features + reviews

Negative review of After’s most recent EPs (written by a BU alum), which I cannot stop listening to. This review fills a lot of gaps in the piece I was trying to write about the fruitger aero phenomenon and tech-optimism coming back in the wake of AI. Though I am definitely a victim of nostalgia bait here, I can’t deny that the lyrics and motivations lack substance, reminiscent of an AI copy of the real thing. Back to Frou Frou, methinks.

piece from Artillery on Mountain School, a guerrilla-style art school based in LA’s Chinatown for 20 years. Great quotes from Townsend describing the characteristics of Piero Golia, the founder, and many LA contemporary art references I should read into further

“Golia, who is bald and bearded, has the monkish appearance of a true believer, a supplicant in streetwear.” —Eileen Havant Townsend

“He [Golia] was captivated by the possibility of Los Angeles and the magic of its fictions.” —Townsend

“The impossible feat: to make us fish forget that we swim in water.” —Townsend

References: Jordan Wolfson, Noah Davis, Ida Ekblad, Paul McCarthy, Dan Graham, Albert Oehlen, Simone Forti, Laura Owens, Pierre Huyghe Chris Kraus, Jim Shaw, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sterling Ruby, Frances Stark, Chris Burden, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Richard Jackson, Henry Taylor, Stefan Simchowitz, John Morace, Jorge Pardo, John Lautner, Dagny Corcoran, Peter Tomka, Andrea Zittel.