Companion in Rome, whom Rome makes as old as Rome,
old as that peeling fresco whose flaking paint
is the clouds, you are crouched in some ancient pensione
where the only new thing is paper, like young St. Jerome
with his rock vault. Tonsured, you’re muttering a line
that your exiled country will soon learn by heart,
to a flaking, sunlit ledge where a pigeon gurgles.
Midsummer’s furnace casts everything in bronze.
Traffic flows in slow coils, like the doors of a baptistry,
and even the kitten’s eyes blaze with Byzantine icons.
That old woman in black, unwrinkling your sheet with a palm,
her home is Rome, its history is her house.
Every Caesar’s life has shrunk to a candle’s column
in her saucer. Salt cleans their bloodstained togas.
She stacks up the popes like towels in cathedral drawers;
now in her stone kitchen, under the domes of onions,
she slices a light, as thick as cheese, into epochs…
–Derek Walcott / from Midsummer
It was four years ago Artpil was founded, on the steps of the Colosseum, under the dome of San Pietro, or in the halls of the Pantheon; or perhaps by the ruins of the Roman Forum, along the canals of the Tiber, and in the cobble stone alleys of Centro storico. Artpil has returned to its origins, like a prodigal after having wandered for a time, all roads have led us back to Rome.
Welcome to the 125th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Rania Matar
On Either Side of the Window
Responding to her need to connect with others, Rania Matar captures the nuances of specific individuals while in quarantine, her subjects photographed through a door or window, connecting across barriers. On view through May 9, 2021 at Cornell Fine Arts Museum.
Cady Noland
I’m Yours / Encounters With Art In Our Times
The events of this year have brought the world to a halt, affecting commerce and security, putting our own mortality in focus, and heightening existing inequities, injustices, and political tensions. Including works by Chantal Joffe, Henry Taylor, Kader Attia, Cindy Sherman, Firelei Báez, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Rania Matar, and Rineke Dijkstra, among others. On view through May 23, 2021 at ICA Boston.
Curran Hatleberg
But Still, It Turns / Recent Photography From The World
Through photographs, the prism of time is illuminated and breaks to clarity. We see the components and how they fit. They take us on unexpected paths and bring us to other lives and foster empathy. Includes the screening of Hale County This Morning, This Evening directed by RaMell Ross. On view at ICP International Center of Photography, New York, through May 9, 2021.
Dorothy Allen-Pickard
Future Now Symposium 2021
This symposium is an exploration of 21st century culture through art, bringing together key institutions, galleries, publications, and artists for the most pressing issues of the creative industries. Representatives from organisations in attendance include Aesthetica, The Armory Show, British Journal of Photography, Frieze, Gagosian, Guggenheim, ICA Boston, International Center of Photography, London Art Fair, Magnum Photos, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Serpentine, Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum, among others. Aesthetica, online April 28 – May 1, 2021.
Shirin Neshat
PROFILES
Chantal Joffe, Henry Taylor, Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Rineke Dijkstra, among others, participating in I’m Yours / Encounters With Art In Our Times at ICA Boston; Organisations including The Armory Show, British Journal of Photography, Frieze, Gagosian, Guggenheim, ICA Boston, International Center of Photography, London Art Fair, Magnum Photos, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Serpentine, Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum, among others, presenting at Aesthetica’s Future Now Symposium; Rania Matar capturing the nuances individuals in quarantine in On Either Side of the Window at Cornell Fine Arts Museum; and RaMell Ross, screening his poignant film Hale County This Morning, This Evening for the exhibition But Still, It Turns at ICP International Center of Photography.
Bill Phelps / Companion in Rome
Artpil Profiles of the Arts / Work Opportunities
Artpil is currently seeking a Part Time Assistant in Rome. Responsibilities include researching, communicating with artists, galleries, and museums, social networking, minor design and art directing, as well as general assistance. Other tasks may include assisting with the project 30 Under 30 Women Photographers and associated projects with the partner agency The Artbox. For more information, please view the complete job description.
Ibi dracones was written, where unchristened cannibals
gnawed on the dry heads of coconuts as Ugolino did.
Hell’s hearth is as cold as Pompeii’s. We’re punished by bells
as gentle as lilies. Luck to your Roman elegies
that the honey of time will riddle like those of Ovid.
Corals up to their windows in sand are my sacred domes,
gulls circling a seine are the pigeons of my St. Mark’s,
silver legions of mackerel race through our catacombs.
