When Ai Weiwei went missing in 2011, an enterprising reporter visited the casinos of Atlantic City. “He showed me once those things he makes. I don’t get art, but he never talked much about anything but blackjack, card counting systems, girls and casinos”, Vinnie “Snake Eyes” reminisced about his former companion. “He is a good … Ai Weiwei’s artistic rebellion
The Collaboration, a new play written by Anthony McCarten and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, reimagines the real-life friendship of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. This is quite familiar artistic territory so, sure enough, graffitied crowns line the theatre walls; a DJ (Xana) in an orange blazer blasts scratchy vinyl sounds across the auditorium; grainy videos of the New … The duelling philosophies of Warhol and Basquiat
The story of how dressing up relates to artistic practice is as old as art history. Consider the dramatic outfits Rembrandt assembled for his self-portraits: staged exercises in mythology and authenticity (he posed, variously, as the Prodigal Son, an Eastern potentate, even a painter). But these are not Charlie Porter’s subjects in What Artists Wear. … Why clothes matter in the art world
Discussing the powerful pull of the fantasy urban landscapes portrayed in video games and anime with TLS podcast hosts Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas. Details here.
Video games exert a powerful pull in this age of the pandemic. Their fantasy urban landscapes provide us with a stage for travel; their mechanics exploit action and emotion to weave intricate stories that no other artform is capable of telling. They allow us to go deeper, to be cast adrift, to dive into texture. … Urban architecture in video games and anime
What is, or was, the art world? In A Year in the Art World, the curator and historian Matthew Israel promises an insider account of the studios, art schools, museums, fairs and biennials, as well as the armies of curators, critics, collectors, estate managers and “advisors” who keep the show on the road. At the … Art as a one-stop shop
It’s the air: the twisting movement as two archers on horseback face each other down beneath a tortured sky. In Saito Takao’s manga Muyonosuke (1967), the eponymous one-eyed bounty hunter watches as a fight breaks out between the warriors. The gouache on paper infuses a sense of melancholy into the wash of grass, the clouds … The world of Japanese graphic novels
In David Foster Wallace’s short story “Good Old Neon”, from 2001, the narrator cannot shake the feeling that everything he does is fraudulent. He tries meditation and therapy sessions, even speaking in tongues in a church. Unable to cope, he commits suicide. There is a faint echo of Wallace’s “fraudulence paradox” in Jaron Lanier’s latest … How social media erodes happiness
If you think that the visibility of minorities in Hollywood blockbusters is inherently good, then Jon M. Chu’s romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians is a moment. If, as the director has claimed, “it’s not a movie, it’s a movement”, then is this the victory for screen diversity we wanted? Adapted from Kevin Kwan’s satirical society … Asian representation in film
Contained in the billet books of London’s Foundling Hospital is an extraordinary archive of emotion. The Hospital was founded in 1739 by the philanthropist Captain Thomas Coram for “exposed and deserted young children”. Those who passed through its doors had all traces of their former lives removed: they were given new names, new clothing, a … Scraps of emotion at the Foundling Hospital