‘The more the activist agitates within [familiar cultural defaults], the more the noose tightens.’ – Keller Easterling
The November/December issue of frieze focuses on infrastructural shifts in the arts, the environment and in activism. What is the artistic landscape like outside established global capitals? How are artists representing our now-hotter, wetter world? How can museums recover after scandals, and what should activism achieve? Featuring Pope.L, Keller Easterling, Rem Koolhaas, Chris Kraus, Marlene McCarty, Saskia Sassen, Thirteen Black Cats (Vic Brooks, Lucy Raven and Evan Calder Williams) and more.
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie profiles 13BC, a film collective engaged in changing how we see and map landscape. A still from their 2019 film, Straight Flush, set in the barracks of a decommissioned military facility in Utah, features on the cover of the issue.
Also featuring: Architect Rem Koolhaas and AMO visualize the emergence of a ‘new sublime’ in the world’s rural zones; Chris Kraus convenes a roundtable on art-making on the Mexico-US border; urbanist Keller Easterling on activism in an age of polarization and information warfare; sociologist Saskia Sassen on cultural ‘invisibility’ in an age of global displacement; Jessica Lynne on Pope.L, an artist whose often-provocative work – spanning public performance, teaching and traditional media – has never been more urgent; Jennifer Kabat visits Silo City in Buffalo, New York, where artist Marlene McCarty is planting a garden that draws on the area’s history at the crux of capitalism and modernism; and Max Andrews pens a case study on how right-wing politics can impact museums, looking to Spain’s trailblazing Institut Valencia d’Art Modern (IVAM).
Plus, 22 reviews from around the world, including Vincent Fecteau at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, and Wael Shawky at Lisson Gallery, New York. And answering our questionnaire is legendary sci-fi author William Gibson, whose novel, Agency, is forthcoming with Berkley Books.