#301 March – April 2015

In this issue:

Venus Lau explores how the new political understanding of land in China gives rise to a type of quasi-Land Art that does not directly assault the system but surfs along it, revealing the power vectors that are inscribed upon land as objects and concepts, using land-based systems to open up new regions previously unknown by those systems.

Laura McLean-Ferrisdigs into on the art of Alex Da Corte.

“Da Corte’s work gives us access to an airy spiritual world that we already partake in as dreaming consumers: we build our identities around branded scents and various seductive consumer products, and fill spaces vacated by previous forms of labor or spirituality.”

— Laura McLean-Ferris

Matt Williams hosts a cross-interview with Jeremy Deller and Mark Leckey.

“I think the use of this term ‘popular culture’ is a corral for everything else that’s not… what? Art? That’s a lot of culture. And it’s as if ‘popular culture’ in itself doesn’t have any values. That’s a kind of old-fashioned way of thinking, maybe, but it’s now mutated into this idea that everything’s been flattened out by the Internet, and that everything is somehow equal and therefore dissipated. But it’s not.”

— Mark Leckey

Orit Gat discusses the proliferation of online platforms for the presentation and sale of art, and seeks to assess what these new spaces offer, how they are used and what kind of contribution they can make.

Andrew Durbin, Paul Monroe and Wolfgang Tillmans pay homage to the art of Greer Lankton.

“The re-visional quality of Lankton’s dolls suggests a distinctly queer and trans experience of the world, one that is attentive to physical mutability and the rotation and flexibility of ‘roles.’ Lankton knew that what was sewn into a boy can be easily cut into a girl, only to be later made into something else altogether.”

— Andrew Durbin

Steph Kretowiczhighlights the music of Jam City.

“Jam City’s music sheds the desire for destructive hedonism that both him and his ultra-futuristic end-times Night Slugs labelmates have hitherto been hurtling towards, in favor of something a little less Accelerationist and a little more optimistic. This is music that isn’t blind to the reality of an era of economic hardship but still manages to make something that sounds beautiful.”

— Steph Kretowicz

Plus, in the renewed front-section, now called ‘Arena’:

Adam D. Weinberg on the reopening of the Whitney Museum, New York; Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimion the UAE Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale; Adeline Ooi on Art Basel Hong Kong; José Kuri and Monica Manzutto on Kurimanzutto, Mexico City; Spitzenprodukte’s Chubz: The Demonization of my Working Arseby Montez Press; Andre Walker; Arthur Fink, Fabian Marti and Oskar Weiss on Hacienda, Zurich; Anton Belov on the Garage Museum, Moscow; Sylvia Kouvali on Rodeo, Istanbul/London; Martine Syms and K-Hole on the New Museum Triennial; Lotic’s EP Heteroceteraon Tri Angle; Nathalie Du Pasquier’s Don’t Take These Drawings Seriously by Powerhouse Books.

And finally, in ‘Reviews’:

John Waters at Marianne Boesky, New York; Villa Design Group at Mathew, New York; Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys at CCA Wattis, San Francisco; Anna Sew Hoyat Various Small Fires, Los Angeles; Eric Wesley at 356 Mission, Los Angeles; “Dancing Museum” at MAM, São Paolo; Paul Knealeat Evelyn Yard, London; Ruth Ewanat Camden Art Centre, London; “Melgaard+Munch”at Munch Museum, Oslo; Walter Dahnat Sprüth Magers, Berlin; Jan Peter Hammer at Supportico Lopez, Berlin; Mélanie Matrangaat Karma, Zurich; Gianni Colomboat Monica De Cardenas, Zuoz; Dora Budorat New Galerie, Paris; Carol Ramaat MACBA, Barcelona; Noa GlazeratTempo Rubato, Tel Aviv; “1199 People”at Long Museum, Shanghai;Kishio Suga at MOT, Tokyo.