Daily Archives: November 18, 2024

Artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Filmmaker Malcolm Washington Excavate the Forces, Both Geopolitical and Familial, That Drive Their Work

Malcolm Washington and Njideka Akunyili Crosby in Njideka’s studio in Los Angeles. Malcolm wears a full look by Fendi. Njideka’s full look is the artist’s own. Above: Malcolm wears a jacket and shirt by Burberry.Pre-order the inaugural Artists on Artists issue, featuring this conversation, alongside others between Venus Williams and Titus Kaphar and Amy Sherald and Jon Batiste, here.Njideka Akunyili Crosby begins every piece by identifying her viewer’s place within it. Are they peering at the scene as if through a window? Are they so close to her figures that they’re tempted to sit down beside them?It’s this ability to conjure intimacy from all angles that makes the Nigerian artist’s collaged paintings so transfixing. Akunyili Crosby, now 41, was just a teenager when she left Lagos for the U.S. After completing an MFA at Yale and a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, she carved out a place for herself in the art world with works that filter the dense matter of geopolitics and diaspora through the prism of the quotidian. By assembling images plucked from Nigerian magazines, newspapers, and her own life, the artist depicts unguarded moments between people—sprawled on the living room floor or slouched at the kitchen table—as the full might of their sociocultural context roars around them.Crosby’s works became crucial guideposts for Malcolm Washington when he began to envision a career in the director’s seat. His debut feature, The Piano Lesson, revels in the same delicate encounters between the historical and the intimately personal that Crosby’s work so deftly alchemizes. Adapted from August Wilson’s play of the same name, the film—featuring Washington’s brother John David as the lead and his father Denzel as a producer—tells the story of generations of Black Americans grappling with displacement and connection, through the tender interactions of a single Depression-era family.Despite their divergent fields, these two artists are connected by a shared hunger to create work infused with an unwavering sense of self-knowledge. It’s also what brought them together in Crosby’s Los Angeles studio this fall for CULTURED’s Artists on Artists series. Here, the pair discuss what it takes to make a work of art that imbues daily life with the echo of history.Malcolm Washington: Njideka, I first became aware of your work in 2016 when I was living in New York. A good friend of mine was working at the Studio Museum [in Harlem], where you were an artist in residence. She kept bringing up your name. To sit down with you now and see your growth—and to see your work in the world—has been really, really cool.Njideka Akunyili Crosby: That’s kind to say. I hadn’t yet seen The Piano Lesson when I was invited to meet with you. Since I wasn’t familiar with your work, I went digging and saw some of the incredible interviews you did around the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. I got the feeling that we would get along well, so despite my introverted tendencies, this was an easy “yes” for me. I also found a short film of yours, Everything’s for Sale. Did you direct that yourself?Washington: Wow, I can’t believe you found that. Two friends and I came together to make it. Akunyili Crosby: It was beautiful! There were moments where I thought, Oh my god, this scene looks like a LaToya Ruby Frazier photo. Oh, this looks like a Deana Lawson picture. I could see those influences coming through. I love when the concrete details of an artist’s vision anchor me into a previously unfamiliar space. This happens when the artist intimately knows their subject. I felt that with Everything’s for Sale, and I felt it again with The Piano Lesson.“I’m super privileged to come from two parents who know who they are. It’s a big part of my identity—my blood is of that red dirt in North Carolina.” —Malcolm WashingtonWashington: l love that that feeling carried through for you because it’s really a focus for me. With The Piano Lesson, I’m working within a larger lineage of artists that came before me, and I am super inspired by that. Earnestness isn’t always respected anymore; people don’t want to be seen trying. But with artists like Kahlil Joseph, Noah Davis—I saw myself in their work right away, and it gave me a certain kind of permission to try. Was there anybody that gave you permission to take a swing like that?Akunyili Crosby: Yinka Shonibare [CBE RA], a Nigerian-British artist, did that for me. My initial experience seeing Yinka’s work was like what you’re describing—there’s an immediate understanding of it; you know the work. It was one of those moments when you remember getting goosebumps and your hair standing on end. His work reached into my soul, as saccharine as that sounds.Another person I felt that with was Kerry James Marshall. I remember when I encountered one of his paintings for the first time at the Yale University Art Gallery; it just knocked me over. Kerry also made a subtle yet incredibly powerful piece [Heirlooms & Accessories, 2002] that I think about frequently—more often than almost any other artwork.Washington: Now you’re in a position to try to give other people that feeling within your own work. How do you create that feeling for somebody?Akunyili Crosby: It feels odd to say, but I don’t know. I can say that the most beautiful moment for me is when I’m next to somebody viewing the work, and they pick up on some reference in it. For example, I recently gave my eldest sister a print. A few weeks ago, she told me that, now that she has had more time than ever to consider one of my works, there’s a part of me she understands better. She said, “I didn’t know art could do this.” Washington: Your work is dense—there’s a lot in there. It’s political; it’s geographical; it’s about migration, humanity. Yet it’s very personal. I’m curious how you developed your worldview. How did you learn to articulate it in your practice?Akunyili Crosby: I’ve lived in distinct places and social stations and I try to mine my experiences in my work.Washington: Are you conscious of that?Akunyili Crosby: Yes. I have five siblings, and when we get together we laugh about all of the outrageous experiences from our childhoods—missing school because of botched coups, the neighbors stealing the catfish my mom stocked our pond with, bartering our provisions in boarding school. You probably have these moments too, when you get together with your siblings or people you grew up with, and there’s that magic moment where you all get linked. I came to see that our experiences are unique, and interesting enough to explore and extrapolate from through art. How did it feel when your family watched The Piano Lesson?“When you get together with your siblings or people you grew up with, there’s that magic moment where you all get linked. I came to see that our experiences are interesting enough to explore through art.” —Njideka Akunyili CrosbyWashington: The film is so personal to me. It’s my family’s stories funneled into this ghost story. So when it was finished, my metric for its success was how my family—the crew and actors too—felt about it. So, I did something crazy: I brought all the actors together, and my mom who I dedicated it to, and a bunch of the crew, and we screened it all together for the first time. When they saw themselves and their families on the screen, that was the ultimate barometer. How did you build the courage to turn your eye on yourself, your family, and your identity?Akunyili Crosby: That happened in graduate school. I was making works about Nigerian politics, but during studio visits, we always ended up talking about my Nigerian fashion magazines—I had a lot of clippings from them on my studio wall. A single image could unravel complex histories. I distinctly remember a visit with [artist] Deborah Kass telling me, “Njideka, I think this should be in your work.” She encouraged me to turn the focus of my practice to the familiar and familial. Are you up for talking about Everything’s for Sale? The way you bring us into the space made everything feel familiar. I love the scene where the little kid comes in and the grandparents are sitting on the couch. Washington: We shot it in a two-block radius in a really beautiful neighborhood on the west side of Compton. The woman who owned the house you’re describing was called Miss Betty. We met while I was there knocking on doors scouting, and she opened her door. Her home reminded me so much of my grandmother’s house—the tones and colors. We talk about the Great Migration, when these Black neighborhoods were establishing themselves. At that moment, everyone bought the same trinkets, furniture, and things, and those belongings really mark a moment in time.Akunyili Crosby: I got the same feeling from The Piano Lesson. I felt like I was being led by somebody who knows this place in their bones.Washington: In my bones!Akunyili Crosby: That’s the feeling I want my work to offer. That’s what I gravitate towards. Even if you’re not from that space as a viewer, you know it when you see it.“The most beautiful moment for me is when I’m next to somebody viewing the work, and they pick up on some reference in it.” —Njideka Akunyili CrosbyWashington: I’m super privileged to come from two parents who know who they are. They have a strong cultural identity, as strong consciousness. It’s a big part of my identity—my blood is of that red dirt in North Carolina. That’s something I’ve tried to bring to all my work, even in The Piano Lesson. You know, when you close your eyes, what your grandmother’s house smells like.Akunyili Crosby: Every once in a while when I’m making work, I find myself thinking, Why do I always obsess about what’s on the table, or what type of table it is, or what’s on the floor? I read this book on contemporary African literature. The author, Brenda Cooper, had this beautiful line about how many African writers will spend a lot of time describing the things in a kitchen, or the objects on a shelf. History is rooted in the specificity of those little, tiny objects. They really carry the portrait of a place.Malcolm wears a jacket and shirt by Burberry, pants by Balenciaga, and shoes by Bottega Veneta.Washington: Do you watch movies? What other art forms outside of visual arts do you engage with?Akunyili Crosby: Literature has influenced me the most, thanks largely to classes I took in grad school with Hazel Carby and Edwige Tamalet Talbayev. It’s not that film has not influenced me, I just don’t have the same framework to analyze it. One thing I’m very aware of is light. Your lighting was delicious!Washington: We kept it mostly in the warm tones and coppers, keeping the reds in the skin. There’s so much consideration in each part of your work. Have you found the space to change your mind about stuff? Do you ever start over?Akunyili Crosby: It can be hard to make changes once I get going. I do a lot of planning before I start a work, but I try to set it up in such a way that there’s also wiggle room. I wanted to ask you about point of view. For me, it’s so important. Do I want the viewer to feel like they’re looking through a window? Do I want them to feel they’re enveloped by what’s happening? I was very aware of that in The Piano Lesson. There were moments where I felt like you held my hand and took me through the house. Or where I felt like I was dancing around the table with everyone.Washington: Yes! That feeling of being together in the moment was the biggest thing I was after.Akunyili Crosby: I felt it! I was in there with you.

Fulwell 73 and SpringHill Co. Join Forces to Grow in Film, TV, Documentary, Live Events and Branded Content

The SpringHill Company and Fulwell 73 have joined forces in a merger of equals that aims to make the enlarged company a bigger player across TV, film, live events, branded content and commercials and consumer products.
SpringHill, the production banner headed by LeBron James and his longtime partner Maverick Carter, will come under the same roof as Fulwell 73, the company founded nearly 20 years in the U.K. ago by partners Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, James Corden, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner. The new company will have offices in Los Angeles, New York, London and Sunderland in the U.K.

Carter and Pearlman, who is based in Sunderland, will serve as co-CEOs. The deal is expected to close by year’s end.

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SpringHill has been busy with a wide range of documentaries, sports-related unscripted content and “The Shop,” the HBO series hosted by James and Carter that feature celebrity friends in a barber shop setting to “speak honestly on sports, music, pop culture and more.” SpringHill is working on everything from a docuseries on USC women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins’ (“On the Rise: JuJu Watkins”) to the “A Motown Christmas” holiday special from NBC and Peacock. Its Netflix productions include the NBA docuseries “Starting 5” and scripted movies “Rez Ball” and Adam Sandler starrer “Hustle.” Last month, SpringHill signed a deal with France’s Mediawan to develop film and TV projects for the U.S. and other markets.

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Fulwell 73 is known for producing live events including the past few Grammy Awards telecasts on CBS, the Los Angeles half of the Paris-to-Los Angeles Summer Olympic games handoff in August and the Hulu reality series “The Kardashians.” It also produced the 2021 CBS concert special “Adele: One Night Only” and Disney+’s 2022 global live stream for Elton John’s farewell tour performance from Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. Its documentary titles include “Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All” for Disney+ and the soccer docuseries “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” for Netflix. Fulwell also expects to soon break ground on a film and TV production facility in Sunderland, CrownWorks Studio.

Fulwell 73 partner Leo Pearlman, who will serve as co-CEO of the enlarged company alongside Maverick Carter
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Winston and Carter confirmed to Variety in a joint interview that no money is changing hands in the merger. But all of the shareholders in the still-unnamed new company have committed to contributing $40 million in new capital to drive the expanded venture’s growth initiatives. The list of investors includes those who have backed SpringHill since its formation in 2020: Fenway Sports Group, RedBird Capital Partners, UC Investments, Nike, Epic Games and Main Street Advisors.

Eldridge Industries, which is a business partner of Variety parent PMC, is the sole outside investor in Fulwell 73 and is staying with the new entity. SpringHill was valued at $725 million in 2021 when it got a capital infusion from RedBird.

Fulwell 73 has been a prolific shop ever since it arrived in the U.S. along with Corden in 2015 to produce CBS’ “The Late Late Show.” But Winston, who is based in Los Angeles, recognized that Fulwell 73 for all its success needed to be more diversified in its approach to developing, producing and distributing content.

“I didn’t want us to stand still and ultimately just be a production company where more and more you are in the services business. We’re producers for hire,” Winston said. “It’s very, very difficult and and the bar has changed a lot for us in a streaming-dominated world.”

SpringHill’s success with its New York-based brand consulting firm Robot impressed the Fulwell 73 partners. So did the company’s sophisticated approach to business and controlling long-term rights to the company’s IP. He points to “The Shop,” an unscripted series that James and Carter have hosted and produced for HBO since 2018 and how that compares to Fulwell’s experience launching the buzzy “Carpool Karaoke” format as a segment of CBS’ “Late Late Show.”

“I looked at SpringHill and the impact they have in the branding world. I looked at their commercials agency. I looked at Robot. And I also looked at the shows that they’ve done, like ‘The Shop,” which is a show that starts on Max, and then moves to YouTube, where they control the rights,” Winston said. “They control the IP. There are brands involved in that show in a meaningful way, and now it has ended up in a load of products that you can buy in Walmart. If we’d had that mentality back in the ‘Carpool Karaoke’ days, it would have been a very, very different outlook for us.”

The deal creates a company that is active in unscripted content, documentaries, live events, scripted TV and film, branded content and commercials. Carter and Winston, who have been friends for 10 years, first began discussing a possible deal about a year ago after a casual dinner meeting. The two realized that their companies had complementary strengths and that both would benefit from having a more diversified revenue base.

Carter told Variety that he has admired Fulwell’s skill at executing large-scale live events such as its concert specials and in managing unscripted franchises such as “Carpool Karaoke.” Together, the leaders of both companies have the connections to thrive and command top dollar for hot entertainment and media properties. Fulwell’s strength in the U.K. and Europe will be crucial to expanding “The Shop” format into new territories and languages.

“Although the entertainment world is changing and moving, the one thing that will never change, no matter how it gets distributed … the thing that has always remained constant is that if you make great content with amazing talent and great stars, viewers will want it,” Carter said. “We believe we now have best-in-class capability to do that, and we have the best relationships with talent.”

SpringHill was repped in the deal by Main Street Advisors as well as Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Fulwell 73 was advised by London-based NewShore Partners as well as law firms Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz for U.S. legal and tax matters and Wiggin and Saffreys for U.K. matters.

(Pictured above: Ben Winston, Maverick Carter)

A decade later, Phelps twins still get recognised for acting in Harry Potter movies

SINGAPORE – The last Harry Potter movie was released more than 10 years ago, but British actors James and Oliver Phelps still get recognised on the street for playing the Wesley twins.
The 38-year-old identical twins, who arrived in Singapore on Nov 17, were recognised at a hawker centre that very evening.

Oliver, who is 13 minutes older than James, said: “Getting recognised is so surreal. But it is so cool when fans have this connection with our characters.”

The two are happy to entertain requests for photos and chats. Oliver told The Straits Times on Nov 18: “We have been to Singapore a number of times, and imagined in our younger days how we also looked up to others and went up to speak to them. We would like to give fans the same experience.
“It’s not that hard for us to say ‘Hi’ and ‘Lovely to meet you’.”
The duo were in town to promote the Harry Potter: Visions Of Magic interactive art experience, which opens at Resorts World Sentosa on Nov 22.

They also promoted the experience when it opened in Cologne, Germany, in 2023, and Brussels, Belgium, in July. The version for Singapore is twice the size of those in Europe, they noted.

Oliver said: “It blows my mind how big this is. It is more immersive than when we were filming the movies. Here, you cast a spell and things light up, walls move, fireplaces come alive.”
James, whose favourite room is The Chamber Of Secrets, added: “We never filmed in that room, so to go and check it out was really cool. The door to enter is so well done.”
The England-based actors feel lucky to be associated with Harry Potter, as it has taken them around the world.

James said: “We know anything which involves Harry Potter is going to be the best – the movies, theme parks, experiences.”
Among their latest projects is hosting the reality television series Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking (2024). On it, professional bakers compete to create spellbinding edible showpieces on the actual sets of the Harry Potter films.
James was initially surprised at the concept of a Harry Potter-themed baking show. He recalled: “For one contestant in the first episode, popcorn reminded him of watching the first movie. So he incorporated popcorn into his dish and it got people talking.”