Film
Processing Mortality With Cinema
In Dick Johnson Is Dead, Kirsten Johnson pens a mischievous love letter to her father about the only universal guarantee in life — death.
Review
Art
Seattle Museum Falls Short of “Reimagining” Asian Art as It Promised
Hopefully this renovation is not the endpoint of this institution’s reimagining of what an Asian art museum should be.
Performance
A Minimalist Take on Medea Delivers Maximal Drama
In Simon Stone's adaptation, the conflict is not cultural but psychological, and viewers can’t help but empathize with her.
Film
The Political Provocations of a Maverick Japanese Documentarian
Kazuo Hara's epic Reiwa Uprising, screening at Doc Fortnight, follows members of a new progressive political party trying to shake up the system.
Film
Using AI to Question What Art Is
Lawrence Lek's AIDOL tells the story of an AI composer making music in a world rendered in video game graphics.
Film
Southeast Asian Cinema Takes Hollywood Sci-Fi in New Directions
Directors Lav Diaz, Mattie Do, and Minh Quý Truong have built off Hollywood's tropes in unexpected ways in their science fiction films.
Art
Ernesto Neto Stimulates Bodies and Minds at MALBA
From the tactile joy of brushing our bare skin against fabric to the discovery of new architecture that yields to our touch, Neto’s work melds the pleasures of sight to the sensuality of material.
Books
An Evolution of Style in Three Poets
I love discovering new voices, but there’s much to be said for following poets over the course of their careers, watching their styles evolve, their attentions shift.
Books
Raymond Roussel's Stories Are Based on Complex Word Games
A precursor to literary surrealism, Roussel employed pastiche and mathematics to prioritize form over content.
Film
The Eccentric Genius of Agnès Varda
With her devotion to cats and heart-shaped everything, Varda personified adorably unconventional thinking — without apology or apparent self-consciousness.
Art
The Makings of Madonnas
The peculiarities of pregnancy in art, from corsets to belly pads and hidden bumps.
Art
Jake Berthot’s Nowhere Land
All that I saw were some small and medium-sized paintings, mostly very dark, almost indistinguishable. How could I review this show?