Epoch Arts 5-13-2016

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KATI VERESHAKA/EPOCH TIMES

Fashion in an Age of Technology Manus x Machina exhibition at the Met a crossroads for designers.

JOAN MARCUS

Theater Review: ‘Tuck Everlasting’ Sarah Charles Lewis, making her Broadway debut, simply shines as Winnie.

See C2

See C3 SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

C1 May 13–19, 2016

All I wanted to do was to go into the studio and focus on painting, but I was constantly in this state of emergency.

Devin Cecil-Wishing

BENJAMIN CHASTEEN/EPOCH TIMES

COURTESY OF DEVIN CECIL-WISHING

Devin Cecil-Wishing

(Top) Devin Cecil-Wishing in his studio at Grand Central Atelier in Long Island City, Queens.

an Artist Who Paints Light

(Bottom right) His painting “Peonies,” 2014. Oil on linen.

Marble statue of a youth, Greek, early first century B.C., from the Antikythera shipwreck.

A glimpse into the atelier art movement

By Milene Fernandez | Epoch Times Staff

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EW YORK—Up close the lemons look fuzzy.

They emanate reflected light, glowing softly.

Stepping back from the painting, the contours become sharper, the citrus flesh starts to glisten. At arms length, the lemons jut out from the canvas, still glowing, asserting a peaceful presence. Looking at a Devin Cecil-Wishing painting feels like a magical experience.

Each time you have a little breakthrough and figure something out, it’s opening up all these doors.

Devin Cecil-Wishing

He can make something as simple as lemons look dreamy. The things he chooses to paint are not as important as what transpires among those things. “I’m more interested in the way that light is falling and reflecting, in getting the feel of that really thick tangible substance of light in there,” he said at Grand Central Atelier (GCA), where he teaches and paints.

As viewers we can enjoy the fruits of CecilWishing’s efforts—the culmination of years of training, tons of perseverance, and a marathon imaginative process.

See Painting Light on C4

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May 13–19, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts KATI VERESHAKA/EPOCH TIMES

KATI VERESHAKA/EPOCH TIMES

KATI VERESHAKA/EPOCH TIMES

Three-dimensional printed dress by Iris van Herpen.

Rhythm Pleats ensemble by Miyake Design Studio. Spring/ summer 1990, prêt-à-porter. Machine pleated and sewn polyester-linen plain weave.

(Right) Cape by Junya Watanabe, COMME des GARCONS. 170 examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-towear, dating from the early 1900s to the present.

Manus x Machina

a Crossroads for Designers

By Kati Vereshaka | Epoch Times Staff

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EW YORK—“In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, and the individual,” said French designer Christian Dior.

The extent to which this is still true is the subject of Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, the exhibition that opened May 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator Andrew Bolton explained that the inspiration for the show came while he was was examining Yves Saint Laurent’s famous 1965 “Mondrian” dress, which reflected the linear designs of the painter.

“We discovered it was made almost entirely by machine,” he said.

This seemed to go against the traditional distinction between haute couture and prêt-àporter—a distinction between the handmade and the machine-made or ready-to-wear.

“Traditionally the hand has been identified with exclusivity, spontaneity, and individuality, yet ultimately representative of elitism, the

It is perhaps in Issey Miyake’s Rhythm Pleats collection that we glimpse the possibility of a totally new aesthetic.

NICHOLAS ALAN COPE THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Oriental Rug Sale Buy 2, Get 1 Free Finest, museum quality rugs at wholesale prices Rug cleaning and restoration Open Sun-Fri | 10-6pm 165 Madison Ave (212) 779-5978 L.banilivi@att.net

Karl Lagerfeld described this wedding ensemble as “haute couture without the couture.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

cult of personality, and a detrimental nostalgia for past craftsmanship,” explained Bolton, while the machine has been associated with progress, mass production, inferior quality, dehumanization, and homogenization.

He hopes to “liberate the handmade and the machine-made from their usual confines” and show that the pieces on show are merely at various points on the “manus-machina continuum,” increasingly falling somewhere in the middle, where designers are happy to combine the hand and the machine to fulfill their creative visions.

Case in point is the exhibition’s reigning centerpiece—the wedding gown by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel’s 2014 couture collection with a massive golden train, which he described as “haute couture without the couture.”

For Bolton, it exemplifies the best sort of hand–machine fusion.

Seemingly baroque, it is made of a synthetic fabric called scuba knit, which was handmolded, machine-sewn, and then hand-finished; covered in intricate embroidery of pearls and gemstones. The massive pattern was handdrawn, then computer manipulated, to give it a randomized, pixelated feel. The machine aids in the realization of tried and true forms.

Craft Versus Design Given that the manufacturing of textiles on a wooden loom is one of the oldest of human technologies, Bolton’s point is rather moot.

What remains of the argument is restricted to the confines of the distinction between haute couture and the prêt-à-porter garments as dictated by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, which bestows the label of Haute Couture on the fashion houses that abide by its handwork regulations.

In the context of haute couture and prêt-àporter, the exhibition’s message is akin to a newsflash that is broadcasting decades old news. But Bolton is optimistic of unrealized possibilities.

“Through the marriage of the handmade and the machine-made, a new aesthetic is emerging— one of exacting beauty and unfettered imaginings,” concluded Bolton in his opening remarks.

While showcasing the most elaborate examples to prove the point that the hand and the machine are equal protagonists in the design and production process, the exhibition also inadvertently highlights the fact that even though technology has brought new materials and processes to fashion design, designers have almost always translated these into new types of fabrics, or new types of embellishment, rather than a truly new design aesthetic per se.

How has technology aided designers’ creation of the human, the personal, and the individual?

Iris van Herpen’s silicone feathers and 3-D-printed haute couture pieces epitomize technological advancement. They do away with the sewing machine and demonstrate the ease with which designers can now create new structures.

Her theatrical pieces, such as the dark orange epoxy dress, are evocative of natural patterns

while being totally new; yet the silhouette is easily recognizable and the overall design reads like an elaborate, albeit high-tech, bustier.

Along the same lines is threeASFOUR’s Interdimensional Dress (spring/summer 2016, prêtà-porter) in white neoprene and nude nylon mesh with hand appliqué of 3-D printed resin and nylon. For all its high-tech embellishments, the dress’s design is still firmly within the confines of a basic dress pattern.

It is perhaps in Issey Miyake’s Rhythm Pleats collection that we glimpse the possibility of a totally new aesthetic. There are three pieces from the designer’s spring/summer 1990, prêtà-porter collection that uses machine-pleated, machine-sewn yellow and red-purple polyester-linen plain weave. They are shown on mannequins and also laid out flat opposite.

This is quite an eye-opener.

When flat, each design looks like a simple geometric piece—a circle, a rectangle, and another circle. Yet when each garment envelops the body, the pleated geometrical modules take on sculptural dimensions that are in harmony with it.

They neither overwhelm the body for the sake of the artistic statement, nor objectify its parts.

It simply, quietly glorifies it in such a way as to preserve elegance, and ease of movement.

In a way, Miyake picked up where French designer Madeleine Vionnet (1876–1975) left off when she realized the great potential of the bias cut. And before Vionnet there were the ancient Greeks who exploited the simplicity of a rectangular piece of cloth, which, depending on its amplitude, would fall on the bias when wrapped around the body, resulting in the sculptural folds artists have so often depicted in marble.

Tools of Intricacy The exhibit covers fashions from the late 19th century to the present, and is set out in groupings that reflect the metiers, or trades, outlined in Diderot’s “Encyclopedia “(Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts, 1751– 1772), which remain at the center of haute couture today.

To this end, the first floor gallery showcases the metiers of embroidery, featherwork, and artificial flowers, while the ground floor examines pleating, lacework, and leatherwork.

Among the mind-boggling pieces on show that are totally handmade is an Irish wedding dress dated circa 1870 (dressmaker unknown).

It is a cascade of hand-crocheted cream cotton lace with three-dimensional flowers, leaves, and berries. Equally showstopping is another of Karl Largerfeld’s haute couture wedding ensembles for Chanel (autumn/winter 2005– 2006) covered in 2,500 handmade camellias and white ostrich feathers. The flowers and featherwork are the work of Maison Lemarié, one among a few ateliers de métiers (craft studios) supported by the great couture fashion houses so as to preserve the know-how of handmade techniques.

It is safe to say that most designers already consider both the hand and the machine as tools, as the means to achieve their design aims. But this has not changed since the invention of the loom—way before the term “fashion designer” was coined. For thousands of years people throughout various cultures have been weaving fabrics and fashioning them to suit their clothing needs.

One hopes that the unfettered imaginings, coupled with the new digital tools to realize them, will not resemble a landscape ravaged

by Pandora’s box. While designers would be adamant they haven’t left hope out of their creations, at times we lose sight of the human body, and it becomes increasingly easy to do so with our overflowing box of tools.

Manus x Machina might serve as an opportune time to reconsider the beauty, perfection, and sacredness of the human body. After all, the body is not about to go out of fashion, and it has always been more than a structure on which to hang a political statement, or a living doll waiting to be engulfed by exquisite embellishment.

Whether sewn by hand or embellished by machine, perhaps it’s time to declutter our design toolbox and re-examine the values that we as a civilization wish to communicate through our arts and crafts.

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May 13–19, 2016

Life

TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

Theater Review

Enchanting Musical Embraces

ALL PHOTOS BY JOAN MARCUS

By Judd Hollander

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EW YORK—How long you live is not nearly as important as how you live. It’s a lesson bewitchingly presented in the delightful family musical “Tuck Everlasting,” now at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway.

Winnie Foster (Sarah Charles Lewis), 11-yearsold, is a resident of Treegap, New Hampshire, circa 1894. She lives with her mother (Valerie Wright) and grandmother (Pippa Pearthree) near a wooded area, which she is forbidden to enter.

Her mother is in mourning over the death of her husband and insists the family act completely proper during this period. This includes forbidding Winnie to go to the annual fair, a collection of carnival games, exhibitions, and somewhat unsavory types who come to the town each year.

Chafing at always being forced to be the good girl, Winnie sneaks away from home and enters the nearby woods where she meets Jesse Tuck (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), a 17-year-old boy drinking from a spring. She’s about to take a drink herself when Jesse stops her.

As Winnie soon learns, Jesse, his older brother Miles (Robert Lenzi), and their parents, Angus (Michael Park) and Mae (Carolee Carmello), are immortal. Eighty-five years earlier, they were traveling through these woods and stopped to drink from the spring, which granted them eternal life.

Though Winnie thinks living forever is wonderful, as it offers a chance for endless adventures, the Tucks don’t see it that way. As the years passed with no change in their appearance, they had to go into hiding long ago. They were viewed by their neighbors with suspicion and hatred. Some thought they were servants of the devil. Others believed they had found the Fountain of Youth.

The Man in the Yellow Suit (Terrence Mann), a member of the carnival troupe, thinks so. As a child he heard stories about the Tucks and is determined to uncover their secret, making a handsome profit in the process.

At the center of “Tuck Everlasting” is the message one must never stop growing or learning about the world and those around you. These are lessons the Tucks have long forgotten—except for Jesse who, at the age of 102, still remembers the simple joy of climbing a tree.

Angus and Mae however, who were once passionately in love, have fallen into a deep routine of familiarity and are simply going through the motions of living. Even the Man in the Yellow

Sarah Charles Lewis, making her Broadway debut, simply shines as Winnie.

Sarah Charles Lewis as Winnie Foster in “Tuck Everlasting,” now on Broadway.

‘Tuck Everlasting’ Broadhurst Theatre 235 W. 44th St. Tickets 212-239-6200, or Telecharge.com Running Time 2 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission) Open Run

(Standing, L–R) Jesse Tuck (Andrew KeenanBolger) and Miles (Robert Lenzi); (sitting, L–R) Winnie Foster (Sarah Charles Lewis) and Mae Tuck (Carolee Carmello).

Jesse Tuck (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) and Winnie Foster (Sarah Charles Lewis) in “Tuck Everlasting.”

Suit is trapped in this prison to some degree.

He has spent his entire life on a quest to find the Tucks with little to show for it thus far.

It takes the appearance of Winnie, someone ironically wanting to grow up too fast, to reintroduce the Tucks to the joy of living—despite the potential dangers to be encountered when they start opening up to new possibilities. These dangers include going to a carnival, or, in the case of Miles, remembering painful unfinished business from his past.

At the same time, Winnie also becomes Jesse’s hope for the future. Falling in love with her, he gives her a bottle of water from the spring to drink when she turns 17. Then, they can always be together.

Definitely one of the better constructed musicals of the season, the creative elements all come together to present a story that’s both heartwarming and fulfilling. The children in the audience the day

TEDDY WOLFF

Theater Review

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ A war of sensibilities

Blanche (Gillian Anderson) finds herself in a coarser world than she can deal with in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

By Diana Barth

audience member to get a view of every event.

One is thus drawn to the action.

Immediately on arrival, Blanche fortifies herself with a shot of whiskey, cadged from a kitchen cabinet. She seems to know just where such “tonics” are kept. She obviously needs something to take the edge off her anxiety, an anxiety she fights hard to conceal.

Blanche makes no bones about transmitting her disgust of Stanley to sister Stella. He is subhuman, close to the apes. Stella responds as good-naturedly as possible. But Stanley becomes immediately aware of Blanche’s attitude, and the die is cast. Blanche and Stanley are now antagonists.

What’s interesting about these characters is that the three of them are very sensitive and vulnerable. Even Stanley, vulgarian that he is, senses when he is being sneered at and makes plans to rectify his position. Besides, he must ensure that his woman always looks up to him—every primitive man insists on that (and even not so primitive men).

Stanley and Stella have had a terrific relationship up until the arrival of Sister Blanche, as Stanley refers to her. Her arrival has inserted a sense of reality that threatens to upset his apple cart. He has pulled Stella off those highfalutin towers of Stella’s family estate, Belle Rive, now lost to creditors. And Stella has loved it. Mr. Macho mustn’t lose

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EW YORK—One of the great qualities of the plays by Tennessee Williams is his suffusing the text with atmosphere. In the case of his “A Streetcar Named Desire,” this atmosphere is the steamy French Quarter of New Orleans.

That kind of atmosphere is missing here, but director Benedict Andrews’s production has other pluses: a terrific set of actors who bring Williams’s text to life, with a passionate performance by Gillian Anderson as Blanche.

Originating in Britain’s Young Vic Company, it is now being presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn.

When Blanche enters the scene, having arrived from Laurel, Mississippi, to pay a visit to her sister, Stella Kowalski (Vanessa Kirby), and Stella’s husband, Stanley (Ben Foster), things erupt like a match thrown into a haystack. It’s oil on water. A bad mix.

The genteel Blanche is taken aback by what she considers the squalor Stella’s husband has provided: only two rooms, separated by a flimsy curtain!

However, the spareness and simplicity of Magda Willi’s minimalist cream-and-white set engage the audience. Although the play is directed in the round, the revolving platform on which the action takes place enables every

ground in the familial struggle.

Although Stanley has a powerful male strength at his disposal, Blanche is a wily adversary. She manages to keep her ego intact, at least in the beginning. She preens, taking hot baths in the sweltering weather because they soothe her, and flounces about in delicate finery (excellent costumes by Victoria Behr).

Stanley is part of a group of four who get together to play poker. The poker scenes sizzle with male dominance. However, one of the four, Mitch (Corey Johnson), has a sensitivity that is appealing to Blanche.

Is there a possibility that the two lonely people will get together? In one tender scene between them, she cries out movingly, “Sometimes—there’s God—so quickly.”

But Stanley’s machinations ensure that nothing good can come for the vulnerable Blanche.

He has uncovered events in her background that rule out happiness for this wounded soul whose past weaknesses and errors come to haunt and defeat her.

In a powerful last scene, Blanche is led out by a state doctor and nurse, who will see that she is incarcerated, for her last vestiges of sanity have abandoned her. Particularly moving is how she is urged to acceptance of her fate by the gentleness and respect with which the doctor addresses her. For finally she can utter: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

this writer saw the show were completely spellbound.

A particular highlight is an extended sequence told through music and dance with no dialogue whatsoever, yet it speaks volumes in terms of showing events over the passage of time.

Good work from director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw, as well as scenic designer Walt Spangler and the rest of the design team, who are able to perfectly set the tone for the show. The creative elements present an atmosphere ranging from the quiet safety of home to the more mysterious, magical, and sometimes ominous.

Lewis, making her Broadway debut, simply shines as Winnie. She desperately wants to run away from the restrictions she feels are strangling her, but in the end realizes, as others have in the past, “there’s no place like home.”

Lewis also possesses a strong singing voice, as shown in such numbers as “Good Girl Winnie Foster.”

Carmello is very good as Mae, showing her great delight at having in Winnie a female friend with whom she’s able to talk. Park, KeenanBolger, and Lenzi all do well as the male members of the Tuck clan. Each bond with Winnie in his own way: as a father, potential soul mate, and friend, respectively.

As the Man in the Yellow Suit, Mann creates a character we like to hiss, though it would have been nice if the character’s past and connection to the Tucks had been more deeply explored.

Based on the best-selling novel by Natalie Babbitt, the musical’s book is by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle, the music by Chris Miller, and the lyrics by Nathan Tysen.

As a lovely tale about the joys and dangers that come with being alive, “Tuck Everlasting” makes for a very refreshing experience.

Also in the cast are Michael Wartella, Fred Applegate, Timothy J. Alex, Chloë Campbell, Ben Cook, Deanna Doyle, Brandon Espinoza, Lisa Gajda, Jessica Lee Goldyn, Neil Haskell, Justin Patterson, Marco Schittone, Jennifer Smith, Kathy Voytko, and Sharrod Williams.

Judd Hollander is a member of the drama desk and reviewer of stagebuzz.com

Is “Streetcar” a story of survival of the fittest?

Do the Stanleys of the world always win out?

Stella is pregnant and gives birth late in the play. The infant’s blue blanket indicates that it’s a boy. How will that boy grow up? Will he have any of Stella’s basic gentility about him, or will he be one of the poker playing set?

There’s a powerful physical attraction between Stanley and Stella. But in addition to the purely physical, did she unconsciously sense that Stanley represented the life force as opposed to the many elements of death in Blanche’s story?

Gillian Anderson’s vivid Blanche is tougher than many other interpretations, making her downfall all the more extreme and meaningful as she gradually disintegrates from a together Southern woman to a sad shadow of her former self.

Ben Foster’s Stanley struts like a proud rooster throughout, but was for my taste a bit too one-note. Vanessa Kirby’s Stella is very sexy and thus very appropriate for a young woman whose head is turned by the possibility of manly support and the pleasure he offers.

Altogether, a terrific theatrical offering and a fine Tennessee Williams rendition.

Diana Barth writes for various publications, including New Millennium. She may be contacted at diabarth@juno.com

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ St. Ann’s Warehouse 45 Water St., Brooklyn Tickets 718-254-8779 or StAnnsWarehouse.org Running Time 3 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission) Closes June 4

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May 13–19, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts COURTESY OF DEVIN CECIL-WISHING

COURTESY OF DEVIN CECIL-WISHING

COURTESY OF DEVIN CECIL-WISHING

Devin Cecil-Wishing an Artist Who Paints Light Painting Light continued from C1 “When I look at my still life set up, I like to pretend that it is inside an aquarium full of water, so that if I was a little fish I could swim through all of that space around the things. I want the air around the objects to feel like a real substance,” he said. He also compared the way he perceives light to how big ocean waves crash onto rocky cliffs and splash back. “The light is doing the same thing, it’s just slamming down onto there and bouncing all over the place. It’s like this sticky, bouncy kind of substance,” he said.

In tandem with representing light, another fundamental skill set that Cecil-Wishing and other GCA painters are especially known for is their ability to think sculpturally to create images that look very three dimensional in the picture plane.

While students at GCA inspire and learn from each other as they go through the same rigorous core program, the atelier is based on the master-and-apprentice-style of education of the Beaux Arts atelier tradition of 19th century Paris.

When Cecil-Wishing first discovered the works of the founder of GCA, Jacob Collins, he was struck. He recalled thinking, “Whoever this guy is, knows something that I don’t, and I want to learn whatever it is that makes his work so incredible,” he said. “There’s some knowledge there. It is hard when you don’t have whatever that knowledge is, because you don’t know what you don’t know. There is just something that he is doing that is fundamentally different,” he added.

SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

A Path of Dedication Cecil-Wishing, now 35, grew up in what he called a very DIY household and in the little-known neighborhood of Little Hollywood in San Francisco. “We were always making things, going out fishing, gardening, baking bread, doing all this really cool stuff,” he said, echoing an attitude reminiscent of American pioneers.

“There is something fundamentally satisfying about making something yourself that you don’t get from consuming something,” he said.

His initial interest in the visual arts started with cartoons when he was 13. He attended an arts high school, which focused on realism, but ironically he was not interested in that at the time. Then when he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, at that point he really did want to learn how to draw and paint well technically, but the college mostly focused on conceptual and abstract art, so he graduated

Deep down I’m secretly a pretty optimistic guy.

Devin Cecil-Wishing

COURTESY OF DEVIN CECIL-WISHING

An academic drawing by Devin Cecil-Wishing, which is based on the fundamental techniques that he teaches at Grand Central Atelier.

Devin Cecil-Wishing talks about his life and work at Grand Central Atelier on March 31.

with a degree in illustration instead of fine art.

“I’m always sort of doing the opposite of what is going on for some reason,” he said chuckling.

Eventually, his dance of opposition between wishes and circumstances reconciled.

He started emulating the work of the New Zealand wildlife painter, Raymond Harris Ching and increasingly wanted to paint more like the old masters—admiring Rembrandt, Rubens, and several Dutch and Flemish baroque still-life painters. His trip to Amsterdam during the celebration of Rembrandt’s 400th birthday in 2006, cemented that deep interest.

When he had a senior show of his work at a little street front gallery, he said a random guy who just walked in off the street told him that he should meet the artist, David Hardy and showed him some slides.

Curious to see Hardy’s work, Cecil-Wishing met with the artist over dinner and asked him questions about painting. When Hardy asked him why he was interested in his school, CecilWishing had no idea Hardy ran the Atelier School of Classical Realism. In fact, he didn’t know anything about ateliers. That evening he sat in on Hardy’s class. He remembered thinking, “This is awesome. It’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

Cecil-Wishing hadn’t thought of searching for ateliers on the Internet because of his general reaction against computers at the time.

“When the dot-com boom happened, all of a sudden it was virtually impossible to live in our city. At first I sort of associated it with the ruination of my home town,” he said laughing.

“I’m sort of ridiculous sometimes,” he said.

He’s over it now and glad to have his own website and a smart phone, which he didn’t have ten years ago.

He studied with Hardy in the small atelier in Oakland in the evenings, while he taught art classes to low-income high school students in San Francisco during the day. He also had a work-study deal. Once a week he would go to the studio or to Hardy’s house to do various chores—vacuum, wash the dogs, or take care of the garden. “It actually wound up being really cool because I had more of a chance to talk to him and I learned a lot during those times,” Cecil-Wishing said.

He recalled seeing a card of a Jacob Collins show pinned to the studio’s bulletin board one day. “I thought, who is this guy?” said CecilWishing in a whisper.

About three years into studying at Hardy’s atelier, a fellow artist casually said she was going to New York to study under Collins.

Astounded, Cecil-Wishing asked her, “What do you mean? He teaches?!” Right away he resolved to move to New York as well, and he did so six months after a short visit.

If You Can Make It There New York City turned out to be a test of perseverance. For Cecil-Wishing getting accepted into GCA went pretty smoothly, and he even managed to circumvent the formal application process. But making ends meet in the city turned out to be tough.

“When I was a student here, I was sleeping three hours a night, working kind of miserable jobs, but I also had one apartment disaster after another,” he said.

For five years, while studying full time, he also worked full time at places like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and a ceramics workshop. On top of that, he had to move seven times during his first three years in the city, for various reasons,

like a bedbug infestation or a crazy landlord going into his room in the middle of the night.

The worst apartment disaster he experienced happened after just two weeks of moving into a basement apartment in Jersey City. Storms leading up to Hurricane Irene flooded his entire apartment with a foot of sewage water.

The landlord did not respond to his calls. He had just bought new furniture and most of his belongings were wrecked. He managed to save his artwork, guitar, and other belongings, which he propped on top of his table.

“You couldn’t go in there without gagging,” he said. He ended up sleeping on the floor of Penn Station that night. He said he had a different apartment disaster experience related to Superstorm Sandy, and just shook his head smiling.

“All I wanted to do was to go into the studio and focus on painting, but I was constantly in this state of emergency, worrying about finding a place to live. I have to pack, I have to unpack, I have to look for a job, I have to sleep!

It was tough,” he said.

Despite the hardship, he admitted, “Deep down I’m secretly a pretty optimistic guy. ... I definitely have my mom’s dark Irish sense of humor, which is always a cornerstone of getting through things for me. I definitely laugh about the bad things, and ultimately they make great stories some day—you just have to be patient,” he said smiling.

Now Cecil-Wishing’s living situation is stable, and he’s living in a very nice loft in SoHo with a friend. “After all of my really bad apartment luck, I finally got some really good luck,” he said smiling.

Constant Experimentation Now Cecil-Wishing’s biggest challenge is time.

There is so much that he wants to do. He enjoys teaching cast drawing and painting, which is part of the core program at the GCA, as well as a painting class on color and light.

He’s currently in the middle of creating a video workshop series. He already has 180 hours of video that he will edit down to 40 minutes for the first episode.

He’s preparing to give a workshop in Germany this summer and hopes to give more workshops abroad as he has done in the past in Cape Town, South Africa. In the interim, he plans to post a few shorter video lessons of little tips and tricks on his website.

All the while, he continues to build a body of work to show at a gallery. His painting continues to be an ongoing process of experimentation.

“Most people generally learn in these leaps and plateaus. Even though I’m constantly plugging away, growth is not constant. I hit these breaking points where windows open up. I get to a point where I think, ‘Oh, I’ve got it, this is it,’ and then as I continue to work I start having some doubts or questions, and I’m not satisfied. Usually I get really frustrated before one of those big breakthroughs and then it hits again, and I think, ‘No this is it, now I get it.’

It is constantly like that,” he said.

Devin Cecil-Wishing’s work is currently on view in a group show at Eleventh Street Arts gallery in Long Island City, Queens, until June 3.

“This Is New York” is a feature series that delves into the lives of inspiring individuals in New York City. See all our TINYs here: epochtim.es/TINY or follow @milenefernandez on Twitter.

Work by Devin CecilWishing: (Left) “When Life Gives You Lemons: Homage to Zurbarán,” 2015. Oil on linen.

(Top right) Detail of a cast drawing in progress of an ear.

(Bottom right) Initial drawing, underpainting, and finished painting of a lemon.

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May 13–19, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY ALAN MARKFIELD/2015 MARVEL/TM/2015 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Film Review

Actual Apocalypse Happening Right Now, Movie Version Not So Much

Sophie Turner as Jean Grey in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

By Mark Jackson | Epoch Times Staff The Apocalypse. Armageddon. Aren’t we smack-dab in the middle of it right now?

Edgar Cayce, “The Sleeping Prophet,” predicted fully two-thirds of the world’s human population would get wiped out. Like, right around this time. He was rarely wrong.

One Eastern take on it says the Creator made the cosmos, and forthwith began to descend, incarnating down through millions of spacetime layers and dimensions to arrive here, on this tiny speck of Earth—the center of the cosmos—at this time we currently find ourselves in.

He would then upgrade, from the inside out, his vast creation (Cosmos 2.0) and set it spinning with a brand new set of laws. And a whole mess of humans would get wiped out in the process.

Why? Because humans are stomping all over the old laws; who keeps the 10 commandments anymore for starters? By that logic, it’s the ripple effect of flagrant disregard of cosmic law that’s lead to overpopulation, climate change, humongous Canadian forest fires, and eating too many moo-cows.

Western theology posits similar things, adding the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse— Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. So aren’t we currently right in the middle of all that?

Okay, granted, we haven’t seen much of the

Will seeing ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ help you make a decision about what side to be on for the apocalypse?

The best scene in this movie was recycled from the previous one.

Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe/ Storm in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Director Bryan Singer Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Olivia Munn, Hugh Jackman Running Time 2 hours, 24 minutes Rated PG-13 Release Date May 27

(Top) (L–R) Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok, and Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/ Beast in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

(Above) (L–R) Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique and Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff/ Quicksilver, in “X-Men: Apocalypse.” four horseman in the good old USA ... but take a look around! Look at the rest of the world!

We might be next!

So isn’t it good that we now have a movie about the apocalypse? No, I tell you. It is not.

It is not good. It is perhaps fair to middling.

Perhaps not even.

Apocalypse as King Tut? In “X-Men: Apocalypse,” director Bryan Singer gives us instead of a creator, a green-faced (with black racing-stripes) Ur-mutant named Apocalypse, created by comic books, and played

by Oscar Isaac under enough makeup to sink Atlantis.

We find ourselves in the Nile Valley, 3600 B.C. It’s all very Egyptian, with exceptional visuals, except it’s all high-percentage CGI, and very 12-year-old, squeaky-clean.

Not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that, generally speaking, a movie’s yawn-index is directly proportionate to its CGI-reliance.

Come Down to the Lab So there’s a big ceremonial thing happening; the first mutant Apocalypse has, Darwin-istically speaking, survived down through the ages by draining other mutants of their primordial chi and sucking up their superpowers.

There’s a whole chi-sucking ceremony going down in the pyramid basement, an Egypt-centric version of “Rocky Horror’s,” “Come up to the lab, and see what’s on the slab!”

The top of the pyramid is revealed! It’s pure gold! The sun melts it, and molten gold drains down to the basement, lighting up hieroglyphics like the doors to the Mines of Moria, in “Fellowship Of the Rings!”

Let the chi-energy transference from the unwilling sacrificial mutant’s stone slab to Apocalypse’s slab begin!

Ah, but he is foiled. There’s a revolt; some protoISIS types, who’ve infiltrated the ceremony, stage a proto-jihad and overthrow the transference.

Smash the pyramid. Rubble. Yawn.

Fast-Forward A few thousands of years later, Apocalypse wakes up, still looking like a great, gray, green, grease-paint-y pharaoh, and sets off on a mutant-recruit to help him, basically, reboot civilization to his specifications.

Not the cosmos—Earth. So he’s not a god, just a mega-mutant who does evil; and who can manipulate earthly things. But it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature; there’s always retribution involved.

So now’s the time to trot out the now overfamiliar cast of mutants: Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) the young Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Professor X (James McAvoy), and the rest.

They’ve got to stop this dastardly superpowergreedy Apocalypse, a task, which they set about in a distinctly Hardy Boy-like fashion.

And There You Have It You know a franchise is getting tired when you go, “Yawn, there’s that narrow ramp thingie in that vault that could still really use some guardrails, where Charles puts on his elvish helmet and peers at the collective souls of the world.

Oh, yawn, there’s Wolverine tri-clawing peo-

ple. Oh, yes, yawn, there’s Jean Grey blasting telekinetic energy with her face.

“X-Men” are action flicks but there’s very little CGI, or non-CGI—action here, that’s fun. Maybe the smidgen of mutant-on-mutant cage fighting? Maybe the mini-Wolverine-rampage scene?

“Weapon-X (Wolverine) is loose!” “Really?

Aw yeah! Here we go!” Nope, yawn, it looks like they caught Hugh Jackman in a non-jacked, atrophied-muscle phase. When we see him skedaddling into the forest, he’s comically middle-aged: a bit skinny—no lats, traps, or delts, and with a tiny pudge of love-handles.

Next time, please schedule Jackman properly, so he can get a decent steroid-cycle going, and peak on time; I don’t like my Wolverine under done and normal-looking. He must be a beast.

And while J-Law can, in any other situation, act circles around Rebecca Rojimin, Rojimin rocked the blue body paint—owned it with great charisma. Why? Well, basically because you’re looking at a bare-naked lady, and Rojimin’s a supermodel. Which is why they’ve got Lawrence in the body paint much less, than more.

Not that Lawrence is a slouch in that department, just, you know ... sayin’.

Only Fun Thing The best scene in “X-Men: Apocalypse,” was also the best thing in Singer’s previous megahit, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (since it’s recycled, I’ll recycle what I said about it last time): “This outranks all scenes to date that depict a character moving in another dimension with a much faster time-speed, including Keanu’s bent-over-backward ‘Matrix’ bullet-swerve.”

I’m talking about Evan Peters as Quicksilver, running around, tweaking stuff, hilariously, at the speed of light. Skip the movie, wait till that scene comes out on YouTube, and just watch that; it’ll be the cinematic equivalent of dumping the crackerjacks out, and getting the prize, with no indigestion.

And next time, director Singer, please just shuck all the other mutant-cornhusks and give us a Quicksilver-cob. The guy needs his own movie now.

Armageddon Right Now The buzz on social media is that people are vaguely aware that there’s some kind of hardto-pinpoint, deep polarization going on among the world’s people, as we speak—be it jihadi fighters against the West, Trump-ers versus Berners, vegans versus milk-drinkers, or good old communism versus democracy. In any case, it’s definitely starting to look like some kind of biblical sheep versus goats thing is forming up; everyone seems to be choosing a side.

Will seeing “X-Men: Apocalypse” help you make a decision about what side to be on for the Apocalypse? Maybe. Maybe you’ll be more able to recognize a mutant when you eventually see one. Think about it: pretty much the only movies nowadays that get any kind of play in America are about people with superpowers. Batman (okay not Batman) Superman, Hulk, Apocalypse … maybe there are mutants already among us! Maybe they’re gonna save the world! Let’s hope.

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@EpochArts

May 13–19, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts BEOWULF SHEEHAN/PEN AMERICAN CENTER

RIK KELLER

NEW YORK STORIES May 18, 8 p.m. | Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway The pianist Lara Downes and the essayist Adam Gopnik come together to make an evening of music about New York City—its anthems, its atmosphere, its ambitions. From Gershwin to Joplin, and from William Grant Still to Kurt Weill, Downes will play the music she thinks best captures the special spirit of the city, while Gopnik will speak his mind—and read from the masters—about what Manhattan means. $25–$35. SymphonySpace.org

Essayist Adam Gopnik.

Pianist Lara Downes.

THINGS TO DO COMMUNITY EVENTS NEW IN MANHATTAN My City, My Song May 14, noon Resnick Education Wing at Carnegie Hall Three vibrant New York City– based artists perform in “My City, My Song,” a colorful, interactive concert that provides an opportunity for kids to learn about New York City’s diverse musical and cultural traditions. Bronxborn drummer and vocalist Bobby Sanabria shares the driving beats of salsa, jazz vocalist Brianna Thomas explores the language of scat singing, and vocalist and

multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu presents songs from Southeast Asia. Free with RSVP. CarnegieHall.org

Sketch & Sip May 18 and 25, 6–7:30 p.m.

Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. Sketch and Sip is a sophisticated, participatory experience that combines drinking and socializing with an immersive tour of critically acclaimed Museum exhibitions. $20 for Museum members; $30 for adults; $25 for seniors and students. MCNY.org Decade of Dance Parade May 21, 1 p.m.

Parade starts at 21st Street & Broadway; ending at Eighth Street at University Place

Dance styles reflect the cosmopolitan legacy of the city and the elastic inventiveness of the form, and include African, Asian-Indian, ballet, bhangra, Bolivian Tinkus, Brazilian zouk, breakdance, Chinese, hip-hop, Irish, Indonesian, Jamaican Dance Hall, lindy hop, modern, roller disco, salsa, samba, Tahitian and tango.

“DanceFest” from 3–7 p.m. afterwards in Tompkins Square Park, with dance performances, workshops, lessons and social dancing. Free. DanceParade.org

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) Exercises Tuesdays, 1 p.m.–2 p.m.

(through June 14) Tompkins Square Library, 331 E. 10th St. A class of five exercises including meditation. Come relieve your stress and anxieties, increase your energy and vitality, and enjoy peace of mind. Free. en.

FalunDafa.org

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Shakespeare’s Star Turn in America Through May 27 New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza The exhibition focuses on Shakespeare in North America from the Colonial times to the present. The multimedia exhibition uses artifacts from the Library for the Performing Arts’ unique collection to document the on-going popularity of the Shakespeare plays. Free. NYPL.org

ONGOING ELSEWHERE Walking and Talking About Queens!

Sundays, April 30, May 7, & May 14, at noon–2 p.m.

Q.E.D., 27-16 23rd Ave., Queens Take a crash course on Queens, taught mostly through walking tours. The first week will feature a discussion about Queens’ history, neighborhoods, celebrities and assorted other trivia. Then it’s out into various neighborhoods the next three weeks, for walking tours. The program is led by tour guide and “Walking Queens” author Adrienne Onofri. $60. QEDAstoria.com Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) Exercises Wednesdays at 1 p.m.–2 p.m. (through June 15) Coney Island Library, 1901 Mermaid Ave., Brooklyn A class of five exercises including meditation. Come relieve your stress and anxieties, increase your energy and vitality, and enjoy peace of mind. Free. en.

FalunDafa.org

VISUAL ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN America and the Art of Flanders May 13 & 14 The Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. Presented by the Center for the History of Collecting, this two-day symposium focuses on America’s taste for seventeenth-century Flemish painting. The keynote address,

by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,

Curator at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., is followed by presentations on pioneering private collectors as well as public collections in New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The event concludes with an interview of Thomas Leysen, an eminent collector of seventeenth-century Flemish paintings. $25 per day.

Frick.org

ENDING IN MANHATTAN Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France Through May 15 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, 1755–1842) is one of the finest eighteenthcentury French painters and among the most important of all women artists. An autodidact with exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and Europe during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. $12–$25 suggested.

METMuseum.org Asian Art at 100: A History in Photographs Through May 22 The Metropolitan Museum of Art The timeline presented in the photographs in this exhibition chronicles the changing face of the Met’s galleries of Asian art as the building’s footprint has expanded, exhibition styles have evolved, and the collection has grown. $12–$25 suggested.

METMuseum.org The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor Through May 22 The Metropolitan Museum of Art This exhibition commemorates the centenary of the Department of Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by celebrating the astounding legacy of its founding curator, William Mills Ivins, and his brilliant protégé A. Hyatt Mayor. Together, during their combined fifty-year tenure, Ivins and Mayor amassed a collection of many hundreds of thousands of prints that is both encyclopedic in its scope and studied in its many areas of focus. $12–$25 suggested.

METMuseum.org

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Porcelain, No Simple Matter Through May 18 The Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. This exhibition, a collaboration with New York-based sculptor Arlene Shechet, explores the complex history of making, collecting, and displaying porcelain. About one hundred pieces produced by the Royal

Meissen manufactory, from the promised gift of Henry H. Arnhold, are accompanied by ten of Shechet’s own sculptures. With nature as the dominant theme, the exhibition will be presented in the Frick’s Portico Gallery, which overlooks the museum’s historic Fifth Avenue Garden. Frick.org Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture Through June 5 The Frick Collection, 1 E. 70th St. One of the most celebrated and influential portraitists of all time, Anthony van Dyck’s supremely elegant manner and convincing evocation of a sitter’s inner life—whether real or imagined—made him the favorite portraitist of many of the most powerful and interesting figures of the seventeenth century.

Frick.org

PERFORMING ARTS ONGOING IN MANHATTAN ANNIE GET YOUR GUN Fridays & Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. (through May 22) The St. Jean’s Players, 167 E. 75th St. Irving Berlin’s “ANNIE GET YOUR GUN” tells the story of Annie Oakley and her legendary skills as a sharp shooter. Irving Berlin’s score is a treasure trove of romantic melodies (“I Got Lost In His Arms”) and glorious comic numbers (“You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun”). It’s greatest hit is the immortal paean to theater “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” $25. SmartTix.com or 212868-4444 or at box office 1/2 hour before show.

MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN The MET Orchestra Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Superstar pianist Evgeny Kissin is on hand for one of most beloved concertos in all music: Rachmaninoff’s famous Piano Concerto No. 2. The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s impassioned Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” Limited Availability. CarnegieHall.org

Dear Readers If you have an event to suggest, please send details to NYC_Arts@ EpochTimes.com in the format you see here.

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Epoch Times, May 13–19, 2016

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At the Waldorf Astoria Hotel

SPRING JEWELS D I A M O N D & E S TAT E J E W E L R Y AU C T I O N The SPRING JEWELS auction will offer a range of antique, contemporary, and estate jewelry. Pieces from famous design houses such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Tiffany & Co., and David Webb, among others, will be featured. The sale will also include a fine variety of cuff links, object d’art, watches, colored stones, and diamonds. To learn more please visit www.FortunaAuction.com or call 212-258-2188.

A stunning vintage Van Cleef & Arpels diamond, turquoise, and 18k gold bracelet.

Estimated $15,000–$20,000

PUBLIC PREVIEW

AUCTION

May 17th, 10am—2pm

May 17th, 3pm

The public preview and auction will take place at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in the Peacock Alley West room on May 17. The collection can also be viewed by appointment on May 15 & 16 in our 5th Avenue office. Call 212-258-2188 for details.

608 5th Avenue, Suite 506 New York, NY 10020 | Phone: 212-258-2188 | Jewelry@FortunaAuction.com | www.FortunaAuction.com

Epoch Times, May 13–19, 2016

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