022. Festive Reliquary
Hello,
By the time you read this, I have completed my twenty-second rotation across this vast solar system at the end of January. I was lucky enough to spend this past Aquarius season with my brilliant friends, accompanied by lots of books (and a new bookshelf courtesy of Eugene), freshly dyed orange hair, and treks to Chinatown to get steaming plates of noodles even when threatened with a snowstorm. Despite the arctic temperatures here in New York, I thought I would share some bits and bobs that have warmed my heart this past year. Enjoy ~*
TOUCH
For those of you who don’t know, I took a 24+ hour Amtrak back home to Florida at the end of last semester. Unsurprisingly, I brought a bunch of books to pass the time. One of my companions was Solmaz Sharif’s debut collection Look. I finished it in a matter of hours. Took a break to eat some lunch. Then read it again. Every once and awhile, I stumble across a collection of poetry that knocks the fuck out of me, sucks me in while squeezing all the air out of my lungs. Her experiments in language, her weaponizing of militaristic vocabulary to criticize U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, the reverberations of trauma across generations, the visceral power of memory. In the titular poem, she writes, “Let it be the exquisite face for at least 16 seconds. / Let me LOOK at you. / Let me LOOK at you in a light that takes years to get here.” I could not recommend this aching text enough. You can read more of her poetry here.
I’d like to give a shoutout my dad (beloved subscriber of this newsletter) for getting me Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi by Peter McCoy for my birthday. A Bible-sized tome of a book, McCoy lays out one of the most comprehensive views of fungal biology, the role of mushrooms and lichens in individual and ecological health (like mycoremediation, the use of fungi to reduce pollution). This wonderfully informative writing is paired with vibrant images of fungi, helpful diagrams, and wonderful lino-cut prints (like the one pictured above, titled The Passion for Destruction is Also a Creative Passion, courtesy of Entangled Roots Press). You can pick up a copy and check out the Radical Mycology blog here.
A couple of months ago, I went to the Met Breuer to see their show “Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy.” While an underexplored subject in art and full of really interesting pieces, Sarah Johnson’s sculpture House on Fire was absolutely riveting. About the size of a dollhouse, Johnson’s piece beckons you closer than appropriate for a museum setting to look inside each room’s diorama of surreal chaos. Johnson’s house is a physical manifestation of her grandmother’s struggles with mental illness and medical mistreatment, the intimacy of these issues inscribed within the walls of a home. My shitty iPhone photos don’t do it justice so you can check out more images here, here, and here.
Last semester, I was introduced to Walead Beshty’s writing in my Art Criticism class. I enjoyed his essays on zombies and modern architecture in Los Angeles so much that I decided to treat myself to a copy of his collected essays 33 Texts: 93,614 Words: 581,035 Characters. The range of media he focuses on is really refreshing, balancing bits of critical theory with his own musings on contemporary arts and culture. If you want to read his zombie movie essay, I can send you a PDF (unfortunately this essay has not been published online). You can check out some shorter excerpts of his writing along with his fascinating artworks (like his shattered-in-transit Fedex-sized glass box pictured above) here.
LOOK
In the early 1900s, after divorcing her Danish sea captain husband, Anne Brigman moved to California and began photographing herself and other women (usually nude) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, hiking through the landscape with her 4x5 camera, a wooden tripod, and photographic plates. Brigman’s witchy photos are rich with European pagan symbolism, Romanticism, and speak to the liberation of female bodies with an exalted metaphysical quality radically different from the urban geometry of Modernist photography at the time. The curator of a recent show at the Nevada Museum of Art, Anne Wolfe, calls Brigman a “female creator who was ahead of her time, stripping off her clothes and scaling mountains at a time when women were still confined to Edwardian corsets.” There’s not that much about her online besides a fairly thorough Wikipedia page and some really expensive monographs, but give her a Google and get lost in her dreamy photographs.
I first saw Wong Ping’s work at the New Museum’s Triennial a few years ago and I was absolutely dazzled by his vibrant, fable-like animation that use a cast of creatures to tell stories about obsessive sexual desire and the politics that shape and limit our social relations. In an interview, Ping describes one of the morals of his stories: “Your time will come when vulgarity and bad taste become trends.” These dark, brutally honest stories suck you in with their neon glow and leave an ache in your stomach long after they’re done. You can check out some of his works here and here.
I first learned about Kitra from Dezeen’s 2018 recap of Romanian Design Week and I quickly fell in love with his vibrant, geometric designs. Kitra is most known for his large-scale installations and murals (like the house pictured above for Amural Festival in 2017), as well as his eye-catching poster prints. There’s something about his clean linework, 80s-inspired use of bold color that brightens up my day even when it’s cold and dreary out. I highly suggest checking out more of his projects here.
Ages ago, my darling friend Jade sent me a link to Elodie Antoine’s portfolio and ever since, I haven’t been able to get her unsettling hair sculptures out my head (or any of her strange pieces, for that matter). Everything about these voluminous, Disney princess-like blonde wigs (which are sourced from hemp, not human heads) remind me a lot of Victorian hair art in a way that is both repulsive but also quite beautiful. Antoine carries this duality into the rest of her pieces with fungus-covered armchairs, shirts with eyeballs for buttons, and oil rigs made from a latticework of hairy fibers Looking at Antoine’s objects is like taking a step into the strange. You can check out more of her work here.
LISTEN
Economics is not my thing (not by a long shot). But The Indicator (courtesy of NPR’s Planet Money) has become the only podcast I listen to religiously since I first learned of it last summer. The Indicator is an economics podcast that doesn’t feel like an economics podcast. Each episode focuses on a specific number, maybe a statistic from a jobs report or the cost of something, and they dive into the meaning behind that number, the factors that contribute to it, and how that number reflects broader shifts in our economy. It’s fun (seriously! fun!!), insightful, and offers me a bite-sized fresh perspective on the state of our country as I walk to the subway every morning. There are so many episodes you can listen to, but one of my personal favorites is on the Death Master List. You can check out a complete list of their episodes here.
Shortly after Christmas, This American Life released an episode titled “The Room of Requirement.” What I expected to be a rather cheesy take on the Harry Potter series was, instead, a tear-inducing tribute to the magic of libraries. From connecting separated families to offering resources to the homeless, even a fictional space where people bring their unpublished manuscripts to be stored and left unread, this episode warmed by heart and I’m sure it will warm yours too. Listening to his episode reminded me of days I spent listening to storytime, occupying nooks with a tower of books by my side, and the awe-inspiring walk up the stairs with an imitation dinosaur skeleton suspended above my head as if to speak to the timelessness of this space. You can listen to the episode here.
Thank you to the Spotify algorithmic gods for introducing me to Helado Negro. His album Private Energy has become my go-to study music, my zoning-out-on-the-train music, and the soundtrack to just about every other part of my life. I love the smooth tumble of his grooves and their biting lyricism. An added bonus: He was born in Fort Lauderdale (my hometown!). That’s pure coincidence, I promise! If you want to learn more about his creative practice, I highly suggest checking out his interview with The Creative Independent here.
As the New York Times terrorism correspondent, Rukmini Callimachi has spent many years covering the “War on Terror” in the Middle East. Last year, she published a 10-part chronicle of some of her findings, including interviews with former ISIS fighters that went from North America to Syria, then came back and their experience within ISIS’s bureaucratic system. Caliphate is one of those pieces that for me really exemplify masterful investigative journalism, a template for how to create and share such a complicated network of stories and conflicts. While at my internship last summer, I made the mistake of trying to listen to this podcast while working on assignments and I would find myself just sitting quietly at my desk, taking a moment to fully grasp everything Callimachi is sharing with us. Caliphate is a fascinating listen, but I suggest pairing it with Callimachi’s interview on the Longform podcast about her time researching this subject after you’re done since it adds a dimension to Callimachi’s reporting process that isn’t captured in the finished product. You can listen to all of Caliphate here.
Lastly, there's The Organist. I swear, I did not intend for this list to be so podcast-heavy but this show, co-created by KCRW and McSweeney's, keeps pushing the envelope for experimental, audio-based storytelling. From the ableism of viral Internet challenges to binge-watching the Texas legislature's livestream, The Organist's peculiar subjects refuse to fit into neat little boxes of cultural categorization, delighting me with every new listen. You can check out all of their episodes here.
LICK
One of my favorite artists (known only as Aleia on Instagram) directed the music video for The Growler’s track “Problems III.” With some help from a scorpion, a frog, some millipedes, we follow a young mantis searching for love in a miniature critter-filled hotel. You can watch the whole adorable video here.
One of my guilty pleasure shows as of late is Babylon Berlin. Available on Netflix, this German crime drama, set in the 1920s, follows a detective with a dark past and a young stenotypist who wants to move up the ranks and join him as one of the few female police inspectors in their precinct. What could be a very stereotypical noir-style show, turns out to be a compelling look at the complex webs of political unrest and socioeconomic instability during the Weimar Republic years. There are also, of course, decadent parties and corrupt police departments because, hey, this is a show set in the ‘20s after all. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you’re looking for something new to binge, this it.
Like most, I first learned of Kimberly Drew’s curatorial work through her Tumblr, Black Contemporary Art, and it has been an absolute delight to watch her (mostly through Instagram) become the Met's social media manager and now prepare her first book, Black Futures, with Jenna Wortham. As someone who’s interested in working in the arts, Drew has become a role model for how to make engagements with art both in physical and digital spaces, as accessible as possible, as well as how to amplify the voices of and create sustainable institutional support for artists and collectors of color. If you are not already familiar with the powerful space she has carved out for herself in the art world and all of the passionate work she’s put into elevating marginalized artists, her interview with What’s Good with Stretch & Bobbito is a great place to start.
Since NYFW wrapped a couple of weeks ago and the photos and videos that flooded my Instagram feed are still on my mind, I thought I would give a little shoutout to Chromat and their climate change-themed show this year. The Miami-based, mostly swimwear label has been leading the charge in inclusive runways, featuring all women of color, trans models, disabled models, and plus-size models. More than that, they’re committed to sustainable fashion practices and reducing waste in the fashion industry. Their designs are exciting takes on traditional swimwear silhouettes, bright colors, and innovative materials. I’m already waiting to see what dazzling new collection they bring to the runways next season. You can check out photos from all of their collections here.
I first learned about dancer Holly Blakey when she appeared in a video about female choreographers for i-D Magazine and was immediately intrigued by her kinetic philosophy, her emphasis on questioning and breaking our everyday patterns of movement to reorient how we view our bodies. Blakey not only composes pieces for the stage (the photos and clips I’ve seen of her most recent piece, Cowpuncher, left me wishing I lived across the pond); you can also see her unique touch in music videos and fashion ads. She wields such a mastery over expressions of and reactions to the space one occupies that watching a piece like “Cherry Hill” is like experiencing visual poetry. Her style is frenzied, yet somehow also controlled and intimate, a bacchanalia of skin always on the verge of spilling over. You can get lost in all of her dizzying performances and choreographed pieces here and listen to her talk more about her dance practice here.
CLICK
Brutalist Websites is one of those Internet gems that make me wish I knew more about coding and web design than I actually do (and no, the HTML you learned to edit your Tumble themes does not count). Although the website is no longer currently active, I highly recommend scrolling through their archive of 'brutalist' websites for some not-so-clean-and-pretty inspiration. You can check them out here.
While we're on the topic of 'ugly', Katy Kelleher's three-part series on the aesthetics of ugliness for the Paris Review. The highlight is her second essay that unpacks the Instagram account Ugly Design and our fascination with kitschy objects, tacky products, and nostalgic maximalism in art. Kelleher writes, "Ugliness isn't just a rebellion against the norms of good taste; it's also a fittingly chaotic aesthetic for a chaotic era of presidential tweets, alternative facts, and government propaganda. Culturally, we're experiencing a sense of slippage." You can read the whole essay, and find links to the other two, here.
SPINE magazine is unlike any other literary magazine out there. For starters, you won't find your usual selection of short stories, pop culture essays, or poetry. No, this blog has committed itself to showcasing the designers behind today's most compelling book covers, presenting a side of the book industry that is oftentimes overlooked. Their interviews take a deep dive into the artist's inspirations behind the final product, the process of matching the exterior to the content inside, and sometimes you even get to see early iterations of a cover that were never used. This might be your one chance to judge a book by its cover so check out SPINE here.
I couldn't complete this list without mentioning poetry, and a poet whose work continues to bring me so much comfort is that of Paige Lewis. Their first book is set to be published this year but already they've warmed my heart with all the poems they've scattered across literary cyberspace. In "The Moment I Saw A Pelican Devour," they write, "Still, I try to hold on to nothing for fear of being / crushed by what can be taken because sometimes / not even our mouths belong to us." I've sent their love poem, "When I Tell My Husband I Miss the Sun, He Know," to Eugene on more than one occasion. And the slow, soft unraveling of "You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I've Made Today Warm" knocks the air out of me each time I re-read it. You can check out all of their published pieces here. // That's it for now! Thank you for reading and, as always, if you have any questions, have anything you might recommend, or just want to chat, I'm a quick reply away. While my birthday was at the end of January, the past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster of school and job-related deadlines coupled with a delightful bought of flu that I'm still recovering from. But as spring approaches, I have so many letters in the works that I can't wait to share with you.
Before I go, if you are able to, I highly suggest donating to The Spectrum's fundraiser. They are an LGBTQ+ space run by a collective of artists and activists that were recently evicted from their home in Ridgewood and are currently looking for a new space. They've done a lot for the community and was a safe space for many over the years, so giving back to them during this critical time of transition will help support their moving out process and fund future events as they look for a new space.
Until next time!
- Ellie