The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 5A
Art and the
business world
Ringo?
Isolation and mayhem
When the Career Center
hosted a panel of people
working for museums
earlier this year, Gregory Tom, the
Museum of Contemporary Art:
Detroit's programming and develop-
ment coordinator, commented that
of all businesses, nonprofits are the
most concerned with money. Many
arts institutions
and presenters
are nonprofits,
including our
Detroit Institute V
of Art, Univer-
sity Musical
Society and the
University's ABIGAIL B.
Museum of Art. COLODNER
In several - -.-.
campus events
this week, the student organization
Arts Enterprise posits that arts and
businesses - by generic definition,
profit-seekers - have somethingto
say to one another. The organization
calls itself a "forum" for students of
the Ross School and of the School of
Music, Theater, and Dance. An arti-
cle later this week will cover resident
renaissance man Eric Booth's 5:30
p.m. lecture today at the Rackham
Amphitheater and his residency at
the University, which is co-spon-
sored by the group.
Maya Angelou's charismatic
appearance at Hill Auditorium
in October as the Ross School of
Business's alumni weekend keynote
speaker conspicuously ushered in
this talk of the convergence of prac-
tices. After Ross School Dean Robert
Dolan introduced her, Angelou pro-
claimed, "I'm not surprised to find a
man who knows arts and science go
together like peaches and cream in
Ann Arbor."
In a preview of the event, Ross
School spokesman Paul Gediman
told The Michigan Daily that "busi-
ness doesn't exist in a vacuum. It
exists in the real, complex world full
of artists, writers, poets, doctors,
activists and others." The inverse
- that art exists in a world formally
predicated on economic negotiations
- is just as true.
Nonetheless, there's a misguided
tendencyto define artby its distance
from practical, strategic or monetary
concerns, the labor of a pure mind
spoolingthrough the world of ideas
in search of beauty. That idea of art
as necessarily esoteric and theoreti-
cal is the convention.
Because of this ready association,
it's easy to talk about artistic efforts
as if they are - or as if they should be
- isolated incidents. But for a prac-
tice that supposedly requires only an
imagination and a means of expres-
sion, political and monetary net-
works could not be more important.
A recent New Yorker article on
the contemporary art market exem-
plified how knotted the powerful
structures that support the creation
and exhibition of art are. The article
described New York-based art dealer
Jeffrey Deitch's feverish lifestyle of
keeping an eye on art deals, securing
paintings for his clients, sponsoring
bizarre performance art events and
inviting artists to fancy dinners. Per-
haps naively, I was taken aback by
the dizzying intricacy and busyness
(pun forgivable) of the art market.
As should have been unsurprising
to me, it read less like a discussion
of art than a discussion of, well, a
market. The author quotes Deitch as
saying, "We live in an increasingly
culture-based economy, and the
value of art is in synch with other
tangible assets now, like real estate."
Art sales reaching into the hun-
dreds of millions of dollars are large-
ly private enterprises, although the
article brushes on the role of dollars
in public art endeavors as well.
Another campus event, happen-
ing today at UMMA/Off-site at6
p.m., "dream.DETROIT," seeks to
pool ideas about the public role of
art and, most pressingly, the policy
behind that role. Like I said, it's all
too easy to imagine that art doesn't
need material support - and that, in
its aesthetic bubble, it has no power
to infuse business endeavors with
its relevancy. But as Angelou said of
arts and science, "One without the
other's not much of anything."
Art asa practice comments on the
world and elevates people's observa-
tions of it. With such potent imagi-
nation, art should be on a two-way
street with policy. Today's UMMA
event is put on by the Roosevelt
Institution, a "nonprofit, nonparti-
san student thinktank" according to
RC junior Lainie Kokas, director of
the new Urban Planning and Com-
munity Development Center in the
Institution, and co-sponsored by the
Detroit Project and College Demo-
crats.
"dream.DETROIT" will be part
of a series of speakers and discus-
sion on arts in Detroit, withthe
goal of brainstorming innovative
policy ideas. Kokas told me she
expected the event - which is free
and includes such varied speakers as
UMS's president and the founding
director of the Cultural Alliance of
Southeast Michigan - to produce
"some powerful ideas, which will
be noted so they can be researched
later."
At the risk of over-quoting Ange-
lou, I offer a final statement on the
inherent relationship between the
arts and the workaday world: "There
is an order to all things. As a poetI
start with that premise."
To all systems, some beauty.
- Colodner is a closet academic.
E-mail her at abigabor@umich.edu.
enerally, thrillers begin with the
protagonist's demand of the audi-
ence's sympa-
thy. Meanwhile,
the villain is only gradually ****7
unveiled until the audience
observes his full wrath dur- No Country
ing a climactic breaking for Old Men
point of anxiety.
The Coens (Joel and At the State
Ethan, "The Ladykillers") Theater,
completely disregard this Quality 16 and
convention in "No Country Showcase
for Old Men," 'an adaptation Miramax
of the Cormac McCarthy
novel of the same title. The
first scene sets a brutal, unrelenting tone for
the rest of the movie: Anton Chigurh (Javier
Bardem, "Collateral") blasts an apparently
innocent old man's brains out with some kind
of pressurized hardware. The senior was just
trying to help jump Anton's car.
Elsewhere, the supposed protagonist,
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin, "Planet Terror"),
unsuspectingly uncovers the remains of a
drug deal gone wrong with a high body count
(including a dead dog) and only one survivor,
who is slowly dying and begs for "agua." With
the scene, the Coens drop a frank reminder of
how masochistic they can be and how sadistic
"No Country" will be.
Llewelyn takes a satchel filled with money
and leaves the man to die. Within two angst-
ridden and prolonged scenes - in which
Anton literally throws the life of a helpless gas
station attendant in the air with a coin toss,
and Llewelyn foolishly returns to the crime
The brothers
Coen smash
into genres
By Elie Zwiebel
Daily Arts Writer
scene to satisfy his conscience's plea to help
the parched man - it becomes clear Anton
has been hired to recover the case of money.
Both men are driven: Anton, calculating
and maniacal, tracks the money, nonchalant-
ly murdering anyone who irks him or gets in
his way; Llewelyn shrewdly does all he can
to delay what he realizes is inevitable - the
eventual and unwilling surrender of both the
money and his life.
Bardem plays sociopathic Anton with
maverick precision, maintaining the disturb-
ing air of intelligence behind his character.
Brolin gives one of his better performances,
never seeming desperate despite Llewelyn's
overwhelmed mix of fear, anger and a lack of
options.
Not only does "No Country" have a tight
suspense plot to make John Grisham wince,
it's also terrifying. The perverse use of power
tools evokes memories of the gory insanity
in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," but the
Coens challenge horror conventions. Anton
is revealed as the monster early in the film
with explicit, graphic violence, and the Coens
diminish the gore as the movie progresses,
leaving it up to the viewer to construct their
own horrific, bloody images of death. And
without doubt, the Coens supply their audi-
ence with plenty of these opportunities.
But "No Country" isn't just a thriller or
horror film - it's a western. As much as the
Coens play on blood and the viewer's imagi-
nation, the film also emphasizes dioramic
shots of the undeveloped West. At its core,
"No Country" is about cowboys jostling with
one another and with the characters' pro-
found isolation.
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones,
"In the Valley of Elah"), a local law enforcer
always three steps behind the other rogue
characters, confronts the constant combat
in the face of grave seclusion. His age only
exaggerates these motifs. Bell is on the verge
of retirement and clearly feels a deep sense
of disgust (accompanied by exhaustion and
confusion) over the crimes and his inability
to prevent further bloodshed.
Above all, "No Country for Old Men" is
unfalteringly forceful. The Coens allow Sher-
iff Bell to channel McCarthy's voice self-
reflexively: "You just can't imagine this stuff,
and I dare you to." The intensity is warped
and creative. But by the end, the audience is
in the driver's seat. We're forced to concoct
our own masochistic confrontations that pass
off-camera and, eventually, imagine the hor-
rendous acts Anton has already perpetrated
as well as those yet to come to insane and
bloody fruition.
ARTS IN BRIEF
IN CONCERT
FILM
One 'Hit away from
the bottom of the
barrel
"Hitman"
At Quality 16 and Showcase
20th Century Fox
Watching "Hitman" isn't as
excruciating as, say, getting a bar-
code tattooed on the base of your
skull,butitisn't exactly akiss on the
cheek, either. Unlike many recent
shoot-'em-up films before it ("The
Transporter," "Smokin' Aces" and
the one they actually called "Shoot
'Em Up"), "Hitman" suffers from
the additional symptom of being
based on a mediocre video game.
As any person with eyes and ears
can tell you, movie adaptations of
video games range from the mar-
ginal ("Resident Evil") to the abys-
mal ("House of the Dead"), and
"Hitman" lies somewhere in the
middle.
Timothy Olyphant (TV's "Dead-
wood") plays the most conspicu-
ous-looking assassin in the world
(officer, I'd check out what's in that
massive, tattooed bald guy's bag),
known only by the number 47. He's
contracted to kill the Russian presi-
dent, but he discovers he's been set
up. Guns, boobs and explosions
abound, and about 87 people are
dead by thetime he gets his revenge.
Originally marketed as PG-13, you
can see the places where digital
splashes of blood have been added
or sequences of random nudity
have been extended to appease the
game's rabid fan base. As a member
of the 98% male audience, I'm sure
you'll at least cheer for that.
PAUL TASSI
COMPETITION
Rethinking North
create a public, interactive, educa-
tional and imaginative element that
will contribute significantly to the
social, cultural, and physical envi-
ronment of the North Campus."
Basically, you're supposed to
come up with a conceptual "ele-
ment" that gives our friends up a
north a good jolt. The kicker? First
prize takes home $10,000, and sec-
ond place nabs half of that. There
are also prizes for honorable men-
tions. Not a bad incentive.
Working in teams is required,
since you must have at least two
different North Campus schools
represented. There will be a ques-
tion-and-answer session next Mon-
day in room 1200 of the Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
Building and a public information
session the following Monday at a
location to be announced.
This sounds like a fantastic
brain exercise. Who's goingto have
the guts to propose turning North,
Campus into its own flying city?
ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN
a child would hinder her future as
a cellist, forges her signature on
adoption papers and sends their
newborn Evan (Freddie High-
more, "Finding Neverland") to an
orphanage. Evan eventually sets
off to New York City, and with the
help of a Fagin-like Robin Williams
("Good Will Hunting"), a guitar
and Julliard, he puts his music out
into the world in hopes his parents
will hear it and find him.
As determinedly saccharine as
the movie is, "August Rush" is sal-
vaged by the one thing the movie
hammers home: music. The music
is pitch-perfect throughout, a har-
monious blend of rock and classical
that holds the audience as it waits
for the crescendo. The power of the
universal language of music binds
the characters and the audience
together, emotionally and physical-
ly. When the movie focuses on that
simple force, "August Rush" doesn't
need leaps of faith to succeed.
SARAH SCHWARTZ
Campus with
multimedia FILM
North Campus Competition: The 'Rush' only
Work/Play relates to the music
Conceptualizing never felt so
good. Or, for that matter, paid so
well. Arts on Earth (artsonearth. "August Rush"
org), which brought us a delicious At Quality 16 and Showcase
night of photography and art at The Warner Bros.
Michigan Theater in early Novem-
ber, among other events, is hold- A reimagining of "Oliver" into
ing a contest unlike anything I've another musical, "August Rush" is
ever heard of at the University. full of flights of airy fancy. Louis
"Work/Play" is a call for ideas (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "Match
on how to the revamp our fair Point") and Lyla (Ker Russell,
North Campus. It's an "open, TV's "Felicity") meet under a New
interdisciplinary challenge to York moon. Lyla's father, believing
Indie group Tegan and Sara perform a free concert at Borders on Liberty Street
to promote its new album The Con. The line for the show began to take shape this
morning at 5 a.m. The twin sisters hailing from Calgary will continue their tour
tomorrow in front of a sold-out crowd at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit.
John Mayer. But not really.