I can only imagine how impossible it must be to put together a biennial that everyone likes—to curate a group of works over the course of several years that will need to speak to the issues on everyone’s minds in the here and now, even though the news cycle moves at the speed of light. … Continue reading
Well, hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! What a year it’s been! I know, I know–it’s that time of year when every publication rushes to print as many listicles as possible. Why fight it? We want to count things down too! I’m ready to make bold proclamations of this year’s bests! More of our superlatives … Continue reading
“I love everything that’s bad with America and that’s what I make movies about,” explains our preeminent filth elder John Waters. John isn’t the only one. Shortly before Waters’s Hag in a Black Leather Jacket (barely) graced screens, Andy Warhol was publicly embracing the tacky, trashy and terribly capitalist side of American culture. From cheaply and … Continue reading
One of the last works on view in the winding, labyrinth-like galleries of the Whitney Museum’s long awaited David Wojnarowicz retrospective History Keeps Me Awake At Night features a hand, presumably the artist’s own, holding a tiny, adorable frog. Just one example of Wojnarowicz’s lifelong affinity for creepy-crawly things–bugs, frogs, snakes, etc., this tender and … Continue reading
As most faithful Filthy Dreams readers will probably know, the shit hit the fan this week over Dana Schutz’s misguided painting Open Casket, which depicts Emmett Till in his casket, at the Whitney Biennial. To be honest, I knew as soon as I saw it at the Biennial press preview that it was a problem. … Continue reading
While I know this will certainly get me in trouble but try as I might, I can’t say it another way: I hated the Whitney Museum’s exhibition Rituals of Rented Island: Object Theater, Loft Performance and The New Psychodrama–Manhattan, 1970-1980. Even its Jack Smith-coined name couldn’t save the exhibition for me. Continue reading