ROUND UP February 11-22, 2019

Here's a big, fun post for this chunk of February: I wrote about Nancy for BUST, I talked to colleagues about Velvet Buzzsaw for Filthy Dreams, I reviewed an existential read for PopMatters, and I took a look at a show about gentrification and memory for Artblog. Enjoy!

• ""Nancy" Is A Haunting Take On A Scammer Story." BUST Magazine, February 11, 2019.

"Much like the protagonist of the film, Christina Choe’s Nancy is haunted and haunting, taking on new qualities and characteristics as quickly as it sheds them. It’s tempting to place Nancy in the category of “stories about unsympathetic female protagonists/antiheroines,” but Choe’s creation is decidedly much less of a charismatic act of arson à la Gone Girl's Amy Dunne or a self-immolating blaze à la Sharp Objects' Camille Preaker—her Nancy is a person profoundly uncomfortable with herself, eager to shy away from any kind of fixed identity [...] Nancy’s not running scams for money and fame like Anna Delvey and the other ladies of the 2018 Summer of Scam, but seeking a much more ephemeral score."

• "'The World Is a Narrow Bridge' is a Metaphysical Pilgrimage for the Social Media Era." PopMatters, February 15, 2019.

"Following the path of Murphy and Eva's cross-country road trip, The World Is a Narrow Bridge is a purposefully meandering read. Good Omens hurtles towards the aversion of a fiery end of the world; The World Is a Narrow Bridge, however, is as rudderless as its characters in search of something meaningful."

• "Neighborhoods in conflict and the role of the artist, in Guadalupe Rosales’s solo show at Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery." Artblog, February 22, 2019.

"The dark interior and purple lighting of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery combine with loud music playing in the background to evoke the feeling of a nightclub. The setup itself is extremely spare, with a horizontal glass case placed slightly off-center, with a slideshow of Rosales’ collected photographs plays across the room, interspersed with fuzzy video clips of the Chicanx community, of young Latina women enjoying themselves, as Rosales’ accompanying text notes. A photocollage covers the back wall of the space, filled with portraits and candids alike, mixing photos from Rosales’ past with photos she has collected. The glass case presents photography and artifacts of the childhood Rosales experienced, combining flyers and posters for parties with magazine covers, a black bandanna, formal family pictures taken in a studio. By combining images from her youth with images and artifacts donated by other people who were part of this world, Rosales presents the power of collective memory, and the empathy that shared experiences has undoubtedly created for her over the course of her work."