Vladimir Kagan's Blog

My Sister's Art Show in Geneva

Night Shift – an Art Show

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, November 25, 2012

 

I am in Europe and in Geneva for one purpose: to consummate a promise given six months earlier – to help my sister, Tanya Kagan-Josefowitz mount her gallery show of drawings, paintings and “creatures”.

 

Meet Tanya… In the day, she lords it over a complex household - she is a superb cook – her soups are world-class – she is the matriarch of her scattered family – she mothers her husband, who has Altzheimer and in her spare time, she entertains ceaselessly.  By night she turns from Jekyll into Hyde – she becomes a compulsive artist: she paints till three in the morning!  She finds her peace in solitude.  She is the only person I may call at anytime, day or night, she is always awake.

 

Her show is the product of two intensive years of work. Her painted “creatures” are her bête noire. She breathes life into cast-off mannequins by endowing them with imaginative colors, shapes, and witty sayings.

 

To create a suitable background for Tanya’s show, the gallery was transformed from day into night. White walls were painted a dark taupe; a runway was created down the center of the gallery for Tanya’s “creatures” to parade on. The floors are carpeted in black with sparkling silver reflecting a star-filled midnight sky. The show is the combined effort of Tanya and two of her creative friends; Ann Lalumière, an art curator and Jane Kelly van Lanschot Hubrecht, an event planner. The three ladies have conceived a spectacular show.  By the time I arrived, my input was superfluous, but it was great fun being the referee when there was an impasse.

                

 
Transforming the gallery from Day to Night - Ann and Jane selecting the "creatures" for the runway

sayings.   

 

Her nephew, Paul Josefowitz, a world-renowned art critic describes her work this way.

I am man, I am mannequin,

 

I am headless, armless vestiges of Greek Gods.

 

Plastic for form, colour for soul.

 

Resin and acrylic are my DNA.

 

Tanya Kagan has transformed the timeless nature of the

human body into her very own creation.

From simple parts come visions of unworldly patterns.

 

From the store windows of lifeless consumption and discarded

fantasies emerges a complex universe of feelings transplanted on

a classic past and taking us to an untamed future.

 

                                                      Paul Josefowitz 2012

 

At night, while her “creatures” look on in silence, she interprets man and beast on canvas; she captures the images of friends, real and imagined, with confident single-stroke ink-drawings on paper. These sketches, a 150 of them, line two of the gallery walls.

Opening Night - the Vermisage

 

Tanya signing her Catalog

            

 
 Tanya explaining her drawings to an admirer - Tanya's neighbors arrived on the motorcycle

    
Tanya with friends at the vernisage opening on Thursday night

           


                                             
                         Me, the arbiter helping to selecting paintings for hanging

 

Her show can now be seen at the Gallery Nest, located on a charming street in Geneva’s Old Town, on the highest hills above the famous lake. This 14^th Century remnant of the walled city is amazingly intact and in typical Swiss fashion, exquisitely preserved.  It is filled with galleries, boutiques, and tucked-away restaurants amongst the architectural treasures.

 

 

Me with Ana-Luisa the lovely receptionist... note: I am on my Mac writing this Blog 

 If any of my readers are near Geneva in the next three weeks, I urge you to visit the show.  A catalog of the show is available for 48 Swiss Francs, including cost of shipping.  All proceeds go to charity.  Make checks payable to Tanya Josefowitz c/o Gallery Nest, rue Etienne-Dumont 14, 1204 Geneva, Switzerland. (For my American friends, you needn’t bother transposing francs into dollars… they’re about on a par. Sorry, no credit cards)

 

 

 

Exhibit opened November 23 till December 8

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11 am – 7 pm

 

Gallery Nest

Rue Etienne-Dumont 14

1204 Geneva

 

The Pleasure of Flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

My Flight in a Virgin Galactic Space Ship

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, November 22, 2012

 

(This article was started over two weeks ago, but my energetic travel schedule kept it on my back burner until now…. Happy Thanksgiving from Geneva to all of my friends in America)

 

I have just flown Richard Branson’s latest brainchild, the pre-curser to his Virgin Galactic Space Craft…the new Airbus A330 -300.

Not the advertised $250,000 half hour excursion into outer space… I flew Virgin’s short six-hour flight from New York to London for a mere $6,044.70  (using frequent flyer miles!) This service is called Upper Class. I chose the daytime flight to see the lovely view of Earth unfolding 43,000 feet below. But lo and behold, Mr. Branson’s spaceships do not allow that. Each seat is carefully turned inward effectively blocking the windows and view (presumably to prep us for an extra-terrestrial experience), Mr. Branson’s avionic engineers have carefully simulated the space capsule’s cramped seating. The cocoons into which we were strapped provided a meager 23” width, shoulder to shoulder. Within each allotted space, the designers have compress every amenity needed for space flight: buttons to control infinite seating positions include total recumbence; a control wand that closely resembles an earthbound telephone for television, audio entertainment, an attendant call button and an overhead reading light (a feature that has been deleted from the Airbus configuration) a fiber optic reading lamp mounted strategically behind your shoulder so that it casts a permanent shadow over any reading or writing material you may be attempting. There is a generous television screen located at your elbow, that swings forward on an inegenious hinge, provided that you can swing it past your shoulder. The designers have carefully shoehorned all these conveniences into this diminutive cocoon. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, they are all located behind the passenger… (Easily reachable by a limber simian – but impossible for a Homo sapient…unless he be double jointed!) There is a generous tabletop snuggly implanted into a sidewall, the only convenience located in front of the passenger. Unfortunately the release button is amongst the cluster of unreachable buttons at your shoulder…  I could barely touch one using my pinky finger… and that only by brail! Once released, the table has no visibly finger grip and needs to be manually extracted with a fingernail breaking motion to lift it to lap-height.

 

Contorting myself, I managed to get an oblique glimpse of outer space - here I am using facial expressions to communicate with my daughter Jessica, concealed across the isle from me.

A labyrinth of cocoons called individual seating

My daughter Jessica was my travel companion. She was tucked into her cocoon virtually out of sight… communication was by discreet shouting. Thankfully there were few neighbors to complain. For longer conversations, there is a minimal jump seat located in the front of each personal capsule to enjoy a tête-à-tête.

 

Jessica tucked into her cubicle across the isle from me

The little jump seat for a friendly get-together

Mr. Branson's sense of humor - the hand soap in the toilets

Six hours is a relatively short flight. However, crossing the globe west to east, the light becomes gloomy by early afternoon… in our case, before noon. The cabin now becomes eerily dark… To offset that, Mr. Bronson has provided us with a sexy glow of purple light (nightclub style) to illuminate the darkened cabin. We are readied for bed. There is no personal overhead light to cast off this gloom…. Everything henceforth transpires in this creepy light, from filling out landing cards, eating a snack or trying to read your newspaper. Lights do not go on until 30 minutes prior to landing and then only for a brief moment, (as it is an aviation rule that all cabin light are turned off for landing.)

 

Darkness at "High Noon" on our Virgin Atlantic Space ship

 

So much for an enjoyable daytime flight across the Atlantic!

 

 It was a quick, safe crossing to jolly old England, where Jessica and I had an amazingly diverse time… in my next Blogs I will entertain you with our do-it-all in four days, see England tour.