Abramović through her defensive statement is trying to sequester her racism to a past self and exonerate her current self in infallible righteousness. If she claims responsibility, it is at best a weak claim that belittles the simple and inescapable truth–the racism that produced her journal entry all those years ago is a part of white identity. A terrible truth that needs confrontation, acceptance, and action–not negotiation or qualifications.
Read MoreFrancis Kéré is a Burkina Faso-born, Berlin-based architect known for his adaptive use of vernacular materials in structures like schools and other gathering places, especially in his native land. The Artblog video shows Kéré’s passion for community participation in his projects.
Read MoreThis article concerns the restriction of contemporary art discourse to the specificity of Philadelphia in the city’s DIY art scene. It strikes me that the focus on the geo-political and cultural particularity of Philadelphia produces a strange contradiction in how we think about contemporary art in Philadelphia. The contradiction is between the parochial fixation of trying to speak for a Philadelphia contemporary art (distinct from a contemporary art in Philadelphia) and the global status of contemporary art. In what follows I want to develop an understanding of this contradiction by paying particular attention to some interconnected issues such as the notion of contemporaneity, globality and internationalism. I close with a couple of questions, both oriented by the attempt to inquire into the very possibility of a discourse of contemporary art within the context of an explicitly regionalist focus.
Read MoreAs someone who knows and has seen these artists develop their practice, I find many artistic commonalities and formal intersections in the show. In the pairings on view in the multi-room space at Vox, the strongest is undoubtedly the collaboration between Alber and Caponera. PLAYDATE #3 is the work of five months of teamwork, planning, and camaraderie.
Read MoreThis summer, Artblog dove into the Philadelphia Museum’s Creative Africa show — and into the wonderful summer program, Art Splash, that introduces moms, dads, and kids of all ages to the great art on view, and facilitates art making by the viewers, right there in the museum.
Read MoreEarlier this year, I was invited to curate a week of content on Curate This, the peppy new online arts publication whose mission — like Artblog’s mission — is to tell the whole wide world that the Philadelphia art scene has great art and artists. Curate This, started by writers/artists Amanda Wagner and Julius Ferraro, is now almost one year old, and I sat down with them recently to talk about how their publication is coming along and what they’re excited about. Curate This is a platform for artists and writers to speak their minds about issues involved in the arts (yes, there is some complaining).
Read MoreDo you love the Toynbee Tile Mystery like I do? I saw new tiles placed on South Broad St. (at Sansom and Walnut, East side crosswalks) that are so new they’re still mostly covered with the tar coating on top. Here’s a story in Philly Voice. And more about this from our movie review of Resurrect Dead (2011), the great movie by Jon Foy, starring Justin Duerr, which is available on Netflix.
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