NEW ORLEANS — Considering that one of Mel Chin’s most audacious works appeared before an audience of millions on network television over a two-year period, it’s curious that he’s not more of a household name.
March 2014
Brief Interventions with Hideous Men
Oscar Wilde was suspicious of men in suits. He once famously remarked that “with an evening coat and a white tie, even a stock broker can gain a reputation for being civilized.”
Surreal Puppets Retell the Jabberwocky
SAN FRANCISCO — At San Francisco’s annual Dickens Fair, I learned about the work of Darren Way, whose Dangerous Puppets creations feature fanciful characters and bizarre imagery bordering on the fantastical and grotesque.
Required Reading
This week, tensions in Ukraine mount, responsibility of architects, aestheticizing politics, Spike Lee’s gentrification rant, Ai Weiwei on the internet’s influence on his work, and much more.
Weekend Words: Revive
Today’s New York Times Magazine brings news from the forefront of the de-extinction movement, which hopes to use genome-editing technology to revive lost species, including “an Australian frog, extinct for 30 years, that gave birth through its mouth.”
Thomas McEvilley: And Autumnstruck We Would Not Hear the Song
Everyone talks about working outside the box but most of us don’t even know what box we’re boxed in by so we box ourselves in all the more. The work of Thomas McEvilley not only shows the imaginary fly the way out of actual fly bottles but also shows that preposterous insect how to get back in.
Receivers and Transmitters: Michelle Segre’s Recent Sculpture
In Michelle Segre’s sculpture “Self-Reflexive Narcissistic Supernova” (2013), a mushroom cap — made of wax and five feet in diameter — lies on its side in a provocative position evoking a horn, ear, and vagina — a form that receives and/or transmits.
Justin Bieber, Ideal Lover
The most remarkable moment of the Justin Bieber concert I saw July 20 at Boston’s TD Garden occurred before the singer even showed up.
Rehearsing Tomorrow: Mallory Cattlet’s ‘This Was the End’
Mallory Cattlet’s This Was the End at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City occupies a point along the continuum between theater and visual art. The emphasis is on the visual perception of the stage set and the video projections by Keith Skretch, which sometimes replicate both the set and actions of the live performers.
Impossible Beauty, Erotic and Sublime
A vision of disruptive, gritty perfection can be glimpsed at Valentine in Ridgewood, where the paintings of Patricia Satterlee and the sculptures of David Henderson and Jude Tallichet cohabit the space with bristling singularity.