Unfinished Conversations brings together works by more than a dozen artists, made in the past decade and recently acquired by The Museum of Modern Art. The artists that make up this intergenerational selection address current anxiety and unrest around the world and offer critical reflections on the present moment.
The exhibition considers the intertwining themes of social protest, the effect of history on the formation of identity, and how art juxtaposes fact and fiction. From Cairo to St. Petersburg, from The Hague to Recife, the artists in the exhibition observe and interpret acts of state violence and the resistance and activism they provoke. They reexamine historical moments, evoking images of the past and claiming their places within it. They take on contemporary struggles for power, intervening into debates about government surveillance and labor exploitation. Together, these artists look back to traditions both within and beyond the visual arts to imagine possibilities for an uncertain future.
Unfinished Conversations includes works by John Akomfrah, Jonathas de Andrade, Anna Boghiguian, Andrea Bowers, Paul Chan, Simon Denny, Samuel Fosso, Iman Issa, Erik van Lieshout, Cameron Rowland, Wolfgang Tillmans, Adrián Villar Rojas, Kara Walker, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Adia Victoria has released a new EP. How It Feels consist of three covers and once original all sung in French. Check out her cover of "Laissez Tomber Les Filles" below. How It Feels can be picked up HERE.
Adia notes, "I wanted this EP to take on a more eerie feel. Instead of the imagined dream pop girl wishing for her man to come home I reimagined the lyrics as sung by a lover scorned but still love sick and obsessed. I wanted to keep the timeless feel of these songs while breathing into them a bit of modernity; sharpen the edges a bit. What if 'Parlez Moi de Lui' were more of a hazey, trip out love letter from a woman still haunted by lost love. What if her in deranged mind her man still danced in and out of sight, just out of touch? I wanted to inject 'Laissez Tomber Les Filles' with a bit of the anger and danger I felt as a new political era descended on our country. This session would prove to be therapeutic in channeling my frustration with the current political landscape into powerful songs sung by iconic, emotional women. This EP was a way express all these feelings in a tangible way. There is so much emotionality to women that is often policed. This project gave me the chance to shake off those restrictions, free myself from my own mother tongue and speak in universal themes that flow beyond the borders of language."
Track List
"Laissez Tomber Les Filles" (written by Serge Gainsbourg, popularized by France Gall)
Our friends over at ResidentBand have released a new video. The clip, filmed by the ResidentBand crew, is an acoustic performance from Forty Feet Talllead singer Cole Gann. The video was shot in the old zoo in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Check out "I Won't Run" below. If you like your rock blues tinged, then chances are you'll enjoy Forty Feet Tall and this performance.
Elbow recently announced their North American tour. New York, they will be taking the stage at Webster Hall On Thursday, November 2 and Friday, November 3. See below for more details and tour dates.
Donald Cried is one of those movies that you're not sure whether you're supposed to awkwardly laugh, cringe or do both. The film centers around former childhood friends Peter (Jesse Wakeman) and Donald (Kris Avedisian) from Warwick, RI. Peter left for New York and changed. Donald, still lives with his mom (and his horrid stepdad) and has lived a rather dreary unchanged life.
Peter has returned home to settle his grandmothers affairs. He looses his wallet and realizes that the only person he has left to ask for help is Donald. From there everything is awkward...bizarre...insane...intense...at times just outright painfully uncomfortable.
When we first meet Donald, my first reaction was, 'oh hell no! Don't ask this questionable guy for anything...walk wherever you need to go...panhandle, anything just don't ask Donald. But of course he does. You learn right off this isn't going to be an easy afternoon starting with the weird bedroom scene which sees Donald butt naked in front of clearly uncomfortable Peter while proudly showing off his autographed porn poster.
Little by little you start to realize that Donald's annoying and odd behavior brings out the fact that Peter, who can't wait to be rid of Donald, wasn't such a nice friend back when. Donald goes from childlike to aggressive and back again at the blink of the eye getting a little payback while humiliating Peter throughout their adventure. A part of you feels sorry for Donald while a part of you just wants to punch him. At the same time, you wonder what and how bad is Peter's defect. He hasn't been back home in about twenty years because he doesn't like how he feels when he's there. He's been so absent from his grandmothers life that the nursing home staff thinks he's an imposter due to Donald visiting her as Peter...which is creepy and yet enduring. One has to wonder just how good life really is in New York for Peter. How is it that there's nobody in all of New York that he can call in an emergency that would make that roughly three and a half hour drive to Warwick with some money and to help him out.
After an increasingly bizarre day that eventually sees the pair bonding over memories, it all comes to a head. By the end, Peter, after witnessing Donald's stepfather belittle him over breakfast, seemingly understands Donald better even offering him a bit of genuine friendship as they say goodbye. While I wouldn't want to hang out with either of them, I found that I don't find them as intolerable as I did when we first met them and you realize this odd adventure needed to happen between them. Both Avedisian and Wakeman give appropriate, awkwardly entertaining performances.
Director/writer/star Kris Avedisian expertly deconstructs the contemporary obsession with the "man-child" in this darkly funny story about former childhood best friends who reconnect decades later in their working-class Rhode Island neighborhood. Peter Latang (Jesse Wakeman) left his childhood home of Warwick, Rhode Island to reinvent himself as a slick, Wall Street mover and shaker. When he's suddenly forced to return home to bury his grandmother, he loses his wallet on the trip and ends up at loose ends. Stranded and broke, Peter looks to the only person he can think of to help him out - his next door neighbor and former childhood friend Donald (played by Avedisian). The ever-eccentric Donald hasn't changed a bit, and what starts as a simple favor turns into a long and unhinged van ride into their past. Painfully awkward moments and increasingly bizarre – and dangerous – hijinks ensue, as the friends rediscover their stifled aggression and teenaged rebelliousness. Avedisian’s pitch-perfect first feature is a brilliant twist on the family-reunion melodrama and the classic buddy comedy.
TRT: 85 Minutes
Directed by Kris Avedisian
Produced by Kyle Martin
Written by Kris Avedisian, Kyle Espeleta and Jesse Wakeman
The Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management announced another wave of artists this week.
The festival, which takes place this year August 4 - August 6, in Newport, RI at Fort Adams State Park, added The Roots to the schedule. Road trip anyone? See below for a list of who else was announced this week. Grab your tickets HERE.
Friday, August 4
Naturally 7
Joey DeFrancesco + The People
Christian Sands Quartet with Gilad Hekselman, Yasushi Nakamura & Jerome Jennings
Saturday, August 5
Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding
Uri Caine Trio with Mark Helias & Clarence Penn
David Torkanowsky, solo piano
Sunday, August 6
The Roots
Philadelphia Experiment: Questlove, Christian McBride, Uri Caine
Jet Black Alley Cat recently released their new video for the track "Golden". The song is from their upcoming EP, due out later this year. You can pick "Golden" up HERE and check out the video below.
The New Respects recently announced their debut EP, Here Comes Trouble via Credential Recordings. The record is set to be released on March 10. The Nashville group are set to go on the road supporting Robert Randolph & The Family Band beginning March 15. See below for tour dates.
The New Respects enlisted the help of Jeremy Lutito (of rock group Leagues) to produce Here Comes Trouble. Two tracks have been released from the EP, "Trouble" and "Money."
The New Respects is a family affair, made up of three siblings, twins Alexis (bass) and Zandy Fitzgerald (guitar), along with their brother Darius (drums), and cousin Jasmine Mullen (vocals/guitar). The group is heavily influenced by the gospel music they were surrounded by growing up in Nashville, which extends to artists including Aretha Franklin, Alabama Shakes, and John Mayer.
Track List
Money
Frightening Lightning
Come As You Are
Shoes
Trouble
Tour Dates Supporting Robert Randolph & The Family Band
