5:00 minutes
Adrian Balseca’s Suspensión I inverts the logic of the old colonial game, the greasy pole. Digitally filmed in the Province of Morona Santiago among the last existing community at the entrance of the Sangay National Park, a native girl climbs a balsa tree trunk from which plastic containers filled with “local” fossil fuels hang (super, extra, eco-país, gasoline, diesel, etc.). The trunk – which is lightweight quality wood, typical of the subtropical jungle of Ecuador -– has been cut down and suspended vertically and the trophies of modern progress hang from it. A reference to the painting, The Greasy Pole (La cucaña) by Francisco de Goya (1786) lingers; the Spanish painter depicts a number of boys climbing to reach the top of the pole, where gifts and chickens have been arranged as prizes, while people cheer them on below.
Artist Adrian Balseca’s work broadly focuses upon extractivist practices in South America and across the globe, contemplating their ensuing environmental impacts. Producing installation, photographs and objects, the artist explores issues including the history of rubber extraction from the Amazon, the impact of oil spills, and the development of the car industry. His work tracks a trajectory through developmental history that allows for a reflection upon the physical, economic and epistemic violence contained within modes of production at the service of multinational capital. Often beginning with site-specific interventions based around banal yet symbolic objects, the car, a sewer, or a lamp for example, Balseca goes on to explore their manufacturing process, through which we might access questions of economy, nature, power and memory.
In Rogers’ Columbine works, the artist explores the 1999 high school shooting that took place in Littleton, Colorado, claiming 34 victims...
The Last Post was inspired by Sikander’s ongoing interest in the colonial history of the sub-continent and the British opium trade with China...
Disturbing behaviour: "Deproduction" by Terre Thaemlitz | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Courtesy of Comatonse Recordings September 22, 2019 By Patricia Tobin (670 words, 4-minute read) Content warning: References to sexual content or situations Deproduction by musician-producer Terre Thaemlitz was released on December 28, 2017 as a multimedia album consisting of audio, video and text...
The title of Rainbow Body by Chitra Ganesh refers to an elevated state of, or metaphor for, the consciousness transformation known as a rainbow body...
The Best Art I Saw in 2023 | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer Arts & Culture The Best Art I Saw in 2023 Sarah Hotchkiss Dec 5 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link It’s that time again — time for a hyper-specific superlative-laden list of the best art experiences I had this year but didn’t get a chance to write about...
Heat Waves by Kent Chan examines the contexts, politics, and proliferation of the different aesthetics of heat by drawing from the aesthetics of regions defined by hot and humid climates and associated with histories of coloniality such as ‘the global south’ and the ‘developing world’...
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Hand Study (Making in Whiteness) IIII by Carmen Winant is part of a series of five collages...
Study of History III by Subas Tamang is an etching and aquatint print based on photographs taken by German photographer Volkmar Wentzel in 1949...
The three Maiko s were included in Ron Terada’s 2008 exhibition, Voight–Kampf , at Catriona Jeffries gallery...
"One Two Jaga": Keberanian Baharu Sinema Malaysia | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles September 11, 2018 Oleh Daniyal Kadir (1260 patah kata, 5-miinit bacaan) Penyampaian kritikan sosial atau politik dalam filem-filem Malaysia jarang berlaku melalui suasana yang berani dan mendatangkan ghairah...
Explain Me with Jonathan Schwartz of Atelier4 and Magda Sawon of Postmasters About AFC Board AFC Editions Donate Art F City Explain Me with Jonathan Schwartz of Atelier4 and Magda Sawon of Postmasters by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on March 29, 2020 Explain Me Tweet Serkan Özkaya’s Proletarier Aller Länder (Workers of the World) 1999, Image via Postmaster’s Gallery...
Blockbuster Pop art show in Mumbai marks a new type of exhibition for India Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Mumbai blog Blockbuster Pop art show in Mumbai marks a new type of exhibition for India Pop: Fame, Love, Power at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre is an unprecedented but surface-level survey for a broad audience Kabir Jhala 9 February 2024 Share Installation view of Pop: Fame, Love, Power at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai Courtesy of NMACC When Nita Ambani, India’s wealthiest woman, opened her eponymous cultural centre in Mumbai last March, many in the art world were intrigued...
In her 2003 series “Better Lives”, Sue Williamson explores stories of immigrants in search of a better life in a historically contentious South Africa...
Vishal Jugdeo, VQUEERAM / EPISODES Screening and presentation, followed by a discussion with artist and scholar, Tina Takemoto The experimental documentary video portrait VQUEERAM (2016–ongoing) is part of a collaborative project initiated by Los Angeles-based artist Vishal Jugdeo with Vikram “Vqueeram” Aditya Sahai, a poet, activist, and teacher based in New Delhi, India...