May Day mise-en-scène, pt. 3 x May Day mise-en-scène, pt. 1 I’m keeping up the tradition of taking a photo of The Dreamer with every camera I have. Here’s one with the Lumix, taken on May Day. x May Day mise-en-scène, pt. 4 x
May Day mise-en-scène, pt. 1 x ORGANIZED LABOR CURES ORGANIZED GREED and other signs and symbols. x May Day mise-en-scène, pt. 2 x
Interstitiality. The service area in between two sections of artwork at the 9th Avenue gallery. x A central question in Gizelle’s exhibit is: what does it mean to grow up Middle Eastern here? This question speaks to a universal diasporic unease between “here” and “elsewhere,” but for those of us inscribed in Arabic script on a backdrop of Alpha Beta Charlie, the question cuts more deeply. Our very existence “here” rends us in two, like an act of betrayal. In many ways, I relate more to Gizelle’s parents’ experience than her own. I chose to come here as an adult. … Continue reading “Growing Up Middle Eastern Here (Readymade: Big Gulp and Mailbox)” →
I kept saying that I’ve had Gizelle’s Belltown Art Walk show in my calendar for a year, and today my phone reminded me that we in fact did hang out exactly one year ago today, when I must have put it in my calendar, because it was already in there the next time we met up and she excitedly relayed her plans for it. I had a vague idea what to expect, but walking into the space still took my breath away, like “wow.” The sheer scale of these pieces, combined with the patient labor it took to make them … Continue reading “Gizelle’s Belltown Show, and Modern American Masculinity” →
The word “maximalist” was used a couple of times in this year’s @cornish_artdept BFA bios, but none embodied it as fully as @masonsmixedmedia’s “explosion” of art titled something about a horse (?) – with so much to take in, I forgot to note it down. For reasons that will become very obvious, this work could not be contained within a single post. x Coffee shop and church pews through dirty and colored windows. x Mason Webb @masonsmixedmedia at the @cornish_artdept BFA exhibit. I laughed when I read the artist description of these pieces, itself a work of dada: 1, 2025, … Continue reading “Maximalism and Stolen Valor at the Cornish BFA Show” →
“If all of the technical forces of capitalism must be understood as tools for the making of separations, in the case of urbanism we are dealing with the equipment at the basis of these technical forces, with the treatment of the ground that suits their deployment, with the very technique of separation.” (Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, as featured in @cloecaroljane’s artist statement at the Cornish BFA exhibit) x “Being, Having, Seeing,” Cloe Caroljane Short @cloecaroljane at the @cornish_artdept BFA exhibit. Everything about this install – from the graphic aesthetic to the post-internet motifs to the naming convention (e.g. … Continue reading “Being, Having, Seeing (More from the Cornish BFA Show)” →
I’ve been thinking about Luigi Ghirri again. Christine sent me a video about him, seeing something in his work that would resonate with me, not knowing that I’d already noticed that affinity a couple years ago. It was nice to have validation of my hubris. Here’s what Ghirri had to say about photography: “Beyond all critical and intellectual explanations, beyond all negative aspects it might posses, photography is, I think, a formidable visual language tor fostering this desire for the infinite that inhabits each of us. As I have said before, it is a great adventure in the world of … Continue reading “Strange Food and Little Makers: The Cornish BFA Show” →
I should have known that it would snow today, way after all the daffodils bloomed with their fake news of spring. I was almost shivering taking these photos in the ice cold rain yesterday evening. I was in Georgetown meeting with a couple comrades again, and decided to take the bus all the way to Oxbow Park first, to do another comparison shoot. But it was too cold and the gimmick I wanted to demonstrate was too finicky for me to stay very long. Here you see the Canon Rebel SL1 I bought for work paired with the Powershot SX260 … Continue reading “Fake Spring, Firmware Hacks, and Oxbow Park” →
I was invited to my very first Iftar last night, which just happened to be in the same space where these beautiful icons to the martyrs of and for Palestine were on display; faces we grew up with and names we’ve tearfully gotten to know too well. Four panels of eight; four panels symbolizing the “too many” taken too cruelly and too soon. I’d reached out to the artists before realizing that I’d end up at this Iftar and see them for myself. A romantic would call it “qadar.” x I’d reached out to @dianafakhoury and @bradytheblack to invite them … Continue reading “My First Iftar, Among Icons of Palestine’s Martyrs” →
Moments past midnight, after a whirlwind three-night spree spent with comrades old and new. x I loved this moment and was honored to spend time with this freedom fighter in the pistachio power suit. x “Reclaiming our shared reality is the first step. Getting into spaces like this, unpacking the trauma and what they have done to us, because it is a full frontal assault – on our minds, on our bodies, everyone that we know… every living creature on the planet.”—@fababs speaking at UW, featuring a poignant moment I captured at SIFF Uptown the next day. x