A Fragile Inheritance

In A Fragile Inheritance Saloni Mathur investigates the work of two seminal figures from the global South: the New Delhi-based critic and curator Geeta Kapur and contemporary multimedia artist Vivan Sundaram. Examining their written and visual works over the past fifty years, Mathur illuminates how her protagonists’ political and aesthetic commitments intersect and foreground uncertainty, difficulty, conflict, and contradiction. This book presents new understandings of the culture and politics of decolonization and the role of non-Western aesthetic avant-gardes within the discourses of contemporary art. Through skillful interpretation of Sundaram's and Kapur’s practices, Mathur demonstrates how received notions of mainstream art history may be investigated and subjected to creative redefinition. Her scholarly methodology offers an impassioned model of critical aesthetics and advances a radical understanding of art and politics in our time

Contemporary Art: World Currents in Transition Beyond Globalization

An edited transcript of a colloquium between Terry Smith, Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh, and Saloni Mathur, Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of California, Los Angeles, held at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, on October 17, 2012.</jats:p

Bis[μ-2-(pyridin-2-yl)ethano­lato]bis­[bromidocopper(II)]

The title compound, [Cu2Br2(C7H8NO)2], was synthesized by reaction of CuBr2 with 2-(pyridin-2-yl)ethanol (hep-H) in methanol. The asymmetric unit consists of one hep ligand and a CuBr unit. The Cu2+ ion is thereby coordinated by the N atom and the deprotonated hydroxy O atom in a distorted square-planar geometry that is completed by another O atom. The latter acts as bridging ligand towards the second, symmetry-equivalent, Cu atom, thus generating a centrosymmetric dimeric unit, with the inversion centre halfway between the Cu atoms. These units are linked via C—H⋯Br and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, leading to the formation of a hydrogen-bonded one-dimensional-polymeric chain along a.

Shifting the limits in wheat research and breeding using a fully annotated reference genome

Introduction: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most widely cultivated crop on Earth, contributing about a fifth of the total calories consumed by humans. Consequently, wheat yields and production affect the global economy, and failed harvests can lead to social unrest. Breeders continuously strive to develop improved varieties by fine-tuning genetically complex yield and end-use quality parameters while maintaining stable yields and adapting the crop to regionally specific biotic and abiotic stresses. Rationale: Breeding efforts are limited by insufficient knowledge and understanding of wheat biology and the molecular basis of central agronomic traits. To meet the demands of human population growth, there is an urgent need for wheat research and breeding to accelerate genetic gain as well as to increase and protect wheat yield and quality traits. In other plant and animal species, access to a fully annotated and ordered genome sequence, including regulatory sequences and genome-diversity information, has promoted the development of systematic and more time-efficient approaches for the selection and understanding of important traits. Wheat has lagged behind, primarily owing to the challenges of assembling a genome that is more than five times as large as the human genome, polyploid, and complex, containing more than 85% repetitive DNA. To provide a foundation for improvement through molecular breeding, in 2005, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium set out to deliver a high-quality annotated reference genome sequence of bread wheat. Results: An annotated reference sequence representing the hexaploid bread wheat genome in the form of 21 chromosome-like sequence assemblies has now been delivered, giving access to 107,891 high-confidence genes, including their genomic context of regulatory sequences. This assembly enabled the discovery of tissue- and developmental stage–related gene coexpression networks using a transcriptome atlas representing all stages of wheat development. The dynamics of change in complex gene families involved in environmental adaptation and end-use quality were revealed at subgenome resolution and contextualized to known agronomic single-gene or quantitative trait loci. Aspects of the future value of the annotated assembly for molecular breeding and research were exemplarily illustrated by resolving the genetic basis of a quantitative trait locus conferring resistance to abiotic stress and insect damage as well as by serving as the basis for genome editing of the flowering-time trait. Conclusion: This annotated reference sequence of wheat is a resource that can now drive disruptive innovation in wheat improvement, as this community resource establishes the foundation for accelerating wheat research and application through improved understanding of wheat biology and genomics-assisted breeding. Importantly, the bioinformatics capacity developed for model-organism genomes will facilitate a better understanding of the wheat genome as a result of the high-quality chromosome-based genome assembly. By necessity, breeders work with the genome at the whole chromosome level, as each new cross involves the modification of genome-wide gene networks that control the expression of complex traits such as yield. With the annotated and ordered reference genome sequence in place, researchers and breeders can now easily access sequence-level information to precisely define the necessary changes in the genomes for breeding programs. This will be realized through the implementation of new DNA marker platforms and targeted breeding technologies, including genome editing

A Fragile Inheritance Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art

In A Fragile Inheritance Saloni Mathur investigates the work of two seminal figures from the global South: the New Delhi-based critic and curator Geeta Kapur and contemporary multimedia artist Vivan Sundaram

ANATOMY OF A MIGRAINE : Conflict and Tension in the South Asian Collectivity

This article addresses the theme of internal differences among South Asian television producers in Canada. Not only is “South Asian culture” internally contested in the arena of broadcasting, but this can be related to a long history of contestation (over ethnicity, religion, language and culture) that extends well beyond the context of contemporary Canada. The cultural claims of the Fijian community (demanding more air-time and their own show), and the political demands made by a society of Sikhs (demanding the termination of a producer because of her political stance), represent only two of the conflicts generated through broadcasting. Further, these tensions are played out in front of the CRTC, through cable companies, and complex corporate and regulatory environments. Drawing from recent trends in critical theory, I explore some of the political and theoretical problems associated with the representation of radical difference, and the “real” heterogeneity of Canadian lives. These issues are discussed in relation to the present ideological context of “Multiculturalism”, and in terms of emergent postmodern discourses of difference and “otherness”, of authority and domination, as critical moments within the academy.Cet article traite des différends qui opposent entre eux les producteurs d’émissions de télévision sud-asiatiques au Canada. Le fait que la « culture sud-asiatique » est source de protestation au sein même du domaine de la télévision peut être expliqué en retraçant une longue histoire de contestation de nature ethnique, religieuse, linguistique et culturelle qui déborde de beaucoup le cadre canadien contemporain. Des questions culturelles et politiques, notamment, sont soulevées par les représentants des différentes ethnies devant la CRTC, dans un milieu corporatif où les réglementations sont de mise. L’auteur examine quelques-uns des problèmes théoriques et politiques associés à la représentation de la « différence radicale » et la soi-disante hétérogénéité de la vie au Canada. Il est question de sujets des plus actuels : le « multiculturalisme », l’« autre », l’autorité et la domination

A Fragile Inheritance: Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art

In A Fragile Inheritance&nbsp;Saloni Mathur investigates the work of two seminal figures from the global South: the New Delhi-based critic and curator Geeta Kapur and contemporary multimedia artist Vivan Sundaram. Examining their written and visual works over the past fifty years, Mathur illuminates how her protagonists’ political and aesthetic commitments intersect and foreground uncertainty, difficulty, conflict, and contradiction. This book presents new understandings of the culture and politics of decolonization and the role of non-Western aesthetic avant-gardes within the discourses of contemporary art. Through skillful interpretation of Sundaram's and Kapur’s practices, Mathur demonstrates how received notions of mainstream art history may be investigated and subjected to creative redefinition. Her scholarly methodology offers an impassioned model of critical aesthetics and advances a radical understanding of art and politics in our time

Amrit &amp; Rabindra Singh

Daughters of a Sikh doctor who immigrated to North England from the Punjab, the London-born artists Amrit and Rabindra Singh are identical twins: they have the same DNA, they look and sound exactly alike, they wear the same clothing, and they received their training in art together. Often referred to as “The Singh Twins,” the sisters have adopted the language of Indian and Persian miniature painting to depict the complex urban and domestic landscapes of the contemporary world. The twins have exhibited their work to international audiences in Britain, Europe, India, and North America: a recent show, titled “Past Modern: The Singh Twins,” featured more than sixty paintings, and was hosted by UC Riverside in 2003 and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 2005. Significantly, Amrit and Rabindra’s collaborative practice is not simply an innocent expression of an affectionate bond between sisters, but rather a self-conscious engagement with the notion of singular authorship and the cult of the individual that has pervaded post-Enlightenment art historical tradition. Not since Diane Arbus’ 1967 black-and-white photograph of identical twin girls in New Jersey has such a memorable rendering of sameness and belonging, normativity and exclusion, and identity and difference, been sustained so provocatively within the contemporary art world

A Fragile Inheritance Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art

In A Fragile Inheritance Saloni Mathur investigates the work of two seminal figures from the global South: the New Delhi-based critic and curator Geeta Kapur and contemporary multimedia artist Vivan Sundaram

Art's Global Stage: Revisiting Display Today

Keynote address from the symposium <em>Exhibition Complex: Displaying People, Identity, and Culture, </em>held October 18-20, 2012 at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania