How does a society commemorate a war for which the central narrative is one of division and dissent, a war whose history is highly contested and still in the process of being made? 2008: Jane Hammond’s Fallen

26th May 2020UncategorizedAmanda Potter, Jane Hammond, the gallery B sideMinus Plato

The day after Memorial Day, twelve years ago tomorrow in 2008, the then Wexner Center educator Amanda Potter (now Curator of Education and Interpretation at the Zimmerli Art Museum) delivered a talk on Jane Hammond’s gallery B installation Fallen. At the talk, Potter spoke of how Hammond’s nationally touring installation featuring a large field of […]

Empty Daybook – Ariuntugs Tserenpil on the Late 1990s

25th May 2020UncategorizedAriuntugs Tserenpil, Empty DaybookMinus Plato

Reflecting on the Past in the Room of Imagination In this picture (sic) I took in the late 1990s, my father and my nieces are playing a game with string. Around twenty years ago, our country was struggling with social challenges due to the transition to a totally new political, economic, and social system. But […]

Empty Daybook – Joaquín Orellana Mejía on 26 April 1998

24th May 2020UncategorizedEmpty Daybook, Joaquín Orellana MejíaMinus Plato

Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered on April 26, 1998, in reaction to a report presented by his project Recuperación de la memoria histórica (REHMI – Recovery of historical memory). The killing provoked a strong impact in my personal realm of social sensitivity. It was a sordid and brutal event, condemned internationally as one of the […]

The Missing Link

22nd May 2020UncategorizedAboubakar Fofana, Achille Mbembe, aneducation, Angela Melitopoulos, Anne Zbitnew, Anthony W. Schuman, Apache War, Aria Dean, Art in Access, Asad Raza, Candice Hopkins, Carnegie International, Chris Burden, Clare Butcher, Cole Swanson, Cradle argument, Cradle of Humankind, Decolonization is not a metaphor, Eve Tuck, Front International, George Converse, Gretchen Bender, GUDSKUL, High Country News, Home Cooking, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Humber College, John Faulkner, Jonas Staal, K. Wayne Yang, Kent State, Koyo Kouoh, Like Wind on Rushes, Morrill Act, Ohio State University, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Peter Eisenman, Postcommodity, Rainer Oldendorf, Richard Henry Platt, Rozanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Sharjah Biennial 14, Soweto student uprisings, Toronto Biennial, Urban Arts Space, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Wexner Center for the Arts, Whisper into a HoleMinus Plato

While in the cradle, every parent, grandparent and god-fearing aunt wants the best for the new baby, hoping to keep the Evil Eye at bay. Over the years, their prayers for safety turn into dreams of success as the child grows and starts on the path through school to college. Now, bursting with pride at […]

Empty Daybook – Nomin Bold on 1 September 2000

21st May 2020UncategorizedEmpty Daybook, Nomin BoldMinus Plato

It is the date in which my life path was directed, I believe, which I could never forget – my starting point as an artist. I also met my husband for the first time, because he was my classmate. This photo is my teacher, my classmates, and him.

Empty Daybook – Rick Lowe on 6 April 2006

18th May 2020UncategorizedEmpty Daybook, Rick LoweMinus Plato

Halit Yozgat murdered on April 6, 2006, at this location in Kassel, formerly an internet café, by the National Socialist Underground (NSU). It was not an isolated incident. The café is now a honey shop, and the city searches for a way to commemorate this bitter memory.

Empty Daybook – Constantinos Hadzinikolaou on 15 May 2009

16th May 2020UncategorizedConstantinos Hadzinikolaou, Empty DaybookMinus Plato

May is the cruelest month. Breeding red bodies out of the land. Mixing memory and desire. Mixing love and death. Stirring ashes with spring rain. And I am frightened. Goodbye to hibiscus –

But Their Memory Remains

15th May 2020UncategorizedAimé Césaire, Alain Resnair, Andrea Fraser, Another Gaze Journal, Art Institute of Chicago, Aruna D'Souza, Awa Konaté, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Benin Bronzes, British Museum, Candice Hopkins, Carnegie International, Chris Marker, Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Decolonize This Place, Emeka Ogboh, Fred Moten, Fred Wilson, Hannah Mason-Macklin, Hans Haacke, Henrik Folkerts, Indrid Schaffner, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jeff Koons, Koyo Kouoh, Leo Asemota, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Like Wind on Rushes, Michel Leiris, Mickalene Thomas, Mounira Al Solh, Museums Art Not Neutral, Nari Ward, négritude, Occupy Collections, Pablo Picasso, Sarah Maldoror, Savoy/Sarr Report, Sharjah Biennial 14, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Whisper into a HoleMinus Plato

A voice comes from somewhere (or within), braying: Well, listen to him! So sanctimonious in his white wokeness and so-called decolonial critique (whatever that is)! We see what you’re doing, writing this out loud for strangers’ ears, but inwardly, under your typing tongue, you murmur, “Oh, let the old guard suffer, so I can profit!”. […]

Empty Daybook – David Schutter on 4 November 2013

11th May 2020UncategorizedDavid Schutter, Empty Daybook, Jurriaan Benschop, Reluctance to RevealMinus Plato

In February 2012, on suspicion of tax evasion, German customs agents raided the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt. Inside, some 1,400 works of art were discovered. German authorities seized the artworks to determine their provenance, including possible connections to Nazi persecution. The story did not appear in the press until November 4, 2013. As of […]