The baby sea iguana holds perfectly still on the pebbles, blinking, waiting for the right moment to make its move. The ground is slithering with hungry predators, but if the iguana up can reach the rocky outcrop, it will beRead more…
Princess Nokia and the Emancipated Spectator
When Princess Nokia entered, the lights went dark and the audience cheered as they rushed towards her. But for the hours of other performances before that, the expansive room was bright. From my place in the crowd, I could turnRead more…
The Contemporary as “The Present in Drag”
On the sidewalk outside of the KW museum in Berlin, my friend Justin and I walked past two girls that looked familiar. “I think those were the girls we saw on the train,” he said. One day earlier, during aRead more…
A Critic’s Role in the Golden Age
“TV is a problem only if you’ve forgotten how to look and listen,” claims a university professor in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise. He complains that his students are no longer open to the medium; they find television “worse thanRead more…
Art, Science, Milky Way: Crossing Disciplinary Borders with Andrew Yang and Camille Henrot
Art and science are thought to be mutually exclusive—right brain, left brain. As in: oil painting is art not science, and molecular biology is science not art. However, like the two halves of the brain, both are profoundly interconnected, feeding intoRead more…
Tseng Kwong Chi and the Attempted Politicization of a Landscape
“This land is your land, this land is my land.” America is at its core a paradox, an impossible promise. The land is supposedly open to all, a nation of freedom, and yet also a former colony and imperialist superpowerRead more…
The Puzzle of Nicolas Jaar’s “Nymphs,” Piece by Piece
It was only natural that Nymphs would be overlooked. And yet… Nymphs is an album. I spell this out so plainly because for years now, that has been something of a mystery. Let me explain: the firstRead more…
Critical to the Last Drop
What is the role of a critic? This question seems to be ever more popular, usually posed with something of a smirk—Critics? Who needs them?—as the once-strong voices of our critics are sucked deeper and deeper into the noiseRead more…