Raised in a wealthy, well-connected family in England, the young Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) glommed onto stories her mother and grandmother told of Celtic folk tales about mythical beings in Ireland. Her imagination ran rampant as a child, and a rebellious spirit earned her expulsion from more than one convent school for antics like writing backwards and even trying to levitate. Later, her father insisted she be presented to the court of King George V at a debutante ball and was expected to “marry well.”

Art and fantasy continued to call to Carrington, though, and not to be sallied by social convention, she attended the Chelsea School of Art, discovered Surrealism at the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition, and developed a close relationship with artist Max Ernst. Over time, through Ernst’s connections, she got to know veritable art historical titans like André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and more.

The prolific artist may be known foremost for her otherworldly paintings, but the artist’s oeuvre extends far beyond the two-dimensional surface. Shape of Dreams at L’SPACE Gallery highlights Carrington’s imaginative approach to sculpture and wearable art, particularly through large-scale lost-wax bronze sculptures and gold-plated jewelry. The vast majority of the sculptures were cast toward the end of Carrington’s lifetime, with just a few made posthumously.

Dreamy surrealist fictions seeped into every aspect of Carrington’s work. She was profoundly influenced by traumatic experiences during World War II, which led to a months-long stay in a psychiatric institution. Once she was discharged, she eventually settled in Mexico, where she lived in a kind of exile and made surreal work that investigates the nature of transience and uncertainty, especially through motifs like floating creatures and shifting landscapes. “There are exhibitions that begin with scholarship, and there are exhibitions that begin with intuition,” the gallery says. “Shape of Dreams began with a simple but persistent question: what happens when the fantastical beings that inhabit Leonora Carrington’s paintings step out of the canvas and into our world?”

Indeed, the mythical, pagan character of the artist’s three-dimensional works are drawn directly from the figures in her paintings. Cloaked figures, strange masks, and human-animal hybrids populate a fantastical, magical world. “The sculptures appear almost in procession, as though Carrington’s creatures, priestesses, hybrid animals, and dream-beings have stepped out of the pictorial plane and entered the gallery space,” says a statement.

Shape of Dreams continues through July 25 in New York. You may also be interested in a new biopic titled Leonora in the Morning Light, plus the exhibition Leonora Carrington: Portrait of a Singular Artist, which continues through July 19 at the Musée du Luxembourg.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Surreal Figures Step from Leonora Carrington’s Paintings into ‘Shape of Dreams’ appeared first on Colossal.

The voice behind Dancing in the Street, Heat Wave and many more is releasing her first album in 22 years – and will take on your questions

Martha Reeves is one of the defining voices of 1960s pop, someone who embodied the romance and euphoria of Motown Records at its peak. And at the age of 84, she is preparing to release a new album – her first in 22 years. To mark the occasion, she’ll be joining us to answer your questions.

Born in Alabama and raised in Detroit, Reeves started out in the shadows of Motown Records, first doing administrative work, then backing vocals for the likes of Marvin Gaye. But in 1962 she got her shot as a lead artist with Martha and the Vandellas. Their second single, Come and Get These Memories, was a hit – and their third was an absolute smash. Heat Wave featured an astonishing performance from Reeves as she was knocked for six by love and lust. It kicked off a run of similarly lovestruck hits such as Jimmy Mack, I’m Ready for Love and Nowhere to Run. Dancing in the Street, meanwhile, was a euphoric paean to dance which took on a new meaning at the height of the civil rights movement, becoming a rallying call for protesters to unite.

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DEN HAAG (ANP) - De provincie Zuid-Holland heeft nog geen formele bevestiging gekregen, maar gaat ervan uit dat de Maasvlakte is afgevallen als potentiële locatie voor twee kerncentrales. Gedeputeerde Arno Bonte (energie, PRO) las donderdag in de Volkskrant dat volgens hoogspanningsbeheerder TenneT de Groningse Eemshaven de enige locatie is waar het technisch en zonder enorme extra kosten mogelijk is om twee kerncentrales te bouwen.

Vrijdag maakt het kabinet een voorlopig locatiebesluit bekend. Volgens de PZC zijn het Sloegebied bij Borssele en de Maasvlakte afgevallen en komen de centrales bij Terneuzen of in de Eemshaven.

"We wachten nog op definitief uitsluitsel van het kabinet. Maar het zou een verstandig besluit zijn als de Maasvlakte inderdaad is geschrapt als mogelijke locatie", aldus Bonte. De provincie concludeerde eerder zelf al dat er "veel meer nadelen dan voordelen" zitten aan plaatsing van kerncentrales op de Tweede Maasvlakte, het nieuwste uitbreidingsdeel van de Rotterdamse haven.

'Ruimte tekort'

Zuid-Holland liet adviesbureau Lysias onderzoeken wat de effecten zouden zijn. De conclusie van Lysias was dat de komst van kerncentrales "zowel kansen als uitdagingen" met zich meebrengt voor de omliggende gemeenten. Zuid-Holland stuurde twee maanden geleden het volledige rapport naar staatssecretaris Jo-Annes de Bat van Klimaat en Groene Groei, samen met een brief waarin het vooral de nadelen benadrukte.

"Natuurlijk biedt de komst van kerncentrales een aantal kansen, maar het levert vooral uitdagingen en bedreigingen op", zei Bonte toen. Hij somt ze nu weer op: het gebrek aan ruimte in de Rotterdamse haven, de toename van netcongestie in een gebied waar het stroomnet al vol zit, de veiligheid en economische belangen.

"Het zou zonde zijn om zo'n dure diepzeekade te gebruiken voor een koelwatervoorziening voor een kerncentrale", aldus Bonte. "Bovendien concurreert het ook met de windparken op zee, waarvan we de stroom voor een groot deel willen laten 'aanlanden' op de Maasvlakte. De uitkomsten van het TenneT-onderzoek verbazen ons dus niet. Zuid-Holland is de drukstbevolkte provincie met de meeste economische activiteiten, die al heel veel ruimte tekortkomt. Dit is gewoon geen logische plek voor kerncentrales."

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Brain-inspired computing may one day help curb AI's ballooning energy demands, but don't expect it to replace today's datacenter hardware any time soon, UK politicans have been told. Speaking to MPs this week, University of York professor Martin Trefzer said neuromorphic and other bio-inspired systems could improve efficiency by borrowing ideas from biological brains, where memory and processing are integrated rather than split across separate components. Analysis from last year shows AI is the biggest driver pushing global datacenter electricity use to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh), slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan. "Data movement is probably one of the fundamental things we can learn from the brain. We don't have a memory bank on one computer and a [processor] on the other; it's all one system, and that is underpinning the efficiency," Trefzer told the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee. At the same time, the brain "is not a rigid computer that is kind of clocked in a digital system." "This is motivating us to really build computing systems that are adaptable, to make them more robust, and to potentially adapt them to be more efficient in certain circumstances," Trefzer said. However, given the complexity of the as-yet-experimental computing model, it could be a long time before it proves its worth as a replacement for mature computing systems. "It is always pitched against a very mature technology like LLMs running in datacenters, but suffering from all the energy and sustainability problems," he said. The only way experimental technologies like neuromorphic computing – which takes inspiration from the brain – could have a practical impact in the short term is through specific applications alongside conventional computing to make it more efficient. "A wearable device, let's say a hearing aid, for example: you currently have these devices that are built on a digital substrate. We train models offline, but you could imagine a neuromorphic substrate that is susceptible to sound, that has modalities that allow it to function in a more brain-inspired computational manner. Then you could push functionality out of the digital system into, in this case, a sensor. This is where there is significant potential to be much more energy efficient, by orders of magnitude," Trefzer said. The short-term impact will be in identifying use cases for hybrid integration that work with current technology to optimize it. Also speaking to the committee, University of Manchester physics professor Caterina Doglioni said these advantages need to be offset against the energy and carbon cost of putting more devices on the edge, but there could be a threshold over which a new model is more efficient. "I hate to be the person that breaks it, but you have to think about how much it costs you and the environment to build these devices, but one can reach a break-even point where ultimately it is doing a better job on environmental sustainability, but that needs the studies," she said. ®