Brooklyn

St. Agrestis Liqueurs: Inferno and Paradiso

January 9, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“There’s a Brooklyn-based distillery called St. Agrestis that’s been around since 2014. They made their name with an amaro, but have since delved into other spirits. Notably for our purposes, they have a Campari-like bitter called ‘Inferno’ that’s pretty good and an aperitivo called ‘Paradiso.’ They also make bottled Negronis and Spritz using Inferno and Paradiso, respectively.

“Interestingly, the label design hints at a Dantean topography. Inferno and the Negroni both have labels that evoke layers or concentric circles. Paradiso and the Spritz both have a geometric pattern that uses triangles (Trinity?). The batched Negroni also comes in a 1.75L Franzia-style box with a spout (’20 Negronis in every box!’) and the canned spritz comes in a triangular 10-pack case.” –Contributor Alex Cuadrado

Learn more about St. Agrestis’s products here.

Contributed by Alex Cuadrado (Ph.D., Columbia University)

Rachel Rossin, “n=7/The Wake in Heat of Collapse”

January 20, 2015 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“SIGNAL is pleased to present Rachel Rossin’s ‘n=7 / The Wake in Heat of Collapse,’ a virtual reality simulation that employs the structure of side-scrolling gameplay to create an immersive, Oculus Rift-based experience.

“Descending into a 3-dimensional Dantesque underworld, the viewer navigates a landscape of hacked architectural and video game imagery, algorithmic collages generated from famous paintings (e.g. Guernica and Klimt’s The Kiss), corporate signage, browser logos and clippings from scenic destinations. These radiant environments provide participants with a window to sights unseen, and culminate with the experience of witnessing a crumbling staircase made of Susan Sontag’s ‘Against Interpretation.'” —Signal’s website

Click here to read about Rossin’s exhibit in The New York Times.

Dante de Blasio

August 8, 2013 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“The first television ad from the [Bill] de Blasio campaign [for the mayor of New York City] features his fifteen year old son, Dante.” —The New York Times, August 7, 2013

See also, Michael Barbaro, The New York Times, August 7, 2013

Rachel Kneebone, “The Descent” at the Brooklyn Museum

April 7, 2012 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“…Even the chef d’oeuvre of the show, “The Descent” (2008), which recalls Rodin’s “Gates of Hell” — which, in turn, was inspired by Dante’s “Inferno” — feels more like a poetic celebration of flesh and the sculptural medium than anything else. Comprising dozens of little figures descending into a cauldron-shaped pit, the sculpture, viewed by stepping up on a narrow wooden platform encircling it, is nearly 11 ½ feet in diameter.” [. . .] –Martha Schwendener, The New York Times, April 4, 2012

On display at The Brooklyn Museum, January 7 – August 12, 2012.

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