Austin Clarke (1) (1934–2016)

Published on the occasion of the dual solo show of Taiwanese artists Charwei Tsai and Chi-Tsung Wu at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 3 July – 17 August 2013.

Though coming from diverse art backgrounds (Tsai was trained in the West while Wu attended a local Taiwanese school), both artists show immense interest in Chinese culture and Eastern philosophy in their art. Tsai's photographs and videos involve appropriations of Buddhist texts and demonstrate a more transcendental engagement with these texts than a merely material reading. Wu's paintings, on the other hand, explore themes such as time, reality vs. illusion, and perception. By incorporating photo-sensitive chemicals, he turns sunlight into a texture of sublimity.

Includes artists' biographies, and an interview with the artists.… (mais)

it took me 2 tries to finish listening. A mother from Barbados reviews much of her life since moving to Canada: employment possibilities vs racism; her husband who left her; the different church groups she is involved with; her teenage son who is becoming involved w/unknown group. A lot of it feels repetitious, as an audiobook, but finally I got the sense of the climax it was building toward. Read by a woman with a strong accent, presumably Barbadian, which made an intriguing listen. However, unfortunately I could not understand the final sentence, which seems to have great import on the meaning of her life.… (mais)

Praised as “masterful” by the New York Times and “uncommonly talented” by Publishers Weekly and winner of the 1999 Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, Austin Clarke has a distinguished reputation as one of the preeminent Caribbean writers of our time. In Pig Tails ’n Breadfruit, he has created a tantalizing “culinary memoir” of his childhood in Barbados. Clarke describes how he learned traditional Bajan cooking—food with origins in the days of slavery, hardship, and economic grief—by listening to this mother, aunts, and cousins talking in the kitchen as they prepared each meal.

Pig Tails ’n Breadfruit is not a recipe book; rather, each chapter is devoted to a detailed description of the ritual surrounding the preparation of a particular native dish—Oxtails with Mushrooms, Smoked Ham Hocks with Lima Beans, or Breadfruit Cou-Cou with Braising Beef. Cooking here, as in Clarke’s home, is based not on precise measurements, but on trial and error, taste and touch. As a result, the process becomes utterly sensual, and the author’s exquisite language artfully translates sense into words, creating a rich and intoxicating personal memoir.… (mais)