BOMB 119/Spring 2012
Bryn McConnell toys with color, line, expression, the canon—both on and off the canvas.
James Lasdun’s latest collection of short stories It’s Beginning To Hurt contains 16 intricate tales, each one thought-provoking and rich with linguistic brilliance.
Remember the old pulp novels—two-in-one, back-to-back and upside-down? When you finished one, you could flip the book over and read the other.
David Kramer reviews the New Museum Emory Douglas retrospective.
Ringtones and shutdown alerts become vocalists in James Ferraro’s newest digital album for a digital age.
A Pope-to-be gives the “No thanks” to the Vatican. Where’s Skywalker when you need him?
Don’t let the hands distract you. The daring documentary El Sicario interviews an alleged assassin whose only visible characteristic are the lethal five-fingered tools he has used at the the behest of drug lords and state police.
An eight hour interview with Gilles Delueze was saved for release until after the philosopher’s death. The posthumous talk covers everything from A to Z. Literally.
Campell McGrath’s newest tome of poetry leaves the stylistics at home in exchange for a drunk road show that draws an exclusionary circle around its own world.
Anselm Berrigan responds to Joe Brainard’s new collection in neatly packaged, minimal essays.
Donal Breckenridge goes to buy lotion. At the time he’s reading Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty. Somewhere in there there’s a connection.
Web Extra Video Artist and animator Jennifer Levonian’s work is Irreverent and articulate, and acknowledges that places, like nephews, don’t have to be perfect to be loved.
Nick Stillman points to Christopher Saucedo’s September 11, 2001 (Please Stop Saying 9/11) as an example of artistic retrospective through portraiture and branding.
Zach Layton listens to Rhys Chatam’s return to the trumpet in Rêve Parisien, an album that features improvisation, collaboration, and a minimalist organ.
Francisco Goldman lets himself become ensnared in the political nets Yoshua Okón’s White Russians and Octopus.
Terence Gower opens the gray flannel cover of Stan Allen and Marc McQuade’s Landform Building, an architectural manifesto that rethinks “organic” as “geologic.”
Andrew Lampert discusses You Are Now Running On Reserve Battery Power, a new video that Jessie Stead has staged in the creepy, comedic universe of Chatroulette.
Clinton Krute peers into the inscrutable world of filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, exploring the puzzles of The Day He Arrives.
Mónica de la Torre interviews the late Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven (yes, you read that correctly) in honor of the publication of Body Sweats, a collection of her uncensored writings.
Frederick Tuten explores the implications behind Jenny Diski’s new book, What I Don’t Know About Animals. Containing elements of memoir, travelogue, and investigative journalism, the text is also a love story.
Alexander Chee enters the bizarre universe of Daniel Clowe’s new graphic novel, The Death Ray, through an analysis of its central protagonist.
Jenn Joy is confronted by the distorted anatomy and face of Heather Kravas’s Kassidy Chism.
Sabine Russ maps Wolfgang Staehle’s 2001 onto 2011, tracing the painful and cathartic implications of its memory.
Cameron Shaw draws from examples in explaining her own connection to Lisa Pearson’s collection of work by female visual artists and writers.
The Library of America, doing what it does best, offers six of Ward’s groundbreaking woodcut novels from the 1930s in a beautifully printed two-volume set.
Full House Head presents mind-numbingly blissful tracks, and uses repeated riffs to create a long, loud, monolithic album.
Brandon Downing’s book of collages explores the space between visual art and poetry. His use of images from antique books gives the collection a feeling of historic Americana, both dreamlike and irreverent.
The Way Out is a joyful record, deftly using a miscellany of samples to create experimental, engrossing music.
Gaspar Noé’s new film is a psychedelic experience of Tokyo shown through the eyes of the deceased protagonist.
A collection of essays examining the cultural, social and political manifestations of both literal and metaphorical masquerade.
