So interesting! I knew a little about Chang and Eng Bunker but just a little. Why do you think they chose to settle in North Carolina? The possibility of owning property perhaps?
Good question! I don't know at this stage... presumably there were other places they travelled to where they could own property, too. Something to think about when I go through the digitized materials!
If you like Nick Cave, he's a pretty substantial part of a really interesting recent documentary film on the founding of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) called "Museum Town." Most of the film is about how an old mill complex was transformed into a giant modern art gallery, along with the reactions of town residents to this unusual proposal for trying to revive a former factory town with high unemployment, but there are long sections following Cave as he prepares an installation in one of the enormous art spaces.
Those works are great, another reason I should finally get to the Netherlands sometime -- have currently only been to countries on either side of it. We watched "Museum Town" via Kanopy, an online video service available in the US through most public libraries. Don't know if that is also an option where you are, but maybe there is at least an equivalent service? Since you were in Connecticut for a while, you might also appreciate the New England cultural politics of the film.
So interesting! I knew a little about Chang and Eng Bunker but just a little. Why do you think they chose to settle in North Carolina? The possibility of owning property perhaps?
Good question! I don't know at this stage... presumably there were other places they travelled to where they could own property, too. Something to think about when I go through the digitized materials!
If you like Nick Cave, he's a pretty substantial part of a really interesting recent documentary film on the founding of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) called "Museum Town." Most of the film is about how an old mill complex was transformed into a giant modern art gallery, along with the reactions of town residents to this unusual proposal for trying to revive a former factory town with high unemployment, but there are long sections following Cave as he prepares an installation in one of the enormous art spaces.
Oh, fabulous! I'll have to look up this documentary. I do love Nick Cave's work - there's a ton of it at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam at the moment - it got a mention in my very first newsletter, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/surekhadavies/p/jump-day?r=3kpsg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Those works are great, another reason I should finally get to the Netherlands sometime -- have currently only been to countries on either side of it. We watched "Museum Town" via Kanopy, an online video service available in the US through most public libraries. Don't know if that is also an option where you are, but maybe there is at least an equivalent service? Since you were in Connecticut for a while, you might also appreciate the New England cultural politics of the film.