The Audacity of Occupy Wall Street | by Richard Kim

A few years ago, Joe Therrien, a graduate of the NYC Teaching Fellows program, was working as a full-time drama teacher at a public elementary school in New York City. Frustrated by huge class sizes, sparse resources and a disorganized bureaucracy, he set off to the...
Ayanda Mabulu vs Brett Murray | by Unathi Kondile

Ayanda Mabulu vs Brett Murray | by Unathi Kondile

Firstly, I’d like to thank Brett Murray for his contribution to the arts. Secondly, I wish I could deliver canapés and wine to all the South African households who have had the privilege of entering a gallery from the comfort of their homes, courtesy of our media’s...
Information is not knowledge | by Andy Wilson

Information is not knowledge | by Andy Wilson

David Stubbs, Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don’t Get Stockhausen (Zero, 2010), £9.99_ The Tate Modern is one of the biggest cultural attractions in the UK, welcoming over five million visitors a year.1 Thousands flocked to see its recent Futurist and...

The Spear that divided the nation | by Professor Mbembe

AN OLD west African proverb compares the artist to a dog. Positioned at the interface of the human and the natural worlds, the dog in most ancient African societies enjoyed a slippery and highly ambiguous cultural status.  Neither a human being, nor a wild animal, it...
The SPEAR – up whose arse? | by Allan Horowitz

The SPEAR – up whose arse? | by Allan Horowitz

The recent controversy about the artist Brett Murray’s “The Spear” painting provoked furious verbal and other acrobatics. Those who opposed the public showing of the painting did so claiming not to be censoring an exposed penis per se, but to be...