Artblog | guest writer

November 21, 2016 by guest writer

Channelizer – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Grand Prize Winner

Each time I visited the space to see “Shotgun Inversion,” fellow onlookers seemed more or less unaware of or unconcerned by its status as a sculptural object. People leaned up against the wall or brushed their fingers against it as they passed, chain-link fence-style. A friend and I hung our arms over the waist-high partition on one side like it was a carnival booth. One visitor wondered aloud what she’d do if she dropped her phone on the other side of the structure.

November 20, 2016 by guest writer

Stranger Fictions (at Rodney McMillian: The Black Show) – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

According to curator Anthony Elms, Rodney McMillian: The Black Show is an exhibition about transformation. You might prefer to call it an exhibition about flux. It is about fictions, literally literary, with numerous instances of homage to Octavia Butler, and metaphorically historical, as McMillian himself expounded in a preceding interview. It is about mutable spaces, fluid identities, the distance between material and perception, the so-called experience of this ‘reality,’ and the staking out of that reality itself as a constantly undulating landscape.

November 17, 2016 by guest writer

Nora Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself as My Father – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Chipaumire announces, “Tired of fighting. Tired of running. Tired of fucking.” The hare bounding over the ropes. The Champion hurling into them, into the ground. Until he, finally, –well, no, you should see it, you should try to feel it for yourself.

November 16, 2016 by guest writer

The Mischievous Guide – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Otake commenced her performance slowly, trembling within herself and laying the foundation for the audience to allow themselves an intensely delicate and intuitive experience. At the first of several stations, she slowly unfurled a cloth she produced from within her garment, going to great pains to keep it just so–only reveling in her own motions long enough for interest to peak–before breaking and leading the group of roughly 70 through the small river path.

November 15, 2016 by guest writer

The Sun is Just the Place Where the Sun Used to Be – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Upon entering the exhibition, I first confront a large piece of wood with Crayola colored letters spelling out the title of the show. The point of meditation. “The Sun is Just the Place Where the Sun Used to Be.”

November 13, 2016 by guest writer

The Waves – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

I lived in West Philly, at 57th St. There was a small ginkgo tree in the back courtyard. It was impossibly hot, I had no money and spent my time at the house, reading, painting, and dreaming of food.

November 10, 2016 by guest writer

Thus Far – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Despite all its problems and despite the efforts of artists, increasing concern about addressing pressing issues in Philadelphia could very well overcome its obsession with the past and become a city of the future.

November 8, 2016 by guest writer

Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock at the ICA – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Size can create competition in some shows, larger works demanding more attention than small, but these more typical relationships were somehow absent from this show. Holes were drilled into the sides of display armatures, perfectly framing a small Fishman sculpture covered in paint, encouraging the viewer to look. You did not get the sense that you were supposed to spend less time looking at the smaller things.