The Downward Spiral

 Henryk Streng/ Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Henryk Streng/Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Dean Kissick corresponds with two young arts workers from Ukraine, who share firsthand accounts of the war that is currently unfolding.

 Leonora Carrington,  Tuesday  (1946)

Leonora Carrington, Tuesday (1946)

In his first column of 2022, Dean Kissick comes to us with a parable – a prophecy from the smoke of the Sacred City.

Paul Gauguin, Martinique Landscape, 1887

Dean Kissick returns from his summer hiatus (ascetic, solitary research, perhaps?), restored and brimming with renewed hope. Eat vegetables, get Tao Lin-pilled, and revel in the beauty of the universe: the modern-day equivalent of "turn on, tune in, drop out"? 

   Josephine Pryde 's Sorry Not Sorry, 2016 “Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery” 

Josephine Pryde, Sorry Not Sorry, 2016
Photo: Stefan Korte, Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery 

DEAN KISSICK reads Natasha Stagg’s new essay collection Sleeveless and Fiona Duncan’s debut novel Exquisite Mariposa and begins to understand the 2010s.

 Film Still from the Gucci Cruise 2020 video campaign

Film Still from the Gucci Cruise 2020 video campaign

Gucci’s new Cruise campaign, directed by Harmony Korine and Alessandro Michele, stars rapper Gucci Mane. Gucci Mane’s new album cover, shot by Harmony Korine and Alessandro Michele, stars Gucci. Pop continues to eat itself. Nothing means anything here, in the twilight of the 2010s.

 Bonfire, Olsok St Olav's Day, Skjolden

Bonfire, Olsok St Olav's Day, Skjolden

This month Dean Kissick goes to the Norwegian countryside, contemplates Ludwig Wittgenstein’s retreat from society and sees art’s return to its pagan origins in artist Marianne Heske’s latest project

 Montez Press Radio photographed by Taylor Ervin

Montez Press Radio photographed by Taylor Ervin

A love letter to Montez Press Radio from Dean Kissick

 _______INSERT_______David O'Reilly Eye of the Dream  (2018)

David O'Reilly
Eye of the Dream (2018)

DEAN KISSICK visits the sixth Guangzhou Triennial, “As We May Think: Feedforward”, curated by Angelique Spaninks, Zhang Ga and Philipp Ziegler.

 Julien Nguyen Noli me tangere, Caesaris sum (2018, detail)

Julien Nguyen
Noli me tangere, Caesaris sum (2018, detail)

DEAN KISSICK on why beauty today wishes to float free of our bodies

 Performance by M. Page Greene Photo: @utopianvisionsartfair

Performance by M. Page Greene, Photo: @utopianvisionsartfair

DEAN KISSICK visits Portland, Oregon for the Utopian Visions Art Fair

In his column Dean Kissick writes about the second season of the BBC's Blue Planet and finds a swansong for a disappearing natural world full of bizarre beauty. Soon, science and technology may furnish us with an imaginary and perhaps still stranger world. 

Jordan Wolfson Real violence, 2017, (Installation view)  Virtual reality headsets, high-definition video, color, Sound; 2:25 min.  2017 Whitney Biennial ( March 17-June 11, 2017).  Collection of the artist; courtesy David Zwirner, New York, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. 

Photograph: Bill Orcutt

This has been a year of disappearing statues, but what will become of all the defaced idols and broken images? Dean Kissick on why iconoclasm is back and what we can do about its aftermath. 

 Richard Prince Untitled (cowboy), 1980-1989

Richard Prince
Untitled (cowboy), 1980-1989

In this month’s column, Dean Kissick considers Richard Prince's disavowal of his artwork and the destabilisation of reality.

In his monthly column, Dean Kissick examines the culture of a collapsing society.