A new film by artist Isaac Julien, featuring actors Sheila Atim and Gwendoline Christie as science-fiction deities, is on view at the Cosmic House in London. The 25-minute work, which incorporates themes from Octavia E. Butler's novel *Parable of the Sower*, explores concepts of change, interconnectedness, and fluid identity through a visually rich, postmodern lens.
Große Krise, kleine Gesten
The article reviews the second edition of the Klima Biennale Wien, which opened in early April in Vienna. It notes that while the biennale aims to address the urgent triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, its execution falls short. The exhibition features symbolic works such as a beached whale, a broken boat, and a compostable SUV sculpture, but these motifs feel repetitive and lack the necessary impact. The author contrasts these with historical precedents like Menashe Kadishman's 1978 Venice Biennale installation and Joseph Beuys' "7000 Eichen" (1982), arguing that the themes of nature and sustainability are not new, only the urgency has intensified.
A new wave of gallery exhibitions is championing analog physicality and personal intimacy as a direct counter-response to the rise of AI-generated imagery. Artists like Ben Wolf Noam and Joseph Geagan are utilizing traditional mediums such as charcoal, lithography, and oil paint to capture spontaneous, sentimental moments of human connection, from family dinners to portraits of friends. These works emphasize the "hospitable mess" of real life, prioritizing the recognizable faces and tangible textures that AI often flattens.
Mark Fingerhut's software-based artwork "Halcyon.exe: The Ride" (2024) is gaining cult status as it tours indie venues like Public Works Administration gallery in Manhattan and Sulk Chicago, before appearing as a star attraction at "Rhizome World" at Water Street Projects in New York's Financial District. The piece takes over a computer desktop, flooding it with images, videos, and text in a choreographed, immersive experience that includes vibrating seats, wind, rain, and synced spotlights, evoking the sensation of art-as-malware.