"At FOG Design+Art a few weeks ago, for instance, I was surrounded by inspired, challenging, strange work that was, in large part, affirmative - a testament to human ingenuity and the capacity to create beauty. That Saturday afternoon, a man was shot and killed by two border patrol agents while trying to help a woman who'd been pushed to the ground. Not only was it difficult to focus on anything else after that, but it felt irresponsible to do so."
"Beside the screen stood one of her arm-shaped acoustic sculptures: a cast cupped hand with a puncture in the center of the palm that allows sound to travel through the forearm out the fluted opening. In the video, performers press the sculpted limb to their mouths, transforming the body into a conduit for amplified speech, and overcoming efforts to silence dissent."
An exhibition at the Torrance Art Museum reclaims ‘degenerate’ as an ethical stance: art that refuses neutrality and institutional comfort. Works confront violence, silencing, and exclusion while centering activism and solidarity. Elana Mann’s multimedia pieces convert body forms into speaking devices, amplifying protest chants and resisting efforts to mute dissent. Collaborative sculptures by groups such as Art Made Between Opposite Sides deploy embodied motifs—hands, palms, inscriptions—to signify collective labor, faith, and resistance. Sound, sculpture, and video are used to demand attention, insist on moral responsibility, and challenge viewers to remain present rather than look away from injustice.
Read at Hyperallergic
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