Thursday, September 8, 2016

Who Does Madonna Collect? See Artists in the Material Girl's Private Collection

By Loney Abrams

Sept. 7, 2016

Who Does Madonna Collect? See Artists in the Material Girl's Private Collection

When it comes to collecting art, like a virgin Madonna is not. The pop icon began collecting in the early ‘80s when she lived in New York as a struggling dancer, hanging out with the likes of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and her then-boyfriend Jean-Michel Basquiat. (Warhol famously wrote in his diary, referring to Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn, as “just the most exciting weekend of my life.”)
Madonna has been known to dabble in the art world, having presented the Turner Prize to Martin Creed in 2001, and attending MoMA launch parties. On Madonna’s 58^th birthday last month, she announced on Twitter that’d she'll be bringing two lucky strangers with her to Art Basel in Miami in December, as a fundraising campaign for her charity Raising Malawi—giving rise to speculation about whether the pop star might be involved with the fair as a performer.
Though her collection now has an estimated value of at least $100 million, Madonna says her collection isn’t just investment, nor is it solely for décor. “I get strength from my art—all the paintings I own are powerful.” Though Madonna has been rightfully credited for creating a style and an image all her own, her album artwork, music videos, concert concepts, and even her own image is often inspired by the visual artists she collects.
'Express yourself' like Madonna does and collect artwork by artists championed by the iconic sex symbol herself.

Man Ray

Madonna owns Man Ray's Monument to D.A.F. Sade (1933)

It's not terribly surprising that Man Ray's sassy, moody, black-and-white nudes are coveted by Madonna, who reportedly owns at least three works by the American artist. Ray was a significant contributor to Dada and Surrealist art, becoming best known for his 'rayographs' made by arranging objects like wire coils and thumb tacks directly on top of photosensitive paper and exposing it to light.

Cadeau (1921/1974) is available on Artspace for $3,500

Cindy Sherman

From Madonna's Sex book, inspired by Cindy Sherman

Madonna is such a big fan of Cindy Sherman's work, that the pop icon sponsered an entire exhibition of the artist's Untitled Film Stills series at the MoMA in 1997. Sherman was just 23 years old in 1977 when she created the series, which portrayed clichéd roles women perform in film.
Then in 1992, Madonna released her coffee table book, Sex. The concept for the book was largely inspired by Cindy Sherman. Madonna told Aperture Magazine in 1999 “I love taking on different personas and becoming and transforming and the whole chameleon thing with a twist on Cindy Sherman—I’m a big fan of hers, by the way.”

Untitled (2010/2013) is available on Artspace for $6,000

Pablo Picasso

Madonna owns Picasso's Buste de Femme á la Frange (1938)

Madonna has a soft spot for the modern masters. In 2000, she bought Picasso's Buste de Femme á la Frange for almost $5 million from Christies.

Maya in a Pinafore by Fernand Mourlot (c. 1965) is available on Artspace

Damien Hirst

Madonna is rumored to own at least one artwork by Damien Hirst, known for his imagery associated with life and death, and belief and value systems.

For the Love of God is available on Artspace for $3,400

Marilyn Minter

Madonna owns Marilyn Minter's Pink Snow (2009)

Marilyn Minter’s video Green Pink Caviar was used as a backdrop to Madonna’s 2008 "Sweet and Sticky" tour. The painter and photographer explores themes of glamour, sex, and femininity—a perfect fit for the Queen of Pop.

Vamp (2011) is available on Artspace for $4,025

Salvador Dalí

Madonna owns Salvador Dalí's Le Coeur Voilé (1932)

Madonna has Salvador Dalí's Le Coeur Voilé hung on the wall of her Los Angeles living room, framed by a geometric book case with shelves that criss-cross in right angles like the lines in a Mondrian painting.

Montre Molle (1989) is available on Artspace for $15,950

Collier Schorr

Andreas POW (Every Good Soldier was a Prisoner of War) Germany (2011) by Collier Schorr

Madonna has a life-size portrait of a flaxen-haired boy in a Hitler Youth uniform photographed by Collier Schorr hanging in one of her residences. "People don't know what to think when they come here and see this photograph. I'll let them be... confused."

Young Rider (2008) is available on Artspace for $250

Tracey Emin

Madonna owns Tracey Emin's It Just Happens (2001)

It's been reported that Madonna has invited Tracey Emin for tea (how genteel!) and considers the controversial British artist a dear friend. Emin's autobiographical oeuvre acts as the artist's confessional, illustrating the artist's personal and sometimes turbulent childhood experiences and sexual history.

The Kiss Was Beautiful (2016) is available on Artspace for $800

Keith Haring

Madonna and Keith Haring

The Material Girl became friends with Keith Haring when they both we just starting out in New York, crashing on his couch when she couldn't make rent. The imaginative street artist gifted her at least one painting, before he died of AIDS in 1990. To celebrate his life that year, Madonna made the first New York date of her Blond Ambition World Tour a benefit concert for AIDS charaties.

Against All Odds, 20 Drawings (1989-1990) is available on Artspace

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat

Madonna and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat dated in the early '80s, until it ended in heart-break. “When I broke up with him he made me give [the paintings he gave me] back to him. And then he painted over them black.” Okay, so maybe Basquiat isn't in Madge's current collection, but we're including him anyway.

Rinso (1983-2003) is available on Artspace

'Magic' Picture Frame Slows Time

http://www.livescience.com/55996-magic-picture-frame-slows-time.html

http://www.livescience.com/55996-magic-picture-frame-slows-time.html#ooid=FubDdvNTE6AIdUprisdpqrY994hZBZjz

'Magic' Picture Frame Slows Time — Or So it Seems

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | September 7, 2016 07:42am ET

Have you ever wished that you could speed up time, slow it down, or stop it entirely? Maybe we all have, but unless you have Hermione Granger's Time Turner, the ability to control the clock's hands is probably not in your toolbox.
However, an invention called the "Slow Dance" frame opens a window into what it might look like to see things move in slow motion in the real world.
When you place them in the frame, delicate objects such as leaves and feathers quiver and undulate, as you might expect them to when they're stirred by a gentle breeze. But there's a subtle difference — the movements appear to happen at a fraction of their normal speed, taking place right in front of your eyes. [The Most Amazing Optical Illusions (and How They Work)]

Let's do the time warp

Jeff Lieberman, the creator of "Slow Dance," is no stranger to slow motion. He formerly hosted the Discovery Channel program "Time Warp," a science-themed show that used high-speed cameras to film everyday actions, capturing up to 40,000 frames per second (a normal camera's shooting rate is typically 30 frames per second). Using extreme slow motion, the show explored dynamic physics principles that were demonstrated by a diverse range of activities — from explosions to body piercing.
Lieberman recognized that watching things happen in slow motion creates a sense of wonder, and allows the viewer to appreciate the beauty of movement — something that they might miss if they were watching it in real time, he said in a statement.

Variable settings change the perceived motion of the object in the frame.
Credit: Jeff Lieberman

Variable settings change the perceived motion of the object in the frame.
Credit: Jeff Lieberman

But could he take that sense of wonder from watching slow motion on a screen, and recreate it in reality? Lieberman decided to find out.

Building a mystery

Lieberman unlocked the secret of the slow-motion illusion he created in "Slow Dance" by using strobe lights that blink at a rate that's too fast for the human eye to register. The pulsing lights flicker on and off 80 times per second, and are synced to vibrations that animate whatever object is suspended within the frame. While the light pulses are too fast to see, they combine with the high-speed vibration to imperceptibly vary the sequence of moving images, changing how they reach the eye and creating an illusion of movement that seems to be happening more slowly than normal.
"It creates a weird juxtaposition where everything in front of your eyes confirms the reality of this thing, but every other experience in your life has said that this is impossible,” Lieberman said in the statement.

The illusion of slow-motion movement persists even if viewers touch the moving object.
Credit: Jeff Lieberman

The illusion of slow-motion movement persists even if viewers touch the moving object.
Credit: Jeff Lieberman

Lieberman crafted the first version of "Slow Dance" as a wedding gift for two friends who happened to be dancers; they inspired him to create an object that captured the feeling of paired, graceful movement in a shared space. Enthusiastic responses from people who saw it in action prompted him to make the frame more widely available, through a campaign on Kickstarter.
The "Slow Dance" wooden frame measures 12.5 inches (31.8 centimeters) wide by 14.5 inches (10.2 cm) high. Lightweight objects can be attached to springs within the frame, and are illuminated by recessed lighting. Variable controls allow users to cycle between different "frame rates," changing the motion patterns of the objects as they move.
"This piece is a metaphor for all the unseen aspects of reality" that are affecting us all the time, Lieberman said in the same statement. "It expresses a desire to remind myself, and anyone who uses it, that there is something beyond what we see with our senses" he added.
The Kickstarter campaign for "Slow Dance" launched on Aug. 15 with a goal of raising $70,000, and backers have been anything but slow in their response. As of Sept. 7 — with six days to go — total pledges amounted to more than five times that original amount, reaching over $440,000. The product is expected to ship in early 2017, with "Slow Dance" slated to appear in stores by late 2017 for $299.
Original article on Live Science.

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Is Your 'Self' Just an Illusion?

By Robert Lawrence Kuhn | September 7, 2016 08:39am ET

Is Your 'Self' Just an Illusion? — Are "you" just an illusion, a mix of experiences and "stuff" in the universe?
Credit: agsandrew / Shutterstock.com

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television series and online resource that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. This essay, the first of a four-part series on the “Self,” is based on "Closer to Truth" episodes and videos, produced and directed by Peter Getzels and streamed at closertotruth.com. Kuhn contributed it to Live Science's Expert Voices.
My mom just celebrated her 100th birthday. This once vibrant, eloquent, stylish lady with a sense of pride and a touch of vanity can no longer walk or talk. But she recognizes family, smiles when her great-grandchildren visit or her fingernails are polished, and utters rough phrases of displeasure when caring aides must intervene bodily. She makes an angry face when she senses (quite correctly) that people are talking about her, and she expresses overt frustration at her incapacity to communicate orally by scrunching up her face and balling her fist.
Is she still a "self"? Of course she is. She may not be "her self" — that is, her old self. But though diminished, she is surely a self.
What about her fellow residents in an assisted-living unit specializing in memory impairment? Some have advanced Alzheimer's and can no longer recognize their loved ones. Are they still selves? When does one cease being a self? [10 of the Biggest Mysteries of the Mind]
What is a "self," anyway? What does it mean to be a self? What are the requirements of selfhood?
The nature of self is one of philosophy's perennial and persistent questions. Self is easy to describe, yet maddening to decipher. Part philosophy of the mind, part biology of the brain, it combines two elusive ideas: the philosophy of continuity (how things persist through time) and the biopsychology of psychic unity (how the brain makes us feel singular). I see; I hear; I feel. How do separate perceptions bind together into a continuing, coherent whole? How do sentient properties congeal as "me"?
Look at an old photo, perhaps from primary school. Then look in the mirror. Those two people are the same person. But how so? They don't look the same. Their memories are different. Almost all of the cells that composed that child's body have gone from that adult's body.
I feel myself to be the same person who attended high school, went off to college, started a family and struggled through careers — the same person, until I look in that mirror. Decades roll by. Experiences accumulate. Memories multiply.
Yet I sense myself, inside, all together the same. "I" am always "me." Not just continuity, but unity. Some say my feeling is an illusion.

Is there a "me"?

"The problem with personal identity is, we feel there is a fact that 'I'm me,'" John Searle, a philosopher of mind at the University of California, Berkeley, said on my TV series "Closer to Truth." "But that's hard to pin down philosophically, because all of my experiences change, all of the parts of my body change, all of the molecules in my body change."
(All quotes are derived from "Closer to Truth.")

The 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume denounced the very notion of a self. Paraphrasing Hume, Searle said, "Whenever I grab my forehead and wonder, 'Where is the self?' all I get is a kind of headache. I feel my hand pushing against my head; I may feel a vague hangover from last night. But in addition to all of my particular experiences, there isn't any self." [The 7 Biggest Mysteries of the Human Body]
To Searle, we can try to define continuity of self — that is, a self that remains even as every other aspect of a person changes — by continuity of body (or of memory, personality, etc.). But we find that none of those criteria suffices, because any or all of them can be altered, even eradicated, and we still sense a continuing, unified self.
"You have to postulate a self to make sense of rational behavior," Searle said. "We want to find a 'soul' that is at the bottom of all this … but, of course, there isn't any."
British philosopher of mind Colin McGinn agrees. To him, our confusion about the self is essentially ignorance about the brain. "The self is something real," he said, but "the self has got to be grounded in the brain — the self's unity over time must be a function of what's in the brain. We don't know how that works, but it must be so."

McGinn stressed that we don't yet have a clear definition of self. "Our grasp of the concept of the self is very limited because we experience it from our first-person point of view when we say 'I,' but we really don't know what that thing ['I'] is at all, except as the bearer of mental states," he said. "Our imaginative adventures with the concept reflect our ignorance about what the self actually is and what constitutes it in the brain."
McGinn worries that theories of the "self" seem "too thin to ground the idea of personal identity" persisting through time. "All we've got is the idea that you, at a later time, are causally connected to you at an earlier time," he said. "That isn't the same thing as you persisting through time."
But McGinn rejected any sort of supernatural entity, which he called "a kind of receding transcendent thing that is capable of strange feats." "People imagine themselves to be capable of all sorts of strange things, supernatural things, where a self can exist independently of the brain," he said. "I'm saying that the self is rooted in the brain. … But we have a really thin conception; it's just the idea of 'I.'"
But how could a conscious self be rooted in a physical brain? By what mechanisms? I can't even imagine what could count as an answer.

Is self an illusion?

Some say there is no mystery because there is no self; the self does not exist.
Could our internal sense of personal identity — about which we seem so sure — be an illusion? I asked former parapsychologist, now skeptic, Susan Blackmore.

"There's no reason to suppose that we have real continuity," Blackmore said. "Because if you look at what a body and a brain are, there's no room for a thing called a 'self' that sort of sits in there and has experiences. So then, the question becomes, why does it feel that way?"
To Blackmore, we invent that feeling ourselves. "The illusion of continuity is created only when you look for it," she said. Though all things about us change from moment to moment, when we connect all of our experiential dots, we conjure up our inner sense of self. "So you imagine this kind of continuous stream of consciousness when you're awake, but actually, it's not like that at all," she said. "There are multiple parallel things going on. And every so often, we go, 'Oh, that's me,' and we invent the self-story. [Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?]
"This so-called 'me' is really just another reconstruction," she continued. "There was an earlier one 30 minutes ago, and there will be others in the future. But they're really not the same person; they're just stuff happening in the universe."
"So there's no self to die," she concluded, because there is no self prior to death and "there's certainly no self to continue after death."
Sue appears rather cheerful in her inexorable mortality, so I asked if she thinks that "no self" is "good news?"
"I'm smiling because it's so beautiful when you get it," she says. "You can let go and just accept that it's just the universe doing its stuff. It's not me against the world because there really isn't any me at all. Death has no sting, because there never was a 'you' to die. Every moment is just a new story."
To Tufts University philosopher Daniel Dennett, our conception of a self is an illusion created by our experience of the world. He offered an analogy of an object's center of gravity, which is an abstraction, not an actual concrete thing, yet we treat it as something real. "Faced with complex human sentience, we do the same thing: We try to make everything cohere around a single point," Dennett said. "That's the self — the center of narrative gravity.

"What makes a self is a big collection of memories and projects, desires and plans, likes and dislikes — a psychological profile," Dennett continued. "Well, what holds that all together? Opposing processes in the brain, which tend to abhor inconsistency." And so when inconsistencies arise, Dennett said, either you have to jettison the thing that's inconsistent or concoct a coherent story to explain the inconsistency.
How, then, does the self persist through time, notwithstanding all the changes to the body and brain? "The notion that the only thing that could persist is a little, special, unchangeable pearl of self-stuff seems like a fairly lame solution to the problem," Dennett stated. "That's just gift wrapping the problem and pretending to solve it.
"But more to the point, what makes you so sure there has to be an answer to these questions?" he continued. "The conviction that there has to be a single right answer is a leftover from metaphysical absolutism. And we should just dismiss it."
But, sorry Dan, I can't just dismiss it. My sense of self — my inner feeling of personal identity and unity through time — seems so real.
Am I fooling myself?
Check back for the next in this four-part series on the "Self: Possibilities and Survival for Your ‘Self.'"
Kuhn is co-editor, with John Leslie, of "The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything at All?" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). Read more of Kuhn's essays on Kuhn's Live Science Expert Voices landing page and Kuhn's Space.com Expert Voices landing page.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

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bzz bzi DO DIA :)

The Best Photos of the Day

This file photo taken on July 04, 2013 shows an aerial view of the Grand Palais museum in Paris. In 2020 the Grand Palais will start a major renovation, which will require to completely close the building for two years. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

---- pois pois---- deve ter sido por causa da expo do AMADEO de SOUSA CARDOSO :)))

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Sotheby's Hong Kong announces Fine Chinese Paintings Autumn Sale on 4 October


Zhang Daqian (1899 – 1983), Spring Clouds Amidst Autumn Landscape, 1948. Ink and colour on paper, framed, 138.5 x 61cm. Est. HK$30 – 50 million / US$3.8 – 6.4 million. Photo: Sotheby's. 2

HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong will present a sale of Fine Chinese Paintings on 4 October 2016 during this year’s Autumn Sale Series at Hall 3 of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, offering around 300 works by celebrated artists and calligraphers. Highlights include neverbeen-seen masterpieces by Fu Baoshi from a European collection, a rich array of paintings, calligraphy and seal impressions previously in the M K Lau Collection, as well as an assemblage of works by 20th-century artists from the Cheng Xin Xuan Collection. The sale is estimated at a total close to HK$190 million / US$24 million. C.K. Cheung, Head of Chinese Paintings Department, Sotheby’s, said, ‘This season, we are delighted to once again assemble important and fresh-to-the-market works for our discerning clients, leveraging Sotheby’s unparalleled global network and trusting relationship with collectors. The sale will see historically significant masterpieces – many from major private collections – by distinguished modern Chinese painters and calligraphers, among them include the market debut of masterworks by Fu Baoshi from a European collector, as well as a blue-and-green gongbi brushwork landscape painting, Spring Clouds Amidst Autumn Landscape, by the legendary Zhang Daqian. Another notable highlight is the first ever presentation of seal impressions at Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s Fine Chinese Paintings auction. The opportunity to present a complete picture of Chinese art with a sale that encompasses Chinese calligraphy, Chinese paintings and seals, together in one place, is truly one not to miss!’ Sale Highlights Zhang Daqian (1899 – 1983) Spring Clouds Amidst Autumn Landscape 1948 Ink and colour on paper, framed, 138.5 x 61cm Est. HK$30 – 50 million / US$3.8 – 6.4 million Spring Clouds Amidst Autumn Landscape is a birthday gift from Zhang Daqian to his confidant, Li Qiujun. Zhang and Li’s brother were best friends, and later developed a very close rapport with the rest of his siblings. During Zhang’s travel to Sichuan’s Mount Qincheng, he painted eight landscapes using the mountainscape as his subject matter. In celebrating Li’s birthday, Zhang travelled to her hometown in Shanghai and gifted her with this Gongbi brushwork landscape painting. Masterpieces by Fu Baoshi from a European Collection Fu Baoshi (1904 – 1965) Warriors on the Night March 1945 Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll, 106.2 x 60.7 cm Est. HK$15 – 20 million / US$1.9 – 2.5 million Making its auction debut this October, Fu Baoshi’s Warriors on the Night March was a work dedicated to the father of French-Vietnamese collector Doan (1914 – 1978), and have been kept in a private European collection ever since. Doan was tracing the path of his ancestry and roots in China, and commissioned Fu to use a piece of history related to his Chinese last name as the key context of this painting. Deviating away from the artist’s usual subject matter, Fu drew inspiration and reference from Book of the Later Han, one of the official works documenting the history of the Han Dynasty. He vividly portrayed warriors marching in the night, with their heads solemnly bowed in solidarity. In this work, the artist brilliantly addresses the common issues of traditional Chinese paintings – such as the lack of perspective and distance as well as the relationship between light and shadow – by adding lighter shades and tones to depict an empty space and the moonlight. Fu employs a modern approach through traditional ink medium to express both simplified and intense brushstrokes. Finely detailed, deeply evocative, Warriors on the Night March is a masterful depiction of a 20th-century war scene. Works by 20th Century Artists from the Cheng Xin Xuan Collection Jiang Zhaohe (1904 – 1986) Old Women 1938 Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll, 116 x 53cm Est. HK$1.8 – 2.5 million / US$230,000 – 320,000 Old Women is created by Jiang Zhaohe during the late 1930s which demonstrates traces of realism by portraying the daily lives of the lowest stratum of social class living in Beijing. Based in Beijing during and following the Second Sino-Japanese War, Jiang Zhaohe was a teacher at Jinghua College of Fine Arts and painted numerous works depicting war-era devastation. Merging Eastern and Western painting techniques, Old Women portrays a homeless, elderly Manchu woman in ragged clothing, evoking the artist’s compassion for those left in the wake of conflict. The work’s title is translated in Chinese as Fate of the Manchu, referring to the plight of the Manchus following their fall from power after the Qing dynasty. Calligraphy and Seal Impressions Previously in the M K Lau Collection Xu Beihong (1895–1953) Seal Impressions of Xu Beihong (partial) 1939, Album Each album: 21 x 15.2 cm Est. HK$250,000 – 350,000 / US$32,000 – 45,000 In September 1939, Xu Beihong organised an exhibition in Singapore and stayed with Huang Mangshi during his time there. Huang created two sets of impressions from the seals that Xu used often, and the album on offer at this Autumn Sale is one of the two. The album contains a total of 83 seal impressions, each with an annotation written by Xu to explain whether the seal was for his own use or created for someone else. The seals themselves were crafted by a total of 17 individuals, including seal masters such as Chen Shizeng, as well as Xu’s close friends – Qi Baishi, Yang Zhongzi and Chen Zifen. Calligraphy and Seal Impressions Previously in the M K Lau Collection Qi Baishi (1864 –1957) Book of Seal Impressions A Set of three albums (partial) Each album: 19.5 x 13 cm Est. HK$120,000 – 18,000 / US$15,000 – 23,000 A gift from Qi Baishi to his wife, Hu Baozhu, the seals impressed in this set of three albums were all crafted by Qi Baishi, with an annotation on each album. Majority of the seals documented here were carved by Qi for other people, including families and friends, as well as government officials, scholars and painters such as Ma Lian and Takeuchi Seihō. This important collection illustrates Qi’s extensive network and relationships with influential figures from all walks of life

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Thursday, September 8, 2016


Exhibition explores our fascination with gravity


Amy Joy Watson, 'Floating Sequence', 2012. Balsa wood, watercolour, gouache, polyester thread, lead weights, balloons, helium. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist. Photography by Andy Nowell. 1

SYDNEY.- The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences is collaborating for the first time with Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest to present an exhibition exploring our fascination with gravity and its invisible governing of the world’s movement, the shape of space and the flow of time. Gravity (and Wonder) is presented from 3 September to 27 November 2016 at Penrith Regional Gallery, bringing together the work of leading international and Australian contemporary artists who examine gravity through their practice, including renowned American artist Richard Serra and a new commission by Australian artists David Haines and Joyce Hinterding. Director of the Penrith Regional Art Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Dr Lee-Anne Hall comments: “In Gravity (and Wonder) audiences are offered a three-month journey of discovery, where art, science and creativity are brought together in a exciting program including exhibition, education, artist and scientist residencies, performance, public symposium and star-gazing.” This exciting new collaborative exhibition includes a sculpture by Richard Serra; installations by Australian artists Sandra Selig and Amy Joy Watson; paintings by Mabel Juli and Rusty Peters from Warmun, Western Australia; kinetic sculptures by Marley Dawson; and video work by Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa. Australian artists David Haines and Joyce Hinterding have been commissioned to create a world-first event where by the artists dropped a sound from the edge of space. Their new work presents vision and sound captured in the process of sending a payload with recording instruments via latex weather balloon to 33700 metres above the earth. At very low pressure the balloon bursts, a parachute partially deploys, and allows the instruments to rapidly descend to the earth. On exhibition are two large format screens adjacent to each other. The screens show two edited excerpts 16 min duration. One screen shows the ascent (slow and lyrical, the arc of the earth appearing) the second screen shows the rapid descent (this piece is particularly exciting to view as we observe the blackness of the upper reaches of the stratosphere become blue sky, and see the earth and its form grow immense. The Aeolian sound of the instrumentation is particularly haunting and is clearly heard when standing in front of the screens. Gravity (and Wonder) presents a vibrant three-month program with a range of events, workshops and programs extending the themes of the central exhibition. The project collaborators are joined by education partner, Western Sydney University, bringing its Penrith Observatory and academic expertise into the project alongside science events to intrigue the community. The works in Gravity (and Wonder), curated by Penrith Regional Gallery Director Dr Lee-Anne Hall and MAAS curator Katie Dyer, explore gravity through scientific investigations and artistic explorations: as phenomena and effect, mass and attraction, motion and acceleration, time and space and ultimately transcendence alongside rare scientific instruments and inventions, specialist objects and archival material from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Being a Successful Entrepreneur Isn’t Only About Having the Best Ideas

Entrepreneurship

Being a Successful Entrepreneur Isn’t Only About Having the Best Ideas

Andy Molinsky

August 30, 2016

Most people think that being an entrepreneur is about having that big idea. And it is. To start something new, you need to have an idea that works: something people need, something they’ll want, and most importantly — at least for the people investing in your idea — something that’s scalable.
But what I’ve found from interviewing multiple entrepreneurs who focus on consulting, the internet, and software development is that without the capacity to execute an idea — to take an idea and turn it into a living, breathing, viable organization — you’re doomed to fail. And for many entrepreneurs who are thinkers, rather than doers, this is a frightening notion.
For example, an owner of a software company told me about how anxious he felt making sales to customers. He loved developing the product, and he also enjoyed speaking about the product to potential clients, because he truly believed in it. But when it came time to making the “ask,” he’d freeze. He’d stumble, bumble, and in many cases, simply not even ask for the sale. The CEO of a small consulting firm I spoke with lamented how hard it was for him to spread the word about his company at conferences and networking events because of his introverted and shy nature. And the CEO of a start-up internet company deeply believed in the mission of his company, but struggled morally when pitching potential employees on the “dream” without disclosing the full reality: they might not have enough runway of cash to make it through the month.
How can idea-oriented entrepreneurs become doers and learn to raise money, pitch to investors, hire, and fire employees — especially when it forces them outside their personal and professional comfort zones?
The first step is to actually recognize — and own up to — the challenges. None of us likes to admit our weaknesses and flaws, but in order to improve, we have to. Each of the successful entrepreneurs I spoke with ultimately recognized the importance of these necessary but difficult tasks and that, in many cases, they were things they had been avoiding or procrastinating about — to the detriment of their business.
The next critical step is to embrace your purpose and mission, because that is going to give you the motivation and courage to actually take the necessary leap. For example, Maran Nelson, CEO of Clara Labs, said this about the power of conviction with respect to acting outside her comfort zone as a CEO, especially when fundraising: “The most important thing I’ve learned about fundraising is just really fundamentally believing in what you are doing. Knowing that it is good. You have to know what you are doing is good and that it must exist in the world.” Conviction is the feeling, deep down, that what you’re doing — and even struggling with — when acting outside your comfort zone is worth it. That the pain is worth the gain. And given the inherent challenge many tasks present to budding entrepreneurs, having this conviction is a critical part of the puzzle.
Finally, the last piece of advice I learned from speaking with entrepreneurs is the importance of finding your own way. Just as there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for becoming an entrepreneur, there also is no one-size-fits-all strategy for learning to act outside your comfort zone. For example, if you need to pitch to investors but hate asking for money, script out the first few sentences of your message, or bring a colleague with you who makes you feel more confident or who can help with your pitch. Or remind yourself of your mission before stepping into the room, so have purpose top-of-mind, which may make it easier to pitch. Whatever it is, you can find your own way of handling these necessary but difficult moments. The entrepreneurs I spoke with who were successful at acting outside their comfort zones were able to find simple ways like these to be effective, without losing themselves in the process.
In the end, most people equate entrepreneurship with ideas. But for many, the real entrepreneurship happens internally — with the process of stepping up, having courage, and doing things that you never thought you’d be able to do. By flexing your behavior and learning to act outside your comfort zone, you’ll be well on your way toward achieving your goals.