“More Than Those Who Despised Her”: Unforgetting on the Prairies
How can – how should – the ghosts of our brutalized bodies be ushered into public space? This was the enigma posed by Gregory…
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How to Toil in Obscurity
You probably don’t need me to tell you about toil and obscurity. You don’t need me to tell you about working a double-shift waiting…
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Dubious Icons: Godheads, Messiahs, and the Artist as Celebrity
Perhaps it’s an unfair caricature of MFA students, that each appears to inhabit their own personalized reality TV show. Perhaps. But having been one…
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The Listening Gaze: Raymond Gervais (1946-2018)
People ask me from time to time where I got my interest in music, in musical objects and records, and why I refer to…
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From Artworld Punchline to Real-World Parable: Ruben Östlund’s “The Square”
The degree to which contemporary culture understands (or fails to understand) “The Art World” can be measured in how it gets portrayed in film…
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“Seen Anything Good?” The Burden of Biennial Excess
How much art can the human mind realistically absorb from a mega-exhibition? I’m not talking about superstar retrospectives or major surveys – mainstays of…
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“Speaking from a Wound”: Jesse Darling on Faith, Crisis, and Refusal
Over the past year, I’ve had considerable difficulty maintaining my faith in art. In the short version of this introduction to an interview, I…
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Darkling Futures and Desert Hangover at the New SITE Sante Fe
Two brand-new, chunky metal triangles jut out and join above the glassy entrance of the black cinderblock edifice that houses the recently-renovated SITE Santa…
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Against Tidy Memory: Anti-Fascist Memorials and the Horror of Kitsch
Like a catchy Schlager tune, rightwing populism in Germany has matured into a countrywide plague. Historical guilt, which had until recently stalled the nationalism…
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Privilege as Political Tool: Tania Bruguera on the Usefulness of Art
Because the question of art’s utility isn’t new, Tania Bruguera, the Cuban artist who’s often been referred to as a “dissident” and “political activist,”…
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