Page 14 - aruba-today-20220712

a14 people & arts
Tuesday 12 July 2022
Beyond buffets and slots: Casinos double down on fine art

By WAYNE PARRY all around the viewer.
Associated Press Other casinos are doing
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — likewise. The Bellagio Gal-
The Louvre, The Museum of lery of Fine Art in Las Vegas
Modern Art and ... the Hard has displayed works by Pi-
Rock? casso, Monet, Warhol, Ti-
Hoping to expand their ap- tian and Van Gogh.
peal beyond the slot ma- The Palms Casino Resort
chine and buffet crowd, features modern art pieces
some casinos are turning from Jean-Michel Basquiat,
to fine art galleries or exhi- Richard Prince and Andy
bitions to bring in new busi- Warhol, and numerous
ness from customers who street artists.
might not otherwise visit a MGM's Aria Resort features
gambling hall. public art including sculp-
In the process, they are tures by artists including
helping not only broaden Antony Gormley, Richard
their own customer bases, Long and Henry Moore.
but are also putting new The Hippodrome Casino in
eyeballs in front of some of London in 2013 appointed
the world's great works of a digital artist in residence,
art. Thomas D Gray, and offers
One such effort began Fri- a competition for U.K. art-
day at Atlantic City's Hard ists to have their works dis-
Rock casino, where the played there.
highly acclaimed "Beyond Maryland's Live! Casino &
Van Gogh: The Immer- An image from the "Beyond Van Gogh" exhibit is projected onto a wall at the Hard Rock casino in Hotel has an art collection
sive Experience" exhibit Atlantic City, N.J., on Thursday, July 7, 2022. curated by Suzi Cordish,
opened. The 30,000-square- Associated Press whose husband owns the
foot display uses over 300 casino.
of Van Gogh's works, re- riencing art." doesn't look at Atlantic The walk-through exhibit The collection includes
producing them digitally Joe Lupo, the casino's pres- City as just a gaming des- projects Van Gogh's art- more than 40 works by art-
and projecting them onto ident, said casinos need tination," he said. "The Van work onto the walls and ists including Warhol, Jenni-
screens, walls and floors. to appeal to as broad a Gogh exhibit has been floor of a viewing room, fer Steinkamp, Charlie Ahn,
"The whole point of an ex- range of potential custom- successful in every major with images growing and Robert Indiana and Not Vi-
perience like this is to bring ers as possible. market in the country, and flowing into one another: tal.
people in," said Fanny Cur- "You need to try different Atlantic City needs to be cherry trees, for example, "Many guests are intrigued
tat, the exhibit's art histo- experiential things to help looked at as one of those sprout and grow blossoms, once they realize the
rian. "For a lot of people, the city acquire new visi- major markets. I think it el- that then blow away in the breath of the collection,"
museums are intimidating. tation, whether it's art or evates the city and the breeze. Shimmering walls of said Renee Mutchnik, a
It's all about exploring and some other experience to property with such a high- color dissolve and flow into spokesperson for the ca-
having more ways of expe- acquire that person who profile exhibit." other shapes and images sino. q

Review: 'Mermaid of Black Conch' melds history and magic

story goes from here: David sound of his motor out to the book. They're filed un- roundly, Roffey maintains a
falls for Aycayia. But author a fishing competition and der "curse," described as fine balancing act portray-
Monique Roffey isn't giv- is ensnared by two Yankee loneliness. ing identities that are not
ing us an endearing tale of men, intent on a stunning Sexual tension is constant her own while connecting
love — this is a story of dual- victory, which, it turns out, is throughout a story that, them to ones that are by
ity and curses. the mermaid. perversely, loses steam as their shared relationship:
"The Mermaid of the Black Upon learning of her cap- it nears its climax. Roffey, the push and pull that Ay-
Conch" is a uniquely Carib- ture, David plans to rescue however, makes up for a cayia comes to learn tran-
bean novel with all the hall- Aycayia and return her to lackluster ending with the scends the ocean, the
marks of the genre present- the sea. But his scheme falls strong storytelling up to that bedroom and the human
ed in different manners. apart when she begins to point. race to encapsulate na-
Roffey moves between a change back into a wom- Vivid imagery, discussion- ture as a whole.
general narrator, David's an, the curse put on her worthy themes, Creole ver- The novel itself exhibits the
thickly Caribbean journal by other jealous women biage and a melding of same in-betweenness as
entries and broken stanzas from her Taino tribe appar- history and magic make its characters and author
of Aycayia's free-form po- ently lifting after some 1,000 "The Mermaid of the Black — who was born in Port of
etry. years. Conch" come to life. It's a Spain, Trinidad, but lives in
This image released by Knopf Insidiously, David and Ay- When Aycayia is inadver- confluence of lore in which London — though "The Mer-
shows cover art for "The Mer-
maid of Black Conch" by Mo- cayia's first meeting in 1976 tently introduced to Reg- subtle details change de- maid of the Black Conch" is
nique Roffey. is in Murder Bay. David gie, the only deaf person pending on who is telling far from cursed for it. Hav-
Associated Press is smitten by her strange on the island, they form the story. Each has their ing won the Costa Book
beauty and Aycayia by his a deep, fast bond on the own idea of what it is to of the Year and the Costa
By DONNA EDWARDS music. basis of their otherness in be a man, a woman, the Novel Award 2020, it seems
Associated Press David ceases fishing for fear Black Conch society. The oppressor, the oppressed, Roffey has hit her stride with
David is a fisherman and of her entanglement in his mermaid metaphor is ap- or something in between her fifth book, being re-re-
Aycayia is a mermaid. It's nets, but his efforts backfire plied to gender, disability worlds. leased with its new acco-
pretty obvious where the when Aycayia follows the and oppression throughout In representing so many so lades to adorn it.q