announcer: "brilliant ideas," powered by hyundai motors. ♪ narrator: the contemporary art world is vibrant and booming as never before. it's a 21st century phenomenon, a global industry in its own right. "brilliant ideas" looks at the artists at the heart of this, artists with the unique power to change in surprise. in this program, new york-based wangechi mutu. ♪

narrator: this is the museum of modern art in atlanta and the opening of a major exposition. wangechi mutu is here as one of the world's leading african-born artist. >> the exhibition here has works both in a show that focused on women from east africa. they have this aquatic and terrestrial life. they are really powerful. ♪ wangechi: the serpent is a sleeping sculpture. the soft, long, languid creature -- sort of beautifully laid on

this pedestal, it could be a pedestal or fisherman's table. >> wangechi mutu makes beautiful art. her installations are very well carried out, and they have a real presence when you enter the space. the large snake in our exhibition, somehow she has managed to make it feel alive. >> she definitely uses her background. she certainly is about being an african woman, but filtered through many things. >> the installations she makes, the sculpture, the film, the

collage works, her entire world embodies her aesthetic. ♪ wangechi: i was born in nairobi in the 1970's, and the reason i came to york was primarily to study and pursue a more grown-up art. in spite of the fact that i studied in wales in the u.k., and am pretty far away from here, i realize that new york and the united states have these great institutions for training and education. i applied and got into a few schools, so i decided to come to new york. ♪ wangechi: i'm not sure why brooklyn is a center for other artists. i know i came to brooklyn to seek out a little bit of quiet, and certainly to find affordable

space. brooklyn is much more human in scale, not too many high-rises, a lot of residential spaces and smaller cafés. it is probably what manhattan was like 50 years ago. narrator: in her brooklyn studio, she is working on another serpent. believe it or not, they are inspired by real animals. they are a common theme in her work. wangechi: we are in my sculpture studio. it is actually a manatee-like creature found in east africa, a big sea cow. it is eaten. they are also conflated with the mythology of the water women. i think that is a powerful mixing of narratives, that this

sea cow could turn into a human-like mermaid creature. it is harder to find people who talk about the mermaid the way they did in the past, as if it were just another character in the village walking around, this woman who we spotted yesterday night. don't talk to her. she is so beautiful. the power of that mythology intrigues me. my fabricator for serpents is a very young man. i think the thing that makes an artwork special is that at some point you realize that the parts of it that you are unable to make can be done by people who are extremely skilled but also understand the idea behind what

you are trying to do. the skill that coast into making a rounded object, almost like a dress that fits around a woman's figure, is a lot more confiscated than one would imagine. >> this is the top, and that is the bottom. the sides are where the issue is, because you have to create a curve. wangechi: everything in the belly is all this junk mail that i shred and reuse it, so i figured out a way to make it useful by putting it in here. it is ironically what i do with magazines and paintings. i cut them up and repurpose them and scattered them throughout the painting to turn them into another story and extend their life. so this is the 12-foot version, which is already quite large, but only a third of the size of

the original one. ♪ >> i first saw her work in a little nonprofit gallery and brooklyn, some small pieces. it is one of these rare cases where i saw some modest works and just immediately said that this artist is the real thing. >> wangechi mutu emerged in the early 2000's and is one of the most inventive artists working with the idea of identity, critically from the view of the african diaspora and the way african identity can play out in american culture. ♪ wangechi: i do different things with these. this is hair braiding material, which is the center of so many african women's culture, the

braiding of hair, fussing about with hair, wearing about hair, judging each other by our hair. i don't use it for hair braiding anymore, but i use it for painting, my sculptures and prints. narrator: after a decade living and working in brooklyn, she was asked to take part in a group show that she feels was a turning point. wangechi: in 2003, i was invited to a neck submission called "looking both ways." there were 12 of us in one exhibition who had an immigration story that brought us to either europe or the united states, and the show debuted in new york city for the museum for african arts. narrator: next, her solo show in the u.s., a fantastic journey.

>> the fact that brooklyn is the center of so many universes in so many ways in the past decade, in terms of multiplicities of communities, in terms of the world traveling through, touching down here in some form or another, and i would say in that sense that

wangechi is absolutely representative of brooklyn and is a brooklyn artist. narrator: wangechi mutu's first solar show, "a fantastic journey" came to the brooklyn museum in 2013. it was a popular one. >> she was always on the top of our list of artist to speak to feminism, social issues, social politics, and the meaning of -- in the 21st century, and wangechi represents brooklyn, the world, the art world, and she makes work that speaks globally, and yet incorporates an incredible formal sophistication that people just love looking at. narrator: wangechi's first

animation was commissioned for "a fantastic journey." it was created with fellow brooklyn artist, the singer santigold. >> we love to take things, rework them, and put it in front of people. it becomes the linkage with which to finally understand something that they have never understood. ♪ wangechi: it is this wonderful sci-fi dystopic creature, featuring this beautiful face moving to the space and eating, this sense of omnivorous appetite for things in the world.

♪ wangechi: it was this almost impossible idea to create a collage in four dimensions. it was making one of my collage pieces come to life. at some point as i was doing the storyboard and enjoying the idea of creating an actual live film, i realize that it had to be a character, and so i affixed ahead to it and then it donned on me what this thing was and i wanted it to come across as, and that is when i approached santigold. the thing she became was a combination of her as a beautiful face and a lovely

individual and transforming into this hideous monster that eventually you realize is not even a monster. it is bigger than a monster. it is like a moon or a planet. ♪ wangechi: this creature which represents many things, including human evolution, but also consumption, greed, and industrialization, eats itself to an absolute oblivion. it combusts in its own filth, its own smoke. >> she has a message, but the way she presents it is in the form of, i think, very persuasive art. sometimes what happens is you can can become too didactic, but

in her best work i think that both the message and the material and the image are one, and you are moved and you are -- ♪ narrator: not only an artist, but an activist. wangechi just started a movement called "africa out," supporting gay and lesbians rights in africa. wangechi: the ambitions were about awareness raising, drumming up solidarity, so we had people standing behind lgbt folks in africa saying that we are with you, big-name celebrities, artists, wealthy people who buy art, and we are there and believe your lives are

precious. ♪ wangechi: we figured out so much technologically in industry in terms of how we have become this global culture, and we still haven't come up with solutions for really basic things, and i think music and writing and film and art, these spells, these magnificent spells we are capable of creating through art, are actually what is going to slowly turn the dial. ♪

narrator: in 2015, wangechi mutu was invited to the venice

biennale. her main show combined sculpture, animation, and collages. she also had a separate expedition in one of the cities galleries showing her painting collages, the works for which she has become best known. ♪ wangechi: i think i'm slowly developing a technique that allows me to continue to work with fragmented images and to splice things together in ways that are unusual and unexpected. ♪ wangechi: the image of a woman bending over to plant something is actually so common that it is not even that interesting because i come from former people and a lot of women spend a lot of time bending over to put seeds in the ground or to pick plants, food out of the ground. i love that gesture, and it is denied the attention it

deserves, because we all survive on women's work and the bodies of women in motion have such a big part of why humans are here. the last grower is this extremely delicately put together figure of a woman holding a seat. i think the hand is from some magazine i have had from years with a glove on it, almost like a motorbike love, then her head has this embellishment with a serpent on it, and she doesn't have the right amount of legs. that's not even the purpose of it, but eventually your eye puts the whole image together and you see a woman who looks like she is gardening or farming. ♪ wangechi: -- is a bit of a critique on a stereotype of a female or person in the tropics being this kind of garden of

eden kind of creature, a primal dancing blob. who knows what, because it is from brazil to jamaica to kenya. it is almost like you don't know what people are referring to when they think about the tropics and they think about tropical people. so this carmen miranda like gathering of food is also a day get that image. i think it has invented itself and people psyche, like josephine baker's banana skirt. how that became a believable image of an african female in the 1930's or 1940's in europe is fascinating to me, but it stuck, you know? in spite of the fact that i have a problem with the stereotypes, i tend to harvest the them for my own purposes to test them out in my work, so i also use these images as a way of kind of

motivating a conversation about stereotypes. >> having a message, having meaning, in the art, that is what sets it apart. wangechi's work speaks to people, and it is meaningful about the human condition today, about the state of women today. the statement is universal, and it goes beyond her own background to connect with basic truths about the human condition. ♪ narrator: women are the common focus of the three works that form wangechi's main installation in venice. wangechi: i have been interested in stories that have women as a central character for a long time. this painting, "forbidden fruit picker," is the creation myth. eve in our culture is the maker of all creation.

the serpent always seems to mean the same thing, transformation, danger, and there is this wonderful relationship between the serpent and the woman, especially because i think women and counter snakes when they are farming, cleaning their homes, and village culture and so forth. ♪ wangechi: the sculpture is titled, "she has got the whole world in her." she is a female with a crown of thorns, and she is in awe of this globe, and this globe is in a way a metaphor for the earth. at the same time, this notion that that women have genetically, in their dna, have all of us in them. we are caring all humans and all that has ever happened within us somewhere, in our genetic material, but in this is a

world, a symbol of people, culture, and matter, these little magic things that are the result of our nervous human existential energy, part of what she holds in her. ♪ wangechi: the film is the end of caring all, and essentially the story is that the burden on her head, which is a symbol of labor, a symbol of the plight of civilization, which is symbol of industrialization, whatever you

see in it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem that she still has to carry. so there is a radio tower, a big tv disk, a kind of apartment building of sorts, an oil rig, all these things are carried on this woman's head, and at some point as she walks across this bucolic and beautiful sunset landscape, she falls over in exhaustion, and in spite of that she continues to move. she crawls, and this thing has at this point become such an anomaly that it is not even these things that are related to man-made problems, it is something else. it is something that grows and overflows and engulfs her.

♪ narrator: wangechi mutu is a highly successful artist, but alongside the exhibitions and gallery openings, she is determined to keep a popular touch. for her, art is not an elitist thing. wangechi: i love it. it is this wonderful establishment called sisters in brooklyn. it is a culturally powerful area. why should art not be something that you can relate to. why should it only relate to a

small population of people who can afford art, so i think my thing is that i do think art ought to be a language that is spoken to a broader population of people who are actually interested in art. it is definitely becoming a more global thing. it is deathly something that a lot more people are interested in. so i think art should be something really moving for way more people than maybe artists want it to be. ♪

announcer: "brilliant ideas," powered by hyundai motors. ♪

♪ carol: welcome to "businessweek" on bloomberg television. i'm carol massar. >> love movies, love food. the alamo draft house maybe the back to the future answer you're looking for. behindd more as we go the scenes of bloomberg businessweek.

carol: a couple other stories, the unexpected death of supreme court justice antonin scalia a. scalia. he talks about how his writings are in favor of large corporations. often against the little guy. the story walking you through those stories. and portland, oregon. workersg number of tech that are saying they're leaving silicon valley in a big way. they are looking to write for ebay and salesforce. it just might surprise you. check it out. more details on both stories in the magazine.

when you think of apple you think of steve jobs, tim cook. and cool gadgets. someone behind the scenes is stepping into the spotlight. he is apple's new senior vice president for hardware technologies. he's the subject of our cover story. who, this guy is someone stayed out of the spotlight but he is stepping in. what is going on? >> he's an israeli born engineer 2008.ined in this is after the original iphone had been introduced. apple saw the limitations they were running up against in terms of the components in the devise. they wanted to create their own silicone. the brains of the devise, that would give them more flexibility to create the features of the product they wanted in the

future. steve jobs and his lieutenants at the time recruited him from ibm to come over and lead this effort. over the past eight years he has been working in secrecy to develop this expertise. apple in a short time is considered one of the real preeminent chip design companies in the world. carol: what's interesting is you talk about him but i don't think of apple as a chip company. there are other big companies. this is about apple being a chipmaker. >> right. there was a time when they did codesign but they got away from that. you instead rely on a network of suppliers who provide you with the components. a lot ofies on components but this is a critical one where they decided

they are going to build it up themselves. they have a big team working on this all over the world. there is austin, texas. florida. a big presence in israel. >> tell me about him. he is now part of tim cook's inner circle. >> he is. after eight years with the company he was promoted in december 2 apple's executive team. that is the selective group that makes decisions about where the company is going. he has a fascinating that -- biography. an arab-israeli, a christian. himself as anes engineer. israel has tensions between jews and arabs. he was able to insulin -- insulate himself from that.

it is not much of a factor. it just doesn't come up. he distinguished himself and went from ibm to intel. then was hired by apple. carol: apple chooses to let all of us know what they want us to know. this is a guy who was out of the spotlight. why do they put him out there? you have a bunch of time with him. why do you think they are doing that now? islike all things this strategic. we're at a time where stock is being battered. it is down a quarter over the past year. you see questions about whether the smart phone market is saturating. thinks an area where they differentiates from competitors. a differento tell

story about what makes their products different and how they will be differentiated in the future. usually this is what apple will do, do some press around a new iphone release, interviews with the executives around this. this is a more technical part of the business that people don't know about or understand. carol: what was he like? in terms of how he interacted with others? there was a part where you discussed how secretive he is. heeds a serious person. at the same time he laughed easily and was a gentleman with those around him but he is somebody who is holding a bold of secrets -- vault of secrets in his head. common refrain is something

along the lines of i don't want to go into too much detail about that. carol: there he applelike. >> we traveled around. he showed us around cupertino where they are doing testing on-chip designs of the future. there's a lot of equipment out there. they are running simulations that test durability of a future chip. there is another set up that is simulating a software design of the future putting the chip through its paces. lead a chipyear from the beginning to the end of where you begin it in customers hands. carol: water industry observers saying about apple chip specifically? is this something that intel has to be worried? appleworks with samsung on

chips. >> that is in important distinction. they designs the chips than contract with samsung and tsmc that will then manufacture the chips. to a certain extent what apple is doing is bad for your traditional chip companies like intel because if apple is doing this themselves, that is one customer intel can't sell to. intel has made next to zero progress. qualcomm also faces a challenge because apple is doing more and more itself and doesn't need a supplier like qualcomm as much. it is having reverberations. carol: what is next for apple? are they going to be making chips?

>> we asked about different things. we asked about when are we going to see batteries in an apple car, he laughed at the question. there are small things where he acknowledged they are considering wireless charging or thermal charging so you would not have to plug your head said in for it to charge. there is speculation around virtual reality and other close, keepshe is things close to the chest. carol: it's a great deep dive about what is going on at apple. i guess he is out of the spotlight. we will leave it there. thank you. aboutrse you can read all the cover story in the latest issue of bloomberg businessweek available online and on newsstands. the presidential

branding issues. ♪

carol: hello and welcome back to bloomberg businessweek. advertising and politics. sometimes it's hard to tell which comes first. looking at the making of a joining us now, tim, what did come first? brands or political candidates? >> we would have to advertise it first. carol: what's going on? >> you look at political

campaigns like launching a product. you want to attributes like a brand. it is good to appropriate brand characteristics to be your message across. --you are a catholic cadillac you are a premium product. brandfil-a is a popular they like to talk about. >> it's interesting, you kick it all off, you give an example of a press release where you talked about uber and chick-fil-a. >> absolutely. he talked about his campaign spent enough money to buy 1300 chicken nuggets. that is just his love of chicken and new birth. -- and uber. you see a spike among conservatives who identify with chick-fil-a. the ceo has made comments

regarding gay marriage more popular around the conservative side. uber has become one of these brands, you can see division. democrats on certain about how it affects unions on those supporters whereas conservatives see it as an opportunity to latch on to silicon valley. carol: it's not a new thing though. you talk about howard dean associated with a volvo. and president obama being associated with the chevy volt. >> no better way to insult somebody then to send the message they are not one of you. in howard dean's case he was a volvo driving liberal. the obama administration faced criticism for the bailout of the auto industry. candidates made fun of the chevrolet volt which came out after the bankruptcy.

when you look at the research behind brands, some are very interesting. you are more likely -- bernie sanders supporters will eat at you pull in more than average. hillary clinton supporters like panera. donald trump staying at the hampton inn. clinton supporters at the sheridan. campaignsis used by and marketers to build a picture of who these potential voters might be. it helps color in the lines a little bit. carol: one brand sounds like everybody wants to be affiliated, the great uniter. >> apple. because the mass appeal of the brand, it used to be seen as a democratic rant. everybody is buying it. it comes across with the whole population.

>> what about the apple watch? too soon to know. his segway was no. it was want to appeal to her. carol: i thought product placement had gotten out of hand but political campaigns and candidates are taking it to a new level. >> look for chick-fil-a on the campaign trail this season. carol: thank you. we will be watching for those brands. walmart is facing a class-action lawsuit. denied spousal benefits to same-sex marriage couples. it could go to trial in november. josh idol send has more on the story that may have wide implications. we are watching this closely. lay out the lawsuit.

>> thank you. up until january of 2014 walmart provided spouse will help insurance to employees who had an opposite sex spouse but not to employees who had a same-sex spouse. a lot of americans don't realize there is no federal law that specifically mentions you can't discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. lawsuitemise for this that we've been seeing over the past several years is the sex discrimination part of the 1964 civil rights act. terminateu can't this based on sex. lawsuit, this walmart an argument that discriminating against someone based on sexual orientation, it was a way of discriminating against them based on their sex.

discrimination based on sexual orientation is about stereotypes about what a man should do and what a woman should do. >> this goes back to reading about legal theory. the groundwork of what is to come. was pivotal case in 1989 price waterhouse case which established sex determination is not just reading a woman worse than you would treat a man. sex discrimination under federal stereotypes.x in that case a woman who was discredited against for not ating the way the partners price waterhouse expected a woman to act. that sex stereotype president precedentoor --

opened a door. what is a stereotype more than a man should date a woman or vice versa. carol: where is walmart on this? they changed their rules and terms of health care coverage in 2014. why not just create a settlement? >> ballmer has that opportunity. there is mediation scheduled. they did not make this case go away so far. this started at the equal employment opportunity commission. there was reasonable cause to believe walmart had violated the law but efforts to reach a resolution at that stage did not succeed. for walmart at this point which has changed its policy the calculation is you have an estimated group of 1200 current and former employees who you

have to compensate to settle. there is reputational risk. this company has made strides in being perceived as a more tolerant gay friendly company. carol: it is definitely being closely watched. thank you. coming up next week go to the back of the book for this week's etc. segment. a smaller competitor is looking to expand. the rise of the alamo draft house cinema. ♪

carol: it's time to take a look at the etc. part of the magazine of bloomberg businessweek. let's begin with the cover story. remember the alamo. it sounds like a company going after individuals to get out them -- out of staying home and watching netflix.

stays home and watch his netflix or hulu and alamo draft house model is a lot on the idea they think every once in a while you want to leave your house and see a movie. carol: go figure. they have been doing this or some time. inthey opened in austin 1997. they have opened 22 other theaters. the plan is to open 50 by 2018. they do this with other franchisees around the country. they have chains open everywhere. that is part of what makes it interesting. can you export something that worked well in austin? guest: we were talking about austan and how cool it is for music and technology. tell us what the model is. model is twofold. they want you in the theater. they want to give you some alcohol, a beer. , stuff adult milkshakes

like that. they have a standard menu, chicken wings to buffalo chicken pizza. what they also do is around certain launches they do a special theme menu. they did one for the star wars movie. they will do a second run of a movie like silence of the lambs movies -- lambs. these are movies. it increases food and beverage sales. it works. it helps nonsocial media. carol: you put in the section they don't do the annoying ads when you go to a movie. >> the founders do that intentionally. they want your moviegoing experience to be in joyal. $10, you don'tng want to be annoyed.

they pride themselves on the film experience. ,hey can switch between digital 3-d, 35mm. they hire and train projectionists and a way that major chains don't anymore. carol: they kind of -- you talk owners, i guess he is an engineer. he breaks down the pieces. people are doing specific jobs and tasks. >> they have a systematic approach to this. when they work with franchisees they look at online customer surveys to gauge whether they are doing a good job. they send in a swap team -- what team if franchises are performing well. they have this broken down. you're going to the movies to have a good time. behind the scenes there is a law involved. carol: they also have a head of beer.

>> it seems like a pretty awesome job if you can get it. each franchise has a custom bar. the bars are unique in each place. carol: expansion, the movie theater business is not an easy one. we have major chains out there and they are going up against them. talk about what we see in the industry. >> to mastech box office is down. there is also prize why that is. people are staying at home. it is a lot more convenient and cheaper. they got a challenge ahead of them. they are expanding in a time when people aren't going to the movies. they hope by offering dinner and drinks they are going to learn you out. -- lure you out. even someone who stays home will want to leave the house. it is not an absurd idea. they are extending into suburbs

that not like austin. the question is can they be like that. i have been to the original one in austin. 2,hink i saw the hangover but that was pretty awful. carol: that does it for this week's edition of bloomberg businessweek. the latest issue featuring the cover story, one of the most least known members at apple is available online and on newsstands. we will see you back here next week on bloomberg television. ♪

>> from our studios in new york, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we begin with politics and the 2016 election. primaries in south carolina and nevada are taking place this weekend and next week. marco rubio the endorsement from governor nikki haley on wednesday. >> i want a president understands they have to bring a conscience back to our republic. ladies and gentlemen, if we elect marco rubio every day will be a great day in america.