NEW MEDIA

There is a growing interest in acquiring photographic archives but collectors wonder what’s in it for them
By a curious coincidence, the very month that a retrospective of photo-journalist Henri Cartier-Bresson’s archive opened in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, in sweltering New Delhi the archive of photo-journalist Kulwant Roy was released in the form of a book (History in the Making, Harper Collins, Rs 4,999).

The two have at best a tenuous link. Roy’s work was almost entirely devoted to Indian politics while Bresson’s work in India includes photographing the aftermath of Gandhi’s death and an image of Kashmiri women that is one of the most iconic works of 20th century photography. However, they do leave us with the question of whether an archive has any value beyond the normative. India is beginning to shed its hesitation about the value of such an archive as images get imbued with contemporary value to document our visual histories. In recent times there has been a proliferation of images of our cities as they were photographed in the twenties and thirties — Bombay, or the making of New Delhi, for instance, both of which have gone into the making of books by publishers Roli . These images are researched from archives based not in India but overseas (in this instance, most of the evocative images came from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London).
Back home, museums usually lack the funds or the intellectual curiosity to document their photographic archives, or to share these with the public, but private sources have begun the process of documenting such collections professionally. For many years, the best photographic archives of a royal family were maintained by the Maharaja Ganga Singhji Trust in Bikaner, and are probably still among the most stunning such records available in the country. Bihar Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik first shot to fame among the international glitterati with a book composed entirely of these photographs.
More recently, the Udaipur royal family turned over its photographic material to professional archivists, as a result of which it has been able to mount a remarkable exhibition. The Ebrahim Alkazi collection, begun several decades ago, has been selectively shown and includes, for instance, the earliest and rarest photographic glimpses of Indian cities, whether cityscapes of Calcutta or ruins in the countryside, the aftermath of the 1857 mutiny in Lucknow, or portraits of the formidable-looking begums of Bhopal. More recently, a Delhi-based art gallery has acquired the archive of photographer Nemai Ghosh’s work on Satyajit Ray — though such acquisitions remain the exception rather than the norm.
While it is true that an institution is better organised to maintain and leverage an archival collection — certainly, the process is a little formidable, and the collection needs to be organised in temperature- and access-controlled environments — individual collectors need only be wary of their commitment to such effort. The Kulwant Roy archive, for instance, was transferred over a period of time by him to acolyte and photographer Aditya Arya’s family home, and there it remained for years. Its happenstance rediscovery and the work Arya has subsequently done on its documentation is now a gift to writers and historians who have one of the most exhaustive records of pre- and post-independence political photography at hand.
Attempts at glory aside, what value does an archive have for a collector? Not, of course, the ownership of an idea, since scholars view things differently from a collector or archivist and they use such materials to argue out their own ideas than any premise the archive owner might presume. Therefore, the importance lies in an archive becoming a pivot for a variety of often contrarian ideas, the centre-point for discussion and debate.
Over time, it also has monetary value: to be sold as a whole, or piecemeal in edition prints to other collectors, to earn royalty from copyright, to be credited every time it is used as reference anywhere in the world, to be turned into books or collaterals. Or sometimes, these archives can be used just for fun, as hotelier and collector of printed materials Priya Paul showed when, at the start of the year, she surprised friends with a table calendar consisting of images of printed calendars from years long past. It was culled from her collection of old calendars and printed materials (labels, advertisements, posters) that are being professionally archived and will be an invaluable social and perhaps even nationalist record for future writers, art-historians, scholars and anyone with an eye for the quirky, for it is at least as serious as the visual archives of Kulwant Roy or Nemai Ghosh, or the eponymous Alkazi collection.
Or, for that matter, Umrao Sher-Gil’s photographs of his family which gained archival value as a visual essay on his daughter Amrita and the Sher-Gil family when it was re-interpreted by artist and fellow family member Vivan Sundaram as a museum show that has been extremely well received in Europe. Clearly, in the right hands, photography archives can have infinite possibilities.

Tatiana Vasil’evna Doronina (1933) is a film and theatre actress, a People’s Artist of the USSR, and the head of the Gorky MKhAT (Moscow Academic Art Theatre).

Welcome back to Tattoo Tuesday! Each week we spotlight Pop Candy readers' fantastic pop-culture tattoos -- and boy, do you have a lot of 'em.
First things first: SEND ME YOUR TATTOO PICS! The address is popcandy@usatoday.com. All you need to include are your name, city and a brief description of the body art.
This week we begin with Jamie M. (Dgnforfire), a reader in Pasadena, Calif. "I love Tetris. A lot," Jamie says. "I could only commit to a little block, but I might add a few more pieces in the future."

Matt C. wanted to show off his "Shaking Hands" artwork from Radiohead's OK Computer and Meeting People Is Easy film.
"Radiohead has been my favorite band since 1995," he says. "I'm still a huge fan, and this tattoo symbolizes my love of music. I'd been thinking about it for awhile, but I finally bit the bullet when my best friend was getting married. I paid for us both to get tattoos." He got it done at Adept Tattoos in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

As Stephanie (MamaChockley) explains, this is "artwork from the back of 10,000 Maniacs' In My Tribe CD. Yeah, I'm pretty old."

Alex S. (asteed) in Cornish, Maine, send a great pic of his literary tattoo. A little background:

"No formerly heroic times" represents an Annie Dillard quote from the book For the Time Being, in which she writes: "There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been." It is a quote/book my ex-girlfriend (with whom I am still very close) shared with me when we first met. The border was designed with her input by one of my very best friends, so it is all very personal to me. It took five hours to complete by the insanely talented Kapten Hanna, who very recently moved from Maine to work in San Francisco.

Finally, Richmond reader Squiddyboy sent pics of his super-villain tattoos. "They're not the most feared, but I think they're a little more distinctive than big shots like the Joker or Darth Vader," he says.
"The maniacally laughing caterpillar is Mr. Mind, an evil genius from the planet Venus who had to cackle with the aid of a tiny radio around his neck. ... He was the founder of the Monster Society of Evil and concocted all sorts of schemes to destroy Captain Marvel and the Marvel family."

Squiddyboy continues: "This is of course the Mole Man, the first villain of the Marvel Age of comics. He made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #1 battling the FF with an army of monsters and his own misanthropy.
"I decided to have these two etched into my body because they represent everything ridiculous and fun about comics. Also, they're little ugly guys who can hold their own against whole families of superheroes. That's inspirational."

Thanks to all of you for the magnificent photos, and please keep them coming! Stay tuned next week for another installment of Tattoo Tuesday.

When we attend Mass at our local parishes in Philadelphia, we are surrounded by many examples of sacred art and architectural features that help us in our prayerful pursuit of the Catholic spiritual life. Sacred art is intended to help us in our spiritual journey and provide us inspiration as we journey along in our everyday lives, trying to become more deeply immersed in our relationship with God. A great example of sacred art that helps us focus our prayer intentions is located at Saint Rita’s Church, Broad and Ellsworth Streets in Philadelphia.
The piece, “Christ of Holy Saturday,” by Philadelphia artist, Anthony Visco (www.anthonyvisco.org ) is the first thing you notice when you enter the lower chapel at Saint Rita’s. Struck in bronze, the full figured relief depicts the crucified Lord, lying on his burial shroud in anticipation of future resurrection on Easter.
Christ, in the tomb after the horrendous events of the crucifixion presents a very tranquil Jesus, hands crossed, with the wounds of the cross visible to all believers. Christ’s face slightly tilted with partially closed eyes gives us a hint that His repose is just temporary, waiting to be raised by the Father in glory.
The beautiful representation of Christ in repose shows us in a starkly mute fashion that we as Catholic believers are called to share in the Passion of Jesus through the Sacraments of Catholic Initiation. In Baptism, we too, die with Christ and are reborn through water and the Holy Spirit into a new life with God.  At Saint Rita’s Church, the close location of a holy water font, placed strategically placed in front of the crucified Jesus Christ offers a powerful symbol of hope every time we immerse our hands into the water, recall our sacramental death and rebirth in Baptism. Jesus portrayed at death keenly illustrates for us there is new life through the Sacraments of the Church.
The placement of “Christ of Holy Saturday,” is a masterful representation of the image of Christ envisioned by Saint Rita of Cascia, in which the image came to her in a vision during a period of prayer. The vision of Saint Rita, reproduced for all of us is one that draws us more deeply into an appreciation of the death and ultimate Resurrection of Jesus, which follows the solitary period of Holy Saturday in the tomb.
Most significantly the artistic bronze prepares us for a celebration of the Holy Eucharist, in the chapel on the other end of the chapel. There daily Mass is celebrated and the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for Eucharistic Adoration on a daily basis. In placing the deeply moving representation of Christ’s death at the entrance to the chapel at Saint Rita’s Church, the faithful Catholic makes a sacramental journey from the font to the Eucharistic celebration, the ultimate indication that Jesus’ suffering and death was the transition to a resurrection to new life.
During our observance of Lent, each of us needs to keep the journey and the ultimate destination in mind, namely the joy of Easter, when Christ overcame suffering and death.
Sacred art invites us to travel on a personal and community spiritual journey with faith. At Saint Rita’s Parish in South Philadelphia( www.stritashrine.org ), the artistic journey begins at the entrance to the chapel and leads us to the Eucharistic liturgy.
Throughout the entire Archdiocese of Philadelphia there are numerous examples of qualitative sacred art that assists us in our pilgrimage of faith. Make it a point to visit, “Christ of Holy Saturday,” at Saint Rita’s. At the same time, make it a point to look around your own parish church for good examples of sacred art that will help deepen your prayerful Catholic spirituality.

Unimpressed by the few political posters around, we asked leading British artists to inspire us and to come up with their own creations. Jonathan Jones introduces their work


I feel a warm, or perhaps it's a hellish-hot, nostalgia looking at the election posters designed by artists for G2. They all seem steeped in memories of Labour publicity in the 1970s and 80s, in its age of defeat. These are anti-posters, which aspire to be honest rather than glib. The tradition of the poster as contemporary art is, in fact, not Labour but Tory: it was the Saatchi & Saatchi poster "Labour isn't working" that created the whole idea of stylish, eye-catching campaigning.
There is, of course, a far older tradition of beautiful and inspiring political poster art; but there is no point here in raking over the history of the Soviet avant-garde, or of Aleksander Rodchenko's photomontages. This is a British election and these are British artists, who have rejected the Saatchi tendency towards killer publicity in favour of recapturing the intense emotions of us-and-them, of anger and loyalty, that Labour adverts inspired 25 years ago.
Back then, Labour was a tribe, and nothing captures the tribal feelings it must now fall back on better than David Shrigley's brilliant drawing of Gordon Brown: not so much a caricature as a delve into the primitive roots of political loyalty. As for the alternative, Jeremy Deller has portrayed a Conservative vote with the caustic accuracy that does what a campaigning poster should – it campaigns. But are there really no Tory artists? Tracey Emin, who has made positive noises about Cameron and shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey, has not yet launched a Tory manifesto policy, but you'd think she could at least do a slogan for them: "Labour isn't fucking working", perhaps. Nor is there a strong Liberal sentiment –unless Goshka Macuga is sending us a subliminal Clegg message.
These posters are the only things I have seen in the course of this entire election that capture the way I feel. Most of the artists are of my generation, in their 40s, and remember the reality of Tory rule. Shrigley speaks viscerally for the tribe: re-elect our leader Gordon Brown.

Martin Parr

I took this photograph at the St Pauls carnival in Bristol last summer, which is like a mini-version of the Notting Hill carnival. In a picture as busy as this, there will often be somebody or something that doesn't quite work: I like the fact that all the people are there and it works. The crowd is predominantly African-Caribbean, with a few white English people watching with their cameras, as I was, so it's almost like a self-portrait without me in it.
I chose "Vote for Britain" rather than any particular party because that's the whole point. This is neutral and ambiguous and loaded. What does it mean to me? Well, I quite like Britain, of course, and one of the reasons I like taking photographs in Britain is that it challenges my own feelings about it: it's not all good and not all bad; there are things I like and things I don't. I'm soft left and I live in a marginal seat, Bristol West. I vote tactically, so I'll probably vote Lib Dem.

Mark Wallinger

We have been through quite a few campaigns without memorable slogans now. Everyone harks back to the Saatchis' "Labour isn't working", but that was 1978. As a lifelong Labour person, through all the party's vicissitudes and disappointments, I was intrigued by the possibility of a campaign that revealed some of the bigger fault lines between the parties, beyond the not-very-galvanising debate over national insurance and VAT. I came up with two other slogans apart from this: "What school did you go to?" and "Who can afford to go private?"
I admit this isn't the most sophisticated, but it does go to the heart of the credibility of the man. Cameron reminds me of a bar of soap. He has been leader for a long time now and I have no idea what he stands for. I hope that the idea of the emperor's new clothes and all his empty rhetoric is implicit. The colours are those of the two main parties, and the union flag; I wanted it to be punchy.
I hope people look at this and see that there are real choices. I'm sick of people saying, "Oh, they're all the same." They're not, and it's up to us to see the differences. Labour is the party for equality and for reform in the Lords. Like most people I feel a little jaded after the banking crisis, but I will vote Labour and hope for the best.
They're a po-faced lot, though, aren't they? Let's hope someone in the campaign discovers a bit of wit: a good joke does hit home. Roy Hattersley was a wit, Robin Cook, Tony Benn – the people on the old left who can see the bigger picture. Though I did like Ken Clarke's description of the Hoon/Hewitt attempted leadership coup earlier this year: hiding behind the dagger and stabbing with the cloak. That was very good.

David Shrigley

When I'm drawing people, I tend to do it really quickly – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Nick Clegg is not easy to draw because you'd be hard pushed to think of anything physically defining about him. The only one I seem to be able to draw is David Cameron: I trace his face, then I make his features smaller in Photoshop and that seems to work. I drew Gordon Brown and it started to look like him the more I looked at it.
Historically I have voted Labour, but not since the Iraq war – I couldn't countenance that. I would never vote Conservative. This poster doesn't express my strong personal support, although of the three of them, I would like Brown to win. Originally the background was yellow, because I like black on yellow, but then I realised yellow was the Lib Dem colour. So I've gone for a rosy red, a kind of New New Labour red. The words say "re-elect", although he wasn't elected as leader, as such. I like the ambiguity.

Bob and Roberta Smith

I don't want to tell people how to vote. The important thing is just to get involved in the whole jamboree – by voting, yes, but also by finding satirical messages to deface posters with, like the person who turned David Cameron into Elvis. If my own poster goes viral, so much the better. It's made up of four timber panels. On the upper panels are pictures of some of my Labour heroes: Clement Attlee, Tony Benn, Glenda Jackson, Bernie Grant – people with extraordinary vision. I put them there to remind me why I'm a Labour supporter. I stopped voting Labour after the Iraq war, and started voting Green. But I'm going to vote Labour in this election. I'm particularly impressed with Ed Miliband's stand on green issues: he could turn out to be in the same category as these heroes. Cameron just reminds me of a disappointed school master, lecturing his students about their stupid antics.

Gerald Scarfe

They're both crap, I suppose that's what I'm saying. If you go to the extreme and call them shits, that's probably not so nice. But I'm saying, really, voters have a crap choice. You would assume Cameron would be ahead, because he is new, and a change, and hasn't made all the mistakes Brown has, but he isn't and the election is very close. The caricature must come from the character of the person. I wasn't a supporter of Margaret Thatcher but she was good material, because she had such a strong personality. I could portray her as a knife or an axe; I couldn't do that with John Major or Iain Duncan Smith. I used to find drawing Brown quite dull because he's a dour personality – a big blob with ears. I draw Cameron in his Bullingdon outfit, because he's so desperate not to appear to be a toff. How daft does he think we are? My position as a cartoonist/journalist for all these years has been to try to remain neutral and to attack all sides, because they are all capable of fallibility. I know this is a bit of a cop out but here I'm saying, I don't know who to vote for. Like I say, it's a crap choice.

Richard Wentworth

There are people who are obsessive about being born under a certain star sign, and those who believe you can only be born when you're born: that that was your time, that only those people could be your parents. I didn't want to leave people with the cheesiness of a bad joke about "labour", but I did want to remind people that they are born into a political space. I worked with some lovely designers who made this look as if it has been around for ever. The font is reminiscent of those Keep Calm and Carry On posters – it's of that period. The red wasn't a conscious decision in terms of "Labour red", just a happy accident; red goes in the eye quickly. I would love to see it reproduced very big. If people look at it and go "What does that mean?", that's good.

Jeremy Deller

This poster is anti-Conservative rather than pro-Labour. Rupert Murdoch is the most powerful lobbyist there is in this country, so I'm drawing attention to the fact that a vote for the Tories is a vote for him. If I'd made a poster for the last election, it would have looked almost the same, except it would have said "Vote Labour" next to a picture of George Bush – Bush was so close to Blair. This time around, it's Murdoch who counts for the Tories, even more than David Cameron or any other Tory politician. It's a small poster, so it could be used as a bumper sticker on a car. But I'd love to see it blown up on a massive billboard. The posters and adverts Labour are using for this election are terrible; it's as if they haven't put any thought into them at all, just sent them to the newspapers to grab that day's headlines.

Yinka Shonibare

This slogan doesn't refer to politicians: I want people to vote for me. My party is the Me party. It's not registered yet, though. I'm just celebrating the fact that, in this democratic system, anyone can stand. I like me, you see, so I assume everyone else will. People think politicians like to be the centre of attention, but artists are worse. So I'm poking fun at artists, too. They are not rosettes – they are flowers made from African textiles, in the colours of the three main parties. Flowers are attractive, whereas political posters are rarely well done. And even when they are, they're still knocking or negative. I think politicians are only interested in power and lining their own pockets. But I have always voted; who for is my own business. When I was a child in Nigeria, a military regime was in charge. There were soldiers everywhere and there was no question of voting. It started to feel normal. That's why I value the vote.

Goshka Macuga

I made this with the designer Fraser Muggeridge. It's double-sided: the "Left Right Forward" panel is the front, and the blue side is the reverse, printed on the kind of thin, textured underlay that is used underneath billboard posters to make them look opaque. I wanted to think about a political poster as a physical object, rather than just an image.
The front reflects the confused picture we have of UK politics right now. I have mixed feelings about Labour, especially regarding the war in Iraq, and the fact that what people really felt about it wasn't taken into consideration. But I'm also concerned about what a Conservative government would mean for arts funding. It seems like the two parties have merged into one: whether you vote for the left or the right adds up to much the same thing.
But without voting, you have no control. So the quote on the back of the poster is to remind us about the roots of democracy. It's from a speech Pericles made to the Athenians during the Peloponnesian wars. He's speaking about the impossibility of doing justice to the brave men who have lost their lives in the war – something that resonates with the war in Iraq. But he's also reminding us of the respect given in Athens to those involved in politics, something that today we have all but lost.

Maggi Hambling

Every morning I paint the sea, and I am always reminded of how remarkably small I am. It is a very humbling experience, and I think a bit of humility wouldn't go amiss with our politicians. So I've chosen the sea to remind politicans about the bigger picture: nature, and the way it is taking its revenge – through climate change, through volcanic eruptions, through coastal erosion. They could all do with thinking more about that, and less about political bitching and wrangling. All artists are anarchists at heart – at least, they are if they're any good. So I've chosen red – the colour of anarchy, along with black – for the quotation, which curves and curls across the sea picture like a wave. It's from Julius Caesar, one of Shakespeare's most political plays, and seems particularly appropriate at this moment. It reminds us that everything is about timing: the Falklands war was crucial to Mrs Thatcher's success, and now the changes in nature and climate are defining the issues for this election.
I vote in London, where my MP is Labour's wonderful Kate Hoey. She is pro-hunting, as am I, so she'll be getting my vote.
Maggi Hambling: New Sea Sculpture, Paintings and Etchings is at Marlborough Fine Art, London W1, from 5 May to 5 June.

Liam Gillick

As with all my art, I went back to the source: in this case, the Labour party's own website. "The democratic socialist party" is the phrase it still uses to describe itself, though you'd be hard pushed to recognise that in the way the party talks about itself today.
I find it perverse that Labour is shying away from its own legacy. There are lots of aspects of its current policies – the new tax rate, the investment in public spending – that fit with these core values. I hope my poster reminds politicians and voters alike of that.
With its strong Helvetica font, the poster is nostalgic: it reminds me of growing up in the 1970s, when Labour was in crisis, and you could recognise every Labour family in the street from their bold posters: they really stood out. Campaign posters have become nasty and cynical, taking their cue from the Saatchis' for the Tories, which were more about people than policies. Ironic, postmodern posters are not what we need: the most important thing is to remind voters what the party stands for, and to encourage them to vote.

Alison Jackson

I've been shooting a whole series of photographs, and working on some web video clips, during this election. Nick Clegg wasn't hard to cast: he's quite a normal-looking guy and there are quite a few people who can look like him. But a good Gordon Brown has been impossible to find: I held casting sessions all over England and Scotland, scouring areas where there might be someone who looked like him. He's a big man, so I focused on places where people eat a lot, in Scotland particularly, but no one wanted to put themselves forward. I put five casting directors on it, and they were practically in tears: they had never experienced anything like it. I've found one, and he's reasonably good in profile, but there's only one side that works. Cameron I'm still working on: in his case, there are lots who will put themselves forward, but I'm still looking for the perfect one.
During the first TV debate it was striking how much Brown was trying to align himself with Clegg. I wondered what might be happening behind the scenes, and came up with these scenarios: Clegg and Brown celebrating, Brown letting Clegg try out the prime minister's chair. And I'm very interested in Mandelson and his role: what a comeback, having parted ways with Brown – now he's here to help. You just never know what people are planning.

BBC South East's Polly Evans went to a quiet corner of Tunbridge Wells to meet the TNPK Freerunners, who train regularly in parkour, or l'art du déplacement (meaning "the art of movement") and publish films about their sport online.
They were spotted by local photographer, Steve Collins, who has been capturing their art, as part of his, for a collection of works being displayed in an exhibition about Tunbridge Wells.
He is hoping that his images will show the amazing feats the members of the Freerunners can perform, and portray teenagers in a different, more positive, light.

Steve Collins' photos can be seen at Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery until the end of May 2010.

Education » Judge Memorial hosts Alumni and Student Art Show.

Judge Memorial Catholic High School students, past and present, will come together Thursday to show their art to family, friends and long-lost classmates at the school's second annual Alumni and Student Art Show.
A surrealist rendering of a butternut squash, a close-up photo of a human eyeball, and a photo shot on vacation in Sorrento, Italy, will all be on display tonight at Evergreen Framing Co. & Gallery, 3295 S. 2000 East Suite A, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibit will be open throughout the weekend during regular business hours.
Some of the contributors are professional artists. Most aren't.
"The majority just do it as a hobby and were excited to be able to display and showcase their art with the possibly to sell," said Rachel Kelly, Judge's director of special events and alumni relations. "We have so many great artists."
More than 30 artists will show their photography, ceramics, paintings, collages and other handiwork as the school's jazz quartet sets the mood. The oldest of the artists graduated from Judge in 1964, and submissions came from as far away as Los Angeles.
"This is actually the first time I've ever entered something into an art show," said current Judge junior James McDonough, a varsity football player. "I think I'm still kind of a new artist per se. I'm kind of nervous because I've never done it before. It'll be exciting."
McDonough's photo, which documents a trip to Italy, will be for sale, and the teen plans to donate half of any proceeds to Judge. Fellow junior Sydney Richards is also new to the art-show world. She's interested to see people's reactions to her photo of a fellow Judge student's eye.
"I just hope people like it," she said.
Richards is taking her first-ever photography class at Judge this year, and she's fallen in love with capturing images of the world around her.
"I just like that you can express yourself in a way different than talking about what your feelings are," she said. "You can capture anything you want to. It's really unique some of the photos you can get."
Like Richards, alumnus Nick Frappier's love of art was nurtured at Judge.
"In high school, I thought I was going into biophysics," said Frappier, an art show contributor and current University of Utah student who graduated from Judge in 2006.
Frappier decided to major in art instead of biophysics in part because of Judge art teacher Tom Bettin's influence.
"I still keep in touch with him," Frappier said. "This show seemed like something fun to do."
Frappier, who graduates from the U. in two weeks, will show his drawing of a butternut squash.
"The squash itself is sitting on the edge of the drawing," he said. "It's something mundane drawn differently."
Kelly said she hopes the Alumni and Student Art Show becomes a tradition, and that the Judge community will come out of the woodwork to show their butternut squashes and other creations in future years.

Painter Phoebe Unwin and former YBA Sarah Lucas are among the 39 artists whose work will form part of the exhibition.
The work on display includes sculpture, painting, installation, photography, film, drawing, video and performance.
British Art Show 7 will tour Glasgow, Nottingham, London and Plymouth.
'Significant contribution'
The British Art Show - which began in 1979 - is seen as one of the most influential events on the cultural calendar.
Work by artists such as Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood and Chris Ofili were showcased in 1995, and all four nominated artists on the Turner Prize list in 2005 were included in that year's exhibition.
This year's 39 selected artists have been chosen on the grounds of their "significant contribution to contemporary art in the last five years".
They include Argentine-born painter Varda Caivano, sculptor Mick Peter, collaborative filmmakers Anja Kirschner and David Panos, and 75-year-old Scottish artist Alasdair Gray.
It is hoped hundreds of thousands of visitors will visit the touring show, which is organised by the Hayward Gallery.

Work by abstract painter Varda Caivano will be on show

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, said the show had always been, and continued to be, at the "forefront of innovation".
He said: "The curatorial premise of the British Art Show 7 allows visitors the chance to discover younger artists, and also re-evaluate and reconnect with artists whose work they thought they were familiar with, but whose new developments hold many surprises."
British Art Show 7 - subtitled In the Days of the Comet - is curated by Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton.
They said: "Our subtitle is taken from HG Wells' 1906 science fiction novel In the Days of the Comet.
"We are interested in the recurrent nature of the comet as a symbol of how each version of the present collides with the past and the future and the work of the artists in British Art Show 7, in many different ways, contest assumptions of how 'the now' might be understood."
The British Art Show 7 will open at Nottingham Contemporary on 23 October, before moving to the Hayward Gallery, in London, on 14 February 2011.
It will be at Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art between May and August 2011, and at Plymouth Arts Centre from September until December.

You may have noticed a distinctive new advertising campaign currently running on TV for the Vauxhall Corsa supermini. In the ad, a shiny black Corsa zooms past a heap of large, red letters that spell out the word “C’MON” (a homage to Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE sculpture). The car then swerves in front of a dazzling backdrop of Pop Art portraits, and we see a wall of images of a woman’s succulent red lips drifting in space – a reference to Andy Warhol’s silk-screen prints of Marilyn Monroe’s seductive Cupid’s bow.
This isn’t the first time that advertisers – or, indeed, the automobile industry – have raided the cupboard of modern art to promote something. In 1999, the French car company Citroën launched a new model called the Xsara Picasso, with a glittering simulacrum of the Spanish artist’s signature emblazoned on both sides of each car.
It might seem faintly ridiculous to yoke together a small, economical family car, produced on an assembly line, with the pre-eminent artistic genius of the 20th century. After all, Picasso, a compulsive philanderer, could hardly be described as a family man. Moreover, he couldn’t even drive (he did have a car – a gas-guzzling, luxurious Hispano-Suiza – but he employed a chauffeur). But Citroën’s marketers weren’t bothered: the model, which ceased production this year, proved a massive hit, and 1.7 million vehicles were sold across Europe.
Nowadays the names Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso are often used to confer a bit of stardust upon mundane products and companies that have no direct link with the art world: the global hotel chain Radisson, for instance, uses a logo clearly modelled on Picasso’s signature. At some point, modern art became a brand – suggesting that art made during the 20th century has had a surprisingly broad influence.
This has preoccupied me over the past year while writing and presenting Modern Masters, a new four-part television series about modern art, which begins on BBC One on Sunday. The first set of programmes exclusively about modern art ever broadcast on the channel, the series aims to do two things: to introduce to as wide an audience as possible the extraordinary lives and work of four titans of 20th-century art (Henri Matisse, Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Warhol); and to demonstrate that modern art has shaped, and still saturates, our everyday world.
The more you look, the more you realise that modern art is everywhere. Take the work of Matisse. Of the four artists to feature in the series, he was born earliest, on New Year's Eve 1869, so you might think that he would have least to do with the modern world. You would be wrong.
Matisse preserved a persona of professorial respectability throughout his life, but he painted like a wild beast. He pioneered a fierce and exceptionally free use of colour that liberated art. His incendiary canvases painted in the southern French town of Collioure in the summer of 1905 proved that artists were no longer obliged to imitate the external world faithfully. Matisse paved the way for later artists such as the Abstract-Expressionist Mark Rothko, who used to stare for hours at the Frenchman’s sumptuous 1911 canvas The Red Studio in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, until he was moved to tears.
But Matisse exerted great influence beyond the world of fine art, too. Towards the end of his life, while recovering from cancer in the south of France, he developed a new technique known as the paper cut-out, characterised by bold, simplified shapes and pure, bright colours. Over the following decades, his late compositions influenced a number of different fields, including advertising, interior design, fashion – even children’s picture books.
Think of the recent Apple iPod advertisements that featured silhouettes of sinuous dancers against blocks of vivid colour. They are extraordinarily similar to some of Matisse’s cut-outs, such as Icarus (1947).
The British designer Paul Smith calls Matisse “the boss of colour”. When Smith was starting out, he told me, he was amazed by the extraordinary ways in which Matisse could successfully combine clashing hues within a single canvas. He showed me a number of his own colourful designs inspired by Matisse – including a tie clearly modelled on the monumental floating shapes of The Snail (1953), a cut-out which the artist completed shortly before his death. (It’s now in the permanent collection of Tate Modern.)
Smith isn’t the only fashion designer inspired by Matisse: Yves Saint Laurent, who used to say that he wished he had been Matisse, made a number of dresses suffused with the spirit of the French artist. The infamous ad for YSL’s Opium perfume, featuring the model Sophie Dahl naked and rapturously reclining against a dark backcloth, was inspired by Matisse’s so-called “odalisque” paintings of the 1920s, which depict languorous, semi-clad women lounging around highly decorated interiors.
Even Miffy the rabbit, the sweet star of a best-selling series of children’s picture books (more than 85 million copies have been sold around the world), is indebted to Matisse. When I met her creator, the Dutch artist Dick Bruna, in Utrecht, he happily revealed to me that the clean, uncluttered look of his books was originally inspired by Matisse’s cut-outs, which he saw in Paris in the years following the Second World War.
I could go on… but I hope that you get the point. Modern art didn’t just change the way that artists worked. It changed, and continues to influence, all of our lives, often in surprising ways. Modern art has imprinted itself upon the DNA of Western culture.
But why has it reached and influenced so many people, in a way that other “highbrow” or seemingly “difficult” art forms, such as opera, have not? In part, this is due to the fact that several modern artists became international celebrities and trendsetters in their own lifetimes. In the years after the Second World War, for instance, Picasso was so wealthy that he used to haul around a red-leather Hermès trunk stuffed full of millions of francs so that he would never be short of the cash to “buy a packet of cigarettes”.
He was frequently photographed leading a sun-soaked, playboy lifestyle on the white-sandy beaches of the Riviera (a part of the world which, incidentally, had never been a summertime holiday destination until Picasso and his smart friends started staying there during the hottest months of the year during the Twenties).
In other words: by the final decades of his life, Picasso had become a brand. His name had developed into shorthand for ceaselessly inventive artistic genius, understood by people who would not recognise a Picasso in a gallery.
No wonder that Citroën wanted to buy the rights to his signature: with the Spaniard’s imprimatur, a humdrum car can be magically transformed into a glamorous work of art.

The 2010 event of the Seoul Photo, Asia’s first annual art fair exclusively for photography, begins tomorrow.

Twenty-two local and foreign galleries are participating in the event that will take place at COEX Hall B in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. The participants of this year include not only galleries specializing in photography but also major local galleries such as Arario and Kukje , showing the heightened status of photography in the nation’s fine art world.

The photo fair launched in 2008 and has rapidly grown, according to Photonet, a monthly photography magazine operating the event.

Photonet said in a statement that the Seoul Photo 2009 attracted 43,000 viewers. Considering that the Korea International Art Fair, the nation’s biggest comprehensive art fair which launched in 2002, attracted 56,000 viewers last year, Seoul Photo has emerged as a popular fair for a short time.

The guest of honor nation for yjr Seoul Photo 2010 is Spain. Last year’s guest was Sweden.

“Spain’s celebrity curator Alejandro Castellote has selected about 100 pieces by 10 Spanish photographers for the Seoul Photo 2010,” Choi Jae-won, curator for the event said. “The show of the artists will help Korean photographers and viewers who have been familiar only with American, British and German photographers broaden their outlook.”

	In “Self-portrait as Actress” by Yasumasa Morimura, the Japanese artist plays Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday.” provided by Seoul Photo 2010

Castellote, 51, has been working as photography curator since 1982. He founded PHotoEspana, an international photography festival in Madrid, in 1998 and served as art director for it from 1998 to 2000. Now he works as curator of various international photo exhibitions, photography critic and essay writer.

The 10 Spanish photographers that Castellote has chosen for the Seoul event range from famous veteran artists such as Chema Madoz, 52, and Juan Manuel Castro Prieto, 52, to emerging young artists such as Gerardo Custance, 34, and Victoria Diehl, 32.

Among them, the works of Madoz, who has developed his unique photographic characteristics since 1980s, notice the everyday objects and deconsturct and reinterpret their context to create a different world, according to Castellote’s note.

But more foreign photographers that will show their works in the Seoul Photo 2010 are from Japan. The event feature about 40 Japanese photographers.

Among them, Yasumasa Morimura, 59, a photographer known for his “self-portraits” will hold a special invitation exhibition at the art fair.

He started the self-portrait works with photographs in 1985 for which he himself posed as van Gogh, borrowing the images of the famous post-impressionist’s self-portraits.

	“Varanasi,” (2004) by Juan Manuel Castro Prieto from Spain, the guest of honor country in the Seoul Photo 2010 shows the scene where the reality and memory meet. provided by Seoul Photo 2010

His main works include the “Self-Portrait as Art History” series, in which he plays the characters including female characters appearing in famous paintings such as the imrpessionist Edouard Manet’s Olympia, and the “Self-Portrait as Actress” series, in which he plays the parts of film actresses including Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday.”

And RAWVISION session of the Seoul Art 2010 will show photo works by the chief executives of several major companies.

The participants include Cho Yang-ho, chairman and CEO of Hanjin Group, Park Yong-sung, chairman of Doosan Heavy Industries and Yu Sang-ok, chairman of CoreanaCosmetics.

*The fair runs until May 3. Admission is 8,000 won for adults. Go to Samseong subway station, Line No.2, Exit 5, 6. For more information, visit http://www.seoulphotofair.com or call (02) 6000-8236.

Mariah Carey & Nick Cannon

The celebrity DJ was out with friends at Hollywood’s Trousdale nightclub when she was approached by the actress, who she dated last year. Lindsay reportedly started screaming at Samantha before throwing her empty glass at her.

"Just got a glass thrown at my head..... Hmmm- wonder who did it???? (sic)," Samantha wrote on her Twitter page.

Lindsay was escorted out of the club after the incident, leaving a shocked Samantha and her friends inside. The group eventually calmed down and continued partying, with pals saying Samantha is used to Lindsay’s “bizarre” behaviour.

"Everyone was shocked," an insider revealed to E! Online. “The night was going fine, and all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, Lindsay walked up and caused a huge scene. Sam is used to Lindsay's bizarre behaviour, and wasn't about to let it ruin her night."

Samantha returned to the club with a mystery female companion the next night, and said she was not fazed by Lindsay’s attack. When asked why she thought her former lover had lashed out, she said: "I don't know, she's an angry human being.”

Lindsay took to her own Twitter account shortly after the incident, posting a bizarre message that appeared to announce her retirement from the “club scene”. The 23-year-old star is notorious for her party lifestyle and is often seen leaving party venues in the early hours of the morning.

“Last night-never again-believe it or not she's done with the club scene i've learned my lesson-sometime's it just takes a glimpse of reality (sic),” she wrote.

Last week, Lindsay accused Samantha of “spitting” in her face at a party during the Coachella Music Festival. She threw a piece of ice at Samantha to retaliate, but the DJ later denied she had confronted Lindsay at all.

Lindsay and Samantha had a tumultuous on/off relationship before they called it quits for good last year.

Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez [ Images ] channelled glamour icon Marilyn Monroe [ Images ] in a slinky silver dress and a peroxide wig to serenade chat show host George Lopez on his birthday.
The singer-actress, popularly known as JLo, became the latest in a long line of people to imitate Monroe when she famously sang Happy Birthday to John F Kennedy [ Images ] in 1962, Daily Mail online reported.
The 40-year-old singer made a guest appearance on Lopez Tonight to promote her new film The Back-up Plan and oozed old Hollywood glamour as she sang for George Lopez.
As George, who turned 49 on Friday, was wrapping up the show, the cameras faded to black and the audience heard J-Lo's voice coming from backstage.
"I wanted to do something special to surprise you. Take a seat and let me do my thing," said J Lo [ Images ].
In a blonde wig and tight-fitting silver floor-length gown, she then tottered on stage and took her place behind an old radio hall microphone before breathlessly singing 'Happy Birthday To You' to the lucky host.
As the audience clapped loudly, a giant birthday cake was wheeled onto the stage as hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling.

This year’s Festival of India talent show, aptly titled the Essence of India, was held at the grand Riverbend Auditorium. Although the location was a forty minute drive from campus, the Auditorium had a large seating capacity and good acoustic support. ISA and Delta Epsilon Psi did a commendable job of organizing buses to and from the location.
The Essence of India Talent Show offered $5000 as prize money, the largest South Asian Talent Show prize money ever given. This year’s show had teams competing from Ohio, New York, and Texas. Many of the teams had competed in ISA’s Taal Talent Show held in early April.
Unsurprisingly, the talent show started late. Adhering to ‘Indian Standard Time,’ the show began nearly thirty minutes behind schedule. However, the frustrating wait did not diminish the quality of talent that would follow.
The show began with the national anthems of India and the United States. After the anthems, the audience was introduced to the emcees for the evening, Gopi Patel and Alykhan Rehmatullah. Both emcees did a stellar job of introducing teams and keeping the audience amused.
The first group to perform was UT’s Hum a Capella. Hum a Capella gave a laudable singing performance with a fusion of Hindi songs such as Ishq Bina, Ghanana Ghanana, and Tu Jaane Naa. Their performance was marked by great facial expressions and a delightful mix of dance and song. They concluded with a powerful rendition of the Circle of Life by Sheryl Abraham.
The next act was the dance group, Dhadkan, from Houston, TX. The group began its performance with the song O… Saya, incorporating the styles of Bharatnatyam and Bhangra. Although Dhadkan was vibrant, they lacked synchronization and coordination. The women in the group appeared to be better performers than the men. On the whole, Dhadkan gave a somewhat lackluster performance.
Dhadkan was followed by UT’s Saaya. In line with their solid act at Taal, Saaya once again did a marvelous job. The introductory video, consisting of a creatively crafted rap song, set the tone for a splendid performance. Their act consisted of a unique amalgamation of Bhangra, hip hop, Kathak, and Bharatnatyam. I was mesmerized by their colorful blend of costumes, great timing, and brilliant coordination. Integrating four distinct styles of dance into a single performance is indubitably difficult, but Saaya managed to pull off a seamless performance.
Following Saaya was the next dance group, Core of Dallas, hailing from Dallas, TX. The group began with an acrobatic performance with dancers popping out of a jack-in-the-box (this needs hyphens) contraption. The group was amazing in its use of props and gave an awesome exhibition of Western hip hop dance. Although they presented a visual spectacle and gave a well-choreographed performance, apart from some of the music, their act had little to do with India or any of its essence.
The next dance group, UT’s Texas Raas, winners of the Taal talent show, once again brought their A game. The group had colorful costumes consisting of ghagra cholis¹ and dhotis² overlaid with fluorescent stripes. I expected a repeat of their performance at Taal, but I was pleasantly surprised by their original incorporation of glow-in-the dark bangles and flashing dandiyas. The group set the stage alight with their enthusiasm and passion.
Texas Raas was followed by Houston-based Infused Performing Arts dance group. The group certainly lived up to its name and gave an outstanding performance consisting of Kathak and Bhangra dance styles. In addition to dance, the group also had a Tabla player, which made for a refreshing change. The group’s performance was unlike that of its predecessors since it revolved around a central story. I was impressed by their color scheme, coordination, and appropriately chosen music.
After a brief intermission of ten minutes, the next group to perform was the percussion-based Dhoom, from UT. There is no doubt as to why the group calls itself Dhoom; their performance was nothing short of an explosion. Following their amusing and unique introduction video, the group captivated the audience with their fast-paced drum rolls and self-deprecating but well done attempts at dance. In addition to their glow-in-the-dark masked props at Taal, the group wore sound-responsive shirts which stayed in tow to their amazing beat. The group gave a terrific performance and clearly got the loudest response from the crowd. If ever there was an epitome of coordination and perfect synchronization, it would be Dhoom.
Dhoom was followed by the second Dandiya Raas team of the night, Texas A&M’s Wreckin’ Raas. The group made good use of colorful costumes and had consistent coordination throughout their performance. For a team in its first year, Wrecking Raas did a great job. However, in comparison to Texas Raas, the team fell several yards short. I found their performance to be good, but not impressive.
The next performance was by UT’s Nach Baliye dance group. The act was a repeat of its second-place winning performance at Taal. The group managed to wow the audience with its spectacularly choreographed Bollywood fusion dance.  The group had an entertaining story-driven mix of various popular Hindi songs. As always, Nach Baliye gave an exuberant and highly-entertaining performance, well appreciated by the audience.
Following Nach Baliye was a team from Stony Brook University, New York, SBU Thillana. SBU Thillana began its performance with a seriously themed video about mankind destroying nature and pushing it to a point of no return. They managed to blend the theme of nature consistently throughout their dance performance, offering a welcome change from trite plots.  The group had a well-coordinated mix of Western and Indian music. I was extremely impressed by their choice of music and it made me wonder whether they had chosen their music or their theme first. Despite their seemingly flawless performance, the group had a placid ending.  This rather dull conclusion may have put off the judges and crowd.
The penultimate performance of the night was by Texas Mohini. An all girl group from UT, Mohini combines hip hop and classical dance. Although I had seen their act at Taal, I was still held spellbound by Mohini’s scintillating performance. Mohini managed to live up to its well-earned reputation as a nationally competing dance team. Their dance was themed around the aspirations of individual team members (“When I grow up….”). Mohini had a subtle, yet suitable choice of costumes, appropriate to the theme and music.  Their performance, as a whole, was fast, captivating, and dazzling.
The final performance of the night was by OSU Genesis, a hip hop and Bhangra dance team from Ohio State University. Amusingly, the emcees introduced Genesis with a video of the Longhorns scoring a touch-down against the OSU football team. Genesis started off strongly and continued to entertain the crowd throughout its performance. They provided a stunning display of acrobatic maneuvers, complex hip-hop moves, and entertaining Bhangra. The group managed to win the audience’s approval by including a Texas vs. OSU themed dance into their performance. Their brilliant show was symbolic of a spectacular night and a fitting end to a thoroughly entertaining line-up.
I had picked my personal favorites for the night: Dhoom, Saaya, and Hum a Capella. As it turns out, my thoughts concurred with the judges. Third place went to Hum a Capella, winning a prize money of $500. The runners up were OSU Genesis, winning $1500. Dhoom, the crowd favorite, won first place, with a prize money of $3000.
In all, the event was a great success. Despite a delayed start, Delta Epsilon Psi and the Indian Students Association did a praiseworthy job of organizing such a grand event. Their efforts culminated in a widely-appreciated showcase of South Asian talent. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and I am already marking my calendar for the next Festival of India talent show.
Information was also obtained from www.foi2010.com
Footnotes:
1. Ghagra-choli: traditional festive garment worn by women in the Indian subcontinent. Ghagra cholis are intricately designed long skirts worn with a blouse and a roll over chunari (scarf).
2. Dhoti: traditional formal garment worn by men in the Indian subcontinent. Dhotis are rectangular unstitched cloths, about seven yards long that wrap around the waist and legs.

While there’s still time for Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One to be anywhere near completion, the King Khan has already revealed his look from the film. The star posted the above picture on his Twitter micro-blog on April 24.
Unfortunately, SRK is seen sporting a white shirt and black pants, and not his superhero costume from the film. Seems, we’ll have to wait longer for that. Said SRK, “Director allowed only this picture from Ra.One. Hope you like it.” Khan plays Jeeva, a superhero character who can solidify electricity.
In latest, the actor took a break on Sunday to catch up with the IPL finals.

Washington, April 26 (PTI) In an effort to cash in on the craze for Bollywood films among the South Asia population, which is estimated to be nearly four million in the US, the Big Cinemas has acquired 188 screens in the country and is planning to expand further.

In little over a year, the Big Cinemas has acquired a chain of 188 screens in more than two dozen cities in the US, covering almost all the major centers of South Asian population from Manhattan and Edison in East Coast to Los Angeles and San Jose in California and Chicago in the Mid-West.

By the end of the year, it plans to acquire about 250 screens across the US and expanding to new centers of South Asian population like Florida and Texas, says Anil Arjun, CEO of Reliance Media Works.

A new wave of filmmaking has hit Bollywood today. Directors today are done with the tried and tested themes and are pushing themselves and actors out of the comfort zone. Some are successful, while others are not, but this has not deterred the filmmakers to stop experimenting. While earlier females in Bollywood were divided into two kinds of roles-vamps and heroines, now this classification is not so strict today.

Many mainstream heroines today have successfully played negative roles. Sometimes they play characters that are neither black nor white, but have shades of grey. Even though some of ourheroines like Priyanka Chopra, Kajol have done negative roles, we would like more heroines to try out these bad girl roles.

Here we present five Bollywood heroines whom we would love to see in a negative role.

Aishwarya Rai-Aishwarya has got a stunning face and it is difficult to believe that she can be a bad girl and this is where the convincing power of the filmmakers comes into being. Aishwarya hadplayed a woman with grey shades in Dhoom 2 and Khakhi, but she had a kind of justification for being bad. We would like to play her a role where she is bad, unapologetically.

Dia Mirza is another actress who has played mostly girl next door sweet characters and people will be surprised if she plays a role which has got negative shades. She is smart and looks good in short and body hugging dresses. Playinga negative role might give her that long awaited success and might also revamp her career which is currently not at its best stage.

Katrina Kaif has not experimented much other than conventional heroine roles. Even though she played a bad girl in the film Race, we would like to see her in a role where she dons the role of a mean girl and does all the wrong things unabashedly.

Even though Deepika Padukone is a relatively new entrant in Bollywood, she has played mostly goody goody roles till now .This sexy actress has earned commercial success as well as earned the appreciation of the critics. She is few films old and if she plays a sizzling, hot mean girl, it would give a perfect shock value to her character and also the film.

Sonam Kapoor, too, can be a good choice for a negative role. Even though with all that innocent looks, it is a little difficult to imagine her in a negative role, but nevertheless she can always experiment with her role and looks.Sonam is an extremely talented actress and we are convinced that she would carry off any role in a perfect manner.

If you are one of those star-struck movie buffs, then Nerul’s DY Patil Stadium was the place to be on Sunday.
However, the closing ceremony of the third edition of the Indian Premier League wasn’t all that spectacular. Yes, it did have an impact on the excitable crowd but the show wasn’t mind-boggling or out-of-the-world by any standards.
Oscar winner AR Rahman, Bollywood hottie Bipasha Basu and Shahid Kapur, the hunk, weren’t exactly ‘sizzling’ on the night. While Rahman was clearly lip-synching as he ‘crooned’ his way to Chale Chalo, Vande Mataram and Jai Ho - thank god the crowd sang the chorus - Bips and Shahid were lacking in fizz.

The actor, whose new flick 'Housefull' is slated for release on April 30, said there was enough space in the film industry for everyone, without the need for rivalries and camps. Interacting with the media here, Akshay said ''I just spoke to one of the Khans the other day. The so-called rivalry does not really exist between us. Every year, our industry produces 150 films, so there is enough for everyone.'' He also declined to wear the title of the number one Bollywood actor after giving a string of hits and being the highest income tax payer among the film fraternity. He paid Rs 19 crore for 2009, topping Shah Rukh Khan's Rs 15 crore easily.

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''There is no pressure to either be the biggest star or the highest tax payer. You pay taxes according to what you earn legitimately. There is no such thing as competition to be the top among us. I can not comment on what the media says, and what the public reads. For me, the biggest kick is to be part of the film industry,'' he said.
Akshay, who has also launched his own production house, which is co-producing 'Housefull', and has Rs 550-600 crore riding on him, keeps an open mind about what the future will bring for him.
''Four to five years back, I could never imagine launching my own production house. And right now, I do not have any serious plans to either write or direct a film, even though I had written 'Namastey London'. But having a production house, I face less stress at work.
My remuneration for my production house is zero, as I do not charge any fees. It is the actor's fees that eat up most of the producer's costs,'' he revealed.
Though not supertitious, the actor refuses to share his future plans or dreams in detail.
''I prefer to keep my dreams and wishes to myself. But life could not have been better. I have had incredible hits with all my heroines too - from Ayesha Jhuka to Katrina Kaif.'' Commenting on his next release directed by Sajid Khan, Akshay said it was a multi-starrer comedy with cast that included Lara Dutta, Riteish Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal, where he plays a loser looking for his soulmate.
''My character 'Arush', unlike my real life, is a loser in search of the ''right girl''. And until he finds her, his run of bad luck is going to continue. The good thing about comedy movies is the fact that you are not a hero but a character. And the fact that the movie is a multi-starrer removes a lot of pressure off me,'' he added.

Indian cricket authorities suspended the head and driving force behind the money-spinning Indian Premier League on Monday in a bid to stem an escalating crisis involving tax and match-fixing allegations.

After a week of intense speculation that IPL boss Lalit Modi faced the axe, the news came just hours after the final of a tournament he built into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

A statement from the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which owns the IPL, said Modi had been suspended with immediate effect and been given two weeks to prove his innocence.

"The alleged acts of individual misdemeanours of Mr Lalit K. Modi, chairman IPL and vice president BCCI, have brought a bad name to the administration of cricket and the game itself," said a statement from president Shashank Manohar.

The governing council of the BCCI held an emergency meeting in Mumbai on Monday without Modi. Members filed into the Wankhede Stadium in front of a scrum of press photographers and television cameras.

The seeds of Modi's downfall were sown two weeks ago when he revealed the ownership details of a new franchise set to join the glitzy and globally popular IPL in 2011.

'Minister forced to resign'
In one of his numerous postings on micro-blogging site Twitter, he embarrassed a high-profile member of the government, junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor, by leaking how Tharoor's girlfriend had been given a free stake in the new team.

Under pressure from the opposition, which accused Tharoor of misusing his office to secure benefit for himself, the minister was forced to resign, embarrassing the Congress-led government.

Since then, the finance ministry has launched a wide-ranging tax probe into the IPL, the BCCI and its franchise owners -- powerful business and Bollywood figures -- and many blame Modi for bringing the tax man to their door.

Bollywood legend AMITABH BACHCHAN is under "constant vigil and monitoring" from doctors because he's suffering severe liver damage.
The veteran actor revealed to fans on Friday (23Apr10) he has developed cirrhosis of the liver, caused by a blood transfusion following a near-fatal accident while shooting for Coolie in 1982.
In a post on his website, Bachchan writes, "I (am) a patient that had developed cirrhosis of the liver - a condition that is normally associated with that of an alcoholic.
"Now since the liver and any ailment associated with it is extremely sensitive, I have to be under constant vigil and monitoring. Some of them are at an extreme stage of repair and I may have to go under the knife sooner rather than later.
"(It) is a saga that never seems to end, for, what is more in store for me I cannot comprehend."
The star has been dogged with health problems in the past year - he was hospitalised for an abdominal injury last summer (Jul09) and again for an intestinal problem in October (09).