At CSM’s second MA of Material Futures degree show, designers Elissa Brunato and Clemence Rigaux untangle socio-political issues embedded in materials and reimagine the future of these materials as tangible as vehicles of change. The designers consider daily material engagement, and how this is reflected in the macrocosm of humanity’s place in global ecosystems, generating practices that are poetic and shockingly accessible. Their projects take to the depths of natural world and inject familiar structures with dreamy innovations, proving the unsustainability of that conventional systems and presenting imaginative solutions from designers who see our future in the tangible materials of the present.
In a world where artificiality rules, the news is fake, surveillance is rampant and we must hide behind a “Finsta”, we have to ask ourselves is being real a sickness? If we embrace individuality over assimilation of mass culture, are we doomed to suffer? Reflecting on the words of the great Kanye West who sang “Doctors say I’m the illest, because I suffer from realness”, this exhibition contemplates our own fate in the constructed society that is puppeteered by authority we can no longer trust.
Further than Xue’s aesthetics, her work is layered in historical, social, and psychological references. These many possibilities for association, for those familiar with the Chinese cultural context or not, make the work, intimate, alluring, and uncanny. Her work is also romantic and intense, filled with the repressed energy of desire. Her artistic practice is critically engaging, and this essay will analyze these contextual layers and why they are significant to the legacy of Chinese contemporary art.
With a meditative assurance, Liu Wei prompts a calm consideration of the hectic architectural zone. Density, 2013 a thoughtful work that presents an example of an abstract, yet meaningful, solution to the urban condition.
The array of emotions through the human experience and the depth of those feelings can take a lifetime to process and another to make sense of. Even more ironically, for many of the most profound human emotions, from the unbridled love of youth to the mourning of an untimely death, our words fall flat. In Western society, the phrase “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” reigns oppressively true, and inhibits conversation around unattractively serious human emotions. Modern society is designed to consider anything not regulated and properly idealized to be surreal and in opposition of an efficient society. However, denial of real life atrocities and human rights violations is no longer acceptable in a globalized world, and contemporary art provides an arena for action, a platform for relational art to emerge indiscriminately through political tension and catalyze change, providing new rethorics, and new ways of thinking about socio-political issues.
There is a psychosomatic, sensual effect of the glossy, smooth, and sumptuous sculptures, they beg to be touched. The spacious showroom allows for intimate observation and a private connection with each work. The space given to each work lends itself to time, as the longer you look at each work, the more familiar it seems, warmer. After moments, the works feel surreally human, and reminiscent of human innards, imposing the idea of something we are deeply intimate with, yet will never get to touch, to hold.
“This is not a magazine about fashion, lifestyle, or celebrity. Indigenous Woman is an independent art publication dedicated to the celebration of Mayan Indian heritage, the navigation of contemporary indigeneity, and the ever-evolving self-image. It is a vision, an overture, a provocation.”
Deep in the pale grandeur of the Somerset House, a kaleidoscopic paradise of color unravels in the fantastical realm of Azania. Athi Patra Ruga’s Azania is a surreal utopia, containing a collection of extraordinary characters, heroes of a alternate reality, each as vibrant as the last.
not even the departed stay grounded, Kemang Wa Lehulere’s first solo exhibition at the Marian Goodman Gallery, has the air full and heavy with knowing. The room is quiet and serene, save for the sound of ceremonial chanting trickling down from upstairs. The shattered fragments of plaster dogs next to the residual dust of freshly used chalk on the floor hint to a recent action, movement without account. The works have been made just this year, but they seem to whisper endless histories, narratives forgotten or ignored, desperate to be released, heard and known. In this exhibition, Lehulere has collapsed time by juxtaposing past lives and untold narratives with the tangible post apartheid unrest still prevalent in his current social, political, and familial relationships.
Los Angeles kicked off the new year in a haze of optimism as it’s annual art show revealed a city wholeheartedly embracing its diversity, and believing in that diversity’s place in the international art world. As Los Angeles rises as a global art destination, its strength in variety has met happy approval in an industry that thrives on the transcendence of the predictable, overdone, or “basic”. The show’s combination of notable museums and eccentric local Angeleno subcultures shown created a boundless cultural showcase, that allows the visitor to become revived by established art crushes while also being smitten by a new favorite creator.
On a pristine patch of sand dotted by date palms and surrounded by the glittering aquamarine of the Persian Gulf, is an art island paradise. The UAE is taking the spotlight, and it has the support of a highly esteemed French museum collective in launching forth the dream of a new cultural center based on the global aspirations of unity, tolerance, and acceptance through art. The Louvre Abu Dhabi (LAD) is a state of the art institution, whose inclusive atmosphere and conceptually unified galleries create a unique and extraordinary museum experience.
Color Over Money. Just like the lethargic bubble that swirls every color before it implodes, Scope Show 2016 has the color and pop factor of all my 90s dreams returned. Glitter, diamonds, rainbows, and celebrity beamed off this art show in brighter glamour than the mirrored neon lights on every corner. The pristine white & glass big top, beachfront on the pastels of a South Beach sunset could almost soothe if not for the Studio 54 esque ambiance wafting gently out into the humidity. The air is intoxicating, the juxtaposition of lights and color are a drug money can’t buy, or maybe it can. Contemporary art, according to SCOPE is sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll all grown up.
Contemporary culture is flying at light speed, away from all that’s familiar, barreling towards the unknown. Danish-Palestinian artist Larissa Sonsour seizes this uncertainty and illustrates a radical post-apocalyptic future. Sonsour’s In Vitro, 2019 is a fearless yet polished portrait of the planet in the throes of the deeply affecting uncertainty of looming catastrophe under humanity’s self-destruction. Sonsour constructs the entirety of a new world; cement, underground, monochrome. Further, Sonsour’s work questions the difference in priorities between generations and demonstrates the tension that arises when creation is no longer interested in its creator.