Practitioners of walking meditation often move at a glacial pace, engaging each step the way a sitting meditator registers every breath. The exercise is usually performed in a quiet room, not the bustling D.C. sites depicted in “Abiding Nowhere,” the 10th installment in Tsai Ming-liang’s “Walker” series and the first shot in the Western Hemisphere. The film was commissioned by the National Museum of Asian Art to mark the 2023 centennial of its Freer Gallery of Art, where the 79-minute movie will screen on March 1.
Washington, D.C
Review | In the galleries: A filmmaker’s latest edition of souls on separate journeys
The red-robed man moving with exquisite deliberation through Georgetown, the Mall and Union Station is not an actual monk. He’s played by Lee Kang-sheng, Tsai’s longtime collaborator and on-screen alter ego. The Malaysian-Taiwanese director largely abandoned narrative filmmaking a decade ago, but has continued to make “Walkers,” inspired by Xuanzang, the 7th-century monk who journeyed to India to acquire Buddhist texts and bring them back to China.
Although “Abiding Nowhere” tells no story, it shares much with Tsai’s earlier fiction films. The director has always employed long takes and leisurely action, thus calling attention to the passing of time. The latest “Walker” alternates the monk’s steps with moments that feature a secondary character (Anong Houngheuangsy, a recent addition to Tsai’s repertory company); in one scene, the latter wears a T-shirt that reads “time to kill.”
In interviews, the director often compares himself to a painter and says that his style has been shaped by exhibiting his films in museums such as the National Museum of Asian Art (long a reliable supporter of his work). The Freer itself appears in “Abiding Nowhere,” but so do scruffier, lesser-known D.C. locations, many of them associated with the local art scene. In a sense, all these places are equal: backdrops for the detached motion of bodies and minutes. Tsai’s latest film is set in Washington, but also in a realm outside place and time.
Tsai Ming-liang: Abiding Nowhere At 7 p.m., March 1 at the Freer Gallery of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, 1050 Independence Ave. SW. asia.si.edu. 202-633-1000.
Many color-field abstractionists have rejected the notion that their pictures look like landscapes, but sometimes the resemblance is hard to deny. Most of the vivid canvases in Hemphill Artworks’ “Willem de Looper: Paintings 1972-1975” were made soon after the Dutch-born D.C. artist’s 1973 trip to the American Southwest. The large pictures sweep horizontally and are usually in the colors of stone, sand and clay. (There are also three heavily blue ones, at least one of which predates the excursion.) The paintings are not literal landscapes, but the inspiration is palpable.
De Looper (1932-2009) was among the second group of Washington colorists to achieve prominence, and he adopted some of the methods of his predecessors. Like Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, he stained unprimed canvases with acrylic pigments, which had been developed at that time. But the long-unexhibited paintings in this group were not made by brushing or pouring. Instead, de Looper used rollers to sweep bands of color horizontally across the composition.
This technique yielded pictures that suggest a spectator’s movement through vast expanses of tans and browns, or layers of rock built up and worn down by millennia. The arrays of close-colored streaks can also suggest other things, such as unglazed pottery. Whatever the softly striped hues evoke, de Looper used watery washes of diluted paint to conjure something profoundly earthy. These paintings are gauzy and solid at the same time.
Willem de Looper: Paintings 1972-1975 Through March 2 at Hemphill Artworks, 434 K St. NW. hemphillfinearts.com. 202-234-5601.
One piece in “A Corcoran Homecoming: The Art of Carroll Sockwell” seems to encapsulate the life and the work of this acclaimed but conflicted artist. Made when Sockwell was 15, “Hands Off Me/Am I Bad?” is an oil-pastel drawing of a face that combines geometric and expressionist aspects and includes the picture’s title, roughly written in white.
The juxtaposition of spontaneous and calculated lines recurs in the art Sockwell made between the late 1950s and his 1992 suicide, at age 49. A native Washingtonian who grew up in Foggy Bottom — the neighborhood was then predominantly Black — Sockwell showed great artistic promise as a teenager, encouraged by an art therapist who worked with him while he was committed at St. Elizabeths Hospital.
The show includes Sockwell’s collage portrait of one of his patrons, Walter Hopps, who was the Corcoran Gallery’s director from 1967 to 1972. More typical, however, are purely abstract works. All the pieces are on board and paper, sometimes shaped, and feature tones that are mostly dark or muted. “Mirror Composition” is an expanse of black graphite and oil pastel, separated into blocks by silvery lines and framed under glass to reflect the viewer’s face. Gazing into this void is a suitably ambiguous experience. Sockwell assuredly conjured his own uncertainty.
A Corcoran Homecoming: The Art of Carroll Sockwell Through March 9 at Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Corcoran Flagg Building, 500 17th St. NW. bradygallery.gwu.edu. 202-994-1525.
Brentwood Arts Exchange’s “Chosen Family,” curated by Lauren Davidson, presents work by seven African American artists who constitute three sets of friends: Omari Jesse, Bria Edwards and Olivia Bruce; Wesley Clark and Rodney “Buck!” Herring; Austin “Auz” Miles and Angelique Scott. The standout, as he usually is in group shows that include him, is Clark.
The artist’s two entries are part painting, part sculpture. Screws and nails intrude on planes of thickly applied, partly cracked pigment, set off by wooden shingles or a band of weathered steel. The works evoke making and unmaking simultaneously.
Where Clark’s abstractions have an industrial vibe, most of the other work is at least partly representational, often portraying domestic scenes or private moments. What many of the artists share with Clark is an interest in metamorphosis. In Bruce’s drippy triptych, a nude woman takes on aspects of the water around her. In Miles’s portrait of a woman, the face appears solid but the rest is fluid. In Edwards’s scene of a couple in a kitchen, metal objects rendered in silver leaf add a sculptural quality. The figures and their environments are ordinary, but endowed with an intriguing mutability.
Chosen Family Through March 9 at Brentwood Arts Exchange, 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood. pgparks.com. 301-277-2863.
Lime, the company behind those bright green scooters and bikes you may often see zooming around D.C. or lying on the sidewalk, is updating its monthly subscription service, aimed at making rides more affordable for its frequent users.
Lime, the company behind those bright green scooters and bikes you may often see zooming around D.C. or lying on the sidewalk, is updating its monthly subscription service, aimed at making rides more affordable for its frequent users.
In a news release Tuesday, Lime said its monthly subscription that starts at $5.99/month for D.C. riders will also introduce flat-rate pricing of $2.50 for rides up to 20 minutes and $1.25 for rides under five minutes.
Every ride will be subject to a flat rate, instead of a per-minute cost. Subscribed members also get unlimited free unlocking and discounted flat-rate pricing for trips under five minutes.
Devin Rote, the global integrated marketing lead at Lime, told WTOP the goal with the update is “to make the choice to utilize micro-mobility and more sustainable travel options easier for users across the D.C. region.”
Rote said as we enter the spring season, Lime sees an increase in trips as the city also sees a rise in tourism.
“Especially through cherry blossom season, Nationals baseball season, and everything that a great, warm weather season brings here in the D.C. region. For us, really, this is the start of busy season,” he said.
There are over 7,000 of the dockless e-bikes and scooters around D.C. They go up to 18 mph — down from 20 mph in November — and users must be at least 18 to ride.
WTOP’s John Wordock contributed to this report.
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A Virginia boater is suing a Washington water utility for negligence in the collapse of a pipe that leaked millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.
The class action lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, comes weeks after a January sewage pipe collapse, shooting wastewater out of the ground and into the river in an area just north of Washington, D.C. The spill is seen as a serious environmental blight and became the focus of political bickering between President Donald Trump and Democratic-led Maryland, where the leak occurred.
Dr. Nicholas Lailas, M.D., the plaintiff, is a Virginia resident and recreational boat user on the Potomac who is seeking compensation for people “whose property interests in and use and enjoyment of the Potomac River … have been impaired by Defendant’s conduct.”
The lawsuit alleges that it was DC Water’s responsibility as the owner and operator of the ruptured pipe, known as the Potomac Interceptor, to maintain it in a “reasonably safe condition and to prevent foreseeable harm to persons and property.”
The lawsuit said that preliminary data indicate that there are thousands of people who own property or vessels in the affected parts of the Potomac.
Andrew Levetown, an attorney for the plaintiff, said in an interview Monday that it will take time to get the full breadth of the class, with business owners, property owners and recreational users all having interest in the potential damages caused by the Jan. 19 collapse and leak.
“You’re going to have businesses who lose business because instead of sitting next to the Potomac, their clients are sitting next to the open sewer,” he said.
The suit did not specify a damage amount. DC Water spokesperson John Lisle said in a statement that the collapse of the Potomac Interceptor was “a serious and unexpected event, and our teams remain focused on the response, environmental protection, and restoration efforts. Because this matter is currently subject to ongoing litigation, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency Feb. 18 and requested that President Donald Trump provide federal resources to help the city fight the leak that dumped 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River in its early stages. The president approved the emergency assistance days later to help the city address the emergency.
DC Water gave its most detailed assessment yet of why the Potomac River sewage spill occurred and what it will take to fix it. News4’s Mark Segraves reports.
DC Water said it knew the pipe, first installed in the 1960s, was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on a section about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the break began in September and was recently completed. The pipe that ruptured was scheduled for repair this summer.
DC Water’s updates say the emergency repairs are beyond the halfway point and there are no flows into the river.
At a public briefing last week, officials with the utility said they were assessing the cause of the rupture, including whether the way the pipeline was initially constructed contributed to the emergency. David Gadis, the CEO of DC Water, said at that briefing that while it was too early to say definitively, “we are seeing indication that this incident may have been highly unusual.”
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WASHINGTON — Get ready to start your engines, DC.
Officials unveiled the 1.66-mile circuit route Monday, where race cars will be zooming around the National Mall in August for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in celebration of America’s birthday.
The seven‑turn layout features views of the Washington Monument, US Capitol, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and part of Pennsylvania Avenue, IndyCar announced.
“This was a team effort,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “It’s Penske, it’s FOX, it’s the mayor, it’s Interior, it’s everybody else joining together not to make a profit, not to get your name out there but to say, let’s celebrate America.”
“Let’s celebrate America’s birthday.”
The first-ever street race around the National Mall will take place from Aug. 22-23, with the course itself set to be built up during the summer.
Drivers will also blast past the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum, with a pit lane on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Officials debuted a red, white, and blue “Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar” design Monday to honor the upcoming 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
“We want people to plan their trips to D.C. now,” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “Come for the Freedom 250, and then stay to enjoy our monuments and museums, our beautiful parks, world-class restaurants and hotels, and all the culture and entertainment that make us the best city in the world.”
President Trump took executive action back in January, tasking Duffy and Secretary of the Interior Sean Duffy to coordinate with Bowser on planning the feted event.
“The story of America is one of vision, courage, perseverance – and speed,” Monica Crowley, Trump’s representative for America’s 250th, said in a statement.
“Presidents Washington and Jefferson marked notable celebrations with spirited horse races; the Freedom 250 race will bring that historic tradition into the 21st century and renew a tremendous sense of patriotic pride.”
Trump’s team is eyeing other major sports events to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, including a UFC fight at the White House. The US is also co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup over the summer.
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