The definition of a “wallflower” in the Oxford Dictionary, is “a girl who has no one to dance with at a party.” In her series, “Wallflower,” Amy Elkins examines the sexist limits of this perception. By placing men in front of floral wallpaper, their torsos generally shirtless and cropped near the waist, she has successfully […]

(10:58:00 AM) Harm van der Dorpel: yesterday i visited the (galerie west) vvork talk show thing (10:58:03 AM) Damon Zucconi: haha (10:58:07 AM) DZ: talk show. how was it (10:59:08 AM) HD: well, often in discussions like these, i have the feeling it’s more about people wanting to say something, and not so much about […]

We named our repertory My Barbarian, founded by Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and me, a film school dropout with dreams of being Fassbinder, or Jack Smith, or Fred Schneider. In my Silver Lake apartment, we’d act out absurd political debates in three-part harmony, enlisting friends to play along. “Be prolific,” was the advice. In seven […]

China is experiencing a new revolution as of late. This one however, doesn’t involve guns and tanks. Instead its weapons of attack are everything from bronze to fiberglass to stainless steel. There are many new voices emerging in Chinese contemporary sculpture, with Qu Guangci sitting at the forefront—and he doesn’t seem to care whether the […]

The American West is a time and place long lost to the depths of the imagination; a history revised so many times that it exists only as a blur of Hollywood icons. Adam Helms strategically marks his territory on this legendary front, waiting for the moment for his fictional militia—the New Frontier Army (NFA)— to […]

Sexy Librarian: Critical Edition of the Original Novel, Julia Weist’s first book, will be published in full this fall by design powerhouse Ellen Lupton. It was originally written as a 60-page prospectus that Weist sent to major publishers: the rejection letters she received in return were re-presented as sculptures incorporated into a larger project about […]

As a musician, when I think about sound, I almost immediately focus upon being in the city. It’s where almost every idea about sound that I’ve had recently has sprung from, solely from being out on the street, walking amongst the people and the traffic.  From the moment I emerge from my doorway and step […]

I was 16 when I first came across an image of Kembra Pfahler in a magazine that some punk friend had given me. The image hit me over the head like a glass bottle at a rock show. I was a sheltered teenager who grew up less then a mile away from George Bush Senior, […]

I am a Beautiful Monster is the first definitive edition in English of writings by the poet and consummate anti-artist Francis Picabia (1879-1953) published recently by MIT-Press. With lightning wit and, speedy contradictions and a slight of hand, Picabia created works and wrote text demonstrating that “abstractionism”; Ddada and Ssurrealism can be as powerful and […]

The marriage, or partnering, of performance and sound begins with the wails and squished faces of babes—improvised acts, attempts to draw response and be provided for. Mirror Mirror aim to indoctrinate us and our offspring. As the marketing and inspirational face of The Society for the Advancement of Inflammatory Consciousness, they beckon us to come […]