‘Safety Orange’ Considers a Curious Hue – ARTnews.com

Anna Watkins Fisher’s book Safety Orange , 2022, University of Minnesota Press. Courtesy University of Minnesota Press. “If the U.S. cultural present were a color,” Anna Watkins Fisher writes in her new book, “it would be Safety Orange.” The highly visible hue is the subject of a new 98-page volume, Safety Orange, which came out in January as part of the University of Minnesota Press’s reliably good “Forerunners” series. The book considers the color as an emblem of neoliberal “responsibilization.”
In Watkins Fisher’s conception, safety orange can be read as a tool that the government uses to warn everyday citizens of hazards and disrepair while placing the responsibility of safety on everyday citizens, rather than the municipal powers that be. Traffic cones and tape that prevent pedestrian access are mere stopgap measures that make passersby accountable for avoiding obstacles, regardless of whether a safe alternative route is provided. Flashes of orange on graphs and maps signal growing Covid hot spots without suggesting what might be done to dial them back to yellow. Related Articles Pick up Watkins Fisher’s book, and you’ll start seeing America through orange-colored lenses. Our last president was orange, while our current one deploys the color left and right as part of his bid to patch up crumbling infrastructure. According to the author, in at least eight states—Ohio, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida—residents commonly joke that the traffic cone is their official state flower. And of course, nothing is truly American without a promise of a better future—so safety orange can also be a symbol, however unconvincing, that our streets are under repair and better buildings are on their way. Safety Orange epitomizes, as Watkins Fisher writes, “life lived in unsustainable conditions.” Safety Orange couldn’t be more different from other books devoted to single colors like Maggie Nelson’s Bluets (2009) and Anne Carson’s The Autobiography of Red travel (1998). Watkins Fisher’s chosen hue is bereft of romance, and her interpretation hardly hinges on metaphors. That safety orange is entirely manmade makes this a book of design history more than poetic pontification. The color, which first emerged in the U.S. in 1950 as a warning device in technical manuals and federal regulations, was engineered to contrast with any natural environment—blue skies, gray days, forest greens. Soon, hunters began wearing it to distinguish themselves from whatever else might be lurking between patches of leaves.
Though originally designed for a specific function, the semiotics of the high-visibility hue have grown complicated. Watkins Fisher writes that the color signals urgency “but is oddly unspecific,” and that it is “informational without being informative.” Its imperative to stay alert and cautious is undermined by its pervasiveness. If everything is an emergency, then nothing is. In this, way it reflects how threat today is “chronically immanent.”
In her scholarship, Watkins Fisher often turns to complicated strategies of subversive affirmation. A media scholar with a PhD from Brown’s storied Modern Culture and Media Department, she now teaches at the University of Michigan, and her theoretical writing often thinks through works of contemporary art. She has written about artworks that issue critiques by performing stereotypes or caricaturing cultural assumptions in excess, so as to point out how stupid or absurd those stereotypes and assumptions are. In her best-known essay, “Manic Impositions: The Parasitical Art of Chris Kraus and Sophie Calle,” from 2012, she describes a tactic she calls “parasite feminism,” showing how both Calle and Kraus have each performed a kind of self-aware, stereotypically feminine needy helplessness. These two artists create characters who are so passive that they become needy, even threatening—especially in the eyes of the male figures whom they take as host bodies.
In a similar spirit, the final chapter of Safety Orange is devoted to art projects that retool the rhetoric of the titular hue by appropriating the color as “a way to force the state to make good on its promise of public safety.” The author considers works—by Amanda Williams, Object Orange, and Michael Rakowitz—that use orange to show who public safety is really intended for in a state founded on and structured by anti-Blackness. Michael Rakowitz: A Color Removed, 2015-18. Photo Anna Watkins Fisher The most compelling example is Rakowitz’s A Color Removed (2015–18), for which the Iraqi-born artist proposed displacing all uses of the color orange from the city of Cleveland to a gallery in protest of the killing of Tamir Rice. The two officers who shot 12-year-old Rice claimed their actions were justified because the toy gun he had been playing with did not have an orange cap. They said that, without this cap, they were unable to recognize the child as “safe.” This argument helped both of them get acquitted.
Rakowitz’s installation, which he created for Cleveland’s 2018 Front Triennial, includes an arrangement of orange toys on poster board by Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, alongside donated orange objects from the community—traffic cones, Halloween decorations, Cheetos wrappers. In her reading of Rakowitz’s work, Watkins Fisher shows that when the state applies safety orange to Black people, it often frames them as crises to manage more than people to protect. Similarly, incarcerated people are often marked orange so that they remain visible to their captors, and the same plastic barricades that can be used to warn of obstacles can also be wielded to contain protestors in pens.
In an age when so many books of aesthetic and critical theory feel not only dense but several degrees removed from things that matter in daily life, Safety Orange stands apart. It’s a convincing kind of argument that makes you see things differently, be they artworks, the United States, or urban detritus on your daily walk.

Humanity’s just one misunderstanding away from ‘nuclear annihilation’ warns UN chief — Global Issues

The UN chief was speaking at the opening of the Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which runs through 26 August. 
Mr. Guterres highlighted some of the current challenges to global peace and security, with the world under greater stress due to the climate crisis, stark inequalities, conflicts and human rights violations, as well as the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Disarmament not disunity 
He said the meeting is taking place amid these challenges, and at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War. 
“Geopolitical tensions are reaching new highs.  Competition is trumping co-operation and collaboration.  Distrust has replaced dialogue and disunity has replaced disarmament.   States are seeking false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons that have no place on our planet,” he said. 
Currently, almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world, he added. 
“All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening.   And when crises — with nuclear undertones — are festering, From the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula. To the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and to many other factors around the world.” 
He said today, humanity was “just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” 
A new path 
The Secretary-General underlined the importance of the non-proliferation treaty, saying it is needed “as much as ever”, while the review meeting provides an opportunity “to put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons.” 
He outlined five areas for action, starting with reinforcing and reaffirming the norm against the use of nuclear weapons, which requires steadfast commitment from all parties to the treaty. 
“We need to strengthen all avenues of dialogue and transparency. Peace cannot take hold in an absence of trust and mutual respect,” he said. 
Countries also must “work relentlessly” towards the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, which begins with new commitment to shrink their numbers. 
This will also mean reinforcing multilateral agreements and frameworks on disarmament and non-proliferation, which includes the important work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  
Address ‘simmering tensions’ 
For his third point, Mr. Guterres focused on the need to address the “simmering tensions” in the Middle East and Asia.  
“By adding the threat of nuclear weapons to enduring conflicts, these regions are edging towards catastrophe. We need to redouble our support for dialogue and negotiation to ease tensions and forge new bonds of trust in regions that have seen too little,” he said.   
The Secretary-General also called for promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology, such as for medical purposes, as a catalyst for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
Finally, he urged governments to fulfill all outstanding commitments in the treaty, “and keep it fit-for-purpose in these trying times.” 
Unexpected dimension
The head of the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, spoke of how the “spectre of war” has brought a new and unexpected dimension to nuclear safety in Ukraine.
Rafael Mariano Grossi said that at the beginning of the conflict, now nearly six months old, he outlined Seven Pillars of nuclear safety that should never be violated.  They include respecting the physical integrity of nuclear power plants, and ensuring staff can carry out their duties without undue pressure.
“All these seven principles have been trampled upon or violated since this tragic episode started,” he told the conference.
While the IAEA was able to work with Ukraine to restore the systems at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the 1986 disaster, Mr. Grossi continues to push for a mission to the Zaporizhzhya plant, the largest in the country, which is occupied by Russian forces.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to go,” he said. “We hope to be able to come to Zaporizhzhya because if something happens there, we will only have ourselves to blame for it. Not a catastrophe, not an earthquake, or tsunami.  It will be our own inaction to blame for it.”
Iran and DPRK
Mr. Grossi also addressed other issues, including related to monitoring of Iran’s nuclear programme. 
“We know that for us to be able to give the necessary and credible assurances that every activity in the Islamic Republic of Iran is in peaceful uses, we need to work collaborative(ly) with them,” he said.
“It can be done, we have been doing it in the past, but we need – and I say this very clearly – we need to have the access that is commensurate with the breadth and depth of that nuclear fitness programme.”
The situation in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) also remains a concern, and he expressed hope that IAEA inspectors will be able to return to the country.   Video player

Mark Ruffalo on Marvel’s She-Hulk: Clip Raises Silly Questions

Bartender Hulk. Screenshot: YouTube/Marvel Studios The trailers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law have made it seem like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk is the show’s second lead. He’s all over the marketing . And now, he’s driving the first clip released from the show too. But we have questions about all of this. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law debuts on Disney+ August 17 and stars ‎Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who ends up with the powers of the Hulk . Which makes sense as she’s the cousin of Bruce Banner, played by Ruffalo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who apparently shows up on the series to help her figure out her new powers. In the first clip, below, you see a bit more of that. Then we’ll get into those questions. Nailing It Clip | Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law | Disney+ “All buzz, no barf.” Right. So if Hulks metabolize alcohol at “an incredibly fast rate,” how does he get a buzz at all? Wouldn’t it be more like drinking water then? The effects of the booze all but negated? Unless of course, you have to drink like, a whole lot, and then what’s good about that? In theory, if we’re going by the argument that getting buzzed but not puking is a good thing, ideally you’d want to drink less—one or two drinks—and stop there. Instead, in this scenario you just drank a ton for minor effect and just have to pee a lot. We do not see this as a bonus.
Also, just how much do you think Ruffalo is on She-Hulk? We haven’t seen any episodes yet but we’re guessing he’s in the first episode when all of this stuff happens, and then that’s it. Maybe he comes back at the very end of the final episode. It’s not cheap fitness to have one Hulk on screen, let alone two. Either way, we have to admit after seeing Banner pop up at the end of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, we’re more than a little curious what he’s been up to here during Phase 4, and especially how it’ll tie into his cousin joining the universe. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law hits Disney+ August 17. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power .

Email Marketing: What You Should Do

When you find yourself just starting to put a stamp on the Internet landscape, it is important to create relationships with the clients or customers. E-mail marketing could be a fantastic way to achieve this. This post is filled up with tips about broadcasting good emails.Do not video marketing ever send unsolicited emails to unsuspecting customers. In…

First Ukraine grain ship since start of war leaves Odesa

First Ukraine grain ship bound for Lebanon
Turkey says more ships to follow
Russian missiles pound port of Mykolaiv KYIV, Aug 1 (Reuters) – A ship carrying grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa for Lebanon on Monday under a safe passage agreement, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said, the first departure since the Russian invasion blocked shipping through the Black Sea five months ago.
Ukraine’s foreign minister called it “a day of relief for the world”, especially for countries threatened by food shortages and hunger because of the disrupted shipments.
The sailing was made possible after Turkey and the United Nations brokered a grain-and-fertiliser export agreement between Russia and Ukraine last month. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “The first grain ship since #RussianAggression has left port,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said. “Today Ukraine, together with its partners, makes another step to prevent world hunger.”
The Turkish defence minister said earlier that the Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni would head to Lebanon.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has led to a worldwide food and energy crisis and the United Nations has warned of the risk of multiple famines this year.
Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat exports. But Western sanctions on Russia and fighting along Ukraine’s eastern seaboard have prevented grain ships safely leaving ports.
The deal aims to allow safe passage for grain shipments in and out of Odesa, Chornomorsk and the port of Pivdennyi.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter: “The day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as the first Ukrainian grain leaves Odesa after months of Russian blockade”.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for slowing exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said the Razoni would anchor in the Bosphorus off Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon and will be inspected by a joint team of Russian, Ukrainian, United Nations and Turkish representatives.
“It will then continue as long as no problems arise,” Akar said.
Ukrainian presidential officials have said 17 ships are docked in Black Sea ports with almost 600,000 tonnes of cargo, mostly grain.
Kubrakov said more ships would follow. Unlocking the ports would provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue for Ukraine’s economy and allow the agricultural sector to plan next year’s sowing season, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv welcomed the shipping resumption, saying: “The world will be watching for continued implementation of this agreement to feed people around the world with millions of tons of trapped Ukrainian grain.”
BOMBARDMENTS IN SOUTH AND EAST
Despite the breakthrough on the grain shipments, the war ground on elsewhere.
Three civilians were killed by Russian shelling in Donetsk region – two in Bakhmut and one in nearby Soledar – in the last 24 hours, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
An important industrial city and transport hub, Bakhmut has been under Russian bombardment for the past week as the Kremlin’s forces try to occupy all of Donetsk.
It is connected to the towns of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk region, which is almost all occupied by Russia. Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said the road was crucial for delivering weapons to Ukrainians fighting in Sievierodonetsk and evacuating people form that area.
Russian strikes also hit Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second biggest city and situated near the border with Russia – on Monday, regional governor Oleh Synegubov said. Two civilians were wounded, he said.
After failing to quickly capture the capital Kyiv early in the war, Russia has turned its forces on Ukraine’s east and south and has been aiming to capture the Donbas region, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia has been transferring some forces from the Donbas to the southern Kherson and Zaporizhizhya regions.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Kyiv says Moscow is seeking to do the same with the Donbas and link it to Crimea in the south. Russian-backed separatist controlled parts of the region before the invasion.
Russia invaded Ukraine in what it called a “special operation” to demilitarise its neighbour. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war.
Russian missiles on Sunday pounded Mykolaiv, a port city on the River Bug estuary off the Black Sea that borders the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said more than 12 missile strikes – probably the most powerful on the city in five months of war – hit homes and schools, with two people confirmed killed and three wounded.
Ukrainian grain tycoon Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon, and his wife were killed in their home, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Zelenskiy said the businessman – one of Ukraine’s richest – had been building a modern grain market with a network of transhipment terminals and elevators.
“It is these people, these companies, precisely the south of Ukraine, which has guaranteed the world’s food security,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “This was always so. And it will be so once again.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine may harvest only half its usual amount this year due to disruption to farming from the war. Farmers have reported trying to harvest in between Russian shelling of their fields and nearby towns and villages. Register now for fashion FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry and Angus MacSwan; Editing by Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Crankworx Summer Series attracts top talent to SilverStar Mountain Resort – Okanagan

The Crankworx Summer Series has taken over SilverStar Mountain Resort for four days of adrenaline-fueled competition. The competition brings with it Crankworx caliver racing and competitors from around the world to the Okanagan.
“Crankworx is the ultimate experience in mountain biking. Born in Whistler, B.C. in 2004, Crankworx has evolved into a multi-stop international festival series. The Crankworx World Tour brings together the best mountain bike athletes to compete in elite-level competitions in a variety of disciplines,” states a press release.
The Crankworx Summer Series takes competitors on a tour to Canadian tracks. This year it’s at SilverStar Bike Park as well as five different mountains in Quebec. “Races and competitions give local and up-and-coming racers a chance to race with national and international heroes, providing a path to potential future Crankworx World Tour greatness, and a real good time along the way,” states the release.
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Competing this year is Langley, B.C.’s Chance Moore. He’s hoping to secure a spot in the Redbull Joyride competition that takes place at Crankworx in Whistler Aug. 13 by riding well at the Summer Series.
“I love the adrenaline of it all how big it is and how big you can go, you can push yourself and it’s super sweet,” said Moore. The competition is as steep as the ramps. Moore will be going up against riders like Nicholi Rogatkin from Boston, U.S.
I have always been the type of rider that does a lot of rotations and spins,” said Rogatkin. “Some of the other guys have more technical skills and combination maneuvers but  for me, it’s a crowd pleaser, gymnastic style.”
To win the whole thing, the managing director of Crankworx, Darren Kinnaird says the 140 athletes competing this weekend don’t just need to have the right skills and to land their tricks. There’s something else that can bring them the win.
“It’s going to take nerves of steel, what these guys are doing, it’s risky,” said Kinnaird. “They practice so much, you really notice with the best of the best how calm they look when they fitness are in the start gate and when they get on the course, just the confidence they have really shines through.”
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Up next is Crankworx in Whistler, B.C. Aug. 4 to Aug. 14. The Crankworx Summer Series continues in Quebec Sept. 1 to Sept. 5.

Taiwan’s Palace Museum Practices War Drill—and More Art News – ARTnews.com

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our  Breakfast with ARTnews  newsletter. The Headlines CONTINGENCY PLANS. The National Palace Museum in Taiwan recently staged its first “wartime response exercise,” readying staff for what to do in the event that China invades the island, CNN reports. While the treasure-filled Taipei institution did not going into detail about how and where it plans to move its holdings in the case of military conflict, it did say that it will focus on safeguarding some 90,000 of the 700,000 items it manages, with an emphasis on high-value and portable material. Many of those pieces were brought to Taiwan from Beijing’s Palace Museum in 1949 by the Chinese Nationalist Party, when it retreated amid the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. “Whether we need to evacuate the artifacts is subject to the commander-in-chief if there is a war,” museum officials said in a statement. Related Articles THE ART OF DIPLOMACY. In comments to the  Sunday Times Culture fitness  magazine, the  British Museum ’s deputy director, Jonathan Williams, proposed what he termed a “ Parthenon  partnership” with Greece, saying that his institution wants to “change the temperature of the debate” over the contested Elgin Marbles. Williams did not call for those marbles to be returned to Athens, but the director of the Acropolis Museum there, Nikolaos Stampolidis, told the Associated Press that there may be a “basis for constructive talks.” If the Elgin Marbles were to be sent back to Greece, it “would be as if the British were restoring democracy itself,” Stampolidis said.  The Digest The English-born Irish artist and illustrator Pauline Bewick, who created lively, fantasy-infused landscapes and portraits of people and animals, has died at 86. In a statement, Ireland’s president, Michael D. Higgins, praised her “commitment to always following her own path, reflecting on the world in her own unique way.” [RTE and Independent.ie] Doreen Adengo, an acclaimed architect who founded Adengo Architecture in Kampala, Uganda, died at 45 after a long illness. Adengo taught at the New School and the Pratt Institute in New York, and was a conservation architect at the Uganda Museum. [Dezeen] Images that Dutch photographer Herman Heukels shot in 1943 of Jewish people in Amsterdam being sent to concentration camps are widely published, but until recently, his Nazi Party membership was not well known. A new book and a new Holocaust memorial in the city are changing that. [The New York Times] Collector and businessman Abhishek Poddar, the founder of the new Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore, which is the first major private art museum in South India, got the profile treatment from journalist Enid Tsui. He became immersed in art while at the Doon School (which is known as “India’s Eton”), interviewing artists for a school magazine. [South China Morning Post] In an essay, writer and curator Rijin Sahakian criticized the Berlin Biennale for including of an installation by artist Jean-Jacques Lebel with enlargements of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs. Sahakian writes that “the Biennale made the decision to commodify photos of unlawfully imprisoned and brutalized Iraqi bodies under occupation, displaying them without the consent of the victims and without any input from the Biennale’s participating Iraqi artists, whose work was adjacently installed without their knowledge.” [Artforum] Digital artist Federico Clapis came forward on Twitter to claim that they are the anonymous NFT artist known as Pak. [The Crypto Times] The Kicker IRREPLACEABLE. Last year, Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, appeared in a Tiffany ad alongside a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. Jay-Z has also name-checked the artist in his work, perhaps most notably on 2013’s “Picasso Baby” (“Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner”). And now, this past Friday, Beyoncé released her latest album, Renaissance, and it has not only  an art-historically rich cover, but also a line that references that storied figure. It’s on the hypnotic “I’m That Girl,” and has the singer “knocking Basquiats off the wall.” [Oprah Daily]