Things worth sharing:
- Helen Thorpe spends a year in a Denver classroom with students learning English as a second language in her remarkable book The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in America, and she paints a vivid picture of the United States I still believe in, where we welcome and support the weary.
- Rose B. Simpson's sculptures are already magical as individual pieces and only grow more powerful in the pairings and groupings in her current show at Jessica Silverman.
- Speaking of pairings, Drew Heitzler finishes up his year curating two-person shows at slash with a fascinating juxtaposition of Kota Ezawa's Merzbau wallpaper with a capsule of irradiated seeds Sean Raspet will plant in Michigan. Forests of the past, forests to be.
- Kimberley Acebo Arteche uses technology to beautiful effect to explore her Filipina heritage in the curved body of a pixel, currently on display at Incline Gallery.
- Craving tea leaf salad or paratha whilst in Noe Valley? Inle Burmese will sort you out, deliciously.
- Anything at the Recombinant Festival is always worth checking out, and this year they outdid themselves by bringing in Morton Subotnick for a live performance of "Silver Apples of the Moon" with accompanying visuals by Lillevan. I tuned in, I blissed out.
- Julien Faraut's film John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection is more New Wave punk poem than strict documentary, but any movie that bookends its soundtrack with Sonic Youth and Black Flag is going to be all right by me.
- I've also been enjoying a surreal journey through the animations of Suzan Pitt thanks to the Criterion Channel. See also this essay about her work by Haden Guest.
- Stephanie Syjuco gave a great lecture at Mills Wednesday evening on the politics of imaging and representation, and how she's been addressing said topics in her work. Always always love hearing what she's up to.