Nov / Dec 2017 Issue
“Empathy”

Hospitality and Hosting Relationships in Michael Rakowitz’s Art

by Danielle Brock | Dec 29, 2017

Hospitality and Hosting Relationships in Michael Rakowitz’s Art

by Danielle Brock | Dec 29, 2017

Through his work, Michael Rakowitz consistently asks how we can care for what we’ve discarded, and opens new possibilities to reimagine previously hostile relationships.

Strategies & Resources

Below the Surface: Creating Hope through Portraiture

by Joseph Iacona | Dec 26, 2017

Strategies & Resources

Below the Surface: Creating Hope through Portraiture

by Joseph Iacona | Dec 26, 2017

Educator-in-Residence Joseph Iacona’s students embark on a project of self-discovery, inspiring them to feel hopeful about themselves and their future while protecting their identities.

Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives”

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Dec 22, 2017

Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives”

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Dec 22, 2017

Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives” series shows inscribed corrections of “New York Times” print articles, exposing editorial bias conveyed by ill-chosen images, poorly worded headlines, and textual masking of white crime.

Dominate Anonymity: An Interview with Guy Woueté

by Gauthier Lesturgie | Dec 21, 2017

Dominate Anonymity: An Interview with Guy Woueté

by Gauthier Lesturgie | Dec 21, 2017

Cameroonian artist Guy Woueté takes inspiration from everyday life to create socially critical work that addresses questions of migration and equity in a globalized twenty-first century.

Patient Time Scripts: Revisiting the Work of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi

by Same Mdluli | Dec 15, 2017

Patient Time Scripts: Revisiting the Work of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi

by Same Mdluli | Dec 15, 2017

Same Mdluli details the significance of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi’s work, created in response to the conditions of his people during apartheid in South Africa.

Empathy in Training: Kerry Tribe’s “Standardized Patient”

by Rachel Heidenry | Dec 13, 2017

Empathy in Training: Kerry Tribe’s “Standardized Patient”

by Rachel Heidenry | Dec 13, 2017

Kerry Tribe’s new video installation “Standardized Patient,” examines the relationship between doctors and patients—or, more accurately, between medical students and actors playing patients.

Orawan Arunrak: Words to Communicate

by Roger Nelson | Dec 11, 2017

Orawan Arunrak: Words to Communicate

by Roger Nelson | Dec 11, 2017

With a practice based loosely on choreographed interactions between the artist, various interlocutors, and the spaces and places that they share, Thai artist Orawan Arunrak complicates categories of identity and perception by creating work with many meanings, in many languages, for many people.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Radical Art in a Conservative School

by Dennis Greenwell | Dec 7, 2017

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Radical Art in a Conservative School

by Dennis Greenwell | Dec 7, 2017

Art21 Educator Dennis Greenwell shares how a project on empathy helped his students better understand one another and our current political landscape.

Booked

How Did We Get Here? A Reading List for Understanding Race in America

by Cauleen Smith and Victoria L. Valentine | Dec 5, 2017

Booked

How Did We Get Here? A Reading List for Understanding Race in America

by Cauleen Smith and Victoria L. Valentine | Dec 5, 2017

Artist Cauleen Smith and “Culture Type” editor Victoria L. Valentine select twelve texts that offer rare perspectives on the central role race plays in American life.

Composing Compassion: On Jumana Manna’s “A Magical Substance Flows Into Me”

by Morgan Green | Nov 29, 2017

Composing Compassion: On Jumana Manna’s “A Magical Substance Flows Into Me”

by Morgan Green | Nov 29, 2017

Jumana Manna’s 2015 film “A magical substance flows into me” weaves together the musical traditions of communities living in and around Jerusalem, undermining the state-sanctioned forgetting of complex cultural contexts.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Keep it Real, Keep it Relevant

by Joseph Iacona | Nov 15, 2017

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Keep it Real, Keep it Relevant

by Joseph Iacona | Nov 15, 2017

Educator-in-Residence Joseph Iacona shares the impact socially engaged artists have in classrooms with trauma-impacted students.

The Poetry of Everyday Life: An Interview with Project Row Houses Director Eureka Gilkey

by Lindsey Davis | Nov 7, 2017

The Poetry of Everyday Life: An Interview with Project Row Houses Director Eureka Gilkey

by Lindsey Davis | Nov 7, 2017

Houston arts nonprofit Project Row Houses responds directly to the needs of the Third Ward community, offering both arts programming and access to social services, proving both can work hand-in-hand.

Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Nov 7, 2017

Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Nov 7, 2017

For her residency at Recess Assembly, artist Stephanie Dinkins is exploring if social robot BINA48 is capable of speaking from the perspective of a Black woman.

Letter from the Editor

Living in an Age of Empathy

by Yvette Mutumba | Nov 7, 2017

Letter from the Editor

Living in an Age of Empathy

by Yvette Mutumba | Nov 7, 2017

Curator Yvette Mutumba discusses how biased empathy can be problematic, but when understood as a means of inclusive human solidarity, empathy can lead to a greater understanding of the issues troubling the world today.