Objective Proficiency p 58. Robin Lustig: Covering Conflicts. Extra Listening
Robin Lustig, one of my favourite BBC presenters, made a selection of images for an exhibition entitled Covering Conflicts.
The exhibition combines famous pictures of key news events from past decades.
About this exhibition Robin Lustig said:
"I am hugely ambivalent about the notion of beauty in war, because I don't believe there can ever be beauty in death and destruction - yet the explosive clouds in Vietnam or the oil-covered duck amid the oilwell fires in Kuwait do possess a kind of awful beauty,"
"These images make us stop and think. And that, I'm convinced, is what all reporting, whether in words or in pictures, should aim for."
Listening task
Fill in the gaps with a word or expression: 1. These images tell mainly stories of pain and ____________, and fear, and death.
2. But not all of them, there are a _______________ that tell a different story- about hope and strength and courage.
3. People fight because they believe in a cause, and because they believe they can win. Often they're wrong. And many of these images ___________________ the cost of their mistakes.
4. These images make us think about the world we live in. You look at that terrible image of the little girl in Uganda ______________ as she shows you were her hands used to be.
5. Or the carbonized ___________ of an Iraqi soldier in Kuwait. "Who was he?" "Was he married? or a father?"
6. Journalists are _____________ conflict because it teaches us something about who we are and what we are capable of. The most _______________ brutality and the most _______________ courage.
7. These images remind us that all conflict is about individuals. The soldiers who fight, and kill, and die. And the __________________ who don't fight or kill but many of whom die anyway. And of course, the children, some of whom fight, some of whom die, none of whom really understand.
8. These images ________________ over sixty years to the Second World War, the Independence Wars of Israel and India, Biafra, Vietnam, Palestine, Chechnya, Rwanda, and so many more.
9. Many I ____________ you to forget. The _______________ student in Tiananmen square, so confident in his strength and power. That iconic image of the ______________ demonstrator confronting a line of Chinese Tanks. The ______________ images of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on September the eleventh two thousand and one.
10. Some of these images are actually very beautiful and I've included them because they make me think about whether there can be beauty _____________ fear and death. Do we risk becoming ___________ when we look at these images? Do we _____________ the reality by admiring the ___________?
11. Bruno Barbey's image from South Vietnam in 1972 shows ________________ against ____________ white smoke of explosives. The _____________ duck ___________ the burning oil wells in Kuwait 1991. Steve Mccurry's image of the __________ remains of the World Trade Centre after 9/11. How can they be beautiful when they represent so much death and suffering.
12 Marc Riboud's image from outside the Pentagon in July 1967 as an image of courage and of hope it can't be _____________.
KEY
1. grief
2. handful
3. depict
4. biting her lip
5. corpse
6. drawn to (draw somebody to something: to attract or interest somebody. E.g. Her screams drew passers-by to the scene.)
appalling
stupendous
7.civilians
8. stretch back (to continue over a period of time. E.g. The town's history stretches back to before 1500.)
9. defy (I defy you/anyone to do something: used to say that somebody should try to do something, as a way of emphasizing that you think it is impossible to do it. E.g. I defy anyone not to cry at the end of the film. I defy you to leave without buying something.) bare-chested, lone, searing (strong powerful E.g. a searing attack on the government. Searing pain)
10. in the midst of (in the midst of something/of doing something: while something is happening or being done; while you are doing something. E.g. a country in the midst of a recession. She discovered it in the midst of sorting out her father's things. She alone remained calm in the midst of all the confusion.)
voyeurs (voyeur /vwaɪˈɜː(r)/ a person who enjoys watching the problems and private lives of others. E.g. Reality TV turns the audience into voyeurs who eagerly follow the lives of others.)
belittle (belittle somebody/something to make somebody or the things that somebody does seem unimportant. E.g. She felt her husband constantly belittled her achievements. By saying this, I do not mean to belittle the importance of his role.
aesthetic
11. stretcher-bearers (a person who helps to carry a stretcher, especially in a war or when there is a very serious accident).
billowing (if smoke, cloud, etc. billows, it rises and moves in a large massA great cloud of smoke billowed out of the chimney.)
oil-coated (coat: to cover something with a layer of a substance. E.g. sugar-coated.)
amid.
skeletal.
12 bettered ( better something: to be better or do something better than somebody/something else. E.g. The work he produced early in his career has never really been bettered.)
Transcript
Each one of these images tells a story. And because they are images of conflict, they tell mainly stories of pain and grief, and fear, and death. But not all of them, there are a handful that tell a different story and I've included them because conflict isn't only about pain and death. It's also sometimes about hope and strength and courage. People fight because they believe in a cause, and because they believe they can win. Often they're wrong. And many of these images depict the cost of their mistakes.
I've chosen these images because they make me think. And to me that's what journalism should be for. Whether by words or images to make us think about the world we live in. You look at that terrible image of the little girl in Uganda biting her lip as she shows you were her hands used to be. And you can't help asking, "who would do something like that?" "Is she still alive?" "What kind of life did she have?" Or the carbonized corpse of an Iraqi soldier in Kuwait. "Who was he?" "Was he married? or a father?"
Journalists are drawn to conflict because it teaches us something about who we are and what we are capable of. The most appalling brutality and the most stupendous courage. I'm drawn to these images because they remind me of our recent history, and they remind me that all conflict is about individuals. The soldiers who fight, and kill, and die. And the civilians who don't fight or kill but many of whom die anyway. And of course, the children, some of whom fight, some of whom die, none of whom really understand.
These images stretch back over sixty years to the Second World War, the Independence Wars of Israel and India, Biafra, Vietnam, Palestine, Chechnya, Rwanda, and so many more. Many I defy you to forget. The bare-chested student in Tiananmen square, so confident in his strength and power. That iconic image of the lone demonstrator confronting a line of Chinese Tanks. The searing images of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on September the eleventh two thousand and one. Let me say just a word about those images from that day in New York. There are more here from that one day than from any other single event, and there's a reason for that- first, they are all dramatic and powerful images, but they also remind us that that day our world did change. I remember broadcasting for many hours from a studio in Bush House and at some point during the afternoon a senior BBC executive sent me a message- "don't forget," he said,"this is the biggest story you will ever cover." He was right.
Some of these images are actually very beautiful and I've included them because they make me think about whether there can be beauty in the midst of fear and death. Do we risk becoming voyeurs when we look at these images? Do we belittle the reality by admiring the aesthetic? Look at Bruno Barbey's image from South Vietnam in 1972. Showing stretcher-bearers against billowing white smoke of explosives. The oil-coated duck amid the burning oil wells in Kuwait 1991. Steve Mccurry's image of the skeletal remains of the World Trade Centre after 9/11. How can they be beautiful when they represent so much death and suffering.
If I had to choose just two of these images, I'll tell you which ones I would choose. First, Gilles Peress's terrible image of the anonymous decaying corpse outside a church in Rwanda in 1994 because it says so much about evil in such a simple moment. And second, Marc Riboud's image from outside the Pentagon in July 1967 when a young anti-vietnam war protester confronted the National Guard holding just a flower. As an image of courage and of hope it can't be bettered.
Objective Proficiency p 58. Francis Bacon. Extra Listening
When did you first feel the rush of stealthily mannered grotesquerie that is Francis Bacon‘s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X? If you’ve seen the painting in detail, even in reproduction, you’ll always remember that moment.
Objective Proficiency p 58.The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings. Extra Listening
The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings
Objective Proficiency p 58.The Art of America. Extra Listening
Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on his most ambitious journey yet, an exploration of the rich, exciting and diverse art history of the United States of America.
Listening activity:
Watch The Art of America. Episode 3 and fill in the gaps
1. Las Vegas is the world's largest, brightest, ______________ neon work of art.
2. In the new world of the 21st century America seems like a country in crisis, a nation that has lost its _____________.
3. The invention of the atom bomb brought about a new world order. From now on, the USA and the Soviet Union would be locked in a rival nuclear ____________________, each defining itself as hero nation with a mission to _______________ the enemy.
4. In Levittown, in Long Island, New York, in the 1940s and 1950s 17.500 houses were constructed in just four years. They were built from cheap affordable materials, and _______________ using a version of the same production-line process that Henry Ford had applied to the mass manufacture of automobiles.
5. But if Levittown's __________________ houses all looked the same, then so did the faces. Levittown rules explicitly _______________ any residents who were not of the ____________ race.
6. Beneath the surface, America was ___________________ desperate housewives, blacks, Hispanics, and many others whose fears and frustrations remained completely __________________.
7. In 1954 Jasper Johns settled in New York city and began to paint the ultimate symbol of American-ness: The ____________________. He painted subtle variations on it, but always ____________ the same familiar image.
8. What were Jasper Johns's flags? _______________ of patriotic fervour?
9. The Metropolitan Museum in New York houses Andrew's favourite of Johns's flags, painted in white and on a ____________.
10 When Johns first presented the flag pictures to the American public in the 1950s, he was extremely ______ about their meanings.
11. This picture is made of a collage of newsprint, a ____________ of ___________American voices, ______________ by this thick heavy layer of __________________ oil-paint.
12. Living in a homosexual relationship was not only illegal, but in an age of McCarthyite _____________, it could also get you branded as a dangerous _______________ subversive.
13. To be a fine, _______________ member of American society, you had to embrace all its values, above all, the freedom to shop.
14. Ad men exploited ______________ colours and graphic brand logos to repeat the mantra "You can never have too much".
15. Pop artists' work seemed just as ______________ as the goods piled high in the new shopping malls, but it _______________ a bitter aftertaste.
16. Claes Oldenburg made supersize, ____________ repulsive hamburgers out of stuffed cloth as if to lay bare the excesses provoked by the rise of fast food chains.
17. The dot matrix language of comics inspired the work of Roy Lichtenstein but always with an _______ sense that the modern world was simplifying human emotions to cartoon stereotypes.
18. James Rosenquist created vast canvases of collaged images, poster-bright impressions of the modern world, mimicking the vomitous __________ of America's ____________ jungle of signs.
KEY
1. Brashest. (Brash: too bright or too noisy in a way that is not attractive. E.g. It was real gold but it still looked brash and cheap.)
2. Swagger. (/ˈswæɡə/ a way of walking or behaving that seems too confident. E.g. She walked to the front of the class with a swagger.)
3. Stalemate. ( /ˈsteɪlmeɪt/ a disagreement or a situation in a competition in which neither side is able to win or make any progress. E.g. The talks ended in (a) stalemate. Proposals aimed at breaking (= ending) the political stalemate. The strike has once again reached stalemate.)
Vanquish. (to defeat somebody completely in a competition, war, etc. To conquer)
4. Assembled. ( Assemble: to fit together all the separate parts of something, for example a piece of furniture. E.g. The shelves are easy to assemble.)
5. Cookie-cutter. (n) an object used for cutting biscuits in a particular shape. (adj) Having no special characteristics; not original in any way. Sp. Hecho en serie. E.g. Handmade goods appeal to those who are tired of cookie-cutter products.)
Barred.
Bar: to ban or prevent somebody from doing something. Sp. Prohibir. E.g. The players are barred from drinking alcohol the night before a match.
Caucasian: /kɔːˈkeɪʒn/ a member of any of the races of people who have pale skin. E.g. The police are looking for a Caucasian male in his forties.
6. Teeming with. (Teem with: to be full of people, animals, etc. moving around. E.g. The streets were teeming with tourists. A river teeming with fish.)
Obscured. (Obscure: /əbˈskjʊə/ to make it difficult to see, hear or understand something. E.g. The view was obscured by fog. We mustn't let these minor details obscure the main issue. A shadow fell across her face, obscuring her expression.)
7. Stars and Stripes: the national flag of the United States.
Fetishising. (Fetishise: to spend too much time thinking about or doing something)
8. Outpourings. (Outpouring: / ˈaʊtpɔːrɪŋ/ a strong and sudden expression of feeling. E.g. spontaneous outpourings of praise)
9. Vast scale. (Vast: extremely large in area, size, amount, etc. E.g. a vast area of forest. A vast crowd. A vast amount of information. At dusk bats appear in vast numbers.)
10. Reticent. (/ ˈretɪsnt/ unwilling to tell people about things. Reserved. E.g. He was extremely reticent about his personal life.)
11. Babble. (/ˈbæbl/ the sound of many people speaking at the same time. Sp. Murmullo. E.g. a babble of voices)
Muffled: /ˈmʌfld/ not heard clearly because something is in the way that stops the sound from travelling easily. Sp. Apagado. E.g. muffled voices from the next room.
Muffled
Encaustic beeswax ( A paint consisting of pigment mixed with beeswax and fixed with heat after its application.)
12. Witch-hunts. (Witch-hunt: an attempt to find and punish people who hold opinions that are thought to be unacceptable or dangerous to society.)
Commie: an insulting way of referring to somebody that you think has ideas similar to those of communists or socialists, or who is a member of a communist or socialist party. Sp. Rojo.
13. Upstanding: behaving in a moral and honest way. Upright. Sp. Íntegro. E.g. an upstanding member of the community.
14. Hyperreal: involving or characterized by particularly realistic graphic representation.
15. Enticing: / ɪnˈtaɪsɪŋ/ something that is enticing is so attractive and interesting that you want to have it or know more about it. Sp. Tentador. E.g. The offer was too enticing to refuse. An enticing smell came from the kitchen. The idea of two weeks in the sun sounds very enticing.
Concealed. (Conceal: /kənˈsiːl/ to hide somebody/something. E.g. Tim could barely conceal his disappointment.)
16. Floppily. (Floppy: hanging or falling loosely; not hard and stiff. Sp. Blando. E.g. a floppy hat. The puppy's floppy ears)
17. Uneasy: feeling worried or unhappy about a particular situation, especially because you think that something bad or unpleasant may happen or because you are not sure that what you are doing is right. Sp. Inquieto. E.g. an uneasy laugh. His presence made her feel uneasy. She had an uneasy feeling that something terrible was going to happen. He was beginning to feel distinctly uneasy about their visit. She felt uneasy about leaving the children with them.
18. Splurge: /splɜːdʒ/ an act of spending a lot of money on something that you do not really need. Sp. Derroche.
Yowling. (Yowl: to make a long loud cry that sounds unhappy. E.g. Outside in the road, a cat yowled.)
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