In the newsletter: Picking up the pieces after the Notre-Dame fire

Hello! You're reading the CBC Arts newsletter, and if you like what you see, stick around! Sign up here, and every Sunday we'll send you a fresh email packed with art, culture and a metric truckload of eye candy, hand-picked by our small and mighty team. Here's what we've been talking about this week.

Hi, art lovers!

What are we reading?

The horror of watching Notre-Dame burn left me Googling (and Googling and Googling) for information, as I'm sure it did many others. Beyond its importance within France (and CBC News has an explainer on the subject), its cultural significance has persisted over centuries. Take a look at these famous artworks inspired by "Our Lady of Paris." (Then look at some more.)

And then there's pop culture. Because as The Guardian (very comprehensively) breaks down, Notre-Dame has figured in movies, music … even Muppet gags. It's even appeared in video games, and there's a Canadian angle there: Ubisoft pledged €500,000 to rebuilding Notre-Dame, and they've made the PC version of Assassin's Creed Unity— designed by Ubisoft Montreal — free to download until April 25. (As part of the game, players can use every square millimetre of the building as their Gothic parkour playground.)

Several treasures managed to escape the blaze (pictures here), and French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants a restoration project realized in five years, though some experts say even 10 years wouldn't be enough to rebuild the cathedral. Still, this interview from CBC Radio's The Current offers a hopeful perspective on the situation, no matter what the news cycle brings next: Notre-Dame will never be exactly the same, but it will return. As a living monument, change was always part of its story. Over the centuries, it's been desecrated and reconstructed and restored. Now, as medieval scholar Sara Uckelman says in the interview: "There is space for it to become the Notre-Dame of the 21st century."

What are we watching?

For starters, a few videos that capture the Notre-Dame of the early 21st century. This one lets you climb to the tippity-top of the spire — in 360 degrees! — and this National Geographic story uncovers the building's architectural mysteries. (They do it with lasers.) Also, because she's the only pop star who could possibly get your attention while the world's most famous cathedral combusts: Beyoncé pulled a Beyoncé. And I took a break from all the Notre-Dame headlines by focusing on fun and shiny things (fingers crossed) that the future will bring, like the Met Gala (watch an explainer video on this year's theme: Camp!) and this new musical podcast by John Cameron Mitchell.

And because we promised you eye candy

To make this video about a bonkers "post-human" future, filmmakers snuck into Montreal subway stations over the course of more than two years. (Still, the question remains: How many Dollaramas did they raid to find all that tinsel?)

Here are some photos of the art installations at Coachella, as if you're not dying of FOMO already.

This caught our attention. (Because it's a net! Get it???) This rainbow-hued work by American artist Janet Echelman is installed outside Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel (and if you have any lingering questions as to why, I suggest reading this article from Vogue. It has some background on why and how hotels work with artists).

Pop a Gravol before clicking this link. Juxtapoz has a gallery of pics from The Vibrating Man, the new exhibition of sculptures by Montreal-born artist David Altmejd.

You've got to see this

This is your brain on freestyle rap - Nobody fries an egg in this video. Honest. Using fMRIs (not eggs), scientists can see what happens inside the brain, and it turns out that blood (a.k.a. iron-rich creative juices) will flow to completely different parts of the brain depending on whether you're freestyling or rapping from memory. Watch the science happen, and get a mini explainer on hip hop history to boot.

She learned about her history by making it up - The art of Zadie Xa is a space-magic fantasy that spans painting and performance and costumes and so much more. And we caught up with the Vancouver-raised artist at her London studio where she revealed how she built an imaginative world to learn more about her Korean roots.

Just one game and she was hooked - Joanne Tod is one of Canada's most acclaimed painters. She's also a Raptors fan. And in this interview, she tells the story of how one game (her first!) inspired this series of larger-than-life portraits. Go sports!

Follow this artist

Tony Luciani (@ynotphoto256) - CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition recently ran an emotional doc about a photo project that changed the lives of Tony Luciani and his mother, Elia. That's Elia in this picture. She was 91 and in the early stages of dementia when she and Tony started collaborating on photos like this one. You've got to hear their story.

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Until next week!

XOXO, CBC Arts