Gabriel Gbadamosi
Thursday 25 January 2007 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Gabriel Gbadamosi talks to Helon Habila about his latest novel set in rural Nigeria. Plus a review of a new exhibition exploring Canaletto's vision of London, a city where he lived for nine years.
The Fountain
Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman in The Fountain.
Playlist
Canaletto In London
In 1746 the great Italian painter Canaletto left Venice and came to Britain to live and paint in London for a decade.
He brought his now famous wide angle city vision to a city undergoing great transformation - London at that time has been described as "a magnificent mess".
Canaletto painted the parks and skies and rivers capes of London and beyond with the precision and detail we know so well from his Venice paintings.
An exhibition of his London paintings has just opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London and, on tonight's Night Waves, an art historian and an architect discuss the paintings of Canaletto in London and what they say about the state of the capital at that time; Lyn Nead and Patrick Dillon on Canaletto.
The Fountain
The new film by Darren Aronofsky, The Fountain, was booed when it was first shown at the Venice Film Festival last year.
The ambitious sci-fi epic interweaves 3 narrative strands: in 16th century Spain a conquistador is sent to Guatamela to search for the Tree of Life; in the 21st century a scientist tries to find a cure for his wife who's been suffering from brain cancer; in the 26th century, he's still alive and searching in deep space for a place that will bring her back to life.
As odd as it sounds, The Fountain is not unique, but part of a larger genre known as New Space Opera. Nightwaves explores this recent trend in science fiction with the help of Roger Luckhurst and Francis Spufford.
Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art
And as this weekend sees the opening of the brand new building and inaugural exhibition of the Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, Gabriel Gbadamosi is joined by architecture journalist Jay Merrick and Newcastle poet and public artist Bill Herbert to discuss whether the new gallery is a success, and what it will mean to the local area.
