Books
Excerpted from The Josephine Meckseper Catalogue
“Found text” from The Angry Brigade, 1967–1984, Elephant Editions, London, 1985. Courtesy Lukas & Sternberg, New York, 2004.
Fashion and politics. Style and revolution. We have emerged from a century of fascism on the runway and the campaign trail. We vote, we buy, based on our own shallowest experience of who we are. We worship our spiritual death in domestic consumerism and actual death abroad. As the publisher of the infamous Fat Magazine, German-born artist Josephine Meckseper has deftly applied tabloid publishing to high culture. In Printed Matter’s The Josephine Meckseper Catalogue, Meckseper adopts the guise of the fashion magazine, with film stills and photographs of recent protests in the United States and Germany (2001–2004) set forth as advertisements, and “feature articles” based on new sculpture, painting, and installations by the artist that offer visions of capitalist Utopia.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Wilhelm Reich’s The Mass Psychology of Fascism
By William StroudDEC 20-JAN 21 | Books
In examining historical parallels, I recently reread Wilhelm Reich’s Mass Psychology of Fascism. Arguments over whether the United States is a fascist society or not are less important than understanding the conditions that have given rise to the form of authoritarian government, with a representative democratic face, we experience. 21st-century society is not a reproduction of 1930s Europe. But we can learn from previous historical eras.
Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution
By Toby KampsNOV 2020 | ArtSeen
Full of wonders sacred and profane, the British Museum’s sweeping survey Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution aims to reveal the history and tenets of a mysterious, transgressive spiritual tradition that has been intertwined with Hinduism and Buddhism for nearly a millennium and a half.
Communion and Expression: “21st Century Japan: Films from 2001–2020” at Japan Society
By Jaime GrijalbaFEB 2021 | Film
Japan Society and the Agency for Cultural Affairs proposes a perfectly cinephilic survey of the century so far that favors the deep cut over the known masterpiece, with the likes of Naomi Kawase and Hirokazu Kore-eda sharing the spotlight with younger filmmakers to forward a Proustian snapshot of the past two decades of Japanese cinema.
Vote Now or Forever Hold Your Peace
By Harry FederOCT 2020 | Books
Two recent books by a pair of lawyer/journalists attempt to help the general public understand our convoluted state-specific system of voting, the barriers to real democratic voice, and what we need to do to increase voter participation. They are both useful almanacs for how voting works, how to actually vote, and the barriers placed inhibiting participation.
