Daily Archives: May 7, 2022

New Release Wall

Encanto succeeded with the notion of no villain, except generational trauma, and Disney keeps that idea going with the delightful Turning Red (Walt Disney Home Entertainment), a young womans coming-of-age story thats a metaphor for any number of growing-up issues, including that moment when the model child begins to chafe at parental domination. Its charming and adorable, and the boy-band songs by Billie Eilish and Finneas have already made their way into the latters stage act.

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The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) Does a three-hour superhero saga have deleted scenes? You bet your bat-hook, and theyre on the 4K/Blu-ray/DVD release alongside other extras.

Blacklight (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) Liam Neeson in the first of two (to date) 2022 thrillers that suggest that maybe its time for him to put down the gun.

Cyrano (MGM/Universal) Peter Dinklage gives his all to a mixed-bag musical reinterpretation of the classic Edmond Rostand tale.

Dog (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) Veteran soldier Channing Tatum and a volatile, retired service dog hit the road for a soldiers funeral and bond as two survivors of war trying to figure out what comes next.

Infinite (Paramount Home Entertainment) Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in Antoine Fuquas perplexing time-travel action thriller.

Licorice Pizza (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) Paul Thomas Andersons latest bout of 1970s San Fernando Valley nostalgia was one of 2021s more divisive films, but still my favorite of the year.

Umma (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Just in time for Mothers Day comes this horror tale starring Sandra Oh as a terrifying mom with her own mother issues.

Uncharted (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Tom Holland managed to score another hit on the heels of Spider-Man: No Way Home in that least reliable of movie genres, the video-game adaptation.

New Indie

Its easy to feel true-crimed out with all the podcasts and cable docs and whatnot, but Sharlto Copleys performance as the Unabomber makes Ted K. (Decal/Super) stand out in a crowded field. The District 9 star chillingly gets under the skin of the infamous domestic terrorist; TheWraps Elizabeth Weitzman wrote that writer-director Tony Stone brings us right to the edge of Teds mind as he documents the brilliant passion curdling into narcissistic madness.

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Agent Game (Lionsgate) Dermot Mulroney, Jason Isaacs, Barkhad Abdi and Mel Gibson star in this spy thriller.

Clean (RLJE Films) Garbageman Adrien Brody (who also co-wrote the script) tries to put his criminal past behind him only to find himself haunted by it anew in a drama co-starring Glenn Flshler, Mykelti Williamson, RZA and Michelle Wilson.

Strawberry Mansion (Music Box Films Home Entertainment) This very trippy indie stars Kentucker Audley as a bureaucrat in a future society where even dreams are subject to taxation.

New Foreign

In a French housing development named for a Soviet cosmonaut, the young impoverished residents band together to rescue their home before its demolished. Gagarine (Cohen Media Group), filmed at the Cit Gagarine housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine, casts the real-life, working-class inhabitants in a film that embraces hope and idealism while also asking tough questions about French governmental policy toward its most vulnerable citizens.

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Belle (GKIDS) The latest anime effort from director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars) retells Beauty and the Beast through the filter of virtual reality and online avatars.

Bloody Oranges (Dark Star) In this dark comedy from France, seemingly everyday people and their everyday lives take some very bleak twists.

The Burning Sea (Magnolia Home Entertainment) This Norwegian disaster saga contemplates dire circumstances caused by offshore oil drilling.

Indemnity (Magnolia Home Entertainment) A retired South African firefighter must fight for his own survival when he is accused of murdering his wife.

The Islands of Yann Gonzalez (Altered Innocence/Strand) This compilation Blu-ray features early short films and the first feature from the director behind Knife + Heart.

Lovecut (Omnibus Entertainment) Three young couples in Vienna grapple with identity and sexuality in a world where all human experience is filtered through digital experiences online.

Mascarpone (Dark Star) The end of Antonios marriage to another man is the beginning of his spiritual rebirth in this gay coming-of-middle-age romantic comedy from Italy.

Playground (Film Movement) This Belgian Oscar entry takes a grim, childs-eye-view look at power dynamics among grammar-school kids.

Poupelle of Chimney Town (Shout Factory) Based on a beloved picture book, this anime about hope, friendship and perseverance comes with a separate English-language soundtrack featuring Tony Hale, Stephen Root and Hasan Minhaj.

Presagio (IndiePix Films) This Argentine festival hit examines a traumatized young writer, struggling with reality (and with finishing his novel) following the death of his family.

Sundown (Decal/Bleecker Street) Tim Roth stars as a man whose seemingly blas response to a family tragedy sets off an unexpected chain of events in this new drama from Michel Franco (New Order).

New Doc

You might expect the documentary Viva Maestro! (Greenwich Entertainment) simply to celebrate the achievements of L.A. Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel and it certainly does that but the films look at the global classical-music star is filtered through the prism of turmoil in Dudamels native Venezuela and how political crackdowns there drove out artists and musicians, making the musicians attempts to work with young, up-and-coming talents all but impossible. The results are somewhat unfocused but nonetheless capture a singular presence on the music scene and the struggles faced by creative people under totalitarian regimes.

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a-ha: The Movie (Lightyear Entertainment) American listeners might think of the legendary band behind Take on Me as one-hit wonders, but this Norwegian trio has had multiple hits in Europe over the decades; this documentary examines their success (and their prickly internal relationships) that continues to this day.

Beauty Day (Circle Collective) Before there was Jackass, Canada had the early-90s cable-access cult hit The Capn Video Show. This documentary follows Ralph Zavadil as he brings the Capn back for one last go-round.

Flee (Decal/Neon) Nominated for International, Animated and Documentary Oscars, this moving non-fiction film tracks the arduous path of a young gay Afghan refugee making his way to shelter.

How They Got Over (First Run Features) This stirring music doc connects the dots between gospel acts of the early 20th century and the rock acts that would later be inspired by them.

A Life Among Whales (IndiePix Films) A look at the life of conservationist Roger Payne, whose life work was dedicated to educating the public about the plight (and intelligence) of whales.

Of Animals and Men (Strand Releasing Home Entertainment) Examines the real-life Polish couple who rescued 300 Jews during World War II and inspired The Zookeepers Wife.

Other Music (Factory 25) Tragically, theres a whole documentary sub-genre now about the death of independent retail and public spaces this film looks back at the influential New York record store.

The Revolution Generation (Greenwich Entertainment) Can young people save the world? This documentary introduces us to a new generation of leaders hoping to address environmental issues alongside social, cultural, and racial injustices.

The Sanctity of Space (Greenwich Entertainment) Three climbers tackle one of Alaskas more foreboding peaks in this breathtaking nature doc.

Straight to VHS (IndiePix Films) A filmmaker tries to track down the creator of Uruguays most notorious cult film (Act of Violence in a Young Journalist, also included on this DVD) in this look at the countrys analog moviemaking revolution of the 1980s.

Sunken Roads: Three Generations After D-Day (First Run Features) A 20-year-old filmmaker travels to France for a 70th-anniversary celebration of D-Day in the hopes of capturing stories from the survivors who are still alive.

A Taste of Whale (Greenwich Entertainment) This film asks questions of both whalers and environmentalists, as it places the hunting of whales for food in the context of global meat consumption.

The Unmaking of a College (Zeitgeist) The longest higher-education sit-in in US history happened not in the 1960s but in 2019 at Hampshire College; this film looks into the protests and the larger issues at stake.

Why Is We Americans? (Corinth Films) Newarks legendary Baraka family (including poet Amiri and queer activist Shani) is the focal point in this look at the Black experience in America, executive-produced by Ms. Lauryn Hill and Oren Moverman.

The Wobblies (Kino Classics) This 4K restoration of the 1979 documentary about the history of organized labor feels more timely and vital than ever.

Workhorse Queen (Breaking Glass) RuPauls Drag Race alum Mrs. Kasha Davis works hard for the money (and for the community) in this new documentary.

New Grindhouse

Ti West pens a valentine to exploitation cinema and its hardy creators with X (Lionsgate), a 1979-set horror film about the cast and crew of a porno movie that picks the worst location for their movie an isolated farm whose sexually-repressed owners keep their the pitchforks sharpened. West assembles a terrific ensemble (including Mia Goth, Scott Kid Cudi Mescudi and Brittany Snow), and while his trademark slow burn remains in place, once the carnage starts, it just keeps escalating.

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Cursed (Scream Factory) One of the more appropriately-titled films ever, this much-anticipated reunion of Scream director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson (on a werewolf picture, no less) devolved into a nightmare of reshoots and edits dictated by the Weinstein brothers; this new edition features the directors final R-rated cut, as well as the even more chopped-up PG-13 theatrical release version.

A Dangerous Man (Liberation Hall) The Steven Seagal is title tradition returns for this 2009 effort.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow 2 (VCI Entertainment) A 2022 sequel to the 1981 cult-classic made-for-TV movie.

Death Valley (Shudder/RLJE) Psycho Goreman star Matthew Ninaber writes and directs this creature feature about mercenaries and a bioengineer defending themselves from the onslaught of a nasty beast.

Dinosaur World (Shout Factory) Competitors come together for a deadly game in a virtual world ruled by dinosaurs in a film that is in no way meant to make you think of any other successful franchise.

The Mob (Canadian International Pictures) A drug dealer under fire for killing a gangster starts calling a radio show to spill the secrets of organized crime in this 1975 Quebecois cult classic.

One-Armed Boxer (Arrow Video) Legendary Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest had one of its early hits with this action epic starring and written and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu. (The first pressing of this new Blu-ray includes an essay by TheWraps Simon Abrams.)

Row 19 (Well Go USA Entertainment) Some unseen force is killing passengers on an airplane in gruesome ways in this Russian thriller; this new release features an English dub.

Son of Samson (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) Also known as Maciste in the Valley of the Kings, this one belongs in the collection of any fan of Italian swords-and-sandals-and-musclemen movies.

Sunnyside (Code Red) Joey Travolta stars as a gang leader in Queens caught between turf war and finding a better life for his family.

They Look Like People (Yellow Veil Pictures) Two estranged friends team up to save themselves from what appear to be shape-shifters or are they?

Treasure of the Four Crowns (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) Between the 1950s and Avatar, various filmmakers tried to bring 3-D back among those notable attempts were Tony Anthonys low-budget films in the 1980s. The Blu-ray comes with both the polarized and anaglyphic (red/cyan) versions and glasses too.

Violent City (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) Lina Wertmller wrote and Ennio Morricone scored this crime saga starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Telly Savalas. (An alternate cut was released in the US in 1973 under the title The Family; both versions appear on this new Blu-ray.)

Wicked World (AGFA/Bleeding Skull) Canadian splatter-meister Barry J. Gillis 1991 slasher epic returns in a Blu-ray collection that includes the original theatrical version, a 2019 directors cut, and the feature documentary Reality: The Making of Wicked World.

Without Warning (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) Directed by Greydon Clark (Angels Brigade) and with an ensemble that includes Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Sue Ann Langdon, Larry Storch and Darby Hinton, plus an alien creature played by Kevin Peter Hall (Predator), this ones about as cult as cult gets.

Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century (Code Red) Gianfranco Parolini, the director of the Sabata spaghetti Westerns, cranked out this campy King Kong ripoff in 1977.

New Classic

One of the Missing Movies to return to circulation in a big way is Mira Nairs Mississippi Masala (The Criterion Collection), making its Blu-ray debut after a 4K restoration and theatrical re-release. This 1991 romantic comedy sees Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington each at the beginning of their brilliant careers as two people of color finding each other, even though they come from very different backgrounds. (Shes the daughter of an Indian family that emigrated from Uganda, which makes both of them fit the definition of African American.) Its a charming, provocative film, and its resurgence is a reminder of how movies can disappear from our consciousness when theyre not readily available on physical media.

Also available:

Almost Summer (Scorpion Releasing) Long missing from circulation, this 1978 high-school comedy in many ways, a precursor to Election is finally available on Blu-ray.

The Carey Treatment (Warner Archive Collection) While director Blake Edwards is most known for comic farces, his eclectic career spanned many genres. This 1972 medical thriller starring James Coburn and written by Michael Crichton deals with the once-again-timely issue of illegal abortion.

Chan Is Missing (The Criterion Collection) Indie legend Wayne Wang made this breakthrough feature with this 1982 neo-noir set in San Franciscos Chinatown.

The Coca-Cola Kid (Fun City Editions) Eric Roberts gets a rare romantic lead role as an American soda executive who travels to Australia and winds up falling for Greta Scacchi in a comedy from Dusan Makavejev, known for much wilder films like WR: Mysteries of the Organism.

De Sade (Scorpion Releasing) The notoriously mild Keir Dullea plays one of historys most infamous sexual paradigm-shifters in this 1969 biopic.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Warner Archive Collection) This 1941 adaptation with Spencer Tracy in the lead role is perhaps most notable for letting Ingrid Bergman play the sexy woman of the world while Lana Turner got to be the fancy lady, a reversal of the roles they usually played.

Double Indemnity (The Criterion Collection) One of the great noir films of all time Billy Wilder directs Barbara Stanwyck as a femme fatale who ensnares insurance salesman Fred MacMurray into a scheme to bump off her husband gets the Criterion treatment.

Femme Fatale (Shout Factory) A twisty and sexy thriller one of my very favorite Brian De Palma movies featuring Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas and the Cannes Film Festival.

A Fistful of Dollars & For a Few Dollars More (both Kino Lorber Studio Classics) New 4K releases of the films that put Clint Eastwood, director Sergio Leone and the spaghetti-Western genre on the map.

Flower Drum Song (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical about the Chinese-American experience is both delightful and problematic, but its never looked as good on home media as this new Blu-ray release.

Forbidden Letters / Passing Strangers (Altered Innocence) A new restoration of two gay adult features from filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr., whose singular career covered documentaries, features (Buddies was the first narrative film about AIDS) and pornography.

Francis the Talking Mule: 7 Film Collection (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) Before Babe, before Mr. Ed, there was Francis, the leading mule of a series of hit Universal comedies where he starred opposite Donald OConnor (and, for the last one, Mickey Rooney). This complete box set comes packed with new commentaries for all seven films.

The Funeral (The Criterion Collection) Juzo Itamis hilarious follow-up to Tampopo is another look at culture and ritual through an activity that everyone, eventually, has to participate in and while this is a physical-media column, I would be remiss not to mention that The Criterion Collection is running a series of Itami films this month, including the very funny Supermarket Woman and several other titles still unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray in North America.

Jude (Scorpion Releasing) Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet star as the doomed lovers of Thomas Hardys Jude the Obscure in an adaptation directed by Michael Winterbottom.

Julietta (Icarus Films Home Video) Jean Marais, Jeanne Moreau and Dany Robin star in this farcical love triangle.

Lady Chatterleys Lover (Icarus Films Home Video) Once banned in New York, this controversial adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel stars the luminous Danielle Darrieux.

Mamba (Kino Classics) Legendary gay actor Jean Hersholt (the guy they named the honorary Oscar after) stars in this early Technicolor tale of an uprising against white colonizers in East Africa.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Paramount Presents) James Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin star in this essential John Ford Western (now in 4K), which features the immortal line, When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Mr. Klein (The Criterion Collection) Alain Delon (whose entire filmography seems to be getting remastered lately) stars in Joseph Loseys blistering, Kafka-esque portrayal of Vichy collaboration during WWII.

Outside the Law (Cohen Media Group) In this 2010 drama, a trio of Algerian brothers reunites in 1950s Paris and get involved in the fight for Algerian independence.

Pushing Hands (Film Movement Classics) Ang Lee made his feature debut with this intimate comedy about a Bejing tai chi master adjusting to life in New York City with his Americanized relatives.

Sacco & Vanzetti (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) This 1971 drama examines one of the 20th centurys most controversial court cases, and this Blu-ray features a new commentary track from Repo Man director Alex Cox.

Times Square (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) One of those early-80s cult classics consigned to video limbo because of extensive music-rights issues, this beloved tale of two girls from different backgrounds breaking through in punk-era New York finally makes it to Blu-ray.

Top Secret! (Paramount Home Entertainment) After taking on the disaster genre with Airplane!, Zucker-Abrams-Zucker went after spy films and Elvis movies simultaneously with this outrageous romp, featuring a breakthrough performance from a thoroughly game Val Kilmer.

Two Men in Town (Cohen Media Group) Forest Whitaker plays an ex-con trying to go straight, only to face pressure from his former colleagues as well as from the local sheriff (Harvey Keitel) whose deputy he killed. Also stars Brenda Blethyn and Luis Guzmn.

Wild Things (Arrow Video) John McNaughtons wonderfully trashy and erotic neo-noir featuring the unforgettable foursome of Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, Denise Richards and Kevin Bacon gets a 4K release with plenty of new extras.

Year of the Jellyfish (Cohen Media Group) After the porno-chic boom of the early 1970s and the VCR revolution of the early 1980s, we had softcore European arthouse films where international stars like Laura Antonelli or Sylvia Kristel took their tops off a lot. This ones among the best of the genre, starring Valerie Kaprisky, best known for her role opposite Richard Gere in the Breathless remake.

New TV

Originally posted here:

What's New on DVD/Blu-ray in May: 'Turning Red,' 'X,' 'Mississippi Masala' and More - TheWrap

Hellobeautiful Featured Video

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Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful

Every season is a winning season for June Ambrose. With an iconic career as a celebrity stylist that spans over two decades and an enduring influence on revolving fashion trends, June Ambrose is your favorite stylists favorite stylist.

After 25+ years of dressing her roster of high-end clientele (Jay Z, Missy Elliott, and Diddy, just to name a few), Ambrose has added Creative Director to her resume as the designer behind Pumas first-ever womens basketball collection, High Court. Still, while her collaboration with the sports fashion house is her baby; motherhood might be her greatest role.

When I catch up with Ambrose for our cover story interview, she greets me with a simple, but charming, Hello Beautiful. She looks relaxed and cozy in a PANGAIA Hoodie, her straight hair with a middle part, accentuating her high cheekbones. Ever the multi-tasker, as we chat, she is perusing through fragrances with a voice off-screen. This tiny, intimate moment of her sniffing the fragrances, feeling them by hand, and figuring out which one to pick, offers me a glimpse of what her time as a Creative Director at Puma typically looks like.

Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful

The wardrobe wizard has always been at the forefront of fashion. Her reputation as a fearless connoisseur of clothing is the reason why so many women, especially Black women like myself, connect with her on a deeper level. It is also what Ambrose hopes to convey in her High Court Collection.

Im hoping that it will connect with a woman who is not just an athlete, but looks at life as a sport, that she can see herself as bold and brazen and fearless, Ambrose shared. You know, this collection is to celebrate female basketball players but, when you think about it, even women off the court have the same extraordinary abilities; she just might have to identify what her superpower is.

Women do all that naturallywe play defense, we play hard, we play to win, Ambrose continued. Im hoping that that woman can see herself wanting to you know, wanting to just not blend in, but kind of be really iconic and take some risk.

That multi-tasking, modern-day renaissance woman, whom she both embodies and designs for, is full of skill, determination, focus, and the know-how to balance the ebbs and flows of life. June is no stranger to experiencing burnout, but she has found that her work truly thrives when she takes the time to protect her energy. It takes focus and sometimes being a bit more reclusive, she explained. Its the incubation period. Youll have to compromise and show restraint, but its like a meal. You know youll get the dessert at the end so theres something to look forward to. For me, every social moment is a celebration and I look forward to socializing when the work is done and Ive created something new.

Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful

Ambrose also wants the High Court Collection to help women and binary non-conforming people open up and find their own voices during difficult conversations. Im hoping that women can see [themselves] wanting to just not blend in, but be really iconic and take some risks. I think theres something about that. As a collective, if we encourage each other to say, this is a movement, I think thats what I want women to take away from this. Its okay to have your own voice, its okay to walk your walk and talk your own talk.

Risk has always been a central factor in June Ambroses life. Leaving her stable job in finance after college to explore the unpredictable world of costume design and fashion styling wouldve never occurred without some risk. But without her fearlessness, the world wouldve missed out on her involvement with rebranding Jay Z from a city-slick rapper to a dashing fashion icon, the cinematic magic she created when she teamed up with Hype Williams on Belly, as well as the transcendent music video style collaborations with the Bad Boy crew and Missy Elliott, which cemented her name in hip-hip history

Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful

June has seen a reemergence of Y2K streetwear trends on social media with the Gen-Z generation exploring the culture-shifting styles of that decade a style that Ambrose pioneered throughout her career. From the music videos to my current projects, its always been about merging high fashion and streetwear sport couture. The shiny suits are also a staple, Ambrose said, referring to her impact in the fashion world. For Ambrose, seeing the younger generation revisiting and reimagining streetwear is rewarding. It shows that I was able to create something timeless that made an impact, she says with pride. Thats part of making history I drew references from things and people before me. I used what my ancestors gave me. Im intentional about wanting to impact time and culture and it was natural to create things to be passed on to the next generation.

Keeping up with future generations can be a challenging feat for some, especially since social media has become central to our modern cultural zeitgeist. However, the daunting landscape of these platforms doesnt intimidate her. She finds a lot of inspiration through social media now and navigates the rapidly evolving internet with confidence. Well, theres an entire alternate universe, Ambrose says with confidence. People can sell merchandise and receive immediate gratification, thats changed the landscape of how consumers engage with retail tremendously. This is the future of how you consume content; I can look at something, love it, and get it. Even though the consumption of content is at an all-time high, so is the infringement and imitation of original content with little-to-no credit. Ambrose wants to see less relinquishment of original ideas and more sustainability by building out within the fashion community, instead of up.

Ownership. I want to see the foundation of fashion houses evolve and be able to sustain with more than just institutional money, Ambrose shares. A lot of people ask for permission and help from these specific entities but Id love for us to come together and build on our own, to infiltrate the industry with each other.

As many seasoned vets in the game of life know, with risk, comes the promise of reward, and June is seeing many positive rewards from her collection with Puma. Ive seen that this collection is speaking to multi-generational type [of] consumers, Ambrose said, satisfaction on her face and in her voice. The fact that we can be on the backs of a 16-year-old to a 55-year-old is quite extraordinary. I think its a testament to how the world is seeing each other now.

The multi-generational conversation is a little bit more prevalent now than ever, June continued. For me, it is exciting because I have a 17-year-old and 20-year-old, its amazing being able to unapologetically hang out with them and look just like them. Ambrose isnt the only style maven in her family, she also notes that her children, Chance (20) and Summer (17), are coming into their own sense of style as well. Its fun to see them play with sportswear, they take it and make it appropriate in so many different settings. Summer rocks the PUMA sneakers with dresses and Chance is bringing motorsport sneakers into street style with oversized denim. They do cool things with both scale and fit.

June Ambroses relationship with her children morphs and evolves every day something she is unabashedly proud of. I have two disruptors that Ive raised and Ive watched them find their own way, my kids Chance and Summer. They dont feel pressure to be in fashion or do what others have done, they have conviction and have found their own voice, she said. Summer is so creative and does her own thing, you can tell she doesnt adhere to the societal pressure a lot of young women face. Chance has found a balance between finance and art, which I think is great and something many people dont know how to combine, the modern matriarch added. When youre raising kids, you really focus on them. I do also see that young people have a lot more access to info these days and that makes a big difference, theyre smarter. Not only does June take note of her childrens strong sense of autonomy, she feels inspired by them as well.

Source: JD Barnes / for HelloBeautiful

They inspire me every day, June proudly exclaimed. I love that they are well-rounded humans who are thoughtful and have great creative expression. Its inspiring that they understand they can articulate so much by what they wear, how they speak, and how they treat others.

One thing that Ambrose hopes that her children take away from her lifes work is to appreciate that feeling of impacting at least one person with their talents. I want them to be able to share their art and creativity and know that theyll be remembered for the feeling people get when they experience it. I always try to sprinkle a little June joy in everything that I touch.

Indeed, its that June joy that serves as an inspirational mood board for all Black women who just need that little push to take their leap of faith. Even Ambrose finds herself still feeling inspired while reminiscing on her past, and feeling proud seeing her contributions across different mediums come to life. Becoming an author was a really proud moment for me. I still consider it a classic in the sense that youre able to still draw references from it that are important to developing ones style. That was important in creating my own legacy, on a commercial level, Ambrose said. Theres also the costume designs that I created that are now inducted to places like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and places like that. Overall, the fact that Im still able to contribute to celebratory and iconic moments Ill always be proud of that.

More From Our Mothers Day Issue:

10 Iconic Styling Moments From June Ambrose That Shifted The Culture

5 Black Mommy Bloggers Who Juggle Motherhood And Dream-Chasing Seamlessly

The Last-Minute Mothers Day Gift Guide For The Mama In Your Life

Excerpt from:

June Ambrose On Style, Motherhood And Building Her Legacy - HelloBeautiful

Over the last decade, sex clubs and parties have shifted from the stuff of underground lore to an almost ho-hum fixture of modern American life. Not just tabloids, but mainstream lifestyle and culture magazines regularly publish in-depth profiles of prominent clubs and events like those hosted by Snctm, the notorious high-end society thats offered the rich (and supposedly famous) venues to enjoy kinky performances and public sex since 2013. Whats more, they print guides on how to find sex clubs, how to act while attending parties and even how people can stay safe if and when they return to the scene after years of lockdown, in the tail end of a pandemic.

Its tempting to view the recent explosion in visibility of these erotic events and spaces as a uniquely modern phenomenon, to argue that these trendy sex clubs and parties are the novel byproduct of rapidly evolving social conversations around and attitudes towards things like kink, non-monogamy, and open, public displays of sex and sexuality. And its true that most of todays best-known venues for public sexual exploration have only opened their doors in recent years.

But in truth, America has had a sex club and party scene for decades. Older spaces and events may not have looked quite like the ones we have today. And they never got much play in mainstream press or history books thanks to taboos around talking about sex, and especially non-traditional sexual practices. However, theyve clearly influenced the shape of the modern scene, as have other, even older venues for semi-public and non-normative sexual play. Below, InsideHook peels back the layers of history, one era at a time, to dig into this often neglected sexual history.

Perhaps the best-known precedents for modern spaces and venues, swingers clubs and parties take their name from the swinger lifestyle that emerged in the United States around the end of World War II. Swinging is often associated with key parties and wife swapping, by now tired tropes used to paint nostalgic or critical pictures of the supposedly free-wheeling sexual revolution that swept across (parts) of America in the 60s and 70s. But the lifestyle actually encompasses a grab bag of non-monogamous arrangements, some of which resemble what we now think of as polyamorous relationship dynamics, as well as relatively open group sex.

Early swinging mostly took place at private meetups in couples homes. But in the 60s, a few resorts and retreats where swingers could let it all hang out opened across the nation. Journalist Gay Taleses 1981 expos of postwar American sexuality, Thy Neighbors Wife, briefly thrust one of these venues, the 15-acre Sandstone Resort in Californias Topanga Canyon, into the public eye. Opened in 1968 by an area couple, the resort reportedly had a utopian vibe, built around the belief that monogamy, among other social and political conventions, was ultimately harmful.

Most swinger spaces were ostensibly members-only venues, primarily serving people partaking in the lifestyle in their immediate area. But a few venues, like New Yorks Platos Retreat, which opened in 1977, were visible and open to members of the wider public, if they came in as guests. Platos actually ran ads on public access television, and got some attention in New York magazine.

The most prominent swingers clubs closed down after only a few years, often thanks to zoning or financial issues. Many smaller venues shut down in the 80s as well, in the face of the AIDS pandemic, and a wave of social conservative backlash against the mid-20th century sexual liberation. Most retreats that survived this culling, and their successors, now keep a low-profile.

Pop culture now typically portrays 60s and 70s swingers spaces as dingy, covered in plush and kitsch aesthetics, and ultimately vanilla, heteronormative and perhaps even exploitative. Platos notoriously laid out strict no gay sex, no threesomes rules for its patrons and took pains to make sure there were always plenty of young, conventionally pretty women around. Modern swingers are often portrayed as old and dated. (Many modern swinging spaces do skew a bit old, and a few actually dissuade young people from joining, urging them to seriously consider whether they want to be swingers first.) So perhaps its understandable that some modern sex clubs and parties take pains to distance themselves from swingers and their spaces adding to the sense that these new venues and events are something wholly new. But you dont have to dig far to see the purely organizational and conceptual precedents that open parties at swinger spaces ultimately set.

Although they garnered less mainstream attention thanks to concerns about privacy and legality, early fetish clubs and dungeons popped up in discreet locations across the U.S. in the mid-20th century. Then as now, they offered communal spaces for people to meet others into kink, education events and forums for discussion about how to explore things like BDSM play safely, and shows to watch or parties for people to participate in non-normative sexual practices.

Although most of these early communities were ephemeral and have been lost to history, a few are still influential players in the kink space. Notably, The Eulenspiegel Society, often stylized as TES, which hosts regular BDSM classes and get-togethers across the U.S. to this day, started out in the early 70s as a regular apartment meetup of like-minded masochists who connected via personal ads placed in underground magazines in New York. But as more and more people in the fetish space learned about the community, it expanded to public venues and opened up to people with other kinks. (TES was oddly public with its largely educational social activities because its founders took a strong activist bent, attempting to break down the stigmas around fetishes and the people who practiced them that forced other groups into the shadows.)

Mainstream culture really started taking notice of Americas kinky sub-currents in the 80s and 90s, with fetish gear and dungeons increasingly showing up, albeit usually in a reductive form in pop culture. (This is around the same time TES and other public groups started hosting big conventions.) Its clear that modern sex clubs and parties have taken either direct or indirect notes from these increasingly well-known and public spaces. Notably, high-end sex parties often bring in kink professionals for either educational events, or to perform erotic tableaus. However, despite this overlap, kink spaces ultimately remain discrete from, and far more specialized than, the sorts of general-interest sex parties and venues thatve come into the public eye of late.

Throughout the 20th century, bars and clubs opened, mostly in major American cities, to serve the queer community. Randolph Trumbach, a historian of queer social spaces, says that these nightlife spots were primarily a vital venue for people to openly express their sexuality, to meet others and to find joy in safety in an otherwise hostile, dangerous world. However, by the 60s and 70s many of these spaces had developed back rooms that people could duck off to in order to have semi-public sex however they pleased without leaving safe venues.

The anthropologist Gayle Rubin points out that there was often overlap between queer and kink spaces in the 60s and 70s, pointing specifically to Manhattans leather clubs and one particular gay male fist-fucking establishment in San Francisco she observed early in her academic life.

Although early queer bars and clubs emerged in response to a radically different social setting than sex venues in the modern zeitgeist, their particular blend of conventional nightlife activities with the semi-public exploration of non-normative sex and sexuality set clear, potent precedents.

American nudism emerged in the early 20th century, and Brian Hoffman, a historian of nudism in America, notes that from at least the 30s onwards the leaders of the nudist movement took pains to paint it as an entirely non-sexual practice. They framed nudism as a wholesome and healthy back-to-nature lifestyle, wholly in line with the sexual and social norms of the era. But this was mostly, Hoffman argues, a bid to avoid legal scrutiny, and to foster a sense of broad respectability in an era when even a whiff of sex in public could get you broadly blacklisted.

In practice, Hoffman has found plenty of evidence of nudist communities that, as early as the 40s, embraced sexual liberation and free love exploration on their campuses. Elysium Fields, a nudist camp that operated in Topanga Canyon in the 60s, was notorious for alleged free-wheeling public sexual exploration which may have had an influence on the areas swinger scene.

I believe there are camps where things go on at night, Hoffman says, coyly. Back in 2015, Playboy profiled a slightly fringe nudist community that still engaged in what sounds like far more traditionally swinger-style sexual exploration. But mainstream nudists dont like to acknowledge anything sexual as a part of, or inspired by, their chaste, healthful lifestyle.

From the turn of the 20th century onwards, gay men in American cities also turned to bathhouses as a venue for semi-public sex. (No ones entirely sure when this usage developed. New Yorks first clearly documented anti-sodomy raid on a bathhouse dates to 1903 at the Ariston Hotel Bath, but local facilities had a reputation as bastions of queer sex dating to at least the 1880s.) By the 50s, some newly founded bathhouses were explicitly and almost exclusively queer venues.

Dennis Holding of the North American Bathhouse Association explains that the general protocol in these spaces has been consistent for decades: Men use whatever facilities a bathhouse has, like a pool or sauna, then sit partially or fully exposed in a room with the door ajar. They make eye contact with people who walk by and either wave or nod them in, or to keep on moving. Then, whatever happens in the room happens. Like club spaces, this was another vital venue for queer sexual safety and exploration. But Holding notes this is a far cry from the vibe of either mid-20th century or modern sex clubs and parties, so he doubts bathhouses had any influence on them.

No modern sex clubs or events are clamoring to claim a connection to bathhouse sex, either, as theyve taken on a reputation as old and outdated venues as well. Many closed down in the face of the AIDS pandemic, the sexual panics and declining business that followed. (Holding and others are trying to keep them alive and relevant for future generations, though, and some young gay men do still use them for sex.) But Platos Retreat notably opened on the site of a recently closed prominent gay bathhouse, and featured plenty of water fixtures and themes, suggesting some awareness of and reference to bathhouse culture. A few scattered accounts also suggest a broad awareness among people involved in mid-century heterosexual sexual liberation movements, like swinging, of bathhouses as a model for exuberant sexual exploration.

Taking a leap across the Atlantic, and far back in time, Trumbach has documented the existence of dozens of Molly Houses in England, France and the Netherlands, from at least the early 1700s to the mid-1800s. These were alehouses or cafes known for serving people wed now broadly call queer men, offering venues for dancing and general merriment, and opening up back rooms for patrons to engage in either private or public sex, however they liked. (The houses take their name for the slang term of the era for an effeminate male prostitute. However Trumbach notes that as far as he can tell much of the sex that took place in these houses was non-transactional.)

The most famous Molly House, Mother Claps of London, allegedly hosted up to 40 guests in its back rooms every night in the mid-19th century, and kept security at the doors to ensure the safety and privacy of all who frequented the premises, which sounds a lot like the venues that came a century later.

No one InsideHook consulted for this article has seen any evidence of Molly Houses in America in that era. But Tom Foster, historian of U.S. sexuality, says that American newspapers regularly reported on Londons Molly Houses, so we know some people heard about them at least.

Molly Houses vanished in the wake of a series of intense police crackdowns in the mid-19th century. These raids and legal cases were part of a widespread, if inconsistent, push to enforce increasingly codified and legally-backed sexual norms in the public sphere. That broad anti-queer and anti-public sex environment may explain why there is a long gap in the historical record between the disappearance of these venues, and the emergence of 20th century spaces. Anything that existed in the era was likely deep underground, off any notable radar.

However, around the same time Molly Houses disappeared, nations across Europe and North America started to build public restrooms also out of a concern for public morality and propriety. (Prior to this era, Trumbach explains, men urinated in public streets by just turning to face a wall and letting er rip. This was deemed too shocking for respectable women to see.) These early public restrooms were often self-contained cottages or entirely closed off lines of stalls. So, gay men especially took to picking people up in bars, then retreating to public toilets to have semi-public sex. Trumbach notes that, for several decades, the slang term for public sex, and especially queer public sex, in England at least was cottaging, after self-contained toilets.

Authorities shut down public toilets around the mid-20th century, he adds, in no small part because concerns about public sex and drug use transformed these public morality solutions into a newfound source of moral panic. No ones sure if the timing is related, but it is somewhat conspicuous that sexual club and party spaces grew increasingly visible in the historical record right around the same time that public toilets faded out of the sexual orbit. Its also worth noting that, even at nightlife venues that dont explicitly or tacitly condone onsite sex, plenty of people still get busy in bathroom stalls, because even if theyre not as private as 19th century cottages, theyre still one of the only semi-private places folks can slink off to.

No one InsideHook spoke to for this article is aware of any specific venue for public sex in the historical record before Molly Houses. But Trumbach suggests this is just because they werent needed. For most of human history, if you wanted to have any type of sex, you either did it in the privacy of a home, or out in nature or a park if you didnt have enough privacy at home.

Trumbach adds that, even as dedicated spaces for public sex emerged in the mid-20th century, he and others observed many hookups or orgies in parks and woods. (Not to be too revealing, he says, but when I was a younger man living in Chicago there were spots in the parks where, even in the middle of winter, group sex took place regularly.) And parks remain a hotspot for public sex to this day as many teens desperate for a space to explore sex away from adult eyes know.

Ultimately, Molly Houses, queer clubs, bathhouses and every other venue for public or semi-public sex emerges as a response to a specific need. Whether its the need to create a safe space for a form of sexual expression experiencing a brutal crackdown at the hands of a bigoted legal system, the need to build a space for community around a niche or inherently public sexual proclivity, like forms of kinky or group sex, or the need for a venue for pure, open, general sexual exuberance and exploration, every space, whether explicitly or implicitly, draws lessons from those that came before it, or developed parallel to it. Nothing is new under the sun. But they are all windows onto unique chapters in the ever-evolving history of human sexuality.

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A Brief History of Sex Clubs, And Their Clandestine Predecessors - InsideHook

The Venice Biennale sparks surreal conversations between past and present in Milk of Dreams,curated byCecilia Alemani andSurrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, curated by Grazine Subelyte, Associate Curator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

The long tentacles of vision and understanding have withdrawn and all that is left to me is the ragged black hole of my loss. Loss and the world around. A noisy puzzle whose solution is another puzzle noisier and more stupid. The circle widens toward nothing. The answer is hiding somewhere if I could only read. Leonora Carrington,The Seventh Horse And Other Tales

Leonora Carrington, The Chair: Daghda Tuatha de Danann, 1955

Why do we pretend that the world is not a ridiculous, theatrical fiasco? The Venetians acknowledge this continuously with Carnival and La Biennale when the whole corpus arts descend on the glittering, tragically precarious city perched on a forest of petrified trees in a waterlogged lagoon. Fitting then that the 59th Biennale takes its curatorial title from a childrens book of fairytales by the Surrealist Anglo-Irish/ Mexican artist Leonora CarringtonsMilk of Dreams.To Cecilia Alemani, nominated as curator in January 2020, Carringtons surreal, irreverent, and sardonic body of work articulates our growing consciousness of the nonhuman world and the forces that inhabit it. Her creations hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and objects, two novels, a memoir, and a fantastically morbid collection of stories have rarely been exhibited since her death in 2011. Yet, each time her work is seen, it seems more prescient.

Why? Surrealist art, with its outlandish, hyper juxtapositions, appealed to Carrington for the same reasons it seems relevant now it highlights human folly but also celebrates the wildness of dreams, reminding us perhaps that whilst we live in a war-torn, pandemic ravaged, carbon choked world, we might imagine an alternative. So, like many of us, Alemani began curating remotely, interviewing thousands of artists on zoom, Unable to experience their work physically, I was surprised by the intimate and confessional nature of our conversations as if it was the end of the world These conversations led to numerous existential questions in particular, how is the definition of a human changing and what would the world look like without humans?

To Alemani, our time mirrors the birth of Surrealism a reality shattered by mechanical war, Spanish flu and toxic nationalism. It gave form to the unimaginable through what Henri Bergson calls something mechanical encrusted upon the living. As our technologically led, carbon addicted lives are mediated thus, it seems prophetic. And yet, for all their avant-garde sensibility, the torchbearers of Surrealism did not precisely see women as equal partners. In his essay The New Colors of Spectral Sex Appeal (1934), Salvador Dali prophesied that the sexual attractiveness of the modern woman would derive from the disarticulation and distortion of her anatomy. Precisely because the Surrealists viewed women as artificial beingstheir bodies manipulable, their spirits elusive their work seemed almost irrelevant until curators began to revise the story and include the vision of women who had been there.

Alemanis solution to this dilemma was to curate a virtually all-female show, replete with five historic time capsules. By featuring women artists and cultural practitioners whose work was left on the fringes of male centre histories, serve as a starting point for critical reflection, tracing alternative genealogies and affinities past and present. This new, alternative history includes 213 artists from 58 countries who challenge the Western universal ideal of white male reason as a measure of all things and propose different alliances and porous, fantastic beings. This is her rationale for curating predominantly female and gender nonconformist artists that reflects an international scenario of great ferment. However, something fundamental is missing men. Instead of reclaiming the narrative, she reframes it entirely, but has she also sealed it off? Comedic and tragic at the same time, this one-sided story is why women were excluded from the conversation.

Whilst it highlights Alemanis post-human thesis, she is also negating something that might aggressively manifest somewhere else. Those excluded tend to build their worlds (note collateral blockbuster shows of Kehinde Wiley, Anselm Keifer, Anish Kapoor, Raqib Shaw), which is tragically reflective of geopolitics Alemani could never imagine that just before her show opened, a single white male would wage war on a sovereign state on European soil. Either we are asking the wrong questions, or we have not properly understood the past. Is this Alemani proposing a new, fantastical lineage or suggesting that this is where all human line ends?

Sandra Vasquez De La Hora, Las Cordilleras Encontradas, 2017 2021

Asserting her unconventional narrative was an essential part of Carringtons story, and it underscores Alemanis Biennale. Art was the vehicle for her reincarnation as a multiple and quixotic being (an androgyne, the Moon, the Holy Ghost, a gipsy, an acrobat, Leonora Carrington, and a woman). Her firstSelf-Portraitdepicts wild, untamed hair and a white horse galloping away to freedom. Carrington also invented her creation myth, stating she had not been born but made. Merve Emre says, in her essayHow Leonora Carrington Feminised Surrealismfor the New Yorker, One melancholy day, her mother, bloated by chocolate truffles, oyster pure, and cold pheasant had lain on top of a machine a marvellous contraption, designed to extract hundreds of gallons of semen from animalspigs, cockerels, stallions, urchins, bats, ducksand bring its user to the most spectacular orgasm Leonora was conceived from this communion of human, animal, and machine.

A rebellious visionary, Carrington rejected both convention and nationalism. Escaping to France with Max Ernst, then Mexico when WWII ripped Europe apart, she made her home in the countryAndre Bretondubbed the most surreal nation on earth. Having been introduced to Celtic mythology by her Irish mother, she fast absorbed astrological andMayan imagerywhilst expanding her knowledge of the occult,KabbalahandBuddhism. As a result, her paintings are full of masked, gnomic beings, hyena-faced, bird-bodied creatures that hover magically between the familiar and strange. Following the birth of her two children, she drew whimsical, hybrid creatures on her walls, later collected in the bookletMilk of Dreams. Erme says, Surrealist art invited her to cavort with nonhuman creatures, drawing on their beauty and suffering to make tame ideas about character and plot more porous, elastic, and gloriously unhinged.

Emma Talbot, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 2021

Alemanis opening curatorial statement in the Central Pavilion suggests we are part of the symbiotic web of interdependencies that bind us to each other. By enlisting localised or indigenous forms of thought and hoping they will be textually and figuratively absorbed by the institutions that uphold and define the history of art. It is worth noting here that Alemani is married to the 55th Biennale curator Massimiliano Gioni (a New York power art couple), with whom she also had a child. Weaving three themes through the Central Pavilion and Arsenale body and metamorphosis, individual and technology, bodies and earth Alemani anchors her show with 5 time capsules, which resurrects landmark historic shows. As a whole, the experience is like falling into a cauldron, one that reflects the dissolution of systems and the world as we know it.

The show opens with Katharina Fritschs giantElephant(1987), infinitely reflected in mirrored walls. Is Alemani milking the elephant metaphor to highlight the problematic duality of being a woman artist creator and creative? Is this a nod to CarringtonsSelf Portrait, in which the concept of duality is explored using a mirror to assert the duality of the self of being an observer and observed? Is she referring to Lacans mirror stage? Like infants who delight in recognising themselves, are we stuck in a permanent state of subjectivity or imaginary order? InSome reflections on the Ego (1953), he says, it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child (and) it typifies an essentiallibidinalrelationship with thebody image.

In an adjoining room, Cecelia VicunyasLeopard de Ojitos (1976) seems to offer an answer. Seen through the delicate spiderweb of her site-specific work, it is accompanied by the words:

She illuminates what is.

The eye is zero

Sex and emptiness

Are the hole of the wheel

That spins

The world

The eyes of instinct open when we allow ourselves to be carried away by a form of knowledge that is richer and deeper than rationality. It could be that the eyes are hidden in the hair, waiting to see. Cecilia Vicuna

There is so much to see here, past and present, I feel blinded. Time capsules staged by Milan based @fabricaforma of works that were previously overlooked act as proof that artists have been pushing alternative agendas for decades. But precisely because they comprise an all-female cast, I struggle. I want to enrich the visual history I am familiar with and find myself somewhere un-relatable. In the Giardini, we encounter an artists attempt to dialogue with or imaginatively leap over national pavilions worn definitions and dusty categories. In Alemanis global exhibition, we find a host of well-deserving female, non-binary and non-white artists, freewheeling out of context. Yet, excluding the men relegates many of these artists to a separate history. Still, we are deprived of a crucial frisson: that powerful, sexual energy that ultimately births something new.

This feeling is compounded in the Arsenale as a monumental sightless sphinx greets us: Simone LeighsBrick House;the eyeless bronze head of a black woman emerges from a domed cylinder reminiscent of an earthen dwelling from Chad or Cameroon. Unfortunately, part artefact, part shelter, recalls Hirsts fake bronze from his critically disastrous show,Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable. Except this bronze is authentic, and the sombre, monochrome works around it are from the late Cuban Belkis Ayon, who tragically never made it to Venice. (Top Photo)

Magdalene Odundo, Untitled Vessel, Symmetrical Series, 2017

Surreal indeed, but also maddening. I am doubting everything. It makes me think of Carringtons psychotic break and a narrow escape from the asylum. Separated from Ernst in WWII and paralysed by anxiety and delusions, she was given electroconvulsive therapy, powerfulconvulsants andbarbiturates in Spain, whereby her estranged parents decided to send her to a sanatorium in South Africa. Fortunately, en route, she contacted Renato Leduc, poet and Mexican Ambassador, with whom she escaped to New York, then on to Mexico, where she lived for the rest of her life. So, where do we go from here?

Alemani seems to anticipate this and augment our sense of the surreal in the next room with five giant vessels by Gabriel Chaile of Spanish, African-Arab and Indigenous Candelarian heritage (Argentina). After the ponderous heft of Simone Leighs Golden Lion-winning bronze, Chiles clay bird pots bewilder and stupefy the viewer in a kind ofAlice in Wonderlandmoment. His long-standing exploration of impoverished communities, rituals, and artistic customs has resulted in poetically surreal creations, sacred and profane; they blow up the trans-historicisation of form. Two key concepts underscore his practice:the engineering of need, creating objects that attempt to improve the conditions of a specific borderline situation; andthe genealogy of shape, which acknowledges that every object in its historical repetition provides a story to tell, one that is recovered and updated concerning the new context. Rebirth.

Cecilia Vicuna, Leoparda de Ojitos, 1976

Later on, we see this idea mirrored in five vessels by Magdalene Odundo (Kenya, 1950) from her Symmetrical Series(2017). Following the long tradition of associating womens bodies with architecture or vessels, after shaping the clay, she uses ultra-refined terra sigillata slip, burnishes her surfaces with stones and polishing tools, and fires her objects multiple times, transforming the clay into rich red-orange and black sculptures. She sees them as having an inside and an outside I think very much of the body itself as a vessel; it contains us as people. This idea is expanded in two stand out installations: Sandra Vasquez de la Horras drawings of women, sealed with beeswax inside a wooden house-like structure, and Emma Talbots ecstatic painted silk sheath,Where Do We Come From, What Are We, Where are We Going?(2021) that articulates her wish to escape from our environmentally catastrophic present.

Carrington once stated, We, women, are animals conditioned by maternity For female animals, love-making, which is followed by the great drama of the birth of a new animal, pushes us into the depths of the biological cave. In the absence of men, the tension was missing, but so was the sex. It was a night without day; I could hear Carrington say, I saw the reflection of the moon in the water but was horrified to see there was no moon in the sky: the moon had been drowned in the water. This is fully manifest in the last, suffocating room, filled with rotting plants, symbolic of the desperate infertility of a lightless, single-sex world.

I was grateful for a pause in the Irish Pavilion, which occupies the final room in a row of curated spaces. The looped image of a simple grey Vent by Niamh OMalley on a square LED screen.Taken from outside her Temple Bar Gallery Studios, where it disperses material dust from artistic production into the general atmosphere, it could be a metaphor for the process of art-making. In the catalogue for the show,Gather, OMalley says, In making something we might have cleared a place for encounter and the gap produced, the distance itself, might be the thing. This is the texture of distance, the price of sight. Quiet now.

Niamh OMalley,Vent, 2022 Ireland

As I stepped out into the pouring rain, which had turned the avenues into milky sludge encrusting our shoes, I wondered what we would all do with this milk thought. How would it nourish or deprive us of dreams for the future?

I found my answer elsewhere. Leonora Carrington also has a room dedicated to her in another landmark show,Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, curated by Grazine Subelyte, Associate Curator, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; a thoughtful, balanced view of how this particular part of the past speaks to the present. Four years in the making, one might say the zeitgeist is at work or as the surrealists would say, this was something predestined. Unlike Alemani, guided by a book of fairytales, Guggenheims curator looked to Andre BretonsLArt Magique(1957) which traces the history of magic and sees it culminating in Surrealism. It is also a show that celebrates the beginning of womens emancipation, and women, who were largely invisible, are the beating heart of this show.

For this, the show at Guggenheim triumphs. Whilst it was not lost on me that its star player, Max Ernst, had slept with, and married, three of the women headlining the show first Carrington, then Guggenheim, and finally Dorothea Tanning, one cannot argue that he did not see or value them. Art historians were slow to recognise the centrifugal force of these women, he did not. Nevertheless, I was honestly relieved to see Ernsts work in this show; I reevaluated it and understood his role in the structural DNA of Surrealism. Freuds bookTotem and Taboo(1913) defines magic as the omnipotence of thought, emphasising that thoughts can affect the material world/reality and one might say art, says Sublette.

The first time Carrington saw a Surrealist painting in Paris, she was ten years old. Something in that work gave her permission to rebel: she was expelled from two consecutive schools, attended Mrs Penroses Academy of Art in Florence, and went back to England to be presented at Court but bought a copy of Aldous Huxleys Eyeless in Gaza(1936) to read instead. Then, seeing Ernsts work at theInternational Surrealist Exhibitionin London, In 1937, Carrington met him at a party and they eloped to Paris, where Ernst promptly separated from his wife. In 1938 they left Paris and settled inSaint Martin dArdchein southern France. But then WWII intervened. Separated from Ernst (26 years her senior), Carrington suffered a nervous breakdown and then fled to Mexico.

Instead of censoring Ernst, Subelyte includes him, Max Ernst was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century in my humble opinion. A wonderfully radical statement in such an all-female moment, for which I was genuinely grateful. We cannot silence the men if we are to revise history legitimately; instead, this show outlines the magical exchange of love and creativity between them.

Arrested by the French authorities as a hostile alien, then discharged with the intercession ofPaul luard, Ernst was arrested again by the Gestapo, his art was branded degenerate. EnterPeggy Guggenheim, with whom he escaped to the United States, leaving Carrington behind, and married in 1941. The following year, he met Dorothea Tanning at a party. He then went to her studio to consider her work for inclusion in the 1943Exhibition by 31 Womenat Guggenheims gallery Art of This Century. As Tanning recounts in her memoirs, he was enchanted by her iconic self-portraitBirthday(1942,Philadelphia Museum of Art). The two played chess, fell in love and spent the rest of their lives together. In 1954, Ernst was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at theVenice Biennale. Seventy-seven years later, Carrington joins him, and the circle is complete.

Salvador Dali, Uranium and Atomica Melancholia Idyll (1945)

Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernityis a testament to our human capacity to look beyond the human tragedy of reality into the realm of the unconscious magic, dreams and even the occult as a source of empowerment. There is a hidden dimension, invisible to the human eye. Subelyte shows us how Carrington harnessed the Surrealist cult of desire as an infinite source of creative inspiration. When painting, she used small brushstroke techniques to build up layers in a meticulous, alchemical process, bringing magically real scenes that seem to prefigure her destiny. Her portrait of Max Ernst is spellbinding for its lavish, feathery details, just as his masterpiece,Attirement of the Bride(1940), enchants us with a bare white body framed in brilliant plumage a homage to the romance novelChemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz(1616). As Merve Emre says, Shouldnt the two be allies in a planetary war against dbutante balls, against kings and queens and empires, against the cannibalising machinery of capital, which takes the domination of women and nature as its origin point? Yes!

Make love, not war I will forever be haunted by Dalis masterpiece in the last room of the exhibition,Uranium and Atomica Melancholia Idyll(1945), which describes the horror of WWII but seems to prefigure the present war in Ukraine, not in the least for the small, fragile bubbles of yellow and blue. I think of the haunting wall of portraits of Ukrainian mothers who have lost their sons in the war at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Misericordia a world without boys, without men, is a dead world. I am reminded that Carrington was also a founding member of the womens liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s. Unlike Alemani, Subelytes show is focused on psychic freedom and the belief that such freedom cannot be achieved until political freedom is also accomplished.

As I leave, I select Sam Fenders Seventeen Going Under on my playlist and walk out into the glorious, soaking rain.

Top Photo: Simone Leigh Brick House, 2019 Words/Photos Nico Kos Earle 2022 Artlyst

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Surrealism's Alternative History The 59th Venice Biennale - Nico Kos Earle - ArtLyst