“Seth Siegelaub: Beyond Conceptual Art” at The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam December 2015 It’s not so much that there are no objects in this exhibition, ostensively about “conceptual art” (and Seth Siegelaub’s part in it) but that the book, a container of codes for the conveyance of ideas, becomes an object, a museum fetish displayed behind glass. […]
Work Is Work: A zine by Hong Kong’s migrant workers
THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXCERPT from FULL TEXT AVAILABLE IN Lickzine#2 The so-called domestic workers of Hong Kong are a noteworthy presence, yet they are also easily discounted, certainly in terms of wages, if not in terms of the projected cultural profile of the city. Towards a cultural expression that is not entirely driven by […]
Samisdat Smut
Posted on Sunday 20 2015 In August 2015, I was helping someone do research at the remarkable ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California. Eventually, I was presented with this boxful of materials. The ONE archive is extensive, encompassing everything from Gore Vidal novels to “On Our Backs” magazines . . . and […]
After/Image: Hong Kong book art exhibition
Originally posted on Saturday, April 25 2015 Hong Kong is an urban jungle that inevitably points to the profit motive as the starting and finishing point for ANY activity, a harshly “pragmatic” circumstance that most definitely puts its “extra-economic” activity at a disadvantage. Therefore, forms such as the ephemeral “artist book”, long established in the […]