Articles

Star Wars and Stories: The Myth, the Archetype, The Hero, and the Believer

Noa Ishaki / January 2016

As I found myself quite sick with the flu and no strength to get out of bed at all, I decided to watch all 6 episodes of Star Wars and then go watch the 7th in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theatre. I’d recently read an article where some critics or Star Wars aficionados were asked what order the series should be watched best and the majority recommended to start with the last three that were released as they provide the background, and then continue with the original three with Luke Skywalker as the hero. But I decided to go ahead and start with the real first one and go from there.

Primal Instinct: Impact of African Art on Artists' Impulse to Create

A few years back I had to prepare a mock exhibition for the Curatorial Practices course I took in grad school. We were free to do it on anything. At that time my mother was very much on my mind and so was her interest in African masks. Last month, while visiting the Picasso.Mania exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris I was reminded of my mock exhibition, and I decided to share the Curatorial Essay and the Wall Text I prepared back then here.

On Looted Art and Antiquities

Noa Ishaki / August 2015

I didn't have a stand on the issue of repatriation --except for the case of the Parthenon marbles, which I continue to believe should be returned to Greece especially after the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in 2009. In fact throughout my studies I avoided commenting on repatriation as much as I can, because my concentration has been modern and contemporary art museums and also because you can argue for both sides of the equation if you believe in museums being great repositories of art and history, and on the other hand if you also believe that art and antiquities should be seen as a whole, and in one location.