Latest posts
How Artists Through History Transformed the Shop Window
Well now, what can a poor artist do? This is the question for almost every art school graduate; how can they earn a living, just turn an honest penny, make a meagre buck, having been cast out into the cold and callous real world? One possibility has long proffered itself over the centuries, namely designing…
Parallel Worlds: Art in the Age of Climate Reckoning
Various accounts of those who journeyed through space mention the feeling of “awe” at the beauty and vastness of the universe. So much so that an effect was coined for the specific phenomenon: “the overview effect,” which was a profound cognitive shift experienced by astronauts seeing Earth from space. Upon one’s first encounter with Parallel…
The Interplay of Past and Present in Some of the Best Cinema This Year
I’m a big fan of this manifesto against best of the year lists, which applies as much to film as it does to books and restaurants. Since many of the sources of our collective pleasures are hard to reduce to a subjective opinion on contemporaneity and relevance within a given year. In the spirit of…
The Biggest Fashion and Style Moments of 2024
How to sum up 2024 in style and culture? A quick scroll through your frequently-used group chat should do it. But in case even that is too much for a tired and addled December brain, we’re here to help. Here are 12 moments you might have sent an emoji about in 2024. The future comes…
Interviews
How Vietnamese New Wave Empowered a Displaced Generation
When the filmmaker Elizabeth Ai was pregnant, she found herself scouring through old family albums, looking for something from her own childhood which she could share with her daughter in a couple of years. That’s when she chanced upon photographs of her uncles and aunts in Orange County, listening to New Wave in the ‘80s…
In Conversation with Paul Pfeiffer at His Guggenheim Bilbao ...
Working across video, photography, sculpture, and sound, Paul Pfeiffer’s multidisciplinary practice interrogates themes of spectacle, belonging, and difference. Born in Honolulu and based in New York, the artist spent much of his childhood in the Philippines—affording him a broader and transnational perspective on American identity. For over 25 years, he has utilised early digital editing…
Interview: Ndayé Kouagou Has a Message for Everybody
Paris-based artist Ndayé Kouagou’s cross-disciplinary works evolve from self-authored texts, which serve as a launch pad to explore themes of unease, power, and vulnerability. His meandering output spans performance, film, textiles, sculpture, and installation—often probing the aphoristic language of self-help gurus and online influencers. The artist’s work has recently been shown at major institutions including…
The Best Books from 2024
Drafting a reading list is one of those exercises that always come tinged with some regrets. For every book that you decide on including, there are two or three that with the privilege of hindsight you feel should have been afforded the same sort of consideration. Here then are some of my highlights of the…
In the Studio with Steph Huang
Step into the world of Steph Huang, the London-based Taiwanese artist whose poetic practice traverses diverse techniques and media, from glass blowing and bronze casting, to filmmaking and sound. Born in 1990 in Taiwan, Huang’s work draws on autobiographical narratives and traditions of storytelling, underscoring the eccentricities of everyday life. Currently the subject of Art…
Dazzling Discoveries: The Visible Lives of Women on Film in 2024
What lingers most from my year of going to the cinema in 2024 is not a particular image but an experience of time—or rather, several experiences of time as explored by filmmakers across the decades through a cultural and political inquiry into the intimate lives of women in various parts of Asia. This selection of…
Remembering Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024)
A transformative figure in America’s contemporary art landscape, Lorraine O’Grady’s contributions—developed over the course of a nearly five-decade spanning career—redefined the parameters of conceptual and performance art. Last week, on 13 December 2024, O’Grady passed away of natural causes at her home in Manhattan, aged 90. Her work reminds us that art is not merely…
Guides
The Something Curated 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Welcome to the Something Curated holiday gift guide for 2024 — a varied list of items, objects, and experiences for loved ones, all selected by friends of the SC community. Happy shopping and happy holidays. The Substance Candle — Slime Recommended by fashion and culture writer Lauren Cochrane. Anyone who saw The Substance has the last…
FNT Comes to Brooklyn’s 99 Scott for an Unforgettable Night ...
What do you get when you mix the grit of underground fight clubs, the glamour of New York’s arts scene, and the energy of a late-night party? The answer is FNT, the brainchild of Bekim Trenova. Seeking to rekindle the spirit of “old New York,” FNT began as an illegal fight party, evolving into one…
Eating and Exploring in the Beautiful Alpine Town of Annecy
Almost 20 years ago, I spent a dreamy summer living with a host family in the Alpine town of Annecy, situated on one of Europe’s most magnificent lakes. The town is, in many ways, unchanged since then –crisscrossed by flowerbox-lined canals an almost luminescent shade of blue, and ever popular with package tourists in safari gear….
A Complicated Blend of Love, Misunderstanding, and Self-sacrifice: Director Pelin Keskin Liu on ‘Three Meals’
Writer-director Pelin Keskin Liu’s debut short film Three Meals is a masterful portrait of the complexities, tensions and generational misunderstandings at the core of a relationship between a mother and daughter living very different lives. Yasmin and Suzy live apart – a metaphor for their having grown apart – but in the film they come together. Three…
Through a Community Art Class, FEBEN Highlights the Work of Domestic Abuse Charity Sistah Space
On Saturday 7 December 2024, Dalston’s St. Barnabas was transformed into an art school, as London-based Ethiopian designer FEBEN hosted a life drawing workshop in partnership with the charity Sistah Space—a collaborative initiative made possible by the support of PUMA. The event blended art, fashion, and community spirit, underscoring a shared commitment to empowerment and…
Taiwanese Artist Cole Lu’s Guide to Taipei
By fusing historical and literary references with lived experiences, Taipei-born New York-based artist Cole Lu’s work tells stories of dissonance and longing through winding odysseys—rendered in burnt wood, linen, engraved metal, and concrete. Following a conversation between the artist and Something Curated’s Keshav Anand, discussing Lu’s practice and latest show, The Engineers, Lu shares with…
At Home With Pinch Chef Alice Norman
Alice Norman’s culinary journey began at the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, where she developed a deep passion for food, putting her hand to farming to baking. Soon after completing two courses at the school, she began working her first job in hospitality with team at modern Indian restaurant Kricket in Brixton. She would…
From The Archive
Meet Harris Dickinson, the Compelling Lead Actor of ‘B...
British actor Harris Dickinson plays the lead role in Eliza Hittman’s critically acclaimed Beach Rats, which chronicles a young man’s struggle with his sexuality over the course of a summer, amid the stultifying machismo of outer Brooklyn. Opening in select theatres on 24 November, the film follows Frankie, portrayed by Dickinson, as he roams the…
Interview: Ernesto Neto On Gravity, Togetherness & The ...
Since the 1990s, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has produced an inimitable body of work that is in equal parts informed by sensuality and spirituality. Inspired by the Brazilian Conceptualists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, as well as biomorphism, Minimalism and Arte Povera, Neto’s works engage all of our senses while asserting the human body as…
SC Exclusive: Notes on a Siren — a Film Essay by Justice Jam...
Director Justice Jamal Jones joins myth with modern themes of Black queerness and trans identity in their latest film, Notes on a Siren. Presented by Something Curated, and exclusively premiering on the site, the film was shot on location at Palm Heights in Grand Cayman. Jones expands on the thinking behind their mesmerising work below….