March 4, 2024
In this issue we delve into the theme of self-contamination, exploring whether it is a force that extinguishes or revitalizes us. The artists featured embrace notions of self-contamination within their respective practices, resulting in outcomes that are proactive, chaotic, orderly, and provocative. Throughout the issue, we consider the perpetual process of accessing and organizing images to democratize their accessibility, a deliberate form of self-contamination that has become a daily function of our minds.
“We make life through images,” states artist Diane Severin Nguyen. Photographed in New York by Richard Kern, she graces one of the cover stories of this spring issue wearing Paloma Wool. As Olivia Kan-Sperling writes, Severin Nguyen relinquishes control, allowing various influences to contaminate her work, which is composed of “multiple inversions of reality and artifice, meaning and meaninglessness, symbolism and pure surface.”
A constantly unfurling process characterizes Klára Hosnedlová’s practice, the second cover story of the issue. Her projects weave in and out of each other—each installation is employed for the next cycle or series of works. Ella Plevin retraces her career from its beginnings in the Czech Republic to her latest ambitious exhibition, “GROWTH” at Kunsthalle Basel. For the occasion, Joseph Kadow photographed Hosnedlová wearing Ottolinger and Kuboraum eyewear at Sculpture Berlin.
Following their collaboration in “Spirit Movers” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Duval Timothy and Grace Wales Bonner take the spotlight in the third cover story, where they discuss their interconnected inspirations, ideas, and the influence of past lives on their practices. Liz Arthur Johnson photographed Timothy wearing Wales Bonner in London.
The fourth cover story is dedicated to Rebecca Ackroyd and her surreal sculptures and dreamlike drawings that explore universal themes through personal encounters. In anticipation of her upcoming exhibition—“Mirror Stage” at Fondaco Marcello, Venice, during the 60th Biennale—she and Kyla McDonald discuss the ways her work is increasingly contaminated by memory. Ackroyd, wearing Sunnei, was photographed in her studio by Hyesoo Chung.
The final cover story features Dozie Kanu wearing Byredo, photographed at Lumiar Cité in Lisbon by Renell Medrano. In conversation with Precious Okoyomon, Kanu discusses his worldview as reflected in his approach to sculpture, his Nigerian heritage, the role of pain in art, and what it means to experience an artwork.
Also in this issue, Margaret Kross ponders Gina Fischli’s likening of an art emergency to a competitive cooking show; Clem MacLeod retraces Barbara Kruger’s career-long obsession with women, words, and power; Gray Wielebinski, in conversation with Philomena Epps, reflects on the past year of his life, his creative process, and psychoanalysis; Motoko Ishibashi discusses her paintings of exaggerated and sexualized bodies with Cassidy George; and Estelle Hoy delves into Sophie Jung’s diverse artistic practice, providing a thorough survey of her work.
Alex Bennett continues investigating emerging talents in 2024 with the latest installment of Unpack / Reveal / Unleash, here dedicated to Stella Zhong’s cryptic take on the future ruins of a failed modernity. In The Curist, Caroline Elbaor talks to Gino Attwood about Two Queens in Leicester, shedding light on a lesser-known art scene in the UK. Lauren Elkin from London penned this issue’s Letter from the City, which reflects on Marina Abramović and Ulay’s performance Imponderabilia. Rose Higham-Stainton’s Critic Dispatch sets the tone for hope, suggesting that “if there was ever a time to imagine something better, it is now.”
This issue’s TIME MACHINE is dedicated to Aperto ’93 on its thirtieth anniversary, coinciding with this year’s Venice Biennale. For the occasion, Helena Kontova’s manifesto for the revolutionary exhibition, “Divisions,” is republished, complemented by two new texts by Francesco Bonami and Jeffrey Deitch.
After exploring Tokyo and Kanazawa in the Winter issue, the second installment of Focus On is dedicated to London on the occasion of Condo 2024, with a text by Amy Jones about London’s art scene and a conversation between Zeinab Saleh, whose exhibition is now on view at Tate Britain, and Gea Politi.
Reviews
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, by Chiara Mannarino / Paul Pfeiffer Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, by Sampson Ohringer / Jasmine Gregory Si je ne peux pas l’avoir, toi non plus CAPC – Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux by Sarah Moroz / Dora Budor Again Nottingham Contemporary by Frank Wasser / A Cosmic Movie Camera Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement CAC—Centre d’Art Contemporain, Genève, by Marilena Borriello / Meredith Monk Calling Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, by Philipp Hindahl / Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, by Maki Nishida
The issue will be available at Art Basel Hong Kong; miart, Milan; and the Venice Biennale.
