Cultivating Empathy in Children through Cultural Education Recently, I found myself getting extremely disturbed by two pieces of news related to children and adolescents. Generally, we feel bad...
The Ghosts of Japanese Folklore A close friend of mine, whom I met in Bangkok, has always been too interested in ghosts—their stories, also in mysterious techniques by which contact...
Masculine and Feminine Energies in Self and Society I have spent a lot of time reflecting on “the masculine” and “the feminine”—and several YouTubers have given me valuable insights on...
Medieval European Artistic Objects While swiftly going through Western art history in college, I found that different periods—ancient, medieval, Renaissance, modern and contemporary—made certain immediate and general impressions on...
A few years ago, I came across a Haitian art exhibition titled “Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou” (from 2012-2013) at Nottingham Contemporary, UK, and was instantly drawn to the strangeness...
Many of us are aware of the Soviet Union’s space programme, and have probably heard the names of Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova and Laika. A richly illustrated book of Soviet...
Recently, I resolved to add “Decluttering” to my daily task list, meaning that every single day I discard something I do not need or organise better something I do need....
When I think of African art in the broadest sense, I immediately imagine masks—belonging to old communities living upon scorched earth or in dense jungles, masks used in rituals...
“Alchemy” is a term I first discovered as a teenager via the bestselling novel The Alchemist (1988) by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The book itself, a mystical fable about...
Art fascinates. In a sense, spontaneity and intuition trumps intellect and I am drawn to the pioneers in art who threw away the rulebook. They wrote new stories. Paul Cézanne...
Cy Twombly’s oeuvre covers a wide range of subjects, particularly history, ancient myths and poetry. Twombly used a range of mediums to work with, including house paint, oil...
A part of history and geography that I find quite “unknown” is the Pre-Columbian world. The fact that we call it “Pre-Columbian” itself indicates how obscure it remains in...
As my entrepreneurial journey progresses and life gets busier by the day—with more connections, conversations, proposals and plans—I find myself in greater need of energy. Yes, definitely greater...
One aspect of modern education that I definitely dislike is the strict compartmentalisation of disciplines. A desire for the division of work for the sake of efficiency has created specialists...
In 19th-century art, one finds a set of paintings with extremely detailed depictions of the East—especially the Arab world and North Africa. These lands are presented as exotic, sensual and...
Over the past few years, Los Angeles-based painter and sculptor Cleon Peterson (born 1973) has emerged as a very recognisable figure in the visual arts scene, thanks to his repetitive—and...
The word “prehistoric” is very popular but when it comes to art made before the advent of settled life and writing systems, I try not to use it. Many believe...
Looking into ancient Greek and Roman visual art, I recently discovered a curious location that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the comune of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region...