A small envelope on the table contained several notecards, each one with a discussion prompt related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Our table began with the question, “How have you contributed to #blacklivesmatter?” Only one of the seven people at the table had official experience with the movement, having organized demonstrations at her college campus … Continued
Erwin Redl’s Ascension (circle 24) is a fountain of Ping Pong balls. In his recent show “Rational Exuberance,” a circle of 24 glass tubes hung from the ceiling of the gallery, and each tube contained a ball dramatically lit with LED lights. A fan at the bottom of each tube caused the balls to rise … Continued
The power of the song “Summertime,” delivered as a lullaby at the opening of the 1934 opera Porgy and Bess, is its irony. The livin’ couldn’t have been easy for people of color in Charleston in 1934, and this summer has certainly not been easy, with Philando Castile’s death in Minnesota, the deaths of Alton … Continued
Rebecca Lee Reynolds unpacks “Grace Notes,” a performance by Carrie Mae Weems.
I was suspicious at first. Taxidermy has become so trendy that it’s been satirized on the TV show Portlandia, where this past season the conflagration of the Dead Pets store led to a dramatic trial of the weirdo characters. Apparently the trend even has a name: rogue taxidermy. Artist Kate Clark was included in Robert Marbury’s 2014 book on the subject, Taxidermy Art. But in Clark’s show at Newcomb Art … Continued
In a heated public hearing on the scale of a Greek drama, the New Orleans City Council voted on December 17 to remove four confederate monuments: Robert E. Lee, whose statue stands atop a victory column at the center of a traffic circle called Lee Circle; P.G.T. Beauregard, who sits astride a horse in a … Continued
KAWS’s monumental Companion stands outside the Newcomb Art Museum on the campus of Tulane University, covering its eyes. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The blinded figure refers to the Japanese proverb of the three wise monkeys. The all-black sculpture is a lesson in denial, as if refusing to look might extinguish … Continued
To wrap up BURNAWAY’s Best, we asked our experts to tell us about what they are looking forward to in 2016. If you missed them, be sure to check out our Best Exhibitions of 2015, Favorite Reads, Cultural Experiences, and Movers & Shakers. Happy New Year! Erica Ciccarone (Nashville) Writer CAMPFIRE is a subgroup of the curatorial collective COOP that put together … Continued
BURNAWAY asked our experts to tell us about the most memorable highlights and significant news stories in their region. Making the list is Joe Nolan’s ongoing series about Nashville’s pikes for Nashville Public Radio, New Orleans’s 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the Atlanta Contemporary establishing free admission for visitors. (Don’t miss our Best Exhibitions of 2015, Favorite Reads, … Continued
