The May issue of frieze features a visual essay by Heji Shin; a series of open letters to Adrian Piper; and monographs on Ruth Asawa, Than Hussein Clark and Madeline Gins; plus columns and reviews from around the world.
Open Letters to Adrian Piper
“My interest is to fully politicize the existing art-world context” –Adrian Piper. Artists and writers Thomas Chatterton Williams, Aaron Flint Jamison, Adelita Husni-Bey, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Pope.L and Dread Scott respond to Piper’s interventionist, confrontational practice, with a series of open letters to the artist. Piper’s retrospective, A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016, is on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, until July 22.
Roots & Routes
“The sheer scale and emptiness of China’s great western frontier provides an antidote to, and an escape from, the claustrophobic urban densities of cities such as Beijing, as well as the confines of the studio and the white cube.” As China undertakes its Belt and Road Initiative, Colin Siyuan Chinnery investigates how artists Zhao Yao, Zhao Zhao and Zhuang Hui search for identity along the country’s newly revived silk road.
Also featuring:
“Hot Cops,” Heji Shin’s photographs of New York Police officers, shifts the chaste optics of law enforcement into slyly gay territory; painter David Salle meditates on Within the Context of No Context (1981), George W.S. Trow’s sad and thrilling prophecy for American culture; Maria Hassabi talks to Harry Thorne about slowness and the anti-spectacular in her performance art; Martin Hargreaves looks at artifice and the politics of melodrama in the work of Than Hussein Clark; Ann Reynold explores how Ruth Asawa’s sculptures rethink transparency and form; and Lucy Ives examines the often-overlooked poetry of the late Madeline Gins.
Columns and Reviews
Trix and Robert Haussmann, the seminal Swiss architect and designer duo, discuss their creative influences; Jan Verwoert reflects on how the changing face of Europe may impact Manifesta 12 in Palermo; Osei Bonsu considers how David Goldblatt’s photographs—on view at Paris’s Centre Pompidou—give insights into what it means to bear witness; the award-winning writer Alexander Chee reflects on the books that have influenced him; Negar Azimi examines how Jean-Luc Godard’s maquettes reveal vital insights into contemporary life; Paul Rekret looks at the recent “turn to chill” in pop music; and Olivia Laing explores the intertwining of art, gardening, filmmaking and writing in the work of Derek Jarman.
Plus: 29 exhibition reviews from around the world, including reports on Danh Vo’s show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Zoe Leonard’s survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Answering our questionnaire is Anthea Hamilton, whose installation and performance work The Squash is on view at Tate Britain, London, until October 7.
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