Film
Ai Weiwei Captures the Strange Normalcy of Wuhan Under Lockdown
The dissident artist’s critique of his home country remains relentless, in particular identifying how bureaucracy can leave people out in the cold.
Review
Art
How Photographers Have Captured War and Unrest in Lebanon
Lebanon Then and Now at the Middle East Institute creates a dialogue between two generations of Lebanese photographers.
Books
Charting a Bold Future For Pakistani Cinema
Love, War & Other Longings offers a thought-provoking analysis of the country’s lesser-known film history, while sketching out aspirations for the industry.
Music
Songs of Perpetual Self-Discovery
Having embraced adulthood with her band Paramore, in her solo debut Hayley Williams advances to full self-actualization.
Art
The Prison Drawings of Frank Jones
Frank Jones was “double-sighted” — born with a caul over his left eye — which gave him, or so it was believed, the power to communicate with the spirit world.
Art
Andy Warhol on Race and Ethnicity
Whether we examine Warhol’s work from a Marxist viewpoint or through the lens of queer studies, what has been sidestepped in nearly every discussion is his relationship to race and ethnicity.
Art
Evoking the Messiness of Memory With the Ocean’s Tide
Drawing on the Galician tradition of collecting “crebas,” or items washed in by the tide, Francesc Torres immerses the viewer in pivotal moments of Spanish history via its detritus.
Film
This 1902 Footage of a Flying Train Is the Film of the Summer
The Museum of Modern Art has released a short film of a German elevated train from its archives, and it absolutely rules.
Art
Cao Fei’s Science Fiction Fever Dreams
In Blueprints, Cao works primarily as an anthropologist of sorts, creating a space where the past and the future are not so easily demarcated.
Film
When a Common Language Can't Keep Lovers Connected
Isabel Sandoval writes, directs, and stars in Lingua Franca, a drama about a trans immigrant from the Philippines trying to avoid deportation.
Books
Can We Unlearn Imperialism? Ariella Azoulay Offers Methods and Lessons
In Potential History, the violence of photography saturates the very idea of European “progress,” resonating from Palestine to the Congo to Black America.
Film
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You Is a Brilliant Meditation on Consent
Chronicling a young writer’s experience in the aftermath of a sexual assault, the series captures the pain, absurdity, and murkiness of rape culture, refusing to ever tie a neat bow.