Doing bird

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Jean Kennedy

"Although modern African literature and music have become well known in the West, through the contributions of such famous authors as Chinua Achebe and Bessie Head and such popular musicians as King Sunny Ade and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the continent's vast body of modern visual arts has been little explored." "In New Currents, Ancient Rivers Jean Kennedy surveys African art of the last fifty years, offering an expansive perspective on the visual arts of the continent. Just as ancient rivers flow through the modern African landscape, so too do the rituals and traditions of the past run deeply through modern African art. The past is able to coexist in vibrant synthesis with the present largely because of a critical constant in African culture, the acceptance of change." "The culmination of twenty years' research, New Currents, Ancient Rivers is the largest survey of contemporary African art, presenting nearly 150 artists of sub-Saharan Africa, primarily from Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa--painters, sculptors, fiber artists, printmakers, and filmmakers. As Kennedy examines their artistic development, she shows the many ways the artists meld elements from modern life, the legacy of colonialism, foreign technology, the natural world, and the past to create art that may be divorced from the original purposes of ritual but that still embraces traditional rhythms. The author also briefly discusses the influence of the oral and literary traditions on the visual arts." "New Currents, Ancient Rivers is a tribute to the vitality and diversity of a continent and its peoples. This progressive book recognizes individual artists, many of whom are virtually unknown in Europe and the United States."--Jacket.

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Nora Bensahel, Olga Oliker, Heather Peterson

U.S. experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated that improving U.S. capacity for stabilization and reconstruction operations is critical to national security. The authors recommend building civilian rather than military capacity, realigning and reforming existing agencies, and funding promising programs. They also suggest improvements to deployable police capacity, crisis-management processes, and guidance and funding.

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Robert G. Winch

For engineers and technicians seeking to design and implement high-performance telecommunication systems, this book delivers state-of-the-art coverage of satellite, fiber optic, cellular, and PCS systems, the Internet, intranets, and much more - with 420 illustrations to further enrich your understanding of complex concepts. This is a reference designed for working professionals.

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essays by Dena Merriam and Eleanor Munro

Carole A. Feuerman's sculpture combines superrealist technique with a humanist approach to her subjects. This first monograph on her work is filled with David Finn's dramatic photographs covering two decades of her work, including many enlarged details and multiple views, providing a cinematic, almost three-dimensional experience. The work - in resin, cast marble, bronze, and other materials, often painted - ranges from early erotic reliefs through full-scale sculptures of athletes and nudes. Her women at their toilette are sculptural tours-de-force, yet their intimacy recalls Degas's works on similar themes. Recent fragments and body mappings are experiments with abstraction, deconstruction and conceptualism, at the same time that they explore the emotional life of their subjects penetrating to their spirit. All of Feuerman's work reflects the two aspects of her vision. Her work is motivated by questions about the nature of reality, and her remarkable skill as an artist leads the viewer to the same questions. Yet beyond the simulacrum of reality, Feuerman also manages to convey the feeling behind the intense physicality, the passion and sensuality behind the seemingly mundane pose.