The New Normal in Charleston
There are a few galleries in town that
are worth a visit as well. Rebekah
Jacobs is “setting the gold standard for
Southern photography in the region”,
and her eponymous gallery is the best
in town. She shows remarkable photography and more limited offerings of
painting and sculpture. Jacobs recently
acquired a dye transfer print of photographer William Eggleston’s “Red
Ceiling”, another print of which hangs
in Gallery 851 at the Met in New York.
For two brimming weeks each spring
the arts scene in Charleston is enhanced
exponentially by the Spoleto Festival
(as if the town needed some sort of arts
steroid injection). As the American doppelgänger to the Italian Festival dei due
Mondi, Spoleto immerses Charleston in
Watch excerpts from Runaway, a work
by Kegwin + Company featured in the
2014 Spoleto Festival.
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a sea of opera, dance, theater, classical
music, and jazz by both emerging and
established artists.
2014 Spoleto highlights include composer Michael Nyman’s opera “Facing Goya” which explores elitism, the
pseudo-science of physiognomy and
the angst-ridden world of art criticism.
Two beguiling works, “Megalopolis”
and “Runaway”, are by the ingenious
New York-based Keigwin + Company,
a contemporary dance troupe which
interlaces technical dance technique
with references to fashion, pop culture
and the pace of urban life. Also of interest is Exit/Exist, the work of Gregory
Maqoma, a South African dancer who
channels Chief Maqoma, a Xhosa warrior and tribal ancestor of the dancer
who resisted imperialism. Maqoma’s
work incorporates eclectic dance styles
and African ritual, and he is accompanied by sublime guitarist Giuliano
Modarelli and a quartet of vocalists.
So head to this beguiling metropolis
of the Lowcountry soon, but give
yourself some room on your agenda,
and prepare to be surprised. As Ferran Adria once said of elBulli, “the
ideal customer doesn’t come to eat but
to have an experience”…and it is the
experience that should be paramount
in Charleston as well. n