Witnessing is a devious thing. On the one hand it serves to better the public understanding to an act, whether joyous or reprehensible, but on the other it may damage the witnesser. The fulcrum of this balance beam isRead more…
Familiar Infidelity, Translated Into a Less Familiar “Black Mirror” World
Today’s more accessible television is a direct response to the technological demands of today’s tech-driven consumers. Streaming services like Netflix and HBO’s online service HBO GO provide subscribers with a more immediate, personalized television experience, which the Internet has madeRead more…
The Prints of Eric Avery and the Meditation of the Overwhelming
Together. Two prints hang side by side in a small gallery room. They either greet you as you walk in—the first rotation along the wall—or they fall into the blind spot abyss of the doorway. Initially, the prints seem connectedRead more…
Condom Man v. The AIDS Crisis
As I walk through Block Museum’s Keep the Shadow, Ere the Substance Fade exhibition, I am greeted by sadness of the AIDS crisis and nostalgia for the lost ones. According to Block Museum, this exhibition brings together artworks related toRead more…
The Two Times When Tseng Kwong Chi was Not in the Mao Suit: A Re-examination of Labeling Through Appearance
Tseng in His Mao Suit The Mao Suit is almost always the first thing you notice in the hundreds of pictures that Tseng Kwong Chi took. It stands out from the crowd who were in extravagant Chinoiserie outfits, fromRead more…
Too Many Spider-Men
Spider-Man 2, released in 2004 and heralded as one of “the best screen adaptations of comic book heroes,” won consistently favorable reviews among critics and fans alike (Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times). Tobey McGuire plays Spider-Man (Peter Parker), perfectly capturingRead more…
NSFW: Not Safe For Women
Trigger warnings: 2016 presidential election, sexual assault, misogyny It seems like the patriarchy has been receiving a lot of airtime lately, not least because of this harrowing election season. It has become truly draining to hear, day in and dayRead more…
Protected: Tseng Kwong Chi’s Moral Majority is a reminder that politics can be fun
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The New Sensibility of the 80’s
The Reagan era sought to reform America based on a heteronormative Christian ideal that was simply not reality for the majority of America. Jerry Falwell, a prominent evangelist, founded the “Moral Majority” in 1979, an organization that aimed to eliminateRead more…
Mourning in Small Spaces
There are a lot of exciting things going on at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum so it is very easy to look over the small, one-room exhibit nestled away on the second floor. The exhibit, Keep the Shadow, EreRead 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…
Exploring a Subject in Lens: Alex Walker and Thomas Ruff
Drawing from a rich collection at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, former Curatorial Assistant, Karsten Lund, crafts a dynamic exhibit featuring photographical portraits from the 1940s to 2006. According to Lund, Witness, explores the role of the photographer in perceivingRead more…
Endless Geometry
The most visually striking pieces are the two most simple in Keep the Shadow, Ere the Substance Fade: Mourning during the AIDS Crisis.* A stack of large white paper framed by a thick black border sits on the ground. OnRead more…