• “The main thing that attracts me to Buddhism is probably what attracts every artist to being an artist—that it’s a godlike thing,” says Laurie Anderson in an interview with The Believer. “You are the ultimate authority. There is no other ultimate authority.”
• When Chris Burden’s Metropolis, a kinetic sculpture/mini-cityscape, opens at LACMA on Saturday, it’ll whiz some 1,100 tiny cars through its 18 lanes of traffic at speeds of around 240 miles per hour.
• For a show opening in New Delhi Friday, Yoko Ono has produced new versions of the WAR IS OVER! poster she created with John Lennon in 1968. Now translated into 108 languages (including Klingon), the series’ newest additions include Telugu, Urdu, Tamil (pictured), and Kannada.
• Rest in Peace: Dara Greenwald. The artist, community organizer and Just Seeds member succumbed to cancer at age 40. Co-author, with partner Josh MacPhee of the book, Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, Greenwald spoke about activism and participatory art at the 2009 Creative Time Summit.
• Among the tens of thousands of Nigerians protesting subsidy cuts that have brought a doubling of gas prices is Seun Kuti, son of afropop legend Fela Kuti. “Our grandfathers had their chance. Our fathers had their chance” he said at a rally in Lagos. ” If we don’t take a stand for corruption in Nigeria now, then we too have lost.” Seun, who performs in Minneapolis in April at a Walker-sponsored event, was joined in protest by his brother, Femi, author Chinua Achebe, and others.
• Jenny Holzer’s “Truisms” get a motherly tweak in a spoof Twitter account, @JennyHolzerMom. A sampling: “BEAUTY IS A MOVING TARGET BUT SWEETIE THAT IS A LOT OF EYE MAKEUP.”
• “The revolution brought everybody’s talents into light. People started to talk from their hearts,’ says Egyptian musician Shaimaa Shaalan in a forthcoming documentary about the post-revolution arts boom. Here’s the trailer.
• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plans to change eligibility requirements for nonfiction films: Starting in 2013 only documentaries reviewed by the New York Times or Los Angeles Times will be considered for Oscars. Thom Powers, who programs documentaries at the Toronto International Film Festival, says it’s “a strange thing indeed” for the Academy to cede powers to outsiders–namely newspapers–in considering eligible films.
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