LUXURY Janauary – February, 2016
Page 76 The interior of the Stony Island Arts Bank on Chicago’s South Side, housed in a building that Theaster Gates bought and refurbished for site-specific art exhibits.
56 Into the Void A band of adventurers from Oman attempt to cross the sprawling Empty Quarter by foot, retracing a historic thousand kilometer journey. By Ayswarya Murthy Photographs by John C Smith
ON THE COVER Photograph by Leandro Farina. Styled by Juliet Jernigan. From left: Van Cleef & Arpels emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond and cultured pearl necklace, QR309,500. Cartier diamond ring, price on request, David Webb emerald, diamond and black enamel bracelet, QR82,600.
8
STEFAN RUIZ
Features
64 A n Unknowable Truth For more than 50 years, Charlotte Rampling has seduced audiences onscreen and off. The beguiling allure of an icon. By Mary Gaitskill Portraits by Paolo Roversi Styled by Jonathan Kaye
68 Tangible Beauty Glorious, rare objects made by artisans around the world. Photographs by Anthony Cotsifas Styled by Haidee Findlay-Levin
76 Outside the Box Three groundbreaking artists and friends — Rick Lowe, Theaster Gates and Mark Bradford — redefining the power of community. By Nikil Saval Photographs by Stefan Ruiz
Copyright ©2016 The New York Times
Section
Sub Section
Lookout 11
Sign of the Times
Striving for personal connection rather than Instagram-worthy perfection during the holidays. 12
This and That
Tilda Swinton’s fashion art; Bruce Weber’s passion project; lo-fi garage rock in Madrid; folk-hero furniture in Brazil; and more. 16
Market Report
Glittering evening clutches. 18
Food Matters
Four New York City chefs who have taken their Brooklyn-style farm-to-table cuisine upstate — giving weekend travelers yet another reason to get out of town. 20 B y the Numbers The Ritz Paris, then and now. 22 Take Two Michael Moore and Peaches consider booze-soaked toothpicks, a self-heating mug and the debut album from a cat.
Prada coat, QR28,600, prada.com. Gucci shirt, QR4,200, gucci.com. Ellery pants, QR3,600, elleryland.com. Louis Vuitton sandals (worn throughout), about QR3,585, louisvuitton. com.
Page 33
Quality
33 Runway Report Elegant trousers for women on the party circuit. 37 Jewelry Exquisite accessories that evoke the splendor of the Mughal Empire.
Arena 41
Arts and Letters
45 In Studio The bag company M2Malletier’s inspirational office near Barcelona is more than just a workspace — it’s a postmodern masterpiece.
Page 41 Oscar-winning Mexican writer-director Alejandro González Iñárritu, screenwriter of “The Revenant”.
10
Copyright ©2016 The New York Times
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: COCO CAPITÁN; MONICA MAY
A portfolio of Hollywood’s top screenwriters.
Lookout Qatar 14 This and That Luc Tuyman picks the winning entries for his competition in Doha; Hakkasan ushers in the Chinese New Year with an inspired menu that’ll make you fall in love with Cantonese cuisine; the Arabiainspired special edition watch from Panerai hits boutiques across the Gulf. 23 Food Matters Almost a century after Mama Panella opened Antica Pesa in the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere, the family’s fourth generation restaurateur has brought the now international brand to Doha.
26 On Perfumes Why luxury hospitality needs to be not only cultured and celebrating art, but should also smell distinctive. 28 Artist in Profile Qatari-American artist Sophia Al Maria sheds light on social issues affecting the world and particularly the GCC.
Publisher & Editor In Chief
Yousuf Jassem Al Darwish Chief Executive
Sandeep Sehgal Executive Vice President
Alpana Roy
EDITORIAL
MARKETING AND SALES
T, THE STYLE MAGAZINE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEWS SERVICES
Deputy Art Director
Manager – Marketing
Editor in Chief
General Manager
Creative Director
Vice President, Licensing and Syndication
Venkat Reddy
Hanan Abu Saiam
Assistant Art Director
Ayush Indrajith
Deputy Editor
Debrina Aliyah Senior Correspondent
Ayswarya Murthy Karim Emam Correspondent
Aarthi Mohan Keerthana Koduru
48 On Heritage A heritage in watchmaking is the most vital attribute of these two watch majors. We visit Jaeger-LeCoultre, and speak to A.Lange & Söhne, to understand what will keep these two watch manufacturers ticking in 2016 and beyond.
Business Head
Photography
Fashion Editor
32 The Thing Al Bidaa Swords and Gifts has released a special edition sword that combines elements of history and luxury sourced from around the world but crafted in Doha.
Arena Qatar
ART
Managing Editor
Ezdihar Ibrahim Ali
30 On Design Richard Mille might not be a heritage watch brand but the eponymous creator has strategies to remain the most coveted brand of the century through pricing, limited editions, material innovation and technology.
Senior Art Director
Senior Graphic Designer
Sindhu Nair
Page 28
Maheshwar Reddy
Rob Altamirano
Frederick Alphonso Sakala A Debrass
Assistant Manager – Marketing
Mathews Cherian Anis Mansouri Denzita Sequiera Sony Vellat Irfaan A H M Events Manager
Jasmine Victor Accountant Pratap Chandran Sr. Distribution Executive
Bikram Shrestha
Distribution Support
Deborah Needleman Patrick Li
Deputy Editor
Whitney Vargas Fashion Director
Joe McKenna
Managing Editor
Michael Greenspon
Alice Ting
Vice President, Executive Editor The New York Times News Service & Syndicate
Nancy Lee
Minju Park
LICENSED EDITIONS
Nadia Vellam
Deputy Editorial Director
Photography Director
PUBLISHED BY
Oryx Advertising Co WLL
P.O. Box 3272; Doha-Qatar Tel: (+974) 44672139, 44550983, 44671173, 44667584 Fax: (+974) 44550982 Email: tqatar@omsqatar.com website: www.omsqatar.com
Anita Patil
Coordinators
Ian Carlino Gary Caesar
Arjun Timilsina Bhimal Rai Basanta P
LAWRENCE LAZAR
24 Market Report The Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition enters its thirteenth brilliant year and we commemorate with thirteen of our luckiest charms.
Sophia Al Maria in her home/ work space in east London where she currently works as a screenwriter.
COPYRIGHT INFO T, The New York Times Style Magazine, and the T logo are trademarks of The New York Times Co., NY, NY, USA, and are used under license by Oryx Media, Qatar. Content reproduced from T, The New York Times Style Magazine, copyright The New York Times Co. and/or its contributors 2015 all rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed within T Qatar are not necessarily those of The New York Times Company or those of its contributors.
12
Copyright ©2016 The New York Times
Sign of the Times
The Good Enough Holiday
GARTH WILLIAMS, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, FROM GROUP OF FOUR, 1953: CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS/COPYRIGHT GARTH WILLIAMS 1953; RENEWED 1981/IMAGE COURTESY HERITAGE AUCTIONS
BY LIESL SCHILLINGER
THE WINTER CELEBRATIONS bring with their glee the return of insecurities like:Was your centerpiece of the right niveau? Should you have draped the banisters with balsam fir, or was boxwood more current? Which breed of artificial bird is trending to clamp among the boughs? And would you be able to hold your head up if you had not personally raised from poulthood the turkey that graced the holiday table (as Martha Stewart suggested) or hand-pressed the apple cider with which you braised the brisket? Never before have so many worthy options for decorating and entertaining presented themselves to conscientious householders. Long ago, our grandmothers unhurriedly flipped through Ladies’ Home Journal and McCall’s to update their eggnogs and hunt patterns for tree skirts. Ebenezer Scrooge contended with the Ghost of Christmas Present, who forced him to witness only a handful of other people’s fetes. But modern-day hosts are subjected to thousands of images of strangers’ holiday rituals, through television and magazines but especially on social media, where every fireside post competes to be merrier than the last. All of which serves as a constant reproof that, perhaps, we’re not nearly as festive as we are meant to be. Today’s revelers can find themselves treating the season like the year’s ultimate performative act: evidence of our prowess at directing the theater were of home, proof to ourselves and others that ours is indeed a wonderful life. But in the quest to make the occasion camera-ready, we lose sight of the fact that the personal is more important than the perfect time of year, and that established traditions are more memorable than ever-escalating fabulousness. You can scour Kinfolk to come up with a thrillingly austere ‘‘vegetal garland wall,’’ or check out YouTube for how to create a gingerbread house as intricate as an Uffizi fresco, but in the end, these punctuations won’t create memories for your kids. What they’ll remember instead is the festal continuum — the idiosyncrasies and permanent patterns of each household’s tradition that always gives the holiday both meaning and resonance. In other words: Not only do holiday preparations not have to be backbreaking, it can be better when they’re not. One of the most warmly
remembered American Christmases on record took place in a modest cabin in the Midwest in 1870, without dove-studded white pine garlands or candled wreaths. Laura and her sister Mary woke that holiday morning to empty stockings at the fireplace — until a family friend knocked on the door. He had intercepted Santa, he told them, and forded the raging waters of the Verdigris River to bring the girls their gifts: two tin cups, two candy canes, two little cakes and a ‘‘shining bright, new penny’’ each. ‘‘There never had been such a Christmas,’’ Laura Ingalls Wilder exulted. An equally memorable American Hanukkah took place a century ago amid similar simplicity, in an apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — described in Sydney Taylor’s ‘‘All-of-a-Kind Family’’ series. Five sisters grated potatoes and onions for latkes, and polished the brass menorah to await the lighting of the candles. Each of them got two pennies — an absolute fortune, in their eyes. ‘‘It was the time for gladsomeness,’’ the author explained. So, remember to muster your décor, mixing in, if you wish, some — but not too much — innovation, keep your focus on the gladsomeness. The memories you make have more to do with spirit than substance. That which is recorded on the heart is, alas, not Instagrammable.
THE SWEET LIFE This illustration from ‘‘Little House on the Prairie’’ shows all it took to make Christmas perfect for Laura and Mary: two heart-shaped cakes, two tin cups, two peppermint sticks and two pennies — one for each girl.
January-February 2016
13
Lookout
This and That ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS
An Ode to Outlaws The Brazilian furniture designers the Campana Brothers are known for elevating humble materials such as rope, scraps of wood and even stuffed animals: In one memorable work, a patchwork of teddy bears became a comfy chair. Their latest collection, unveiled by the São Paolo gallery Firma Casa at Design Miami, is inspired by the Cangaço, nomadic bandits who roamed northeastern Brazil in the 19th century. Intricate leatherwork recalls the elaborately embellished hats, boots and vests worn by the swashbuckling thieves. — TOM DELAVAN
The Art of Dressing Over the last few years, Tilda Swinton has collaborated with the fashion curator Olivier Saillard on three rather unusual live performances, now documented in a catalog called ‘‘Impossible Wardrobes.’’ In one piece, Saillard and Swinton made a dress to measure, with Swinton as a dress form. For another, the actress painstakingly carried historically significant items of clothing, like Napoleon’s coat, down a runway. ‘‘In many ways,’’ she explains, ‘‘the clothes operated as a bridge to the person no longer inside them — almost as if the garment is a symptom or a leaf shed from a tree.’’ In the final work, Swinton assumed the role of coat-check attendant, leaving bits of personal ephemera, like a drop of perfume or a lipstick-smeared tissue, in visitors’ pockets. ‘‘I still prize the old shoes and tiny cardigans of my now sky-scraping children,’’ Swinton says. ‘‘They link to the past like portals.’’ QR125, rizzolibookstore.com — ALEXANDRIA SYMONDS
Clockwise from top: wood and leather armoire; steel, straw and leather sofa; silver and leather mirror; steel, straw and leather armchair. Prices upon request, www.firmacasa.com.br.
Around the World With Bruce Weber In ‘‘Leap of Faith,’’ the 15th installment of his annual cultural anthology, ‘‘All-American,’’ the legendary photographer collects stories, both historical and contemporary, that might otherwise not be told. Here, a snapshot of images from the book’s wide roam, from a dance for incarcerated fathers and their daughters in Richmond, Va., to the reportage of war photographer Lynsey Addario. QR125, teneues.com.
14
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: COURTESY OF ESTUDIO CAMPANA (4); LYNSEY ADDARIO/ GETTY IMAGES REPORTAGE; ©2015 THE ESTATE OF FAIRFIELD PORTER/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK; BRUCE WEBER; COURTESY MISA RUSEK; BRUCE WEBER
A Cultural Compendium
FEELING FOR
LISTEN UP
Jasper Morrison’s beautifully designed, stripped-down mobile phone — whose most advanced functions are calls and texts.
FROM LEFT: JASPER MORRISON - OFFICE FOR DESIGN; AARON SERRANO. ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS
The MP 01, QR295, punkt.ch.
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
Women on the Verge According to the all-female Madrid-based band Hinds, guitar solos are too often just excuses to show off, and so you won’t hear many of them on their debut album. ‘‘Leave Me Alone,’’ which was out Jan. 8, traced the phases of love, from falling hard for the Copyright ©2016 . Though recorded in southern Spain, the lo-fi tracks, with lyrics in English, have a distinctly American garage-rock feel: The women cite postpunk revivalists the Strokes as a major influence. — HILARY MOSS
FASHION MEMO
The classic ski sweater is now cool.
From left: QR1,395. QR500, neilbarrett .com. QR1,695, ralphlauren .com. About QR310, whitemountaineering.com.
January-February 2016
15
Lookout Qatar
This and That
The Year Of Coming Together
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ROBERT A (4); HAKKASAN, DOHA (3); PANERAI; MANDARIN ORIENTAL(2); QATAR MUSEUMS (2)
To celebrate the Qatar China Year of Culture, Qatar Museums and the Ministry of Culture in Qatar teamed up with China’s Ministry of Culture, the Zhejiang Song and Dance Theater, and Zhejiang Folk Art and Acrobatics Troupe to put up a spectacular performance at the Drama Theater, Katara. From a Chinese tea leaf picking song to umbrella juggling and traditional bowl kicking, it was an explosion of colors as the soulful music transported all to the far eastern land. Every year Qatar Museums runs the cultural exchange programme called the Year of Culture to foster the exchange of ideas, spark debate and create everlasting collaborative relationships between nations. — SINDHU NAIR
DESIGN VIEWS
From Camera to Canvas As a part of Luc Tuymans’ ‘Intolerance’ exhibition, Qatar’s creative community were challenged to express their views of world events though art. Luc Tuymans personally selected five artworks from hundreds of submissions that were inspired by media-driven images of moments in history that have affected the world and how we perceive it today. Katrina Boyd’s ‘7 Million Tyres’ depicts a practice common in the desert of Kuwait, where every year large holes are dug out of the sandy earth and filled with old tyres. There are now over seven million in the ground, lying under the relentless sun, making it the world’s largest tyre graveyard- an environmental disaster waiting to happen. ‘Black Wave’ is Michael Perrone’s minimalist interpretation of the black wave of Daesh or Islamic State that is slowly seeping into our collective consciousness. In ‘The War Against Terror’, Mohammed Muslim questions the hidden motives behind the US’s post 9/11 activities while Devi Sari’s ‘Redacted Flesh’ is a sublime representation of the veil of misinformation that has made us immune to the violence and injustices of the world. The last piece by Maryam Nasser, entitled ‘Martyrs/Witness 2147’ which was inspired by the war in Gaza in 2014 and pays respects to the 2,147 people who died in 50 days. — AYSWARYA MURTHY
16
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
Hooves of Steel Panerai releases Luminor 1950 Sealand, a special edition timepiece sold exclusively at boutiques in Doha’s Villaggio Mall in partnership with Ali Bin Ali. The new Luminor 1950 Sealand is personalized with a hand-engraved cover for the dial, featuring white Arabian horses galloping in the desert, with palm trees and the sea in the background- an iconic image which highlights the essence of the Arabian horse in its original environment. This special edition watch, of which only 60 units have been made, has a case in brushed steel with the iconic device protecting the crown. The watch has a classic Panerai gray dial and a gold calf strap. The movement is the automatic mechanical P.9000 caliber, entirely designed and created by the Panerai manufacture in Neuchâtel. — AYSWARYA MURTHY
Ringing in the Year of the Monkey Hakkasan in Doha joins its other branches globally in ushering in the Chinese New Year with a month-long promotion that features inspired and modernized gems of Cantonese cuisine. The limited edition menu means to showcase dishes that will bring luck, joy and prosperity in 2016, and just to stack the odds, Hakkasan also gives all guests who dine from the Chinese New Year menu a specially designed Year of the Monkey coin as a gift of good fortune. The special four course menu kicks off with a welcome drink. The 9 Hóu cocktail comprises nine components representing the monkey’s ninth position on the zodiac, decorated with a golden monkey cocktail stirrer. Fruity and smooth, the drink stands in good stead as you work your way down the menu. While the understated soup is as good a palate cleanser as any, the burst of flavors starts building from the appetizers, increasing in magnitude till it explodes with a decadent Golden Halo desert, a banana and peanut cake and a five spice infused cream, caramel, chocolate and peanuts topped with gold leaf. A Crunchy pine nut golden cup filled with diced Wagyu beef and a dim sum platter with an interesting mix of duck, prawns and scallops are a promising start to what turns out to be an intensely moving experience. Of the five dishes on the main course, each more spectacular to look at than the last, it’s the grilled Chilean seabass and wok-fried lobster that are guaranteed to knock your socks off. Hakkasan’s Chinese New Year celebrations will run from January 22 until February 22 and the special menu is priced at QR495. — AYSWARYA MURTHY
Quenching Thirst, the Milan Way For the Milan-centric tradition of aperitivo, here’s a fancy approach for those on the watertight schedules of the upcoming Milan Fashion Week. Right in the heart of the action, a trinity of hotel bar establishments makes for a quick respite in between the shows and after-parties. The months-old bar at the Mandarin Oriental is for editors on-the-go with its upbeat and modern vibe. Grab its signature alcohol-free The Kir, a concoction of rose and red fruits tea for a quick pick-up before heading out onto the vibrant Via Alessandro Manzoni or the Seta, the hotel’s newly Michelin-starred restaurant. At the brand new Terazza Gallia at the Excelsior Gallia Hotel, schedule private meetings with a majestic view of the historic central station and dive into the Fashion Green mocktail of green apple, lettuce, cucumber, lemon and fennel seeds for a vitamin boost. To end off a long day, unwind at the discreetly stylish bar at the Bulgari where the kitchen sends out delicious morsels of the week’s specials, accompanied with your evening drink. — DEBRINA ALIYAH
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
January-February 2016
17
PROP STYLIST: BUCK SQUIBB. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: VALENTINO GARAVANI CLUTCH, (212) 355-5811. OSCAR DE LA RENTA CLUTCH, (212) 288-5810. MONIQUE LHUILLIER CLUTCH, MONIQUELHUILLIER.COM. DOLCE & GABBANA CLUTCH, (212) 897-9653. STUART WEITZMAN CLUTCH, (212) 759-1570. RALPH LAUREN COLLECTION CLUTCH, RALPHLAUREN.COM. SWAROVSKI CLUTCH, SWAROVSKI.COM. JIMMY CHOO CLUTCH, JIMMYCHOO.COM
Lookout
Market Report
Evening Clutches The small but mighty minaudière gets all dressed up, in crystals, sequins, silver and gold. PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEONARD GRECO
Clockwise from top left: Valentino Garavani, QR4,395. Oscar de la Renta, QR1,390. Monique Lhuillier, QR2,495. Dolce & Gabbana, QR2,695. Stuart Weitzman, QR825. Ralph Lauren Collection, QR3,500. Swarovski, QR599. Jimmy Choo, QR1,795.
18
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
Section
Party Face These rectangular, Art Deco-inspired timepieces convey elegance of a distinctly festive bent. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZANE ZHOU
Clockwise from top left: Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso UltraThin, QR7,600, jaegerlecoultre.com. Piaget Emperador, QR24,500, piaget.com. Ralph Lauren 867, QR18,500, ralphlaurenwatches .com. Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945, QR9,550, Cellini,
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
January-February 2016
19
MODEL: JEFF KNAPP AT PARTS MODELS NYC. SET DESIGN BY TING TING QIAN. STYLED BY ALEX TUDELA. GROOMING BY TORU SAKANISHI USING GIORGIO ARMANI
Watch Report
Lookout ESCAPE FROM THE CITY Devon Gilroy of the Corner in Tivoli, N.Y., mushroom foraging near his restaurant.
Food Matters
Gone Country
Four New York City chefs who have taken their Brooklyn-style farm-to-table cuisine upstate — giving weekend travelers yet another reason to get out of town. BY HANNAH GOLDFIELD PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY LOMBARD
PRAIRIE WHALE, GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS.
AS THE CO-FOUNDER OF the Brooklyn restaurant group Marlow & Sons (Diner, Roman’s, Reynard at the Wythe Hotel), Mark Firth is responsible for popularizing a certain kind of New York eatery, one that brings the country to the city with food and décor at once rustically understated and shrewdly refined. But several years ago, tempted by visits to the farms from which he was sourcing seasonal ingredients, Firth decided to make the reverse journey, and moved to the Berkshires. When a career as a farmer proved unsustainable — ‘‘We needed the table to go with the farm,’’ he says — he decided to open a place in Great Barrington. The free-standing clapboard house now known as Prairie Whale (a 19thcentury euphemism for pig) is meandering and many-chambered — dark and romantic at night, sun-dappled and cozy in the morning — and the food is simple but deeply satisfying: crunchy-skinned buttermilk fried chicken with honey butter, cornbread and greens, and all manner of Firth’s carefully raised pork, including drippy fatty roasted bits sandwiched in squishy potato rolls, and house-made pâté. It’s just an added attraction to this town 120 miles north of New York, with its welcoming community of aging hippies and young artists. Spend a day strolling through galleries and ice cream parlors before checking into the Briarcliff, a 1960s motor lodge converted into a charming boutique hotel, complete with mod furniture and homemade scones. (413) 528-5050.
20
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
HALE AND HEARTY Left: Prairie Whale in Great Barrington, Mass. Above: the restaurant’s pork chop with mushrooms, cabbage and spaetzle.
THE SIMPLE LIFE Gilroy at his restaurant the Corner at Hotel Tivoli.
THE CORNER, TIVOLI, N.Y. In 2013, the artists Brice and Helen Marden took over a century-old, 11-room hotel in the middle of Tivoli, an artsy, sleepy Hudson Valley hamlet close enough to Bard College to feel like a college town by association. Though Tivoli, about two hours by car or train from New York City, has long attracted a creative crowd, it had lost some of its allure with the hotel’s shuttering several years before. Now, the Mardens have revived both the building and the town at large with a colorful mix of contemporary, midcentury and custom-made furniture, lighting and décor, plus artworks by the couple and their friends, including Robert Rauschenberg, Julian Schnabel and Kiki Smith. But the newly crowned Hotel Tivoli’s real draw might be its restaurant and bar, the Corner, for which the chef Devon Gilroy — formerly of Chanterelle and A Voce — reserves the best local farms’ limited supplies of seasonal produce, sometimes just a few pounds each. A late-fall Saturday found him extolling the splendor of a crop of pimientos de padron, which he had flash-fried and dressed with Greek olive oil, sea salt and a sprinkling of sumac.Seared arctic char (sourced from a small supplier in Boston) was paired with meaty maitakes, foraged nearby, and the herbs and other garnishes came from Gilroy’s own garden, maintained on a plot of land behind one of Brice Marden’s nearby studios. hoteltivoli.org/the-corner.
FISH & GAME, HUDSON, N.Y. To have a meal at Fish & Game, which Zak Pelaccio opened after becoming disillusioned with his popular New York restaurants, Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue, is to feel a bit like you’ve walked onto a movie set. The interior of the former blacksmith shop is resplendently appointed, from the custom-built furniture to the tasteful taxidermy, and the cocktails are mixed with a New Orleans level of theatricality. And yet it’s not all for show: The roaring fireplace doubles as a rotisserie and the food tends to be as delicious as it is beautiful — aged duck breast with crackly charred skin; thick slabs of grainy porridge bread with cultured butter — and, except for seafood, hyper-local. In the antique-shopping mecca of Hudson, just a two-hour drive from Manhattan, Fish & Game has company in other city-worthy upstarts: The restaurant Crimson Sparrow, from a pair of former WD-50 chefs, is blocks away, as is the coyly retro Rivertown Lodge, located in a 1920s movie theater and designed by the same studio as Williamsburg’s Wythe Hotel. fishandgamehudson.com.
HIGH DRAMA Left: Fish & Game in Hudson, N.Y., located in a former blacksmith shop. Above: the restaurant’s Normandy duck atop a bed of herbs.
THE WHITE HART INN, SALISBURY, CONN. PICTURE PERFECT Annie Wayte, the chef at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, Conn., at a local farm. Right: her apple fritters with salted caramel ice cream.
At first glance, the town of Salisbury, two and a half hours by car from New York, seems merely to embody Connecticut clichés: Its tiny, quiet center is both impeccably manicured and impeccably preppy (there are two boarding schools nearby). But the area is also surprisingly rural and activity-rich, with easy access to the Appalachian Trail and hiking paths in the Berkshires. For the English-born chef Annie Wayte, who made her name running the kitchens of the fashion designer Nicole Farhi’s acclaimed London and New York restaurants, Nicole’s and 202, cooking at the town’s 19th-century White Hart Inn feels like something of a homecoming: One of the farms from which she used to source ingredients is just a short drive away. In the elegantly spare dining room, she serves dishes like spaghetti squash bathed in rich broth and capped with a confit egg yolk, and roasted scallops atop beets and al dente kernels of freekeh. Afterward, guests can retire to the taproom for mulled cider, or walk upstairs to one of the inn’s 16 spacious rooms. whitehartinn.com. January-February 2016
21
Lookout By the Numbers
The Ritz Hotel, Paris In its 117 years, the Ritz Paris has been more than a backdrop to world events — it has figured grandly into them. Its gossip-filled lobby was Marcel Proust’s inspiration; its cocktail bar a hub for French resistance during the Nazi occupation; its foyer a paparazzi magnet that Princess Diana traversed before her deadly car ride. But while the fabled luxury hotel on Place Vendôme has always been an independent icon, its decaying standards told another story. In 2011, the French tourism ministry humiliatingly left the Ritz off its list of ‘‘palaces’’ (a classification for five-star hotels of special character), compelling the hotel’s owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed, to upgrade. Now, after three years and an estimated $227 million renovation by the architect Thierry Despont, the 142-room Ritz is ready to reopen — complete with upgraded suites, a spacious new fitness center and, unsurprisingly, an untouched Bar Hemingway. A recognition, perhaps, that while time and technology march on, history is one luxury that can never be replaced.— EDNA ISHAYIK
1. American 2. British 3. Swiss 4. Brazilian 5. Japanese
LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY THE STAFF
(including Gaelic, Tagalog and Luxembourgish)
$1,490 Price of a cocktail, the Ritz Sidecar, made from Champagne from 1850 and cognac hidden from the Nazis during the occupation
$1,200
1
Ritz beers Marcel Proust requested from his deathbed in 1922 (He died shortly after taking a sip.)
1.25
17
(It had both.)
Avg. number of cocktails Colin Field, the Ritz’s head bartender, invents each night
$30 million
Amount Mohamed Al-Fayed paid for the Ritz in 1979
2:1
$1 million
RATIO OF EMPLOYEES TO GUESTS
Cost per room to update the hotel in the early ’80s
1
‘‘Who wants an immovable washing basin in one’s room? I do not. Hide the thing. I prefer to ring for water when I need it.’’ — Oscar Wilde, on the hotel’s modern amenities
(There were 159 rooms at the time.)
$1.8 million Auction price of
Future dictators who worked at the Ritz
128 feet Length of the new
45
Years Claude Auzello, the longtime general manager, worked at the Ritz until his death in 1969 22
0
Number of hotels in the world that had en-suite bathrooms and phones before the Ritz opened in 1898
MILES OF ELECTRICAL CABLE IN EACH ROOM
tunnel connecting the hotel to the parking garage, so high-profile guests can avoid the paparazzi
1. Imperial Suite, Ritz Paris (below) - $31,603 2. Royal Suite, Plaza Athénée - $29,990 3. A tie between the Apartment Coco Chanel, Ritz Paris and the Peninsula Suite, the Peninsula - $28,217
(He shot himself and his wife when he learned he would be fired.)
3
Audrey Hepburn films in which the Ritz appears ‘‘Funny Face’’ ‘‘Love in the Afternoon’’ ‘‘How to Steal a Million’’
(Ho Chi Minh, circa 1919, in the kitchen)
950
HOURS ARTISTS EMPLOYED BY THE FABRIC HOUSE PIERRE FREY SPENT DRAWING TO DESIGN THE HOTEL’S NEW CUSTOM FABRICS AND CARPETS
37
‘‘Le Sacrifice de Polyxène,’’ which hung in Chanel’s suite for decades before it was discovered to be by the acclaimed 17th-century painter Charles Le Brun
Years Coco Chanel lived at the Ritz (UNTIL HER DEATH IN 1971)
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: RITZ PARIS (2); ©BETTMANN/CORBIS; ROGER SCHALL, 1937; ©AF ARCHIVE/ALAMY; RITZ PARIS
28
Avg. amount luxury hotels spend on bathroom products per room each month
Paris’s most expensive rooms, per night:
Most frequent guests, by nationality:
Lookout
On Beauty
A Robust Red Perfectly matte crimson lips are more than just alluring. They’re an event.
FROM TOP: SCHOHAJA; MARKO METZINGER (5)
BY CHRISTINE SMALLWOOD
IN MAY 1969, Claes Oldenburg and a group of students, faculty and alumni mounted a towering tube of red lipstick on a tank on the grounds of Yale University. ‘‘Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks’’ was a protest against the Vietnam War and a joke about American consumer culture — as well as an advance guard for Yale College’s first female students, who arrived on campus the next semester. Most women weren’t wearing heavy makeup in 1969, but Oldenburg wasn’t aiming for social realism. Red lipstick is symbolic of symbols. It’s what you put on when you want to make a statement. Foundation, tinted moisturizer and nude eyeshadow pretend not to be there, but red lipstick is gloriously confrontational. It’s enhanced reality — a power move and a power color, the choice of femmes fatales and vampires. It can be wintry and festive or iconic and glamorous. Red lipstick is Viola Davis collecting her Emmy. It’s Uma Thurman in ‘‘Pulp Fiction’’ and a diabolical Gene Tierney rowing on the lake at the end of ‘‘Leave Her to Heaven.’’ It’s Debbie Harry. It’s Ursula the Sea Witch.
Red lipstick requires no special skills, makeup wizardry or agonizing YouTube tutorials. It’s more of a concept than a technique. There were many shades on the runways for spring; the models at Céline wore warm, electric hues with hints of orange, while at Oscar de la Renta the color was a rich, deep rose. What made the look at Jason Wu contemporary was the simplicity (only the most necessary concealer, no lip liner) and the texture: matte and velvety as petals, created by applying lipstick first, then patting a pigment powder on top. At Céline, models wore subtle eyeliner as a sophisticated complement, but I like red lips all on their own: tender, and a little bit shocking. Wearing red lipstick on a naked face is almost like projecting a second set of lips out in front of your real ones; they’re slightly bulging and imperfect, as if they can’t help but ooze out of the lines. For an easy way to create that generous shape, use a wand and a liquid gloss that dries without shine. If it looks too goopy, smooth it out with a finger. And remember, everyone will be looking at your mouth. I hope you have something to say. SCARLET FEVER Top: a model at the Oscar de la Renta spring 2016 show. From left: for color that goes on easily but still dries without glossiness, Maybelline New York Color Sensational Vivid Matte Liquid in Rebel Red and MAC Cosmetics Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolor in Feels So Grand; for clear definition, NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Mysterious Red; for rich texture, Christian Louboutin Velvet Matte Lip Color in Rouge; for a luxurious, opaque effect, Make Up For Ever Pure Pigments #6 Bright Red.
January-February 2016
23
Lookout
Take Two
Michael Moore
Peaches
Oscar-winning documentarian, whistleblowing writer and sworn enemy of Stupid White Men everywhere, whose satirical new film, ‘‘Where to Invade Next,’’ teaches America how to co-opt good ideas from other countries.
Raunch-tastic electronic musician, opera-singing performance artist and gender-norm wrecking ball whose sixth studio album, ‘‘Rub,’’ was released this fall to much acclaim (and much more blushing).
Bread Purse
I think we’d all be better off if women could eat carbs without guilt, rather than wearing them. Is this actually a thing? What’s the male equivalent? A Krispy Kreme donut?
The Manoosheh clutch, made to look like Lebanese flatbread (QR85, sarahsbag.com).
Boozy Toothpicks
I’ve never had bourbon — but from the taste of these, it’s interesting. Maybe they’re a gateway. Open up Page Six in a few months, and I’ll just be coming out of rehab. It’s like dental care for douchebags.
Soaked in bourbon or single-malt Scotch (QR36 a pack, daneson. com).
I once paid Lil Bub $900 to come to my theater in Michigan for a cat-video film festival. She packed the house. People may laugh at this, but this cat has lifted a lot of people out of their despair, and don’t we need more of that these days?
Cat Music
Despite the government’s best efforts to ban it, this puzzle proves the need for synthetic marijuana. You would have to be so stoned to want to tackle this, at which point it could make for a very interesting evening. Or month.
24
Self-Heating Mug Which also has cooling capabilities that can be controlled via an app (QR129, embertech.com).
Gradient Puzzle By the artist Bryce Wilner (QR18, areaware.com).
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
They taste like your drunken uncle trying to give you a sloppy kiss goodbye. I’m a huge fan of single-malt Scotch, but I’d rather drink it than suck on one of these.
This is a very talented cat. I tried to teach mine how to scratch like a D.J. but I found it difficult to control her movements.
‘‘Science & Magic,’’ the debut album by the Internet-famous feline Lil Bub (QR18, lilbub.com).
I’m all for making life easier, but as much as I use new things like this, I’ve gone retro in other ways. I’ve stopped having my phone in the bedroom, and I’m sleeping better, which is a nice trade-off for missing an email at 3 a.m.
I’m obsessed with food clothing. I have a pepperoni onesie, a banana bag and hot dog necklaces, so this is right up my alley. I’m glad they’re getting a little more sophisticated. Maybe a tabouleh dress next?
It’s too heavy. And it’s like, why don’t you just drink your coffee and go on with life? Coffee is one of the simpler things. You’re supposed to put your phone down and enjoy it.
This is an arty nightmare. I’m a minimalist with some things, but not with a puzzle. I think I need to sit down with a cold coffee and the Lil Bub album for the next 10 hours and try to figure this out.
MOORE: © SETH KUSHNER/RETNA LTD./RETNA LTD./CORBIS. PEACHES: PIER MARCO TACCA/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES. FROM TOP: SARAH’S BAG TEAM; SI HOANG; COURTESY OF LIL BUB; COURTESY EMBER TECHNOLOGIES; AREAWARE
A dual review of what’s new
Lookout Qatar
Food Matters
Grandma’s Saltimbocca Almost a century after Mama Panella opened Antica Pesa in the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere, the family’s fourth generation restaurateur has brought the now international brand to Doha.
IMAGE COURTESY ANTICA PESA, DOHA
BY AYSWARYA MURTHY
Even before we met Francesco Panella, we knew Francesco Panella. The first sight that greets any diner dropping in at Antica Pesa Doha is an imposing wall of photographs featuring the absolute glitterati of the movie, sports and music worlds. From Tom Hanks to Mick Jagger or Quentin Tarantino to Mike Tyson and everyone in between, Antica Pesa di Roma seems to have hosted them all, evidenced by the dozens of pictures featuring said celebrity with Francesco, sometimes joined by his brother, chef Simone Panella. Even the Doha restaurant, barely a few months old, hosted World No. 1 Novak Djokovic more than once while he was here for the Qatar Open. Happily, it coincided with Francesco’s visit to Doha. So what is it about the restaurant that has turned it into a sort of Cannes after-party annex? For generations, the family has run the restaurant a certain way - authentic and personal. “We prefer to be at the table, interacting with the guests, talking about the food,” explains Panella. Every generation that took over was required to plan the future of the restaurant and get the family’s consent to go ahead with it. “My father wanted to make the brand international within Rome. I wanted to do something different and take the brand outside the country,” he says. And so it unfolded. Antica Pesa made it out of Rome close to 90 years after they served their first spaghetti cacio e pepe and opened their first international restaurant in Brooklyn, New York in 2012. “You know about the Italians,” Panella jokes about their lost gestation period, “they’d rather stay home with their mothers, eating her wonderful food and not worrying about the world outside.” However, considering Antica Pesa Doha is his second international restaurant in as many years, Panella was clearly not the one to stay home. Once they had managed to make a name for themselves in New York, he was eager for a new challenge and Doha apparently was the first choice. “I find a lot of my values reflected in the city and I miss it when I am not here,” he says, explaining his connection with Doha. “The first watch I got from my father was a Patek Philippe, Doha edition. I grew up seeing that on my hand day after day. I knew one day I would open a restaurant here.” And when he got the offer to team up with the powerful Al Fardan family to bring Antica Pesa to Qatar, he jumped on it after just one second, he says. “I told them, I’ll come tomorrow. I wanted to do it right away. I always feel amazing when I am here. The people are so good, so passionate about food and they give us so much more than we give them. For me, Antica Pesa Doha is a valuable, personal success.” While the interiors are similar to the Antica Pesa di Roma, it was impossible to replicate the charm and character of the 15th century building in Italy. But the Doha branch appeals to Panella’s artistic sensibilities. “I am particularly proud of the lounge which is unique to our Doha restaurant.” His sojourn in Doha sparked Panella’s interest in falconry. “When I discovered that it was a sport here and part of their heritage, I started loving Doha more. I am in the middle of buying a falcon, the negotiations are ongoing,” he says. “Of course, I am going to call it Antica Pesa.”
FINE ITALIAN CUISINE Clockwise from top: Outdoor seating at Antica Pesa Doha lounge; Francesco Panella (right) and his brother, Simone; interiors of the lounge; the wall of fame.
January-February 2016
25
Lookout Qatar
Market Watch
Lucky 13 BY DEBRINA ALIYAH
26
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: RICHARD MILLE; DAVID WEBB; MESSIKA JOAILLERIE; BREMONT; ROLEX; FRANCK MULLER
The Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition enters its thirteenth brilliant year and we commemorate with thirteen of our luckiest charms.
Clockwise from top left: Pioneer center watch, H. Moser & Cie. Millefleurs du Mexique watch, Hermes. Lady Taj ring, Pasquale Bruni. Hortensia earrings, Chaumet. Boyfriend watch, Chanel. Quatre ring, Boucheron. Icon watch, Graff.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: H. MOSER & CIE; HERMES; PASQUALE BRUNI; CHAUMET; CHANEL; BOUCHERON; GRAFF
Opposite: Clockwise from top left: RM 50-02 watch, Richard Mille. Bracelet, David Webb. Rose diamond ring, Messika Joaillerie. Wright Flyer, Bremont. Yacht master, Rolex. Heart watch, Franck Muller.
January-February 2016
27
Lookout Qatar
GRANDOISE PLANS Clockwise from top left: the facade of St Regis Dubai; perfume creator Carlos Huber; and the grand stairway in the lounge of the hotel.
On Perfumes
The Scent of a Hotel Why luxury hospitality needs to be celebrating art and smell distinctive. BY SINDHU NAIR
OF ALL THE SENSES, the sense of smell is the most underrated. But the newly opened St Regis Dubai took the path less traveled and decided to celebrate their new setting through the sense of smell. A bold move one would reckon, but why not when the art of perfumery is an applied art like sculpture, music and painting? Scent critic Chandler Burr is of the opinion that a luxury setting is lacking if the olfactory senses are not given their due. “The frozen sensory void, the tragic absence of any thought given to scent design, is what you encounter in almost all hotels,” says Burr. “It's astounding that 99 percent of the hospitality industry, of all industries, still doesn't understand that pouring resources into visual design and audio
28
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
design and doing nothing for olfactory design is irrational. It's the equivalent of a restaurant putting all the attention into the décor and silverware and none into the food. As a species, we are not meant to exist in a scent void. Entering The St. Regis Dubai now means entering a hotel where attention to luxury is complete,” says Burr. St. Regis Hotels & Resorts Dubai, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and owned by Al Habtoor Group, debuted their brand with the opening of this hotel that introduced eight exceptional culinary venues, the first Iridium Spa in Dubai, a fleet of Bentleys, as well as the first Bentley Suite in the Middle East, which is yet to open. While living in the Middle East makes you immune to grandiose interiors and ostentatious regalia, The St. Regis Dubai doesn’t disappoint your senses: a dazzling chandelier comprising 1,200 pieces of hand-cut crystals illuminates the majestic grand staircase of the hotel, while beautiful artwork adorns nooks and corners of the French-inspired architecture. The St. Regis’ commitment to art and design is brought to life with outstanding artwork throughout the hotel, including a vintage Bentley-inspired mural in the St. Regis Bar − an intense real-life representation of the owner of the Al Habtoor Group on horseback −brought to life by a local Emirati artist. But while the beauty of your surroundings creates an aura of luxury, there is one more sense that elevates you to a dream sequence of your choice. And Caroline’s Four Hundred, the brand’s first-ever bespoke scent created by Carlos Huber, a self-proclaimed “history geek,” who attributes his love for scents to his upbringing in Mexico City, pushes you into a garden of sensory delights. “Some people think of history as basking in nostalgia. For me it’s more about understanding where we come from, and where we might end up,” says Huber, scent designer and the founder of Arquiste. “Scent has the rare
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF ST. REGIS DUBAI
THE ODOUR OF THINGS Clockwise from top left: A sevencourse scent-inspired dinner for invited guests as each of the elements of Caroline's Four Hundred was celebrated through a dish created by Chef Stephane Buchholzer, culinary director of Al Habtoor City; the main painting by Roberto Rad that reflects the natural elements of the UAE: the desert, the bedouin on an Arabian horse with a falcon and Saluki dogs; Chandler Burr introducing respective perfumes that inspired each of the gastronomic creations; the final Caroline's Four Hundred; and Iridium Spa interiors.
ability to transport us to another time and place in the most intimate way,” he says. “It has been an honor working with St. Regis to capture the brand’s rich history and its modern sophistication in one olfactory experience.” For Burr, there is nothing novel about the collaboration of scents and hotels. “Hotels and perfume houses have worked together for decades to create distinct sensory experiences for guests,” says Burr. What piques his interest is how Huber has pieced together the history of the brand to include the founding Astor family when creating the scent. “Huber is an architect specializing in historic preservation, and I find it fascinating that he has captured the history of The St. Regis − a young United States, the St Regis founding Astor family – in Caroline’s Four Hundred signature scent,” says Burr. He applies a deep intellectual curiosity to all of his works, and he did the same here, which is a novel approach. No other hotel has chosen an architect and historic preservationist to summon in olfactory dimension to their historical form − in this case the history of Caroline Astor’s complex era and her luxurious and extraordinary life. This is not the first hotel olfactory collaboration for Burr, who has worked on signature scent collaborations for the Park Hyatt Chicago. “I feel that the scents and aromas enrich the guest experience to make a hotel
stay more memorable,” he says. For Huber what is significant is the story-telling process, something that Arquiste, a young, luxury, niche brand specializes in. “It means that for The St. Regis, Caroline’s Four Hundred is much more than just a scent: there’s a story behind it, a collaboration, and above all, the exaltation of an experience,” says Huber. “In the world of perfume we always talk about a scent ‘having a signature’. A scent must have this distinctive, unique, but recognizable character that announces itself, it should stand out and become unique in your mind. Scent has the rare ability to transport us to another time and place in the most intimate way.” “For a hotel brand to consider 'scenting’ its public spaces is not necessarily a first. But it is significant that with Caroline’s Four Hundred, St. Regis has decided to create one signature scent across all St Regis Hotels and Resorts in order to makes guests feel at home - wherever in the world he or she may be,” Huber says. But it’s the collaboration of all the senses that makes hotels special; the smile on the doorman’s face, the huge space of welcome cheer and the few touches of personalization that make us want to go back to these spaces, not just the perceived sensory explosion. “I’ve always loved seeing a big bouquet of flowers when you walk in, an elegant arrangement that brings the most beautiful aspects of nature in. There’s nothing more beautiful to me than that connection to nature. In unison with a friendly smile, a warm welcome, those delicate gestures really create the best mix of hospitality,” agrees Huber.
January-February 2016
29
Lookout Qatar
Artist in Profile
Between Strokes Qatari-American artist Sophia Al Maria sheds light on social issues affecting the world and particularly the GCC.
art industry in the Gulf. “My main squeeze at the moment is the Whitney show,” says Al Maria, referring to her upcoming exhibition in the summer of 2016 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The exhibit essentially institutionalizes shopping malls and examines how individuals and societies interact and also touches on the aspect of global consumerism. Most of the filming for the exhibit has taken place in Doha. While much of her work refers to the presence of consumerism in the GCC, Al Maria points out that it is a global pandemic, making reference to its presence in other developing nations,
IMAGES COURTESY SOPHIA AL MARIA, THE THIRD GALLERY
BY SARA ZUBAIR PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE LAZAR
SOPHIA AL MARIA, artist, writer and filmmaker, welcomed us into her studio in the east London neighborhood of Shoreditch. Her calm nature starkly juxtaposes her vivid and thought-provoking art. Al Maria’s work has sparked conversations on social and environmental matters. Her sense of responsibility as a global citizen is present in everything she touches. With dozens of artistic projects under her belt, including her novel, “The Girl Who Fell To Earth”, the 30-something Qatari-American artist boasts an impressive CV. We sit down to talk about her recent projects and her connection and contribution to the growing
30
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
the oil and gas industry. The publication could not have picked a better editor for this issue as Al Maria has explored the topic extensively in her work; and even coined the term, Gulf Futurism, referring to the rapid development and consumerism phenomena which has occurred in the Gulf states. Al Maria’s filmmaking project, “Beretta”, a revenge thriller centered on sexual harassment of women in Cairo was halted after two year’s of production, due to legal concerns surrounding its similarity to the 1980’s Egyptian film, “Ms. 45” by filmmaker Abel Ferrara. In September 2014, Al Maria truly underpinned her commitment to her artistry when she transformed “Beretta” into “Virgin with a Memory” , an art exhibit at Manchester's Cornerhouse (center for cinema and the contemporary arts). “Virgin with a Memory” paid homage to the Beretta project by exposing the artistic process of the film’s production. “When you have a vision that is much larger than you can achieve yourself, it becomes a really harrowing process. I had to deal with it somehow and making art seemed like the best way,” says Al Maria.
“Corporations are incredibly dangerous and are not listening to people,” says Al Maria. ON DISPLAY Clockwise from opposite page: Sophia Al Maria in her home/work space in east London where she currently works as a screenwriter; she houses most of her artiatic projects in her workliving quarter; exhibits from The Third Line gallery: The Watchers, video installation and one of her project exhibited at Frieze Project 2014.
such as Nigeria and China. “It’s a symptom of money,” she says. While her work continues to express this global issue, it’s not all dreary. Al Maria sees materialism as impermanent. “There comes a point when you realize that it’s empty and there is no meaning behind it. When people start waking up to the idea of meaning or finding some kind of meaning, instead of amassing material wealth, then usually that can only be a good thing,” says Al Maria. Her conscious humbleness is echoed throughout our conversation, she takes little credit for her consistent commitment and dedication to shedding light on social issues affecting the world and particularly the GCC. When asked what she sees for the future of the GCC, Al Maria cautions that she cannot predict the future. She is dubious of conversations regarding the future of the GCC given recent environmental studies that suggest that states such as Qatar may be uninhabitable in the summer months by 2050. While Al Maria agrees that more artists and young people are joining the conversation about the future of the Gulf, she hopes that the conversation will be geared towards the “right people”. “Corporations are incredibly dangerous and are not listening to people,” Al Maria says. Al Maria is currently preparing for the upcoming launch of the annual experimental art writing publication, “The Happy Hypocrite: Fresh Hell” – issue 8 that she is guest-editing. The “Fresh Hell” issue explores obscure artistic expressions of the detrimental effects of the world’s dependence on
Production for the Beretta project is still in the pipeline for her, just under different circumstances and timings, she thoughtfully says, “I just need to deflect some of the evil eye that was on it.” Al Maria has managed to create space for her expression of culturally sensitive topics and gain acceptance in Qatar, which she credits to her humorous satirical approach. “I think its important to push the envelope and sometimes to do that you have to go in blind and not think of what people will think about,” she says. While her work paints reflections of varying societal and global shortcomings. Al Maria is very much aware and respectful of cultural norms, which she believes do not impede her work. She has no interest in scandals or going against individual conservatism, as it simply does not serve her art. “I have no desire to expose my body or expose faces of women who do not wish to expose their faces,” she says. Although Al Maria has called London home for the past several years, she is still very much connected to the art industry in the GCC. She fondly recalls her favorite moment of 2015, when she met a group of young GCC artists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “I’m friends with a lot of artists in the GCC and those relationships mean a great deal to me because there is a simpatico, ” she says. Not only is she a part of the industry in the GCC, she is also influenced by fellow Arabic artists. Al Maria’s playlist features Egyptian experimental musician Maurice Louca’s album Idiot and Kuwaiti electronica musician and DJ, Fatima Al Qadiri’s new LP Brute. Al Maria was born in Tacoma, Washington, to an American mother and Qatari father; her childhood spent between both countries. She studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo before gaining a Master of Fine Arts in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College. She has used various art forms including imagery, installations, filmmaking, novels and essays throughout her career. She recognizes that her creative process is very fluid, but admits that her work always begins with words. Her work has been displayed across Europe, North America and Asia. The Arabic version of her memoir, “The Girl Who Fell to Earth”, was recently released under the title “Between the Earth and the Sky” (B’ain al Ard w’al Sama).
January-February 2016
31
Lookout Qatar
On Design
The Creator and His Creation Richard Mille might not be a heritage watch brand but the eponymous creator has strategies to remain the most coveted brand of the century through pricing, limited editions, material innovation and technology. BY SINDHU NAIR
THE MAN AND THE BRAND Clockwise from top left: Richard Mille at the opening of the new boutique in Doha; the boutique designed by Mélaine TretonMonceyron plays on multiple variations of shape, material and color.
32
RICHARD MILLE, the watch, begs time to get attuned to its new age features. For eyes accustomed to traditional watch designs, the complex face of the watch looks more like a technologically advanced machinery than a wrist accessory. The next shocker is the price: the Richard Mille watch is known as the “secret billionaire’s handshake.” The brand is largely known among billionaires and watch aficionados in the Middle East who can afford them. And this beseeches the question: why are Richard Mille watches so expensive? In 2014, Mille had taken prices, and watchmaking, to a new extreme with his $2.02 million price tag watch, the RM 56-02. But to understand why his watches are so expensive we also need to digest the fact that all 10 of the RM 56-02 Sapphire Tourbillon watches he made were already booked before the watches were out in the market. The RM 56-02 is based on the RM 27-01, the model made for tennis star Rafael Nadal, with all its science-defying properties that make Mille watches such a price catch. While this answers in part why the watches are so expensive, there are various features that contribute to its cost. Richard Mille, the personality behind the watch, doesn't need much time to befriend. He is warm, friendly and he explains the
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
innovations that make his watches capture the market, when history in watchmaking had always been the baseline for watch aficionados to flock to heritage brands like Patek Phillipe. “Richard Mille is a modern contemporary brand, it was not born in the 19th century,” says Mille. “It is a brand that adds a lot of substance, life and artistic value to the watch business. There is nothing artificial in it.” “I took it from the battlefield and not from the laps of history,” claims Mille adding that brands with history to fall back on tend to be “pillows of laziness since they do not work on their product and depend on the name to do all the hard work.” Mille has a new strategy for his watches, he brings out more innovations every year but in limited numbers. “I cannot refrain myself, honestly,” says Mille. “If I have a good idea I will not be constrained by the concept of one model every year, I need to keep innovating.” At the same time, Mille believes that “A niche brand must make itself scarce: in order to maintain this rarity and increase volumes at the same time, so Richard Mille is banking on even shorter series and a bigger collection. The aim is to extend the collection with products that cover the entire spectrum. By decreasing volume per model while increasing the number of references, I increase overall volume and maintain rarity at the same time.” The problem with the watch industry, according to Mille, is that watch brands seem to be obsessed with numbers, creating volumes. “In the 15 years since we started we must have made close to 25,000
SPORTS BRANDING Clockwise from top left: Rafael Nadal with Adel Ali Bin Ali, one of the owners of Ali Bin Ali Watches and Jewellery, dealers of the watch in Qatar; the RM 07-02 Pink Lady Sapphire, the first full sapphire-cased piece for women from Richard Mille; and Nadal sporting the RM 27-02 on court.
watches. And people keep the watches and they know that this represents a new era in watch history. The brand that is very selective and controls its volume without being commercial remain exclusive.” “People are waiting for Richard Mille watches and we never have enough,”laughs Mille. “To me this corresponds to high luxury. The magic wand is to control the volumes.” This is why even in times of economic downturn, the brand does not face any crisis, even in Asia. “I have always been bringing you innovation, new concepts, because from the beginning I was convinced that I need a watch that is open to the world of sports, of business, women, and racing cars. There are many ways of developing and creating: it can be through new materials, through new lifestyle concepts.” “At the end, the watches constitute what I like. In the end I make myself happy. It also corresponds to my vision of high luxury,” Mille explains. The innovations that Mille constantly keeps mentioning are many in his creation. The first is the case, the tonneau-shaped (barrel) case with which Mille established himself. From the outset, when there were only three metals used in case manufacture − white gold, red gold and titanium − the sandwichstyle Richard Mille watch case was and still is one of the most expensive and difficult to manufacture. Comprised of three decks − front and back bezels, as well as the middle section − each component is curved. There are no flat surfaces to make machining easier and what’s more, the three curved surfaces have to fit together to within one hundredth of a millimeter to stop moisture or dust from entering. The second element is that Mille has started to use case and baseplate materials that are normally used in such realms as Formula 1 cars, aerospace and racing yachts. The materials used are leading-edge technology − even in the industries outside of watchmaking. Not only is the metal or material new in terms of composition, the ability to use them in watchmaking is unknown. Mille dedicates years − and invests millions of Swiss francs − to understanding the material and how to incorporate it in his watches. Richard Mille can be regarded as one of the big 21st century success stories in haute horology. The brand is said to be highly innovative not just in terms of product development but also in marketing. With affiliations with big names in the tennis, Formula 1 and boxing sports, they took sports marketing to a new level by not simply putting a name on a shirt but involving the players in the development of the products. A Richard Mille can now be seen worn by Rafael Nadal when he smashes on center court.
A recent ladies watch from Mille, tries to make all these innovation appear more attractive through its embellishments. Crafted from sections of pink sapphire taken from a single block, the case of the RM 07-02 is extremely difficult to machine. “Observing the manufacturing process of a pink sapphire case highlights the challenge its creation entails, from both an engineering and technical standpoint. There is no room for even a single cutting error. The case requires almost 40 days of machining and finishing to meet the uncompromising specifications laid out,” says Mille, the creator. Beneath its pink exterior, this original and ergonomic tripartite case reveals a unique automatic movement beating at its heart. The new in-house CRMA5 caliber is assembled around a skeletonized plate in microblasted 5N gold set with diamonds. The same 5N gold is used for the flange and the bridges, whose hand-chamfered and hand-drawn angles and edges capture even more light at the heart of the caliber. Like the RM collection, the RM 07-02 features exceptional technical characteristics such as hand-decorated and gem-set gold bridges, a variable inertia balance wheel designed to ensure optimum performance in the long term, and a variable geometry rotor in 18K 5N red gold set, with diamonds, which adapts the winding of the watch to the movements of the wearer. The RM 07-02, which was unveiled at the first Richard Mille boutique in Qatar, features a free sprung balance with variable inertia, said to be the ultimate in innovation. “It guarantees greater reliability when subjected to shocks and also during movement assembly and disassembly, hence better chronometric results over time. The regulator index is eliminated and a more accurate and repeatable adjustment is possible thanks to four small adjustable weights located directly on the balance,” Mille says. “The first time I came to Qatar was in 1973, when I was a student doing my training with Nestle,” says Mille. “I worked with the same partners, with whom I have excellent relationships now,” he says speaking about Ali Bin Ali, the Richard Mille dealers. The first boutique in Doha, Qatar opened in December 2015 in partnership with Ali Bin Ali Watches & Jewelry and is located in The Pearl-Qatar. It was the same showroom that Rafael Nadel visited when he was in Doha for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2016. Should we mention that Nadal was wearing the RM 27-02 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, which is limited to 50 pieces, when he hit the courts?
January-February 2016
33
Lookout Qatar
While luxury stands for things that cannot be qualified, what Al Bidaa Swords and Gifts has to offer constitutes luxury in the purest sense. A brand that is entrenched in the history of the land, it was established with the sole purpose of producing authentic Arabic artifacts and of collecting swords and artifacts of historical value and working diligently to produce the finest Arabic swords. The creators qualify themselves as the only company in the sword domain to achieve ISO 9001 certification in 2015. This particular sword featured is a special edition sword with a certificate of proof of its authenticity. This piece of art contains 1,200 pieces of Swarovski, and the blade is of pure silver, while the cover is gold-plated and the handle is made from the finest of Cambodian wood (Oud). Even the tassels are made of golden strings from Italy. These swords are usually bought by collectors and rulers who want to gift visiting dignitaries to commemorate historic events. Available at Lagoona Mall.
34
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
IMAGE COURTESY AL BIDAA SWORDS AND GIFTS
The Thing
Runway Report
Fancy Pants
Subvert the standard cocktail dress with elegant trousers and festive accompaniments. PHOTOGRAPHS BY COCO CAPITĂ N STYLED BY MALINA JOSEPH GILCHRIST
Prada coat, QR28,600, prada.com. Gucci shirt, QR4,200, gucci.com. Ellery pants,QR3,600, elleryland.com. Louis Vuitton sandals (worn throughout), about QR3,585, louisvuitton.com.
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
January-February 2016
35
Quality
Runway Report
Above: Louis Vuitton blouse, about QR18,675, and pants, QR5,460. Right: J. W. Anderson blouse, QR2,720, and pants, QR3,000. Eres bra, QR1,000, net-a-porter.com.
36
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
MODEL: CARLY MOORE AT THE SOCIETY. HAIR BY BRAYDON NELSON AT JULIAN WATSON AGENCY USING BUMBLE AND BUMBLE. MAKEUP BY KATIE MELLINGER USING CHANEL LES BEIGES. SET DESIGN BY +EMERGENCY ROOM+. CASTING BY ARIANNA PRADARELLI. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: ANTHONY TUDISCO. STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: MALCOLM HALL. HAIR ASSISTANT: ERICKSON ARRUNATEGUI. SHOT AT DUNE STUDIOS
Céline top, QR13,100. Oscar de la Renta bodysuit, QR5,050, net-a-porter.com. Theory pants, QR1,075, theory.com.
January-February 2016
37
Quality
Another Thing From the time chronograph technology started to catch on in the late 1800s until the middle of the 20th century, the venerable Swiss brand Vacheron Constantin produced highly coveted timepieces. But in 1955, it stopped making the wristwatches, which had become too elaborately wonkish to suit changing tastes. Although the company began gingerly reintroducing chronographs in the late 1980s, the final ’50s-era model, the Cornes de Vache, continued to obsess collectors. Only 36 were ever made: 26 in yellow gold, eight in rose gold and two in platinum. Now the company has reinterpreted the design. The Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955, available only in platinum, is, like the original, a sober classic distinguished by its cow-horn-shaped lugs. But a slightly wider face gives the watch a more modern, balanced look and feel. With its raised Roman numerals, midnight-blue alligator strap, sapphire-hued tachometric dial and clear crystal back, it makes keeping track of time an immeasurable pleasure. $69,200, vacheron-constantin.com. — NANCY HASS PHOTOGRAPH BY JOANNA M C CLURE
38
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
Quality
Jewelry
Out of India Intricate compositions of precious stones and carved gold that evoke the splendors of the Mughal Empire. PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEANDRO FARINA STYLED BY JULIET JERNIGAN Clockwise from top: Munnu The Gem Palace spinel and diamond necklace, QR273,000. Oscar Heyman ruby and canary diamond brooch, QR218,400. David Webb ruby and diamond cuff, QR782,000.
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
January-February 2016
39
Quality
Jewelry
Clockwise from top: Amrapali ruby and diamond ear cuff, QR14,200, amrapalijewels.com. Sanjay Kasliwal ruby, diamond and gold bracelet, QR189,280. Arman Sarkisyan sapphire, diamond and oxidized sterling silver ring, QR46,700, modaoperandi.com.
40
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
From left: Van Cleef & Arpels emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond and cultured pearl necklace, QR309,500, vancleefarpels.com. Cartier diamond ring, price on request, cartier.us. David Webb emerald, diamond and black enamel bracelet, QR82,600.
January-February 2016
41
Jewelry
DIGITAL TECH: DEVIN DOYLE. PHOTO ASSISTANTS: PATRICK LYN AND VADIM KRIJANOWSKY. SET ASSISTANT: ROB MCLEISH
Quality
From top: vintage Belperron aquamarine, ruby and gold cuff, price on request. Munnu The Gem Palace gold, ruby and diamond ring, QR107,380.
42
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL RRICES ARE INDICATIVE
Arts and Letters
Writing Hollywood Screenwriters have been habitually overlooked by critics and a moviegoing public that hallows directors and A-list actors. But the glory of great films is, in no small part, great writing. Six who left their mark on the big screen this year.
AARON SORKIN ‘Steve Jobs’ FEW SCREENWRITERS ACHIEVE
even modest fame; fewer still become household names. Aaron Sorkin is an even more unusual case: a screenwriter whose renown and influence have altered language itself, giving birth to an adjective (‘‘Sorkinesque’’) and a verb (‘‘Sorkinize’’). And, of course, there is Sorkin, the Genre. Everyone in Hollywood knows what an ‘‘Aaron Sorkin project’’ denotes: a TV show or film that combines old-fashioned craftsmanship and up-to-date settings, along with fusillades of feisty dialogue delivered by quintessential contemporary types — newsmen, politicians, techies. From ‘‘The West Wing’’ to ‘‘Moneyball’’ to ‘‘The Social Network,’’ Sorkin specializes in heroic weird savants and in stories that find gripping drama in characters most comfortable staring at a laptop. This year brought ‘‘Steve Jobs,’’ a deliciously Sorkinized take on the ultimate geek demigod, based on the biography by Walter Isaacson and directed by Danny Boyle. ‘‘Certain types of genius can be hard to dramatize,’’ Sorkin concedes. ‘‘Coding, much to my disappointment, doesn’t really look like anything on screen. It just looks like people typing.’’ The key, he says, is ‘‘to make wonky scenes look and feel and sound like bank robberies and prison breaks.’’ Sorkin gives credit for that feat to his colleagues. ‘‘I love what happens when you write something that draws on the combined talents of a great director, great actors, great designers, great technicians,’’ he says. ‘‘I like team sports better than individual sports; I like bands better than solo acts. This is why I write screenplays, not novellas.’’
GROOMING BY LOUISE MOON USING BUMBLE AND BUMBLE. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: RON LOEPP AND AMY LYNNE. LOCATION: FOUR SEASONS HOTEL LOS ANGELES
BY JODY ROSEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY MONICA MAY
Arts and Letters
AMY SCHUMER ‘Trainwreck’ AMY SCHUMER ISN’T REALLY a writer. That’s what she says, at least. ‘‘I haven’t been writing that long at all. I had to get [screenwriting software] Final Draft when my TV show got picked up. It’s all pretty new to me. I mean, I will get better.’’ But for a novice, she’s doing pretty well. ‘‘Inside Amy Schumer’’ is TV’s most subversive, hilarious and, yes, well-written show; its short, sharp comedy sketches wield satire like a shiv, slicing through contemporary politics and pop culture. And of course there’s ‘‘Trainwreck,’’ Schumer’s debut feature-length star vehicle, penned by the woman herself. As pure comedy, ‘‘Trainwreck’’ kills, delivering a nonstop string of gags, with uproarious performances from the leads (Schumer and Bill Hader), and a supporting cast of stalwarts like Colin Quinn and upstarts like LeBron James. The revelation is how well the movie works as straight romantic comedy, centered on the charming, shaggy love story between Schumer’s dissolute party girl and Hader’s nice-guy doctor. But ‘‘Trainwreck’’ has it both ways, hitting all the meet-cute/break-up/make-up beats while sending up the genre, and giving a mischievously feminist spin to all the dusty old rom-com tics and tropes. Credit of course, to the writer: Many of the film’s best moments were in the novice screenwriter’s first draft.
PAOLO SORRENTINO ‘Youth’ ‘‘WHEN I START TO WRITE A MOVIE, my first priority is that I want it to be funny,’’ says the director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino. ‘‘I want to make people laugh. On my way to doing that, I often wind up creating something that is also sad.’’ That deft, slightly surreal blend of tongue-in-cheek and heart-on-sleeve is present in all of Sorrentino’s work, from the mafia thriller ‘‘The Consequences of Love’’ (2004) to ‘‘The Great Beauty,’’ his celebrated 2013 valentine to the gorgeous and maddening Eternal City, Rome. The Neapolitan writer-director’s latest, ‘‘Youth,’’ is perhaps his sharpest and most endearing film to date. It’s the story of two aging friends, Michael Caine’s composer-conductor and Harvey Keitel’s film director, on a retreat in a Swiss spa. Many films have explored this crepuscular territory, but Sorrentino steers clear of lions-in-winter clichés while delivering an affecting and — yes — funny-sad rumination on late life and, well, youth. ‘‘I was interested in exploring how older people feel about the future, instead of the past,’’ he says.
44
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
FOR SCHUMER, HAIR BY KIM GUELDNER. MAKEUP BY ANDRÉA TILLER AT THE WALL GROUP USING NARS AND CHANEL. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: SALLY PETERSON AND SIMON MCDERMOTT-JOHNSON. LOCATION: CHATEAU MARMONT. FOR SORRENTINO, PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: RUPERT PEACE
Arena
ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU ‘The Revenant’
January-February 2016
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: SALLY PETERSON AND SIMON MCDERMOTT-JOHNSON
‘‘RIGHT NOW, I AM IN THE FOURTH or fifth circle of hell,’’ says Alejandro González Iñárritu. He’s joking — sort of. It’s early in the morning in mid-October, and the Oscar-winning Mexican writer-director is already at work, laboring on a tight deadline to put postproduction touches on ‘‘The Revenant,’’ his feverishly awaited revenge thriller based on the novel by Michael Punke. Set in the wilds of the 1820s Dakota frontier, the film, which co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy (and was co-written by Mark L. Smith), tells the story of Hugh Glass, a legendary fur trapper who, in 1823, was mauled by a bear and left for dead by his expedition party. Glass survived the attack, dressed his own wounds and completed an epic six-week, 200-mile crawl to the safe haven of Fort Kiowa, a fur-trading outpost on the banks of the Missouri River. ‘‘Nobody knows much about Hugh Glass beyond the basic outline: He was attacked by a bear and he was abandoned,’’ Iñárritu says. ‘‘The only thing that survives of him is a tiny little note that he wrote to the parents of a trapper that died in battle. There is lots of room for imagining and elaborating.’’ Iñárritu has been one of cinema’s most thrilling imaginers and elaborators for the past 15 years. From his torrid feature debut, ‘‘Amores Perros’’ (2000), to the Best Picture Academy Award-winner ‘‘Birdman,’’ he has pursued an aesthetic that might be boiled down to a single word — more — stuffing his movies to bursting with love, sex, politics, violence, all chronicled with extravagantly swooping cameras. Ultimately, he says, his goal is to enchant an audience into suspending disbelief: ‘‘The duty of art is to make probable the improbable.’’
45
Arena
Arts and Letters
CARY FUKUNAGA ‘Beasts of No Nation’
of film school when he wrote the screenplay for ‘‘Beasts of No Nation,’’ the grim, hallucinatory war film which debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix in October. ‘‘Beasts’’ was one of the first scripts Fukunaga had written, but the hallmarks of the sensibility and style that would make the 38-year-old Bay Area native one of this decade’s most acclaimed American filmmakers were already in place. The story, adapted from Uzodinma Iweala’s novel about aa child soldier in an unnamed West African nation, spoke to Fukunaga’s cosmopolitanism, his heady and wide-ranging interest in the fractious politics of the globalized 21st century. Fukunaga’s screenplay revealed a natural storyteller and a technician — a filmmaker with shrewd instincts about how to bring narratives to vibrant life. The result is one of the most powerful war movies in recent memory, a brutal but ultimately humanist film powered by Fukunaga’s hurtling camera work and fine performances by Idris Elba and the teenage Ghanaian actor Abraham Attah. It’s the latest entry in a filmography of impressive range, from the Mexican migrant thriller ‘‘Sin Nombre’’ (2009) to his stately adaptation of ‘‘Jane Eyre’’ (2011) to his ballyhooed stint as director of the first season of ‘‘True Detective’’ (2014). In all of his work, Fukunaga combines a cinéaste’s command of classic structure with an iconoclast’s compulsion to bend the rules. ‘‘I always like screenplays that subvert the three-act structure,’’ Fukunaga says. ‘‘You can sometimes lose audiences when you do that, but I appreciate new forms of entering the structure. In my experience, it’s usually worth the risk.’’
PHYLLIS NAGY ‘Carol’ PHYLLIS NAGY, THE ACCLAIMED playwright and screenwriter, maintains a bright line between her stage and film endeavors. But her screenplay for ‘‘Carol,’’ the adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s groundbreaking lesbian romance novel ‘‘The Price of Salt’’ (1952), is self-evidently the work of a theatrical pro. Directed by Todd Haynes and co-starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, the taut, suspenseful ‘‘Carol’’ combines the best elements of chamber piece and sumptuous period melodrama. As for the movie’s vaguely sinister undercurrent: That’s pure Highsmith. Nagy relished the challenge of capturing the distinctly creepy and suspenseful atmosphere that hovers like fog over the writer’s novels. Nagy accomplished it, she says, by writing less. ‘‘I tried to maintain that Highsmithian obsessional quality by texturing scenes so that the director and actors are free to work without words. The lack of dialogue, the lack of speechifying — that’s actually how this story gets told.’’
46
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
FOR FUKUNAGA, PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: RON LOEPP AND AMY LYNNE. LOCATION: THE LONDON WEST HOLLYWOOD. FOR NAGY, HAIR AND MAKEUP BY ASHLEY BOURDON USING MAKE UP FOR EVER FOR CELESTINE AGENCY. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: SALLY PETERSON AND SIMON MCDERMOTT-JOHNSON. LOCATION: CHATEAU MARMONT
CARY FUKUNAGA WAS FRESH out
Sub Section
Arena
In Studio
Beauty Amid the Ruins Two young designers find space to create in a family-owned postmodernist monument in Spain. BY NANCY HASS PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANILO SCARPATI
SECOND ACT A display of structured handbags from M2Malletier’s spring 2016 collection in the company’s studio in La Fabrica, a former cement factory outside Barcelona converted by the architect Ricardo Bofill.
AS OSCAR WILDE PROVED, you can fashion loveliness
even from a prison cell. But it’s undoubtedly more pleasant if, like Melissa Losada Bofill, you have an apartment and studio in a postmodern masterpiece crafted by your famed architect father-in-law from the gorgeous detritus of an abandoned cement factory on the outskirts of Barcelona.
‘‘I think I am very much influenced by the environment here,’’ she says, as the afternoon sun bathes her all-white workspace in late autumn light. How could it be otherwise? Losada, 31, and her business partner, Marcela Velez, 29, make structured handbags with distinctive barlike hardware. Sold at Bergdorf Goodman and on Net-A-Porter, M2Malletier’s January-February 2016
47
Arena
In Studio
bags (‘‘malletier’’ is French for luggage maker) clearly are inspired by their place of origin: La Fabrica, the complex that Ricardo Bofill, father of Losada’s husband, Pablo, renovated in the 1970s to house his family and his international architectural practice, Taller de Arquitectura. Known for outsize public works such as Barcelona Airport’s Terminal 1 and hotels, including the Costes K in Paris, Bofill, now 76, is considered among Europe’s seminal postmodernists. The 32,000-square-foot La Fabrica remains perhaps his signature achievement. Had an alien ruler fleeing an uprising on his planet happened to land his spaceship on the grounds of an abandoned factory, this is how he might have configured a castle from the ruins: hangar-size rooms with 30-foot ceilings incorporating the giant spouts out of which once poured concrete, arrays of decorative arched windows, exterior metal staircases — some with no destination — left raw, ivy sprouting from cracks and cascading down from green roofs like spring water. Bofill, only 34 when he bought the derelict site, tore down many of the 30 original
cement silos, but 13 remain in some form, including one that houses his residence and his workspace (Pablo Bofill also works there as the company’s director) as well as the silo where his daughter-in-law and her partner conceptualize their line. Working amid Brutalist grandeur on such a scale, says Losada, ‘‘is inspiring and a bit extraterrestrial.’’ M2Malletier’s corner of La Fabrica is modest — under 1,000 square feet including the airy attached pied à terre with a bedroom that looks out on the olive garden — but it has a Rapunzel-like charm of its own. Billowing ivory floor-to-ceiling curtains create ethereal contrast with the classical arches, and there are pops of unexpected color. Losada, who designs the line while Velez takes care of the business end, sees their work as of a piece with the ambitions of La Fabrica. ‘‘The materials my father-
ARCHITECTURAL PRESENCE Clockwise from top right: the designer Melissa Losada Bofill, at right, and her business partner, Marcela Velez, in their office; the building’s facade, with windows inspired by ancient Roman arches; a minimalist bedroom adjacent to the M2Malletier studio; the Mini Amor Fati bag in pastel pink calf leather.
48
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
NEW HEIGHTS Clockwise from above: the Annabelle in textured gold calfskin; one of La Fabrica’s silos, as seen from the roof; Ricardo Bofill’s dramatic living space, with a staircase leading to the rooftop garden and spa; the ivycovered entrance to the complex’s residential section.
in-law used are actually very simple — just concrete, brass and marble. We were inspired for our hardware by strong, basic things as well — industrial shapes, medical instruments and medieval tools — and we are also very serious about engineering and balance.’’ The everpresent arches that Bofill favors seem to echo in the curves of the bags, which are often made of exotic skins. The partners met in 2007 while they were students at New York’s Parsons School of Design. Coincidentally, both had been born to prosperous families in Colombia. After school, Losada went to Paris for a year; on her first night there, at a party, she met Pablo. Velez had begun to work in New York for a Spanish fashion brand, but both of the women dreamed of starting their own company. Once Losada had moved to Barcelona with Pablo, whom she married in June, it seemed obvious that La Fabrica was
the perfect setting for their new venture. Velez, whose family owns leather and metal works as well as retail stores (the hardware for M2Malletier’s bags is fabricated in one of their factories), quit her job without a thought. ‘‘Every bag I have ever designed has been sketched at La Fabrica,’’ says Losada. ‘‘Even before we had a formal company, wandering around this place made me want to create.’’ The surroundings may seem distracting in their strange beauty, but the byword during the day at La Fabrica is extreme concentration. About 65 people work in the complex, and while most go off the grounds for lunch, each day the family itself gathers in the large communal kitchen (there are two smaller ones on the property as well), where the longtime cook simmers sopa de gallet and prepares grilled fish. In the summer, there are fresh figs on a ceramic platter. ‘‘Spanish families typically eat lunch together, but we are a little different — we are only talking about work,’’ says Losada. ‘‘And then we all go back to our own studios to create.’’
January-February 2016
49
Section Arena Qatar
Sub Section
On Heritage
The Story of Two Horologists A heritage in watchmaking is the most vital attribute of these two watch majors. We visit one manufacture, Jaeger-LeCoultre and speak to the leader of another, A.Lange & Söhne to understand what will keep these two watch manufacturers ticking in 2016 and beyond. BY SINDHU NAIR
L
UXURY COMMODITIES, even in the height of recession, have historically held strong, prompting consumers to indulge in the finer things in life, reminding them of the values of heritage and handcrafting. Not any longer. Watchmaking is on the threshold of uncertainty. According to Deloitte’s Swiss Watch Industry forecast, watchmakers are increasingly worried about the continued strength of the Swiss franc, the weakening demand from countries such as China, and the growing competitive threat posed by smartwatches. In the face of such dire competition, most luxury watchmakers have adopted a business strategy of creating new products and celebrating technology, while keeping the bond with their history secure.
JAEGER-LECOULTRE What does one expect when visiting an age-old manufacture of one of the most expensive watchmakers in the world? We were alerted to the DNA of the employees working in the building: sporting a smile and a greeting for any guest who happens to pass by. But nothing prepares one for the sheer detailing that goes on in the premises or the natural beauty of the Vallée De Joux that the manufacture’s old and new premises overlook. While the design of the new complex of Jaeger-LeCoultre, which was opened in 2009, is understated, keeping the surroundings as its main feature and bordered by the 1932 and 1982-built structures of the manufacture, but once inside, one is ushered into a world of precision and minimalist design that permeates through the lounge and infiltrates the studios of the watchmakers. The new 9,000 square-meter building was added to the existing 16,000 square-meter premises so as to meet the growing demands of the brand. In order to preserve the exceptional natural setting in which it has been established for over 175 years, the watchmaker decided to show its concrete commitment by earning labels testifying the ecological quality of the new architectural creation. The building is an extremely airtight and protective shell designed to prevent cold air from seeping in − insulated to avoid heat loss in winter and to keep out excessive heat in summer with a controlled ventilation system, optimized natural lighting and noise reduction – all this through the use of recyclable and biodegradable construction materials. After a long day of weaving our way through the premises, trying to make sense of the
50
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF JAEGER-LECOULTRE
THE FINE ART Clockwise from top left: The manufacture as it is now, the old and the new buildings overlooking Vallée De Joux; the many facets of watchmaking that involve extreme care and expertise, grand complications being set and assembled; Jaeger Lecoultre's Rendez-vous Ivy Tourbillon; the factory in 1883; and the art of enameling; .
complicated world of watchmaking and the many minute details that go into making the exquisitely crafted watches, from the caliber maker to the blanking process where very high precision swages are cut out, drilled, rectified and deburred, to the making of the most complicated clock in the history of timekeeping: the Atmos Clock, one truly understands the value of precision in this vocation. Invented in 1928 by the Swiss engineer Jean-Léon Reutter, the Atmos clock counts the hours, day after day, year after year, requiring neither winding nor electric energy. Its secret lies in the capsule placed within its mechanism that is capable of transforming ambient temperature variations into mechanical energy. A gas blend placed in this capsule dilates when the temperature increases and contracts when it is lowered. Like a mechanical lung, these breaths wind the barrel of the mechanism, thus providing it with the energy necessary to work continuously. A variation of just one degree Celsius guarantees a 48-hour power reserve. Its economical ring-shaped
balance consumes 250 times less energy than that of a classic wrist watch. And it would take 60 million Atmos clocks to consume the same amount of energy as a 15-watt bulb! Daniel Riedo, the chief executive officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre, explains what the brand has in store for 2016. Jaeger-LeCoultre has, in fact, taken a most provocative step in strategizing; by coming up with a complete new take on one of its most successful lines. To mark its 85th anniversary, the brand has revealed a new version of the Reverso, “so that each individual can immediately recognize the collection that matches their own character and the model destined to become theirs,” says Riedo. “Watches for women have always been scaled-down versions of mens’ watches,” says Riedo, and this is the trend that Jaeger-LeCoultre wants to buck by creating an entirely new line for women. These timepieces will be released in phases during 2016. It was an invention that led to the first Jaeger-LeCoultre
workshop. Since 1833, the manufacture has not only fostered this heritage of invention, creativity, and technical skill, but has also constantly set out in search of innovation. Ancient decorative arts, such as enameling, engraving and gem-setting, are among its most precious crafts. All these are counted as part of its legacy as well as its technological mastery. Concern for detail has been a driving force behind the manufacture with 180 skills under its roof, including a dedicated art studio housing a small team of enamelers deftly applying their artistic bent to mechanical timepieces. According to the brand director, Marc de Panafieu, Middle Eastern customers, particularly Dubai aficionados, have proven their interest in this brand and the success of each new collection can be seen in how rapidly they are sold out. “Our brand is not as popular in Qatar as it is in Dubai. We are in the process of educating our customers here. Qatar has many watch-lovers but they love to solicit brands they are aware of. That’s why it is important they understand where we come from and the value of the tradition that we are soaked in.” Falling on its creative skills and reflecting on old success stories is not the end of JaegerLeCoultre’s 2016 strategy. It will work with collaborators and designers to celebrate the spirit of the brand. And that is how Christian Louboutin worked with the brand to stun the watch industry and we can now see how the brand’s intrusion into the world of fashion entices a new breed of horology enthusiasts. January-February 2016
51
Arena Qatar
On Heritage
A.LANGE & SÖHNE WHEREAS ONE BRAND is based in Geneva, the other, with equally strong historical roots, is based in Germany and is celebrating its 200th year of watchmaking. We speak to Walter Lange, the founder of Lange Uhren GmbH, to understand what the brand is doing differently. “We are celebrating the 200th birthday of my great-grandfather, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, who brought the art of fine watchmaking to Glashütte. He has shaped the profile of a brand that has always followed its own path and constantly strives to outperform its own achievements,” Lange says. Brand name, heritage, technology, watchmaking techniques, or material – which of these takes priority for the watchmaker? Without any uncertainty, Lange responds. “It all comes down to the right mixture. A true connoisseur or collector will look for a perfect synthesis of these aspects,” he says. The brand has witnessed many pioneering technical solutions. “Like constant-force mechanisms, the stop-seconds tourbillon or – most recently – the first wristwatch that combines a mechanical jumping numerals display with a decimal minute repeater. Beyond the technical aspects, our timepieces offer something that a winemaker would call terroir – a set of unmistakable stylistic characteristics shaped by the Saxon history and culture,” he says. While Jaeger-LeCoultre looks down onto the Vallée de Joux for inspiration, A. Lange & Söhne looks back at an eventful history that started in 1845 in the Ore Mountains, far away from the traditional centers of fine watchmaking. “With the establishment of his manufactory, my great-grandfather laid the foundation for Saxony’s precision watchmaking industry. The most important distinguishing elements of the Saxon style of watchmaking that have been defined more than 150 years ago, can still be found in our modern timepieces. Among some time-standing features are the three-quarter plate of untreated German silver, the hand-engraved balance cock with its whiplash precision index adjuster, and the endstones rimmed in screwed gold chatons,” Lange says. What placed Lange on the radar in recent times is their new manufactory, a carbon-neutral building, that was laid open last year by Angela Merkel herself. The new building, opened in August 2015, is equipped with a geothermal
52
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
A NEW SETTING Clockwise from far left: Walter Lange with the sculpture of his great grandfather whose 200th birthday is being celebrated; the new manufacture being launched by Angela Merkel; visiting the various watchmaking facilities in the premises with Merkel and the other directors of the brand; a pictoral sketch of the village in 1845; the journey of the complications in Adolf Lange's journal.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF LANGE
THE STORY OF TIMEKEEPING Clockwise from top left: The new manufacture; Walter Lange with his favourite watch (the first watch from the right); “Being a watchmaker, I have a weakness for technical complications. That is why I like to wear the Tourbillon ‘Pour le Mérite’ from the first collection"; one of the historic watches of Lange; Merkel with other Lange employees; five minute watch Semper Opera.
heating and cooling system, in the most environmental-friendly technology. “For the construction, a total of 55 geothermal holes were drilled up to 125 meters deep. By using geothermal heating and ecologicallyproduced electricity to drive the heat pumps, we were able to energize the building in a carbon-neutral way. This enables us to make an important contribution to climate protection,” Lange explains. The older Lange, who is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the business, follows the development of markets very closely. “The demand for our timepieces is unbroken in Asia. With their sophisticated watch culture, Middle East markets continue to play an important role for A. Lange & Söhne,” he says. The relationship between A. Lange & Söhne and society has many facets. Taking their role as the leading watchmakers in the region, Lange has taken upon himself the responsibility of reaching out to the community and training a new generation of watchmakers. Lange says, “One of my reasons for founding the company in 1990 was to give a perspective to the people in a structurally weak region. Today Lange is the largest employer with a workforce of more than 750. Then we take responsibility for the next generation and the future of fine watchmaking by investing in education. At the moment, almost 60 apprentices receive vocational training at the Lange Watchmaking School, more than ever before in the history of A. Lange & Söhne.” When there are years of expertise to fall back on what is it that stays in Lange’s memory about days gone by? “The successful press conference on 24 October 1994, when we presented our first collection of the new era, was a truly unforgettable Lange moment. It was then that I knew we were doing everything right. I felt proud of the tradition, the company and its staff,” says Lange.
January-February 2016
53
WHO ARE THE LEADERS? We put the focus on the most prestigious business leaders who fuel the country’s success and aspirations. Qatar Today takes pride in honouring the Top 10 listed companies on the Qatar Stock Exchange & the best of the business world in 2015.
F O R S P O N S O R S H I P D E TA I L S : E - M A I L : S O N Y @ O M S QATA R .CO M M O B I L E : 70 70 76 87
FROM LEFT: GRAHAM MILLER; MONDADORI PORTFOLIO VIA PAOLA ROVERSI
JANUARY – FEBRUARY, 2016
absOluTe DesiRe Into the Void 56 The Seduction of Charlotte Rampling 64 Tangible Beauty 68 Outside the Box 76
Into the void A band of adventurers from Oman attempt to cross the sprawling Empty Quarter by foot, retracing a historic thousand kilometer journey. BY AYSWARYA MURTHY PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN C SMITH
58
IMAGE COURTESY MARCUS GEORGE (AFP)
WANDERLUST For British Explorer Mark Evans this is neither his longest expedition nor his first time in the Rub' al Khali.
59
60
SNATCHES OF HISTORY Clockwise from left: Before Bertram Thomas's camera was destroyed in a sandstorm he managed to capture some amazing pictures of the journey; Sheikh Saleh bin Kalut Al Rashidi Al Kathiri, the only Omani to complete the entire journey from Salalah to Doha; the then Emir of Qatar HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani with Mohammed Bin Abdul Latif Al Mana (to the right) and his brother (to the left); Thomas with some of the tribesmen who occupied the Empty Quarter.
PICTURES COURTESY: CROSSING THE EMPTY QUARTER
It has been 12 days since the group ran into another human being. Which is probably just as well because “local pride and hospitality sometimes got in the way of our need to make progress,” Evans writes.
IN THE ANNALS OF HISTORY, Bertram Thomas has largely been relegated to obscurity. Even in early 20th century Arabia, he must have been something of a relic — as an explorer, representing one of the last remaining vestiges of Oriental romanticism, and as a British civil servant, flying the flag of an empire that had peaked. Apart from his moment in the sun in 1931 when he led the first recorded expedition across the Empty Quarter (Rub’ al Khali), he remained in the shadow of more famous contemporaries like T. E. Lawrence (or Lawrence of Arabia, as he is better known). Looking back at Thomas’ life, one is astonished how much we, as a civilization, forget, despite our penchant for rigorous record-keeping. But deep inside the desolate stretches of the Arabian desert, elders of Bedouin tribes still remember the intrepid Arabist well, mostly through reminiscences handed down through word of mouth. It couldn’t have been easy to forget the madman who set out on foot to conquer the mind-numbing vastness of the Rub’ al Khali, the devourer of lost wanderers. As T. E. Lawrence memorably wrote, “We cannot know the first man who walked the inviolate earth for newness’ sake: but Thomas is the last.” In the 85 years that have since passed, only a handful have succeeded in recreating the feat. Even in this day and age, it’s a formidable challenge. While political boundaries have taken the place of warring tribes, inside the Empty Quarter the sands of time are still. It might as well be 1930. Or 300 AD. Or the beginning of human history itself. Except for the few anomalies that seem to interfere with this perception — like the satellite phone over which we catch up with the latest team involved in this adventure. This journey is special. One that not only retraces the exact route that Thomas took from Salalah to Doha but which also is connected by blood to the original expedition, through Sheikh Mubarak Saleh Muhammad Saleh bin Kalut, the direct descent of Sheikh Salih bin Kalut Al Rashidi Al Kathiri who was Thomas’s guide and the only one by his side as he entered Doha Fort on February 5, 1931. He even carries with him his greatgreat-grandfather’s khanjar (a traditional Omani dagger) that is technically “the only one of us who has been all the way across the Rub’ al Khali”, according to team leader Mark Evans.
61
It’s Day 28, just after noon. Over 500 kilometers from Doha, the five men and three camels rest beside a well, 12 feet deep and filled with crystal clear water. Thomas talks about this water source in Arabia Felix, his seminal work detailing the journey, and there is collective relief that this one hadn’t run dry, like some of the others. The camels (Helwa, “the beautiful one”, Samha, “the well behaved”, and Al Abra, “ship of the desert”, all on loan from the Royal Cavalry in Muscat) don’t seem too keen on the slightly saline water, but the men are thrilled at the prospect of their first wash in nearly two weeks. Evans expects and hopes that
"We cannot know the first man who walked the inviolate earth for newness’ sake: but Thomas is the last.”
they shouldn’t have to wait too long for their next; they are six days away from a big watering hole mentioned in the book, representing a pivotal point in their journey, ending their long north-westerly march and placing them dead south of Doha. When there are no opportunities for a shower, the best they can do is drop a few beads of frankincense onto the fire, and waft the aromatic smoke using a cupped hand into their faces to freshen up. Those wearing the thobe (the Arabic dress) straddle the fire and allow the smoke to drift up their clothing and out of the neck, ensuring a full body experience! Progress is slow but steady. Time is now measured in marches and, on an average, the group manages to cover 20 kms in a day. On a normal day, devoid of rain or sandstorm, the camp stirs to life at around 5 am, in time for the first prayer of the day. “We get a fire going and gather around it for a bit of tea or coffee, before heading off no later than 6.30. We try to cover as much ground as possible while it’s still cool,” Evans says. After a quick water break, the party walks or rides the camels for a couple of hours more, before stopping for their afternoon rest. “Then we set off again and don’t stop until around 4 pm so as to give ourselves an hour of daylight — there’s lots to be done before the sun goes down,” Evan says. In addition to cooking dinner, updating social media channels and their online blog (which allows readers to vicariously experience the punishing and exhilarating journey) and cataloging the pictures and videos taken during the day, the company also attends to the two research projects to which they are contributing — the Palaeodeserts Project, led by the University of Oxford, which examines the relation between humid and arid climatic periods and population density in the Arabian Desert, and another that seeks to study individual responses to extreme and isolated environments. By 8 pm the weary men are in their sleeping bags. Their final job before turning in is to hobble the camels, whose two front legs are tied loosely together to stop them wandering too far in the night. On a good night, they drift off to sleep under a spectacular starry sky. But opting to not bring tents has also meant a few times when they have had to bury themselves in their sleeping bags and attempt to sleep through a swirling sandstorm. However trials like waking up covered in a thick layer of sand or completely damp from the early morning dew, painful blisters on the feet and even the occasional kick from a camel soon fade into the background — drowned out by the deafening silence of the desert, and you are distracted by the strange voyages you begin to take into the unexplored corners of your own mind. “When there is no wind, the only noises we would hear on our daily march would be the creak of
62
THE LONG WALK AHEAD The party, comprising Mohammed Al Zadjali, Amour Al Wahaibi, Mark Evans, Sheikh Mubarak Saleh Muhammad Saleh Bin Kalut and Ali Ahmed Sha’af Al Mshili along with the support team made up of Sim Davis and John C Smith, begin the long, arduous walk from Salalah in Oman,meant to come to an end 40 days later in Doha, Qatar.
IMAGE COURTESY: FACING PAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK; AND CROSSINGTHEEMPTYQUARTER.COM (5)
Evans notes that the Empty Quarter is arguably emptier today than it has been for many years as people migrate to the periphery. And yet, he maintains, the Bedouin have managed to retain one foot in the sand whilst embracing technology and progress. the camel’s knees, the grinding of their teeth, and our periodic conversations. On a seven-hour march, one’s mind drifts and wanders, and it is a perfect place to put life’s issues firmly in perspective,” Evans writes. “It was the Norwegian polar explorer, diplomat and Nobel Laureate Fridtjof Nansen who, after his attempt to reach the North Pole, said ‘I tell you, deliverance will not come from the noisy, rushing centers of civilization. The solutions will come from the lonely places’.” Wilfred Thesiger, who made a similar journey across the Rub’ al Khali some 15 years after Thomas, wrote in his travel book Arabian Sands about how oil wealth was pulling the Bedouins away from their heritage. Evans notes this, saying the Empty Quarter is arguably emptier today than it has been for many years as people migrate to the periphery. The team walks across a site that was once home to large numbers of Bedouin who have now moved north to be closer to the motorable road that lies about 150 km away. And yet, he maintains, they have managed to retain one foot in the sand whilst embracing technology and progress. As they follow those 85-year old footsteps, Evans and his band of travelers sometimes bump into the same tribes that Thomas met along his way; the older men sometimes remember stories of the expedition as told to them by their fathers and, around a warm fire, anecdotes are swapped. Back then, many of them were at war with each other and lonely, nameless travelers were especially suspect. The Sheikh, as it turned out, was not only an inimitable guide but also a suave diplomat who negotiated safe passage across these arbitrary borders. Today the explorers are greeted with warmth and interest wherever they chance upon someone. Evans comments that the hospitality of Bedouins remains unchanged over the years. “We are overwhelmed by the generosity we have been shown; irrespective of who and where they are — from the outskirts of Oman to here in the middle of Saudi Arabia, from the Al Kathiri and Al Rashdi to the Al Murrah tribes. You don’t see this in many other places in the world and this is what makes Arabia such a special place,” he says. It has been 12 days since the group ran into another human being. Which is probably just as well because “local pride and hospitality sometimes got in the way of our need to make progress,” Evans writes. He recounts the time when the peace of the desert was suddenly broken by the sound of an approaching vehicle. “On discovering us, the driver leapt into the back of his pickup and let off one loud rifle shot into the sky with a 65-year-old rifle that jammed three times before working. The sound of the single rifle shot was all the remaining vehicles needed to work out our location; within minutes, 15 vehicles descended, carrying in the region of 50 members of the Al Rashdi tribe, whose territory we are now passing through. After much handshaking, nose pressing and shouting, mats were laid out on the sand, and coffee, dates and nibbles were served, hotly followed by a wonderful song (and dancing) of welcome, written especially for us. A brave poet stepped forward and proudly read out some lines he had written, before a rifle-shooting contest ensued,” Evans says. With one or the other, it was several hours before the leader of the tribe
63
PICTURE COURTESY: CROSSING THE EMPTY QUARTER
announced the festivities concluded and the group was allowed to depart, full of lamb, camel meat and rice. The historic context is important to these new-age explorers. “Like anywhere else in the world, the younger generation here in the Gulf is forgetting their history and heritage. In places like Dubai (and Doha, to some extent) as the new rapidly replaces the old, roots are being erased,” Evans says. This journey is an attempt to jog memories and reconnect the youth with their past. Thomas and Sheikh bin Kalut had created history when they finally reached Qatar, where they were received by the then Emir HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, and the feat put Doha in the front page of international newspapers like The New York Times in USA and The Times in London. It was probably the first time many had heard of the tiny emirate. The ghosts of the two early explorers are constant companions as the men trudge through the shifting sands. “Between ourselves we have several copies of Arabia Felix and we invariably draw parallels between our journeys. Everyday our appreciation for them grows. Today we have an excellent support team but for 60 days no one knew where Thomas and his men were. Every single day was fraught with uncertainty. When will they find water again?
64
PICTURE CREDIT: SIM DAVIS (@SIMDAVIS)
Bertram Thomas' feat put Doha in the front page of international newspapers like The New York Times in USA and The Times in London. It was probably the first time many had heard of the tiny emirate.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE Above: A welcoming party awaits Bertram Thomas in 1930; In present day, camels from a nearby farm, attracted to the three females in the party, pursue them till they are shooed away.
Will the next tribe they meet be hostile?” It is impossible today to imagine the sheer audaciousness of the exercise, of boldly walking into a void, a true testament to the curious and restless human spirit. Surreal still is the actual presence of an heir of one of the original duo. Evans had made attempts to connect with the families of the two men. “We were able to speak with Bertram Thomas’ greatgranddaughter who currently lives in Scotland. But tracing Sheikh bin Kalut’s descendents proved to be more difficult,” Evans remembers. “Luckily Sheikh Mubarak bin Kalut eventually contacted us when he heard news about the journey via social media.” And right now he is part of the expedition, guiding the group, much like his celebrated ancestor did, through the central span of Saudi Arabia, the veins on whose sands he knows as intimately as those on his own hands. Thomas’ ambition to cross the Empty Quarter occupied all his waking moments since, in the capacity of the Finance Minister and Wazir to the Sultan, he traveled with him in the northern parts of Oman. Moreover he was determined to be the first and to beat St John Philby (or Ibn Philby, advisor to Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia) who was planning a similar trek. Once, he was teased by his companions because he was unmarried, and the Sultan, who knew his secretly cherished desire to 'penetrate' the Rub' al Khali, said to Thomas: “Insha’ Allah, I will help to marry you one of these days to that which is near to your heart.” And his private secretary added, “A virgin indeed.”
65
AN UNKNOWABLE TRUTH
For more than 50 years, Charlotte Rampling has seduced men and women alike with her cool, distant beauty. CHARLOTTE RAMPLING’S REPUTATION doesn’t entirely make sense. She is an actress of extraordinary intelligence and But what if all that time sensitivity, with a rare, charismatic beauty and sexual force that we were wrong? has lasted well into her 60s. Her career began at 17, when she was spotted in a secretarial pool by an ad man who worked upstairs; she went with enchanted speed from a bit actor in a Cadbury commercial to full-on celebrity in 1966 with the modish hit ‘‘Georgy Girl.’’ Over the last half-century, she has made more than a hundred films and TV shows, a career now crowned by Andrew Haigh’s ‘‘45 Years,’’ an emotional tour de force reminiscent of James Joyce’s ‘‘The Dead’’ (the story, not the Huston film) in its quiet, quotidian pace and evocation of the past’s 66
BY MARY GAITSKILL PORTRAITS BY PAOLO ROVERSI STYLED BY JONATHAN KAYE
devastating romantic power. Rampling has been rightly celebrated for her remarkable body of work, but she’s also been labeled as ‘‘cold,’’ ‘‘imperious,’’ ‘‘detached,’’‘‘watchful,’’ ‘‘hard to get close to,’’ ‘‘mysterious’’ and ‘‘aloof.’’ In the countless interviews she’s done, reporters have described her with a mixture of awe and anxiety, sometimes casting her as a bit of a mental case as they unknowingly behave like mental cases themselves. ‘‘When I first sit down across from her, I can’t help but worry that Rampling is not
CĂŠline jumpsuit, QR3,250.
January-February 2016
67
coping with anything at all very well,’’ a journalist wrote in 2001, right before going on to express his exasperation at Rampling for being ‘‘stoic’’ about her ex-husband Jean-Michel Jarre’s infidelity. In 2014, a different journalist wondered at how ‘‘closed-off’’ Rampling has ‘‘always been as an actress,’’ speculating that this trait might be connected with having kept her sister’s suicide a secret for 20 years. Of course, it is now normal for celebrities to share the most private details of their lives with the press, and Rampling’s has been the kind of wild, coruscating blur of high glamour and success that makes journalists vibrate. The daughter of a manufacturing heiress and an Olympic gold medalist, Rampling, who was born in 1946 in Sturmer, England, was educated at a posh nearby private school called St. Hilda’s and later at Jeanne d’Arc Academie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles. Her adult life has been marked by loss, most cruelly of her sister, but also of two husbands: She left her first marriage, of four years, to Bryan Southcombe when she met the French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre at a party in St. Tropez in ’76. She had a luxurious life with Jarre in a mansion in Versailles, but suffered from depression that descended into a breakdown in 1988, and didn’t recover until the mid-’90s — around the time she learned of Jarre’s affair from a tabloid. Through all of this she kept working, and in 2000 she became a star again when the young director François Ozon sought her out as the lead in his death-haunted drama ‘‘Under the Sand.’’ At 54, Rampling was once again in the spotlight, this time with the full force of her maturity behind her, still beautiful, still potent. Hers, in other words, is the story of a real-life heroine. But the more I read the repeated interrogations of her marriages, the breakdowns, the triumphs, the secret held and finally revealed, the smoldering sexuality, the more annoyed I grew to see this artist’s life turned into a media soap opera which, even if factually presented, I suspected had little to do with the actual woman. My response was not to find out who the ‘‘actual’’ woman was, but to let her be. I decided that during our interview, I would ask her no personal questions at all — well, maybe one or two, if we were really getting along. Then I learned that her partner of 20 years, the French businessman Jean-Noël Tassez, had died roughly three weeks before our meeting, at which point I, too, became a mental-case journalist. How could I say anything about the situation? How could I not say anything about the situation? What if she wanted to talk about it? Should we meet at all? I walked into the bar of the Hôtel Costes in Paris on an October afternoon rendered awkward by the intensity of
my desire to relate to her in an appropriate way — that is, not to intrude on her grief. She was there when I arrived, so I didn’t get to see her entrance, but she did not seem like the kind of person who ‘‘makes an entrance.’’ She looked like a quiet, self-possessed older lady with either excellent posture or very erect inner turgor or both. I sat down and said something sincere and clumsy about how I knew she was going through a hard time and that I was concerned about blundering into things I shouldn’t touch. ‘‘If you do that, I will stop you,’’ she replied. ‘‘If you ask anything I don’t like, I’ll step around it and go on. I can take care of myself.’’ When I repeated this to an acquaintance he said, ‘‘There’s the coldness.’’ But that’s not how it felt. Her words had the reassuring quality of clear communication. They put me at ease. I asked her general questions and although she couldn’t always answer them, she always engaged them. (One thing to be said for nosy personal questions: They can actually be answered.) We talked about her persona: ‘‘I’ve always, since the beginning, had my antenna out, like, ‘You can’t get me.’ It makes you more interesting when people know they can’t get you.’’ We talked about the creative relationship strength has with weakness: ‘‘The strong part is careful not to take over. It needs to hold itself in check because I want the weaker, fragile part to have the same form of expression.’’ We talked about some of her many standout roles: as a woman nearly unhinged by grief in Ozon’s ‘‘Under the Sand’’; as the cynical queen-bee of a Haitian beach resort catering to middle-aged female sexual tourists in Laurent Cantet’s 2005 film ‘‘Heading South’’; as a young concentration camp prisoner trapped in an S-and-M arrangement with a sadistic guard in Liliana Cavani’s 1974 film ‘‘The Night Porter.’’ This movie, still her most notorious and defining role, was critically excoriated when it was released in America; Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael and Susan Sontag were all disgusted to the point of contempt. Even Rampling’s admirers have dismissed it as sensationalism. Yet Rampling still considers it one of her most powerful performances, and I agree. While the characters as written can be summed up as pornographic clichés, the way Rampling and her co-star Dirk Bogarde played them was almost weirdly nuanced. During their first encounter, as Bogarde is pulling a pale chemise over her head, Rampling gazes at him with stunned fear and passivity; there is also a hint of perverse bonding and understanding, as well as something more intense: the look of a trapped animal showing a submissive face while it prepares its next move. Throughout the film, Rampling bodily expressed these myriad shades of feeling, from terror to arousal to rage to pure survival instinct, happening so closely together that the girl herself doesn’t seem to know what she feels — and neither do we, even as we react. Thus Rampling amplified what was to critics the most offensive theme of the movie: the joining of beauty and cruelty, the communication between ungiving power and the soft, dumb knowledge of the body. Rampling’s trajectory from her early films to the movies she made in her late 50s has been characterized as a transition from merely playing her cold sexy self to learning to act — or being taught how, as one writer absurdly suggested, by the much less experienced Ozon. But Rampling has consistently shown her ability to subtly dramatize strong, sometimes contradictory inner states. In her later films, she can command the viewer’s interest simply by walking down a street or lying alone in a bed — but she has possessed this command from the start. Some reviewers attribute this ability to her mysterious, preternatural charisma and abiding beauty, and that is part of it. But it is also her actively focused talent for the natural representation of real people. We don’t notice how expressive ordinary people are unless we love them enough (or are frightened enough by them) to pay real attention. But everyone is uniquely expressive, even in the smallest gestures. We are so immersed in the parade of character in daily life that we don’t typically see this unless it startles us; we don’t have time to notice all the things that people are telling us. When we see this ordinary expressiveness through a camera’s lens, however, it is
‘The strong part of me is careful not to take over. It needs to hold itself in check because I want the weaker, fragile part to have the same form of expression.’
68
PRODUCTION: PRODN PARIS. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: JILL CAYTAN. PRODUCER: MIREN LASA. MANICURIST: TYPHAINE KERSUAL AT JED ROOT. DIGITAL OPERATOR: ANTONIO PIZZICHINO AT DTOUCH. PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANTS: MÉLANIE REY AND ARTHUR ANCELOT. STYLIST'S ASSISTANT: MAX ORTEGA GOVELA. TAILOR: CAROLE SAVATON. HAIR ASSISTANT: ILKER AKYOL. , HOTEL NORDPINUS, ARLES, 1973," THE HELMUT NEWTON ESTATE/MACONOCHIE PHOTOGRAPHY
amazing, even if what is being conveyed is pure realism heightened just slightly through disciplined art. ‘‘45 Years,’’ for instance, is made of small movements and gestures that reflect big emotional shifts, the kind that alter lives. Rampling plays a retired teacher named Kate Mercer who, in the opening scene, returns home with a letter for her husband, Geoff (Tom Courtenay), that has arrived from Switzerland. He reads it aloud and says, ‘‘They found her.’’ ‘‘Found who?’’ she asks. ‘‘They found Katya . . . my Katya,’’ a girl with whom he climbed a mountain before he met his wife of nearly half a century, a girl who fell to her death and who has just now been discovered preserved in ice. Because its core meaning pivots on a small revelation so quick not everyone will see it, I don’t want to describe the story further. But I feel compelled to say that Kate’s final gesture at the end is a wonderful stroke of direction that Rampling executes unerringly, saying more by jerking down her arm than most actors can reveal in an entire scene. The movie’s themes are subtle and subjective; for Rampling they can be described as the consequence of unfinished business. ‘‘There are things Kate has compromised on, and that’s fine — that’s what people do, because they don’t want to rock the boat. A lot of women are like that,’’ she said. ‘‘Then this thing happens, it all comes up to the surface, and she doesn’t want to face it. She doesn’t even know what she’s got to face.’’ In other words, Rampling isn’t being mysterious as much as she is revealing the mystery of us all. ‘‘Creative expression comes from places we don’t know,’’ she continued. ‘‘When I started out early in films, people said, ‘Oh my gosh, you can do this.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I can.’ I don’t know why, but I knew I could. I can’t explain what it is and how you get there, but it’s not anything to do with the intellect. I wanted to get to the being state of a character. Just watching someone being, living.’’ Maybe that is when she looked directly at me for the first time; I’m not sure. I probably don’t remember, because even when she didn’t meet my gaze, she felt more present than most people. Eyes up or down, she smiled easily, especially when I mentioned one of her more obscure films, ‘‘Max Mon Amour,’’ in which she plays a diplomat’s wife having an affair with a chimpanzee. The story is a delightful evocation of blunt, innocent feeling up against the hard norms of human society. It’s something like the anti-‘‘King Kong,’’ for although attempts are made on Max’s life, in the end he’s riding through Paris on the top of the family car, being cheered by crowds. Such a goofy story seems out of keeping, except when you remember that Rampling’s persona is very ‘‘you can’t get me.’’ ‘‘Max’’ is like a prank, someone pulling a face, but it is also very much in line with a thematic current
that connects her characters. You almost can’t imagine what is beneath the pleasant social exterior of the wife in ‘‘Under the Sand’’ until her husband’s disappearance, which foregrounds her vulnerable inner world so profoundly that her public self suddenly seems revealed as a shell. Similarly, Kate, the heroine of ‘‘45 Years,’’ faced with a disruption from the past which feels seismic, tries to hold it in check by putting on the uniform of her social role with the same sad rigor that the former camp guard puts on his literal uniform at the end of ‘‘The Night Porter.’’ Opposite: a Helmut Kate’s anger, the surprising Newton photograph depth of it, reminded me of of Rampling in 1973. This page: Bally coat, Meredith, the scornful and QR2,395. Hair by Julien selfish character that d'Ys. Makeup by Mary Greenwell at Premier Rampling plays in ‘‘Georgy Hair and Make-up using Girl.’’ I could almost see Kate Chanel Les Beiges. as a grown-up Meredith, which Rampling was willing to entertain. ‘‘I was very like that,’’ she said, ‘‘although not as radical as Meredith.’’ I added that it was great how she portrayed Meredith’s near-rage — it’s amazing how young people know so much that they can’t verbalize, they just do. ‘‘As you get older, it’s then that you process things. And if you don’t, I think the trouble begins,’’ she said. ‘‘You were asking about ‘The Night Porter.’ I’m still processing it all through — ’’ here she put her hands on her midsection — ‘‘it’s still as alive and important as if I’d done it last year. It’s with me all the time, like all the things I’ve done.’’ I wondered aloud if one reason that she is so moving for people, as an older actress, is that they can see the continuum. Not that she plays the same characters, but there are similar elements that take very different forms as they by necessity age and grow, and the story comes out in a different, more developed way. ‘‘That’s what I always wanted to do,’’ she said. ‘‘I wanted to make my life, not a work of art — I didn’t think of it that way — but I wanted to create a visible continuity in what I did. I wanted there to be a thread I could follow and other people could follow. We all go through different things. But every now and then we will connect up again. And the person they’re connecting up with is a person they recognize. The face is changed, I’m getting older. But it’s recognizable.’’
69
The discerning clientele of Laboratorio Paravicini, a Milanese ceramics house, often commissions personal sets of the company's exceptional dinner plates. Inside the courtyard of an old palazzo in the artsy Cinque Vie area, Costanza Paravicini and her daughter Benedetta Medici illustrate their magnificent custom-made earthenware side by side. (They also offer limited-edition readymades.) The pair hand-paint their designs onto dishes that are thrown from a special type of extra-thin biscuit before being glazed. This process — unique to Paravicini — produces particularly vivid colors and exceptionally pure whites. About QR60, laboratorio@paravicini.it.
70
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
The three designers in Brooklyn who comprise Egg Collective channel the understated aesthetic of such midcentury luminaries as Carl Aubรถck and Hans Wegner, who used raw materials like unlacquered brass and unfinished wood for their designs. These polygonal bronze bookends, as artful as they are useful, are left untreated to allow air, sunlight and even fingerprints to give them a gentle patina over time.
Exquisite, rare objects that honor the gift of giving.
QR1,250 each.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANTHONY COTSIFAS STYLED BY HAIDEE FINDLAY-LEVIN 71
With a unique molecular structure that creates psychedelic colors by scattering light, opals have captivated people as far back as Queen Victoria. The jewelry designer Susan Foster sources rare varieties of the semi-precious gems — a muddy lava opal streaked with phosphorescent veins from Australia, a translucent rose-petal water opal tinged with neon blue and pink from Mexico — to create unusually elegant, one-of-a-kind cocktail rings in her Los Angeles studio. From left: Rainbow Lava Opal ring with champagne diamonds, QR12,000. Ethiopian Opal ring, QR16,500.
72
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
MARBLE AND BRASS SIDE TABLE: INTERLUDE HOME
Until now, the swing has somehow resisted being reinterpreted by modern craftsmen intrigued by everyday humble objects. In Los Angeles, Thomas Hayes hand-carves single- and double-seat versions from walnut or oak and attaches sporty paracord straps to luxe leather loops. The look is functional but also sculptural: a piece that could hang as elegantly from the beams of a loft as from the boughs of a tree. QR2,500, thomashayesstudio.com.
January-February 2016
73
Agalis Manessi’s shy greyhounds and quirky cat figurines have the innocence and misshapen charm of naïve art, but, executed in a rarefied porcelain method, they are far more sophisticated. The artist uses the challenging and virtually extinct technique of maiolica that dates back to the Renaissance, when tin glaze and metal oxide paint were used to create intricate, brilliantly colored istoriato, or scenes that tell a story. Riffing on the famous animal figurines of historic houses like Herend and Meissen, Manessi's whimsical creatures possess a unique, free-spirited expressiveness.
STEEL BLOCK: PAULA RUBENSTEIN. BRASS, MARBLE AND GRANITE HEXAGONAL AND SQUARE SIDE TABLES: INTERLUDE HOME
Willow vase, about QR530, shop@caa.org.uk. Baby rabbits, about QR46 each, thenewcraftsmen.com.
74
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
Louis XIV built one of the world‘s first mirror factories, Saint-Golbain, dedicated to creating the convex glass. Reflecting light, it was a popular decorative object during the neo-Classical, Regency and Georgian eras, and had a revival in the middle of last century thanks in part to American decorators like Dorothy Draper and Billy Baldwin. But it was the Italian artist Piero Fornasetti who gave the form a surrealist twist. His son, Barnaba, has reintroduced an elegant example set in simple brass and strung, like a necklace in a Renaissance painting, from Burgundy velvet ribbon. QR875, Barneys New York.
January-February 2016
75
The artist Carolyn Brookes-Davies scours beaches near her home in North Norfolk, England, for wild mussels, pearl button tops and periwinkles that she uses to cover vintage objects from vessels to mirrors. In a wild, untamed way, her work seems to reference the sentimental 19th-century American craft of ‘‘sailors‘ valentines,’’ boxes intricately decorated with shells in the shape of hearts and compass roses that mariners would present to their sweethearts when returning home from their journeys. About QR300, studio@ carolynbrookesdavies.co.uk.
76
T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine
SET DESIGNER: THERESA RIVERA. RETOUCHER: ROB WILLINGHAM FOR ANONYMOUS RETOUCH. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: KARL LEITZ, BOB KIDD, JESS KIRKHAM AND CALEB ANDRIELLA. STYLIST’S ASSISTANTS: ARYEH LAPPIN AND ALLEGRA LEVY. SET ASSISTANTS: PETER DAVIS AND GRAHAM HUBER
From her base in England, the artisan Silvia K. takes inspiration from her native Slovakia for her line of terracotta platters and buckets that are at once refined and rustic. The influence of the folk architecture of the hamlet of Cicmany, where dark wooden cabins are decorated with primitive symbols in white lime paint, is apparent in her glazes: milky white on one side and a deep earthen red on the other, handrubbed with beeswax for an organic sealant. The forms themselves, affixed with naturally tanned leather handles, pay homage to common agrarian tools like a herdsmen’s geleta, the wooden container used for milking sheep. QR225.
January-February 2016
77
78
OUTSIDE THE BOX
How three acclaimed artists are challenging what art can — and should — do for the world.
BY NIKIL SAVAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEFAN RUIZ
COMMUNITY SPIRIT The artists (from left) Theaster Gates, Mark Bradford and Rick Lowe in Los Angeles outside one of Bradford’s Art + Practice buildings, which serves as both a gallery and a social services agency.
AS A YOUNG ARTIST getting started in Houston, Rick Lowe sought to address in his paintings the violence and poverty he saw in the city where he lived, especially in those historically black neighborhoods like the Third Ward that had been buffeted by decades of policy neglect. But in 1990, during a visit to his studio by high school students, a young man approached Lowe. He wanted to know why, rather than making work that represented the daily reality of the inhabitants of the Third Ward, Lowe didn’t try to instead affect that reality. The question spoke to the fundamental problem of political art, which had traditionally stayed inside the studio or gallery rather than becoming an active presence in the lives of the people it was meant to champion. For Lowe, now 54, it was also the question that led him to embark on a new way of creating art. And it would ultimately — though Lowe didn’t know it at the time — inspire two fellow artists and eventual friends, Theaster Gates and Mark Bradford, to think more expansively about their own art: what its purpose was, how it should be seen, even where it should live. Lowe had long been preoccupied with the German artist Joseph Beuys, who in the 1970s proposed the concept of ‘‘social sculpture,’’ a more engaged form of political art in which the spectators themselves were the participants. He had also been spending time with Deloyd T. Parker, the director of a local organization called Self-Help for African People Through Education. In 1993, this conjunction of people and ideas led Lowe to purchase — with his artist-comrades including James Bettison, Jesse Lott, Bert Samples and George Smith — a series of 22 abandoned wooden shotgun houses in the Third Ward, tenant farmer shacks built in the 1930s and typical of the African-American housing then found in the South. With money from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, and using volunteers from a number of institutions including the Menil Foundation, Lowe soon mobilized people across the city to restore the neighborhood. Today, these homes form the core of Project Row Houses, one of the most original and ambitious works of
79
WHERE IT BEGAN Clockwise from far left: Rick Lowe; an art installation by Harold Mendez in one of the wooden houses that Lowe has been renovating in Houston’s Third Ward since 1994 as part of Project Row Houses; four of the now-pristine traditional shotgun houses, which include accommodations for young single mothers and exhibition spaces for resident artists, photographed from their communal backyard.
art of the past century. Eight of the shacks are designated studio and exhibition spaces, while seven others are devoted to the Young Mothers Residential Program, which hosts single women trying to finish school. Crucial to Lowe’s design is that no one group of inhabitants is separate from the other: The young mothers in residence are encouraged, as much as the artists, to find a vision for themselves. And along with the surrounding community, they form the audience for the visiting artists’ work. Since the project’s inception, art has become a presence in the everyday lives of the very individuals whose concerns Lowe had been challenged long ago to meet — and a model for a kind of 21st-century artistic activism.
L
OWE’S ACHIEVEMENTS resonated well beyond
Houston. Gates and Bradford, who both cite him as an influence, are Lowe’s co-conspirators in a mode of political or ‘‘social practice’’ art that actively involves them in underserved neighborhoods. Now old friends who have over the years spoken on many panels together and called each other regularly for advice, the three artists have also assisted each other on their large-scale, communitybased artworks: Lowe sits on the board of Bradford’s Art + Practice Foundation in Leimert Park in L.A., and Theaster Gates’s Dorchester Projects on Chicago’s South Side has hosted Bradford, who has, in turn, helped to fund Lowe’s Project Row Houses. Initiating projects such as theirs requires the very practical skills of a policymaker, a preservationist or an organizer. Not so different, Gates reminds me, from those of an earlier generation of site-specific artists such as Donald Judd, Robert Rauschenberg or Gordon Matta-Clark (who, among other projects, co-established in 1971 the
80
legendary SoHo restaurant FOOD, which was staffed and run by artists and turned every meal into a communal artwork). When working with neighbors, homes and livelihoods, however, practicality prevails. A bigger difference between ‘‘social practice’’ and its conceptual precedents is the trio’s focus on the urban community — and, for Lowe and Gates, the old, culturally rich black neighborhood whose heritage is imperiled. Around 2007, Gates, a sculptor born and raised in Chicago, met with Lowe to ask for advice. Gates had recently moved into a former candy store in the Grand Crossing neighborhood of the city’s South Side, an area devastated by waves of unemployment and internal violence yet situated just blocks away from coveted property, including the pre-White House residence of the Obamas. He’d trained in a variety of disciplines, studied ceramics in Japan and worked as a public art coordinator for the Chicago Transit Authority — and by the time he got in touch with Lowe, his artwork was on the brink of migrating from the gallery. That same year, he started to host soul-food dinners in honor of his ceramics mentor Shoji Yamaguchi, who had escaped Hiroshima for Mississippi, where he began fusing African-American and Asian pottery techniques. Arts patrons underwrote the dinners and people paid hundreds for Yamaguchi’s wares — only to discover they had been punked. Yamaguchi never existed; the pieces had actually been designed by Gates himself. Until he created the Yamaguchi fiction, Gates had been unable to sell them for more than $25. By mimicking the art world, he had slyly exposed the profound racial fault lines beneath it. Gates soon realized he could extend what he calls his ‘‘hustler’’ ways beyond the social niceties of the art world’s dining rooms. During the financial crisis, many
Project Row Houses is one of the most original and ambitious works of art of the past century.
in his long-suffering neighborhood found themselves unemployed and looking for ways to leave the city. ‘‘I started to recognize that if there was not direct intervention by normal people, black space in the United States would not be saved,’’ Gates says. ‘‘It would simply spiral down, without a whole lot of investment from outside.’’ Gates began to use the proceeds from the sales of his artwork to buy up properties. In 2009, he acquired the empty house next door to his home, turning it into a library and stocking it with the 14,000 volumes he bought from the nearby Prairie Avenue Bookshop, which was closing. When the neighboring Dr. Wax record store shuttered as well, he bought out its crates and turned it into a collection in the former candy store, renaming it the Listening House. He also created a screening room for black cinema in a red-brick building across the street,
81
82
LOCAL HISTORY Clockwise from left: the interior of the Stony Island Arts Bank on Chicago’s South Side, housed in a building Theaster Gates bought and refurbished for site-specific art exhibits; the library he built, also inside Stony Island Arts Bank, to hold the collection of the Johnson Publishing Company, which puts out Ebony and Jet magazines; Gates; the exterior of the 1923 building.
‘I started to realize that if there was not direct intervention by normal people, black space in the United States would not be saved.’
which he bought in 2011. (The Black Cinema has since moved to a larger venue.) Together these buildings are at the center of Dorchester Projects, a conglomeration as ambitious in its way as the Project Row Houses that inspired it, although more clearly focused on the creation of black arts institutions than on residences. Like Lowe, Gates, who is 42, wants to mimic the kinds of power structures that have the capacity to transform a community. But, as ever, his method is playful. In 2012 he struck a deal with the city, which agreed to sell him a moldering, neo-Classical ruin that had once been a bank for the unbeatable price of $1; one of the conditions of the sale was that Gates had to raise money for its restoration himself. So he took marble slabs that had once been part of the building and imprinted them with the motto ‘‘IN ART WE TRUST.’’ He then sold some of them for $50,000 each as ‘‘bonds’’ to fund the renovation of the building. Signed by Gates, they are part of his artistic oeuvre — and, as such, he has noted wryly, will increase in value over time, just like bonds. The building, dubbed the Stony Island Arts Bank, opened this fall and hosts, among others, the company collection of the late John H. Johnson, publisher of the seminal African-American magazines Ebony and Jet.
T
HE L.A. ARTIST MARK BRADFORD’S foray
into social practice began, like Gates’s, with the community where he grew up, in Leimert Park, an area only seven miles from downtown Los Angeles but asphyxiated by the 10 and 110 freeways. Bradford told me how the geographic separation of art and life gets played out early for people who grew up where he did: ‘‘You get on a bus. You go to a museum. You see art. And I felt it had little to do with my day to day, or anything that was going on in 83
What if visiting an art center didn’t require a bus trip? What if art was of the neighborhood, and not outside of it?
84
A & P ART DECO BUILDING: NATALIE HON
LANDSCAPE PAINTING Clockwise from left: a mixed-media painting by Mark Bradford, ‘‘Let’s Walk to the Middle of the Ocean,’’ in the artist’s Los Angeles studio; an Art Deco building, soon to house a cafe, that comprises one of the seven sites of the Art + Practice complex; Bradford.
my head.’’ As he began to achieve success — a MacArthur ‘‘genius grant’’ in 2009; a residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio in 2010 — and move in the more rarefied circles of the art world, he became preoccupied with the distance between his old neighborhood and these modern art institutions. What if an art center didn’t require a bus trip? What if art was of the neighborhood, and not outside it? Bradford — 54 years old and, unforgettably, almost 6 feet 8 inches tall — is chiefly known for his extraordinary abstract paintings: This year’s ‘‘Scorched Earth,’’ for example, was an exhibition of dazzling, large-scale, maplike images — criss-crossed by blood-red lines that resemble streets and freeways — that bring to mind South Central Los Angeles, where he was living when the 1992 riots erupted. Bradford’s solution to the question of how to bring art to the neighborhood is the recently opened Art + Practice Foundation, which he co-founded with art collector and philanthropist Eileen Harris Norton and neighborhood activist (and his partner) Allan DiCastro, and which is located in several local buildings. Superficially, Art + Practice’s 4,000-square-foot exhibition space at the center of the campus resembles any gallery designed for museum-quality art exhibitions (the James Irvine Foundation has contributed funding for Art + Practice’s partnership with the Hammer Museum). But it is also a center that, through an affiliation with the RightWay Foundation, offers job training and mental health services to the neighborhood’s foster youth. Unlike Lowe and Gates, however, Bradford delineates his social practice from his own artistic output. Chatty as only an expert in the art of small talk can be (he worked for many years as a hairdresser in his mother’s salon before he became a successful artist),
Bradford talks about how he imagines people going from the barbershop to a show at Art + Practice and then to the bookstore. He is, he said, just ‘‘very comfortable’’ in the small-business world. ‘‘If I walk into a new business, I instantly know what’s going on.’’ For Bradford, bringing art to Leimert Park means he’s ‘‘not just preaching to the converted.’’ Indeed, perhaps the most striking thing about these three artists’ projects is their ability to see both art and community afresh — to apply their artistic vision to social structures themselves. ‘‘I simply named something that I had already been doing,’’ Gates says about Dorchester Projects. ‘‘All my life I’ve been asking questions about how spaces can be better than they are, and what individuals can do alongside systems, governmental systems or whatever, to have an impact in a place.’’ The combination of ambition and modesty remains a unique aspect of social practice art; interestingly, the artists are wary of describing themselves as part of a unified movement, an idea they find at once too grand and too simplifying. ‘‘The big stuff always makes me tired,’’ Bradford says when asked whether he’s part of a greater shift in the art world. The change only happens, he explains, with individuals taking a practical attitude to their work. ‘‘If you look at the civil rights movement, they were just moving and grooving, just — workers.’’ The important thing, he adds, isn’t trying to figure out the theory behind what was going on, but to multiply the number of people taking art back to their neighborhoods. ‘‘What if there were 400 of these small spaces all around the world?’’ he said. ‘‘Or 4,000? It’s just a matter of deciding what we’re doing with our time here, that’s all.’’ 85
The Illustrated Interview
Please draw what you look like.
What did you want to be when you grew up? A comedian.
What is your secret vice? Cupcakes.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what it would be? To not go bald.
Which cartoon character do you relate to? Ziggy.
What scares you? Death.
What is your greatest political concern? Ben Carson, brain surgeon.
What is your secret talent? Juggling.
Who is your comedy hero? Groucho Marx.
The Emmy-winning writer, director and comedian, who is one of the producers of the upcoming Netflix film ‘‘Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,’’ sketched his answers in a dressing room with a Uni-Ball Vision Elite Liquid Ink Rollerball pen.
86
EDITOR: GABÉ DOPPELT
Judd Apatow