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This month in Artforum:
Deep Dive: Art and Virtual Reality: VR is here to stay. Douglas Coupland talks with Daniel Birnbaum about the future of technology and desire; Alyssa K. Loh discusses virtuality and empathy. Artists Jordan Wolfson, Rindon Johnson, Sarah Meyohas, Rachel Rossin, and Jon Rafman examine the questions VR raises about artifice and resemblance, perception and truth, omnipresence and repression, alienation and existence:
“At some point, the question becomes: Why should we remain human? Why would the prosthetic bodies constructed in virtual space limit themselves to our human parameters?”
—Daniel Birnbaum
“VR has thus far struggled to achieve the real feat of morally significant storytelling—that of bringing us close to someone else’s mind.”
—Alyssa K. Loh
Machine Age: A conversation with Elizabeth Diller about museum architecture:
“How could we design something that speaks to today but does not get in the way of tomorrow?”
—Elizabeth Diller
Independent Means: Cheryl Finley on “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power”:
“The show underscored themes of unbridled police brutality and conspiracy that remain all too familiar.”
—Cheryl Finley
Openings: Enrique Ramírez:
“Ramírez’s work implies a voyage that is at once historical, maritime, political, and philosophical, and it becomes a cipher for the turbulence of history.”
—Lillian Davies
And: Alexander Nagel on Reclaiming Art/Reshaping Democracy; Thomas Elsaesser on Sven Lütticken’s Cultural Revolution; Peter Eleey on “The Absent Museum”; Greil Marcus on Slash: A Punk Magazine from Los Angeles, 1977–80; Dennis Lim on Twin Peaks: The Return; and Philippa Snow on Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher.
Plus: Jackie Neudorf on Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts, Ara H. Merjian on Magazzino Italian Art, Anthony Byrt on FAFSWAG, Alex Kitnick on Louise Lawler, Beau Rutland on Peter Saul, Ian Volner on the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Jibz Cameron shares her Top Ten.
