July 15, 2020
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In this issue:
The Musical Chairs That Is Capitalism
Estelle Hoy chronicles the 5K Berlin coronavirus emergency grant—a collective semiotic activity that is monstrous and cruel, taking advantage of “corona chaos” in all its virile forms—revealing the eternal reemergence of the deictic function of the artist, and its nonconsensual dependence on capital.
To Caress, to Fondle, to Covet: Hudinilson Jr.
Mainly known for his erotic representations of the male body, Hudinilson Jr. was trained on the fringes of ultraconservative 1960s Brazil. Paulo Miyada finds in the artist’s relationship with images a reminder that desire for the other is not necessarily easy or convenient, but something to be constructed and savored in endless exercises of seeing and being seen.
Walking Is an Act of Seeing Is an Act of Reading Is an Act of Walking
Measuring the space of an environment through personal associations—identifying sites of representation, contestation, desire, and conflict, read through various citations and references—Hendrik Folkerts guides us through the city of Chicago, annotated according to the specificity of that moment and the physical act of walking.
Beyond the Material, Substance Must Be Reckoned: Brook Hsu
Brook Hsu discusses with Ross Simonini the core elements of her work: the physical presence of material, mythology, the sound of a painting, and her writing practice. In her rug paintings, even the content of the work—sprayed urine, projectile vomit, fleshy appendages, sobbing demons—evokes a world where substance must be reckoned with.
Disappearer
“Space = anxiety, [Rob] Baerenwiese had come to conclude. He was glad, upon further reflection, to have been born in an era in which technology and commerce had come to collaborate in engineering increasingly ingenious ways to collapse all that space. Bringing everyone closer together without even having to touch.” A short story by Travis Jeppesen.
Primavera (An Elegy)
As if to savor springtime rites she was not herself able to enjoy, Sabrina Tarasoff reflects upon figures in the history of literature who struggled to come to terms with the loss of perpetual spring. From Ovid’s Fasti to Botticelli’s Primavera, the figure of Flora has often been associated with grief and bereavement on the one hand, and with metamorphosis and self-reinvention on the other.
Anthropy: What the Post-Human Looks Like
Can AI produce art, and can it do so without artists? Does the rise of algorithmic machinery spell the death of a certain kind of art? Dieter Roelstraete ponders the presumed artistic prowess of AI, which is often evaluated in terms of its command of the human figure and its facility in art’s most canonical medium: painting.
A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose: Ian Wilson
Catherine Wood retraces the practice and legacy of Ian Wilson against the backdrop of our current socioeconomic and cultural condition. Influenced by the non-Western oral tradition of mystics and poet-saints and by an idea of the circle as never-ending-ness, Wilson transformed empty spaces into a kind of readiness primed for growth and perceptual fullness, rather than absence.
Sick Living, Sick Society
Omar Kholeif charts the ailing effects of living in an increasingly sick society. Mental health disorders are a major fallout, but still one of the least considered in government and social agendas.
Tidbits:
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess by Michael Ned Holte; Lee Kai Chung by Emily Verla Bovino; Lewis Hammond by Moritz Scheper; Danielle Dean by Charles Aubin; Salman Toor by David Everitt Howe; Peter Nagy by Wendy Vogel; Amitai Romm by Kristian Vistrup Madsen; Mira Schor by Camila McHugh; Yu Ji by Billy Tang; Heinz Frank by Caroline Dumalin; Cinga Samson by Rahel Aima; Urara Tsuchiya by Chris Sharp; Jasmin Werner by Philipp Hindahl; Caroline Bachmann by Elise Lammer; Sandra Mujinga by Attilia Fattori Franchini; Anne Minich by Caitlin McBride.
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