Images of incessant and graphic violence are taking over our lives. The violence is real, as well as our impotence to intervene. The title of this Winter issue,
Failures of Influence, comes from Uzomaka Maduka's
Critic Dispatch, in which the American author considers the failures of influence in friendship and art. What still influences us today? Can images incite us to action? Are we empathy deficient? Are we living in a time of post-empathy?
We used to feel compassion for those lost in battle. We once found significance in thumbnail-sized images of wars, or even drawings depicting political assassinations or weapons of mass destruction. Now, we are so saturated with tragic, brutal imagery that we are almost numb to it. We are falling out of love with reality. We live in mentally dysfunctional times, when opinions are shaped via social media rather than first-hand experience or objective reasoning. Everyone has something to say about everything and anything.
The artists selected for this issue addresses these failures of influence, particularly our evolving—and devolving—relationship with the image in these troubled political times.
In this issue: covers, Heji Shin photographed by Richard Kern; Eric N. Mack and Kiko Kostadinov photographed by
Ari Marcopoulos; Hannah Black photographed by Lee Wei Swee;
Mike Kelley,
Shy Satanist Backdrop Study, 2005; features: Letter from the editor;
Cover Story A Portrait of the Artist as a Monkey's Ass. Heji Shin by Dean Kissick;
Cover Story The Fabric of Time. Eric N. Mack in Conversation with Kiko Kostadinov;
Cover Story Seaworthy: Ransacking and Looting. SoHo >> Marseilles. Hannah Black in Conversation with
Estelle Hoy;
Critic Dispatch On False Friends and the Failures of Influence by Uzoamaka Maduka;
Cover Story and
TIME MACHINE Mike Kelley in Conversation with Larry Clark and John Waters; I Think I Don't Want to Lie. Elle Pérez in Conversation with Ben Broome; Assortment of Truths.
Farah Al Qasimi by Sarah Chekfa;
Unpack / Reveal / Unleash At First Blush. Lotus L. Kang by Alex Bennett;
FOCUS ON Tokyo. 湾と病弱な月 by
Chus Martínez; The Museum of Multi-Humans. Yuko Hasegawa in Conversation with Gea Politi;
The Curist O-Town House, Los Angeles. Scott Cameron Weaver in Conversation with Gracie Hadland;
Letter from the City Letter from the High Atlas. Where Geology and Metaphysics Mingle by
Bouchra Khalili; reviews:
Rirkrit Tiravanija "A LOT OF PEOPLE" MoMA PS1, New York, by Chiara Mannarino; Kayode Ojo "EDEN" 52 Walker, New York, by Whitney Mallett; "Nonmemory" Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, by Sam Davis; Eleanor Antin and My Barbarian MCASD – Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, by Sampson Ohringer; Mary Ellen Mark "Encounters" C/O Berlin by Mitch Speed; Gray Wielebinski "The Red Sun is High, the Blue Low" ICA, London, by Frank Wasser;
Nan Goldin "This Will Not End Well" Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, by Dagmar Bosma.
This issue comes with four different covers, randomly distributed.
Flash Art is a contemporary art and culture magazine (and a
publishing platform) founded in 1967. Within a decade, it became an indispensable point of reference for artists, critics, collectors, galleries, and institutions. In 2020,
Flash Art became a quarterly publication, at the same time increasing its trim size and updating its graphic identity. The magazine offers a fresh perspective on the visual arts, covering a range of transdisciplinary approaches and fostering in-depth analyses of artist practices and new cultural directions. Today,
Flash Art remains required reading for all who navigate the international art scene.
Flash Art is known for it covers featuring artists who subsequently become leading figures in the art world. The magazine includes photoshoots, productions, critical essays, monographic profiles, conversations with emerging and established artists, and a range of ongoing and thematic columns that change every few years. The long history of the magazine is also highlighted by pivotal texts from the archive that are included in the publication time to time. Finally, every issue offers a highly curated selection of the best institutional exhibitions on the global scene.
