[David Tudor premieres John Cage’s 4’33” , Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock, New York.]
This is the date that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for white passengers. I grew up in a racist environment of family, friends, and culture in Houston TX, never feeling right about it. So the action of Rosa Parks resonated strongly with me and changed my world.
We have chosen this image (sic) and historical date because of the significance of this moment, of women’s unity, and protest in our practice. We as an all-black-woman collective are responding to the erasure of black women who have had the strength to bear the burden of fighting for equal rights in South African history.
The images on these pages (sic) refer to the most important days in my career as an artist. August 29, 1959, is the date of HH 1. About two months later, I burned two bicycle tires. Together, they persuaded me to take art seriously and spend the rest of my life in its pursuit.
I didn’t catch Moldovan artist Pavel Brăila’s The Ship in Kassel during documenta 14. According to the description in the exhibition’s guidebook and website, The Ship: takes the form of a public bus roaming the city streets of Kassel. Appearing as though half-submerged in seawater, the bus is an appropriation of the Stultifera Navis, or […]
In 1965, a troupe of architects, designers, poets, artists, and philosophers made a journey from Cape Horn to Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. Leaving out a large area of the continent to the north, it made us wonder what it meant to be American.
“From a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports and the railroads of the country – the economy, especially in the South – could not conceivably be what they are if it had not been (and this is still so) for cheap labor. I am speaking very seriously, and this is not […]
The Republic of Biafra existed in eastern Nigeria from May 30, 1967, to January 1970. The name was taken from the Bight of Biafra, the Atlantic bay in southern Nigeria. The secession of the Biafra region, due to the massacre of its people who lived in the northern part of the country, led to the […]
Often the camera is not present in particularly deep, impressive moments. This was the case on a day in September 1967, during the Prague Spring, when I had the opportunity to visit Jiří Kolář in his studio. It was very inspiring for me to see his work in person even though the subliminally remaining impressions […]
October 18, 1970: Pasolini is in Sana’a. It is his last day of shooting of The Decameron (1971). With leftover film, he composes a cinematic call to UNESCO advocating preservation of Sana’a’s historical center “in the name of the scandalous, revolutionary force of the past.” In 1986, Pasolini’s call will be heard: Sana’a old city […]