Gaining notoriety as an illicit manuscript during the colonial era, when the British Raj controlled the Indian subcontinent, the Kama Sutra’s prevailing image has long been sexually explicit. Synonymous with carnal contortions, it first raised eyebrows in a time characterised by sexual censorship. But this multifaceted work encompasses so much more. The text proposes a…
Hailing from Sierra Leone, Julianknxx dexterously utilises his life experiences as a lens through which he dismantles prevailing viewpoints concerning African art, historical narratives, and cultural expressions. Laden with symbolism, his works examine the Black experience of self-definition and redefinition, challenging conventional labels to build new and often unexpected collective narratives. Chorus in Rememory of…
Celebrated Indian sculptor, Ranjani Shettar, adeptly blends elements from the natural world with industrial components to craft expansive and immersive installations. She works with materials including beeswax, wood, organic dyes, vegetable pastes, lacquer, steel and cloth, creating environments inspired by her observations of the increasingly threatened ecologies of rural India. Living and working in Karnataka,…
Instagram account @ritualstudies investigates diverse and esoteric histories, offering unique insights into ritual practices from across the globe. From Amazigh body adornments, Māori greetings and Lithuanian foodways, to Turkish tombstones and Tajik wedding ceremonies, the feed is an aesthetic odyssey as well as a trove of cultural insight. Among the page’s recent highlights, discover the…
Hailing from New Orleans and based in New York, multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome works at the intersection of assemblage, technology, sculpture, video, music, and performance. Newsome’s work celebrates and abstracts Black and queer contributions to the art canon, resulting in new and inclusive forms of culture and media. While in residence at Somerset House Studios…
Titled The Laboratory of the Future and curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic and writer, Lesley Lokko, the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale is now open to the public and running until 26 November 2023. The Biennale includes 63 national participants spread across the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and in the historic city centre of Venice. As…
Hailing from Los Angeles and presently based in New York, artist Ian Cheng’s fascinating work investigates the nature of mutation and the capability of humans to respond to change, resourcefully drawing on principles of videogame design. Having had major solo presentations at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Serpentine Gallery, MoMA PS1, and the Migros…
Jonathan Lyndon Chase is an American multidisciplinary artist, whose expressionistic language traverses a variety of media, embracing painting, sculpture, video, installation, poetry and sound. Characterised by a celebratory and emotive exuberance, their work is often grounded in the routine intimacies that arise within domestic environments. Throughout their output, a visual language of multiplicity unfolds, in…