Louis Henderson: Geophysical Matters
Commissioned by LUX (published on 8 May 2016) A revolutionary cry is heard in Haiti. Police sirens race across a Parisian street by night, and we collectively listen to Angela Davis discuss the prison industrial complexi: “I want to try to urge you to think about the historical system of slavery and the institution of … Continue reading
Bani Abidi: An Unforeseen Situation
Introduction and conversation commissioned by Vdrome An Unforeseen Situation refers to a series of orchestrated mass events and spectacular individual feats hosted by the Punjab Ministry of Sports in 2014 during which multiple world records were reportedly broken by Pakistan. Picking up from the popular rumors, newspaper clippings and video footage surrounding the events, the artist … Continue reading
In Memoriam: K. G. Subramanyan (1924–2016)
Commissioned and published for documenta 14 As the days pass by And you gain in years The past does not keep you captive. —K. G. Subramanyan, from “A Near Vision” (Poems: Rhymes of Recall, Seagull Books, 2014) A visionary artist and pedagogue has departed after tireless decades of teaching, making, and sharing time. It was … Continue reading
In Memoriam: Lala Rukh (1948–2017)
Commissioned and published for documenta 14 Lala Rukh, Rupak (2016), drawings from a series of eighty-eight, installation view, Athens Conservatoire (Odeion), Athens, documenta 14, 2017, photo: Mathias Völzke During a visit to Lahore in September 2015, we converged in Lala’s home; the door to her backyard garden lay open and a light breeze drifted in. … Continue reading
A Conversation with Natasha Ginwala
Ocula Conversation (Excerpt, published: 15 February 2017) This conversation focuses on Ginwala’s next curatorial project, Contour Biennale 8: Polyphonic Worlds: Justice as Medium. Contour Biennale, also known as the Biennial of Moving Image, was founded in 2003 as an organisation for showcasing film, video, installation and performance. Between Biennale editions, Contour focuses on commissioning installations … Continue reading
Hearings: A Reader at Contour Biennale 8
The Contour Biennale 8, Polyphonic Worlds: Justice as Medium, brings together twenty-five international and local artists and art collectives working in lens-based media, sound, performance, drawing, and installation, to address questions related to the nation-state system and the realm of justice today. Taking place in Mechelen, Belgium, “Polyphonic Worlds” embraces the communal spirit of the … Continue reading
Corruption: Everybody Knows
Moyra Davey, Assets, 1989. C-print, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy the artist and Murray Guy. Corruption accesses the state body as both a natural and mystical corpus, eventually producing a third phantom body—corrosive and self-extending—emitting from an inside as techniques of social performance, bureaucratic desire, and conversion in the very terms of ethical life. A … Continue reading
Riots: Slow Cancellation of the Future
26.1.– 1.4.2018 Opening: Thursday, 25 January 2018, 7 pm With John Akomfrah, Chto Delat, Dilip Gaonkar, Gauri Gill, Louis Henderson, Satch Hoyt, Jitish Kallat, Karrabing Film Collective, Glenn Ligon, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, SAHMAT, Chandragupta Thenuwara and Ala Younis Curated by Natasha Ginwala Assistant Curator: Krisztina Hunya … Continue reading
Imperial Pastoral: On constructions of rurality
Landings: a durational research project at the intersections of land history, geomorphology, rurality and corporeality, will launch with a colloquium event at Witte de With featuring a newly commissioned performance by artist Olof Olsson, as well as presentations by Anthropologist Rosalind Morris (Columbia University), Art Historian Brian Dudley Barrett and artist Filipa César. The event … Continue reading
The 5th India Art Fair and Parallel Events
(Art Agenda) INDIA ART FAIR, New Delhi February 1–3, 2013 Standing in front of Drawings on a Conversation (2012) at the Nature Morte booth in the midst of the 5th India Art Fair, one cannot help but relate its dense and chaotic weave to the general experience of art viewing in Delhi this week. Indeed, this work by … Continue reading