Books
The End of the World as We Know It
The Nuclear Culture Source Book considers the “lived experience of the uncanny nature of radiation” ushered in by disasters such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.
Review
Art
Perhaps Eleanore Mikus Will Not Be Under-Recognized Anymore
If we compare her with other women artists from the 1960s working in a reductive vein, Eleanore Mikus seems to have thoroughly vanished, more so than her peers, and often isn’t included in surveys or textbooks of that period.
Art
A Ribald World of One’s Own: The Watercolors of Gladys Nilsson
It is Gladys Nilsson’s attention to awkward and unconscious things that people do to themselves while out in public that makes her work fascinating to look at.
Film
Invitation to the Party: Jan Nemec's 1966 Satire of Czech Communism
Long seen as the “enfant terrible” of Czech cinema, Němec constantly found himself in trouble with Czech government authorities, and was almost arrested for making this film.
Art
It’s Nothing Close to Fantasy: Brandi Twilley’s Imaginary Friend
Brandi Twilley, who was eight years old when Pretty Woman was released, creates an atmosphere in which the real world becomes the phantom, while the fantasy strives to become real.
Art
Plié Meets Twerk in a Performance of Black Queer Joy
In Jumatatu Poe’s work, movements that appear classical blend seamlessly with voguing, African dance movements, and J-Sette, a style sprung out of black Southern drill teams.
Film
A Documentary Envisions a Book James Baldwin Never Finished
Directed by Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro is montage and meditation, a dialogue between the archive and the present.
Art
How a 19th-Century Painter Turned from Reality to Fantasy
In his early, clear-eyed paintings, Henri Fantin-Latour’s subject was the reality of the observable world itself. Toward the end of his career, faithful reproductions no longer satisfied the artist.
Art
Diaristic Maps Composed of Tens of Thousands of Photographs
Sohei Nishino’s maps are hellish auto-portraits, subjective representations built through fantastic repetition.
Art
Doris Salcedo Captures the Weight of Mourning
Doris Salcedo is interested in replicating the indefinite, affective qualities of mourning — its weight, intangibility, absurdity, and reliance on personal associations.
Film
Documentarian Adam Curtis Dissects the World that Gave Rise to Trump
In Hypernormalisation (2016), Adam Curtis not only anticipates Trump’s victory, but also zeroes in on the abject disbelief and shock that followed in its wake.
Art
Disrupt and Then Destroy the World with a Dystopian Startup Simulator
In the game The Founder, you build the most disruptive, innovative, synergized startup in the world, but your success destroys the planet in the process.