Michele Carlson is a practicing artist, writer, and curator. She is an Associate Professor in Visual & Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts and the Executive Director at Daily Serving | Art Pracitcal.
Michele Carlson is a practicing artist, writer, and curator. She is an Associate Professor in Visual & Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts and the Executive Director at Daily Serving | Art Pracitcal.
Kristina Wong confronts power, stereotypes and racism
Sipping horchata with performance artist/writer/rapper/comedian Kristina Wong in the back courtyard of Best Fish Taco in Ensenada is fitting. The small restaurant in the Los Feliz neighborhood in Los Angeles is just rickety enough for its unabashedly bold name to somehow make sense. Wong, too, might appear unassuming at first glance. She is casually dressed in jeans, her long black hair and petite frame set off by a bright blue shirt.
The real online world
The Internet is a powerful and complicated place. It still embodies its early utopic vision of a borderless world where information is infinitely disseminated and there is unimaginable potential to connect with anything — as anyone. This is a world where we can only “Like,” “Share” and “Follow,” and we know “unfriending” can have great social impact. By now, for much of the First World, using the Internet is a required part of daily life.
The Art of Christine Sun Kim
In January, on a sunny San Francisco day, sound and performance artist Christine Sun Kim darts around the spacious nonprofit art gallery Southern Exposure (SOEX), giving directions and approving final installation decisions. Like the day before any exhibition, art preparators balance on ladders affixing blue ropes that cut across the sun-drenched space, and gallery staff busy themselves with last minute details. Though active, the gallery is unexpectedly quiet — everyone is scrawling messages to Kim on notepads or holding up text on their smartphones for her to view.
Lead singer Stanley Lam describes
Largesse’s sound as “folky-rock with harmonies” inspired by anything from
nineties indie rock to blue grass.
Artist Taravat Talepasand confronts the Iranian female body within a political landscape
Huge, engorged, disproportionate breasts jut from the draped body and covered face of a woman — San Francisco-based Iranian artist Taravat Talepasand is obsessed with this pornographic image she found online several years ago, and this figure has appeared repeatedly in her detailed and intricate paintings and drawings.
Sex Nerd Sandra wants to school you in the bedroom
“Hello, naughty monkeys,” Sandra Daugherty says into her microphone at the start of her show, the wildly popular sex education podcast Sex Nerd Sandra.
Over the next hour, she details how to use a Hitachi Magic Wand and recounts lessons she learned from a recent “predator and prey” dungeon party. A product of Nerdist Industries — a media company begun by comedian Chris Hardwick that largely consists of comedy and pop culture podcasts — the Sex Nerd Sandra podcast reaches thousands of people every week.
The Work of Wafaa Yasin
Wafaa Yasin literally turned her body into a boat and set sail across the San Francisco Bay. Yasin expected to fail in sailing anywhere, but she also hoped not to drown. Born in Palestine, the San Francisco-based performance and multimedia artist often puts herself at risk to ask questions about the histories and people who negotiate the boundaries of global politics.
SFIAAFF 30 coverage continues with reviews of I Am a Ghost, a paranormal thriller from H.P. Mendoza, and Touch, a drama about interpersonal connection from Minh Duc Nguyen.
Hyphen reviews pop cultural emcee Adam WarRock's second full-length album, You Dare Call That Thing Human?!?