Arts Snippets

Adjective pleasing in appearance
With the precision and deadly beauty of a mushroom cloud, Luke Jerram’s glass sculpture of HIV evokes both horror and the feeling of appreciating something for aesthetic geometry alone.
Noun something that serves for illustration or explanation
Amor Munoz hires Mexican workers from her mobile factory to create interactive art pieces. At a rate of $7.50 an hour, she's also making a sharp commentary about the plight of poor workers.
Verb excuse oneself or stay away from
Flocks of art lovers have decided to ditch the National Gallery and get on a Street Art London tour bus that leads visitors through Shoreditch's colorful streets, a vast outdoor museum.
Noun property of flowing easily
Ito's architecture creates fluidity between nature and humanity. When people enter his completely solar-powered stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for example, he wants them to be able to feel the wind and feel the air.
Verb place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast
While its couplets often juxtapose wildly different or unrelated tweets, Pentametron manages to find poetry in everything from mundane life updates to 140-character bits of philosophy.
Adjective incredibly large
It is double-take time for the blase New York types who do not pay much attention to what is in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Nine massive stone statues by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone have arrived.
Verb look closely or searchingly
Alejandro Cartagena peeks into the backs of pickup trucks, where construction workers pile together on their way to earn enough to get by. His photo series, “Car Poolers,” is an effort to peer inside these tiny worlds.
Verb spin, as on one's toes
There are big rocks pirouetting on little ones, little ones dangling on top of big ones, pebbles tightly clumped and suspended in air. The artist who did this, Michael Grab, is a balancer of rocks.
Adjective running continuously around a fixed point or center
Walking downwards from the top through a continuous spiral promenade, the visitors of the observation tower experience all of the building’s programs in a constant motion, enjoying dynamic 360 degree views.
Adjective changing readily
Alan Cumming is a versatile performer who, in his one-man, one-act production of Macbeth, gets to indulge in the kind of high-hurdle challenge (or ego trip) that can prove irresistible to actors.