The Wedding is a silent film, a probing observation of marriage rituals in Qatar in which we soon notice that there is not a single woman visible. The film is part of the broader project The Challenge through which the artist depicts the boredom and rituals endured by young Qatari men throughout various forms of costly and codified entertainment, including the highly theatrical practices of falcon hunting or car racing. The strange, almost surreal, choreography set against an artificial, overexposed backdrop, highlights the privileged presence of men in this part of the world, grouped together by sex and social class.
For the works KAKERA, Bullet Train and KAKERA, Loving God Tatsuki Masaru traveled throughout Japan to visit museums holding kakera (which translates to “fragments”) of Jomon Period potteries –Japan’s pre-history 2,300-15,000 years ago. Small and fragile, the kakera were donated by farmers who had found them in their fields, or by archeologists, and then wrapped in newspapers and stored away. Today they sit quietly on the shelves of museums, unknown to people.
Pyre , an installation by Mexico City-based artist Joaquín Segura, addresses corruption, impunity, and the role that failed governments play in the normalization of violence. The work references mass disappearances at the hands of corrupt armed forces and paramilitary groups that have taken place in Mexico since the 1960s and significantly escalated over the last decade due to the War on Drugs. While the piece may be installed any number of ways, it is marked by the precision of its material content: 71 liters of gasoline, 23 used car tires, and 760 kilograms of wood.
The video Swimming in rivers of Glue is composed of various images of nature, exploring the themes of exploration of space and its colonization. The images show the diversity of forms of life on earth. These forms are associated with texts that relay a form of propaganda.
5901 NW 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33127 (Botanica) is a series of paintings that artist Eddie Arroyo created over an extended period of time, depicting the same site as it appeared from 2016 to 2018. Like the series shown at the Whitney, their focus is a building complex that until recently housed a Voodoo Botanica and Variety Shop, another iconic set of businesses on NE 2nd Avenue in Little Haiti that housed practitioners of voodoo proffering candles, potions, and incense. It was one of many businesses in the area bearing paintings by Serge Toussaint, a local artist and professional sign painter known for his portrayals of Little Haiti.
Gregory Halpern spent five years shooting ZZYZX , and another year editing the results, from an estimated thousand rolls of film, about half of which were shot in the final year after his Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to live in California. According to Halpern, the series “is grounded in reality, but it occupies an in-between space, between documentary and a certain sense of mystery.” …“I see ZZYZX as part of a continuum but edging a little closer towards fiction.” The series title is borrowed from the village Zzyzx (pronounced zye-zix), formerly Soda Springs, but rechristened by the mineral water pioneer, Curtis Howe Springer, in 1944. The eccentric Springer named it after what he claimed to be the last word in the English language.
In May 2014, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two teenagers, Nadeem Nawara and Mohamad Abu Daher in occupied Palestine (West Bank). Through the Forensic Architecture program, the human rights organization Defence for Children International worked with Abu Hamdan to investigate the incident. The case hinged upon an audio-ballistic analysis of the recorded gunshots to determine whether the soldiers had used rubber bullets, as they asserted, or broken the law by firing live ammunition at the two unarmed teenagers.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
This selection of poster prints of Wong Ping’s animations includes the films Jungle of Desire, Doggy Love, Slow Sex, An Emo Nose, and Stop Peeping . They serve as a glimpse into the discourse and intricacy of the artist’s imagined, yet responsive approach to his realities. The series of posters echoes the once-vibrant aura of movie posters, when they were designed by artists and designers to encapsulate the tone, story, and visual style of a film in one large image, and were often as iconic as the movie itself.
Birender Kumar Yadav comes from Dhanbad, India, a city built on its proximity of iron ore and coal and once forested and inhabited by Indigenous people who compose the Gondwana. The forests were felled and immigrants from northern Bihar and South India were brought to exploit the mineral resources. The Indigenous people were then dispersed to live nomadically, engaging themselves as seasonal workers in farms and industries.
Benefiting from its geographic proximity to Hong Kong, since the 1980s Dongguan has become the factory of the world, with toys, plastic products and clothing as the major industries in the town. During its heyday, the region produced 50% of the world’s manufactured toys, but since 2008, the toy industry has declined as the factories moved to South East Asia. Archaeology of the Present (Dongguan) No.
The Pudic Relation between Machine and Plant shows a looped scene where a robotic hand touches a “sensitive plant” — Mimosa Pudica, a species characteristic for closing on itself when touched. The name of the plant was derived from Carl Linnaeus sexual taxonomy of plants: pudica referring both to the external sexual organs, shyness and modesty. In a poem written by Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin’s grandfather) titled The Loves of the Plants (1789), this plant is associated, jokingly, with British Botanist Joseph Banks’s famous sexual adventures during his botanical expedition to the tropics.
The four-channel video installation Same Old Crowd departs from the documentation of an unknown city and takes place in an ambiguous temporal and spatial frame. Twelve characters (amateur actors hired by the artist) appear in black-and-white in highly stylized surroundings wearing patterned cloths. The identities or time period of the characters, all deprived of languages, are impossible to determine.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Humor and Law, Kick of Duality, Point of View III, Selfie with Pan, and Thinking of You are part of an ongoing series of digital drawings Karam Natour has been creating since he was studying at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. The protagonist of the vast majority of these drawings is Natour himself, naked and without facial features. They were initially created only in digital formats – the artist would perform the postures required for the drawing, document himself and then trace the figure digitally – to be posted on Facebook, often generating debates online among friends and colleagues.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Humor and Law, Kick of Duality, Point of View III, Selfie with Pan, and Thinking of You are part of an ongoing series of digital drawings Karam Natour has been creating since he was studying at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. The protagonist of the vast majority of these drawings is Natour himself, naked and without facial features. They were initially created only in digital formats – the artist would perform the postures required for the drawing, document himself and then trace the figure digitally – to be posted on Facebook, often generating debates online among friends and colleagues.
Gregory Halpern spent five years shooting ZZYZX , and another year editing the results, from an estimated thousand rolls of film, about half of which were shot in the final year after his Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to live in California. According to Halpern, the series “is grounded in reality, but it occupies an in-between space, between documentary and a certain sense of mystery.” …“I see ZZYZX as part of a continuum but edging a little closer towards fiction.” The series title is borrowed from the village Zzyzx (pronounced zye-zix), formerly Soda Springs, but rechristened by the mineral water pioneer, Curtis Howe Springer, in 1944. The eccentric Springer named it after what he claimed to be the last word in the English language.
Gregory Halpern spent five years shooting ZZYZX , and another year editing the results, from an estimated thousand rolls of film, about half of which were shot in the final year after his Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to live in California. According to Halpern, the series “is grounded in reality, but it occupies an in-between space, between documentary and a certain sense of mystery.” …“I see ZZYZX as part of a continuum but edging a little closer towards fiction.” The series title is borrowed from the village Zzyzx (pronounced zye-zix), formerly Soda Springs, but rechristened by the mineral water pioneer, Curtis Howe Springer, in 1944. The eccentric Springer named it after what he claimed to be the last word in the English language.
The sculpture shores shored (Working Title) makes reference to the human form. The two sides of the sculpture are distinctively different, with the rear showing an anamorphic-corrugated structure, the front suggesting the human form, making perhaps an unconscious reference to Giacometti or Barnett Newman. But whereas their work suggests immanence, Michael Dean refuses any notion of transcendence, remaining rooted in presentness .
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
This selection of poster prints of Wong Ping’s animations includes the films Jungle of Desire, Doggy Love, Slow Sex, An Emo Nose, and Stop Peeping . They serve as a glimpse into the discourse and intricacy of the artist’s imagined, yet responsive approach to his realities. The series of posters echoes the once-vibrant aura of movie posters, when they were designed by artists and designers to encapsulate the tone, story, and visual style of a film in one large image, and were often as iconic as the movie itself.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
This selection of poster prints of Wong Ping’s animations includes the films Jungle of Desire, Doggy Love, Slow Sex, An Emo Nose, and Stop Peeping . They serve as a glimpse into the discourse and intricacy of the artist’s imagined, yet responsive approach to his realities. The series of posters echoes the once-vibrant aura of movie posters, when they were designed by artists and designers to encapsulate the tone, story, and visual style of a film in one large image, and were often as iconic as the movie itself.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Mesoamericana (Economic activities) is part of a larger project titled Mesoamerica: The Hurricane Effect, which includes a video as well as series of hand drawn maps -based on historical cartography- that examine the effects of foreign power in Mexico today. Mesoamerica was home to a rich civilization that emerged around 10,000 years BC and out of which grew the rich Maya, Aztec and Zapotec cultures, among many others. These cultures were destroyed by the Spanish, who arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Part of the series Still Life Analysis II: The Island , the two photographs The Objects under the Civic Boulevard and A Yellow Blanket on a Wooden Pallet feature household objects of vagrants living beneath the Taipei’s Civic Boulevard expressway. Such objects include trash, unidentified discarded objects, and plants. For the artist, the underside of Civic Boulevard resembles a subtropical island with its artificial stones and potted plants decor.
Indexes that either allow or inhibit the establishment of communication exist in both signed as well as spoken languages. Some differ radically depending on a variety of social, economic and geographical factors, while others are universally understood. Seemingly small and fleeting gestures can determine a sense of affiliation or a feeling of rejection.
A series of works from 2016 document his neighborhood, replicating buildings and businesses he frequents within four blocks of his New York apartment. Made out of foam, paper, glue, and paint, these miniaturized buildings (a bank, a bar, a Laundromat, and the Rite Aid building where Buffon shops) impart a tenderness and a nostalgia that outsizes their diminutive scale. Like works by other artists who recreate objects or elements from their everyday life, Buffon’s storefronts are perfectly imperfect, the wobbled lines reiterating their handmade quality.
Black Ocean by Liu Yujia portrays a desert landscape in a state of both destruction and construction, revealing the desert’s simultaneous fragility and indestructibility. The structure of the storytelling of this film was inspired by Italian writer Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities (1972). Several chapters from the book are interwoven in the film incorporating the discussions of cities and landscapes narrated by Marco Polo and Kublai Khan in the novel.
Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
Humor and Law, Kick of Duality, Point of View III, Selfie with Pan, and Thinking of You are part of an ongoing series of digital drawings Karam Natour has been creating since he was studying at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. The protagonist of the vast majority of these drawings is Natour himself, naked and without facial features. They were initially created only in digital formats – the artist would perform the postures required for the drawing, document himself and then trace the figure digitally – to be posted on Facebook, often generating debates online among friends and colleagues.
Canton Novelty by Fang Lu captures the adventure of a group of three girls, Ruohan, Lily and Zoe on a summer vacation in Guangzhou, China. Throughout the course of the trip, they film themselves with their cell phones singing in a karaoke room, shopping at a hardware store, sitting at a park, hanging out in a hotel room and exploring a neighborhood looking at vacant apartment ads. Although their days may seem uneventful, the girls seemingly discover the ability to perform impossible “miracles,” including cooking a full pot of rice from three grains, summoning objects to appear and disappear, and turning off street lamps on command.
Sideways Time by Olivia Erlanger is the result of the artist’s interest in networks, seen and unseen, financial and ecological, the collapse of which has resulted in the fracturing of a middle class American identity. Consumption and the construction of value are a frequent concern of her sculptures that explore the structural friction between a public and private. Erlanger looks to the architecture that connects these systems for inspiration and in this sense, the language of scaffoldings, foundations and facades that percolate throughout her work.
The photographed plaster heads set against the idyllic landscapes of the south of England, subvert the process of image production and memory. Based on photographic sources from journalism, they have preserved a ‘memento mori’ in the intimate form of a sculpture, yet derived from a source which is not only public but also voyeuristic. They have been entirely dislocated from their original context, and transferred to the realm of photography again, into fragile silver gelatin prints.
Flag (Thames) 2016 depicts a small section of the Thames River—one that is adjacent to the Palace of Westminster in London—as an algorithmic representation on an LED panel. The river color is vividly represented with reflections of buildings along the riverbank, including Big Ben. At the center of the scene sits a simulated gasoline spill.
Gregory Halpern is an acclaimed American photographer whose practice is predicated on wandering...
Through video and digital drawing Karam Natour manifests his interest in the power of language, and specifically how translation becomes a unique vehicle for a deeper understanding of issues connected to identity, race and gender...
Obscenity and profound issues of contemporary society are not mutually exclusive in Wong Ping’s video works...
Working in ballpoint pen, pencil, and watercolor, often on the backs of bureaucratic prison forms, James “Yaya” Hough’s work conveys the burdens of incarcerated life, revealing not only the brutal reach of the carceral system, but laying bare its affects...
Based between his native Tunis and Paris, Nidhal Chamekh’s work is an investigation into history as a point of access to our contemporary times...
Working across a wide range of materials and processes, Aramesh examines simultaneously the history of Western art and contemporary commentary on the politics and history of the Middle East, concocting a unique visual language to address the contemporary conditions of violence and bio-politics...
Phuong Linh Nguyen’s multidisciplinary practice spans video, sculpture and installation...
Working in paint, performance, and small, diorama-like wall sculptures, Seattle transplant Nicholas Buffon responds to his context through intimate gestures, examinations, and recreations...
Luke Murphy is a systems-based artist whose work is loosely bound by common themes of quantifying elements of the psyche and spirit with a particular interest in the Gnostic gospels, religious paintings, and digital languages – codes and systems to make art...
Lu Pingyuan works with a variety of media such as texts, videos, installations, paintings, performances and other...
What are the political implication of our sounds and voices? How is it heard and used for or against us? These are questions posed by Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b...
Liu Yu has developed a multifaceted artistic practice that takes field documentation as its point of departure...
In a career spanning more than four decades, Lutz Bacher (born 1952, lives in New York) has built a highly heterogeneous oeuvre that defies classification...
Abigail Reyes’s work is deeply ingrained in the feminist discourse of Latin America...
Embarking from myriad audio-visual narratives, Chia-Wei Hsu pursues imaginative interrogations of cultural contact and colonization in Asia, oftentimes amalgamating his primary narratives with non-human actors including technologies, animals, gods, environments, traditions, and material objects...
Himali Singh Soin is an artist and writer whose work is inspired by poetry and planetariness...
Described as a ‘spatial interventionist’, Corey McCorkle is a New York-based artist and trained architect, working in photography, architectural interventions, sculpture, installations, and films...
Yung Jake is a visual artist and YouTube rapper based in Los Angeles whose work fuses new media, music, and art...
Working with both still and moving images, Danaya Chulphuthiphong is an activist and filmmaker whose work sheds light on social realities in Thailand...
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Li Xiaofei initiated Assembly Line in 2010, an ongoing project that records industrialized social change not only China, but as it occurs internationally...
For more than two decades, John Gerrard has produced media work that has harnessed the emergent technologies of programming languages and gaming engines, and transmuted them into landscapes and portraits of ever increasing intricacy and autonomy...
Yuri Ancarani’s films are quasi-hypnotic devices; following highly unique bodily and site-specific choreographies, drawing sensitive portraits of human relations...
Ana Vaz is an artist and filmmaker whose works speculate on the relationships between self and other, and myth and history, through a cosmology of signs, references, and perspectives...