Eugene Lim
Publicists, Manifesto Pushers, Propagandists | What Happened to the Avant-Garde?
Eugene Lim
It’s commonplace to note that sociopolitical upheaval and artistic experimentation often flourish side by side. But today — despite an alleged “polycrisis” — new modes of cultural production don’t seem to be emerging. Three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent George Floyd rebellion, the arts seem stagnant and stubbornly centralized: franchise fare dominates at the box office; literary output is hampered by monopolized publishers; even...
On the One Hand
Eugene Lim
On the one hand, I think now is a fine time to despair. Reality television may have been the first nail in the coffin of conceptual art — a shock-and-cringe military strategy that destroyed the institution of consensus reality. That is, it’s always darkest before it gets really really dark. Even as the nets of social media divide us into impotent sports teams, they herd and defang our wild imagination....
