed up with a stellar group of actors and artists to show the experience of one woman caught in a web of human trafficking. “Journey” traveling the world. Last stops were London, Vienna, New York and Madrid. Look out for it in a town near...
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