Outsiders may assume Chennais cuisine consists of idli-dosa and biryani made with short-grain rice, but the citys cultural scene combined with its location facing South- East Asia has always meant a large expatriate community, which brought their cuisine with them.
Ron Wan & Mildred Cheng
“Tell them about your rugs,” Wan teases as he gives Cheng a playful nudge in the arm during a recent visit to Sheung Wan co-working space The Hive. It seems Cheng, who moonlights as a painter, has just purchased a tufting gun so she can turn her trippy artworks, some of them bordering on the erotic, into rugs.
“A lot of my personal work is based on psychedelic experiences,” says Cheng, a 27-year-old vegetarian who goes by the alias “I Ride Dolphin” on Instagram. She is simultaneously head-in-the-clouds and sharp-as-a-tack, and received her bachelor’s from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)’s former campus in Hong Kong in 2017. Despite being relatively new to the field, she has already been commissioned by Zheng Mahler, the Hong Kong-based artist-and-anthropologist duo of Royce Ng and Daisy Bisenieks, to design their book,
PITTSFIELD â A new spread in Conde Nast Traveler seeks to explain, yet again, the Berkshiresâ appeal to well-heeled weekenders.
âItâs the rich cross-history of bohemia and money, of creatives and cultural titans, that makes the Berkshires more than an escape from the city,â the authors write in the magazineâs current issue. âItâs an escape to one of the liveliest and most vital artistic hubs in the USA. ⦠Itâs country living with a symphony orchestra for its soundtrack.â
People who work for low pay in the regionâs cultural centers are singing a different tune. In a new grassroots campaign on Instagram, they share personal testimony, anonymously, about the reality of work life inside museums and theaters.