In the new issue of frieze, we ask how the real value of art can be measured and examine the ways in which algorithms are changing the way art is seen. Is the story of “civilisation” inevitably defined by violence and fear, and how can a public artwork respond to state histories of theft and suppression? We also look at Paris’s new museum-as-machine, Los Angeles’s colossal public musical sculpture and the revival of interest in surrealism. Featuring Michael Rakowitz, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Pan Yuliang and Mark Cousins, plus exhibition reviews from around the world.
Enemy Territory: Michael Rakowitz
“Art should demand the right to be dangerous, weird and impolite.” As Michael Rakowitz’s Fourth Plinth commission is unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square, the artist talks to Evan Moffitt about archaeological magic tricks, institutional critique and Saddam Hussein’s obsession with Star Wars.
Comedy, Tragedy, History: Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley
“Words are deceitful little things. Letters, violent. But stories are the worst of all.” Harry Thorne explores mythology and the burlesque in the videos of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, whose exhibition We Are Ghosts is on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art until August 19.
Also Featuring
Simone White discovers surface tenderness and utopian love in the paintings of Njideka Akunyili Crosby; Filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins reveals his “baroque” artistic influences, which are also tattooed on his arms; Man Booker Prize nominee Madeleine Thien looks at how Republican-era Shanghai and postwar Paris are coded in the loneliness, colour and nudity of Pan Yuliang’s portraits; Matthew McLean surveys surreal currents and deformed bodies in the work of emerging British painters Justin Fitzpatrick, France-Lise McGurn, Issy Wood and Tom Worsfold; Evan Moffitt looks at the Triforium, Los Angeles’s weirdest public artwork, which is about to be restored; and Laura McLean-Ferris explores how Lena Henke’s sculptures suggest a psychological treatment of architecture and space.
Columns and Reviews
Lynne Tillman reviews Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Phantom Thread; Nathaniel Budzinski discusses how BBC Two’s new documentary series Civilisations invokes violence and fear as defining cultural forces; Amy Sherlock experiences the innovative, flexible design of Lafayette Anticipations, as it opens in Paris; Michelle Orange rounds up recent films and television series that are challenging female archetypes; and Andrew Durbin responds to Helen DeWitt’s first collection of short stories, Some Trick.
Plus: 29 exhibition reviews from around the world, including reports on Stephen Shore’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the inaugural NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Answering our questionnaire is Jose Dávila, who has forthcoming solo shows at LAND, Los Angeles, in May, and Kunsthalle Hamburg in June.
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