Link About It: This Week’s Picks

NYC’s new triennial, condoms for gender-free genitals, a portable wind turbine and more

Artsy’s Guide to New York Art Week

From 5 to 12 May, over 20 international galleries, museums and art organizations will come together to present contemporary art programming across the city for the inaugural New York Art Week. With over 350 global galleries showing new and exciting works, planning an itinerary to cover everything the week has to offer can be overwhelming. That’s why Artsy has compiled three different focused plans to enjoy the fairs. Each guide is crafted for different kinds of art lovers: The Art Traditionalist itinerary features Charles Ray’s sculptures, David Zwirner, White Cube, Gagosian and more; The Art Curious schedule sees Egyptian, Asian and Assyrian art as well as Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party; and The Art Insider plan includes Dominick Di Meo, Charline von Heyl, Lui Shtini and a new multidisciplinary opera by Colin Self. View the lists at Artsy.

Image of guests at Future Fair 2021 by Ryan Neeven for DoThings, courtesy of Future Fair

How Curve Magazine Fostered The Past and Future of Lesbian Culture

In 1990, Franco Stevens used the money she made from betting on horse races to found Curve Magazine (previously titled Deneuve), a publication intended to help queer women feel less alone. The publication would go on to become one of the most successful lesbian magazines in the world with its first issue selling out in six days. Since then Curve has expanded into a foundation that empowers women, transgender people and non-binary individuals, and released a documentary called Ahead of the Curve, which documents the journal’s impact in shaping lesbian culture—including the rising awareness of marginalization of queer women of color. From how difficult it was to find and connect with queer women before the internet to laws banning queer education in schools today, Stevens reflects on the past, present and future of lesbian culture in an interview published by them. Read more there.

Image courtesy of Barak Shrama

Applications Open For Photography and Video Triennial Coming to NYC in 2023

The Museum of the City of New York will open New York Nowthe city’s only triennial focused on photography, video and other lens-based mediums—in March 2023. Currently, they are inviting amateur and professional artists to submit work until 17 June for next year’s inaugural exhibition, which will engage the theme of home. Any work from the past six years can be considered and applicants can submit up to eight photographs or one video. According to the triennial’s organizers, they are looking for work that “creatively documents and interprets this changing cityscape and the disparate responses and experiences of New Yorkers, straddling the stories of the city before, during, and after the pandemic.” Learn more about the open call as well as the upcoming exhibit at Hyperallergic.

Image of Bob Lerner for LOOK magazine, “Hungarian Refugee [Man with a camera standing with his back to the United Nations Building];” courtesy of Museum of the City of New York

Artist RTiiiKA’s Queer Condoms for Gender-Free Genitals

At Bristol-based artist RTiiiKA’s recent exhibition, Between the Lines, the artist handed out queer condoms to accompany her work on display. The condoms came emblazoned with different labels like “FOR VERY BIG CLiTS,” “FOR DYKES WHO SLEEP WiTH DiCKS,” “FOR MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN” and more. The condoms and the exhibition sought to remove the gender binary, and center queer sexuality, group pleasure and, as RTiiiKA (aka Rosa ter Kuile) says, “the many ways to enjoy sex outside of the hetero (or even homo) norm.” When it comes to art, RTiiiKA does this through minimalist lines and genderless figures which put a playful spin on ambiguity. Between her illustrations, paintings, street art, zines and other creative ventures, the self-taught artist intends to make more queer condoms to continue championing pleasure as a form of resistance. Read more about RTiiika and her radical art at It’s Nice That.

Image of RTiiiKA: Queer Condoms—Gender-free Genitals; courtesy of the artist

Vietnam’s 2,073-Foot Glass-Bottom Bridge Opens

Said to be the longest glass-bottom bridge in the world, a new 2,073-foot-long suspended thoroughfare has opened in Vietnam. Known as Bach Long (which means “white dragon” in Vietnamese), the pedestrian pathway stretches 500 feet above a verdant ravine in the Moc Chau district of Vietnam’s Son La province. The bridge is composed of three layers of tempered glass (each measuring 40mm), which allow for a breathtaking look at the landscape below. Read more at Business Insider.

Image courtesy of Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images

Microbial Protein Could Halve The Planet’s Deforestation

In a study recently published in Nature, scientists have claimed that swapping “20% of the world’s beef consumption with microbial protein” would lead to a massive reduction in deforestation—half the current level—over the next 30 years. Meat alternatives have drastically smaller carbon footprints than that of cattle; not only does livestock lead to cutting down trees, but also increased methane emissions from cows. The demand for beef has increased by more than double since 1961, and it’s crucial to decrease our consumption. “The food system is at the root of a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, with ruminant meat production being the single largest source,” says Dr Florian Humpenöder, who led the study. “The best meat alternative is to eat less, but [microbial protein products] can make it easier for people to switch away from meat.” Read more at The Guardian.

Image courtesy of Raúl Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

Aurea Technologies’ Portable Wind Turbine for Campers, Shine

Roughly the size of a one-liter water bottle and weighing three pounds, Shine is a portable wind turbine capable of charging devices or storing energy for campers. Developed by a women-led team within Canada’s Aurea Technologies, the device incorporates a 40-watt turbine (with efficient patent-pending blades) that sends power to a 12,000 mAh internal lithium-ion battery. It can also be pre-charged before heading out. “Shine generates power in wind speeds from eight to 28mph and temperatures between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit,” designboom reports. Read more there about the turbine, which successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021 and can be now purchased online.

Image courtesy of Shine

A New Zine on Consent Created By Four Skateboarding Collectives

Ask Campaign Collective is a group comprised of four women and non-binary skate groups: Doyenne, Consent is Rad, Consent for Breakfast and Hera Skate. Together they produced Ask, an educational zine (whose profits go to Consent is Rad) that seeks to make the skating community safer and more inclusive. The zine, launched in April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, tackles challenging and uncomfortable topics—like how to call out friends for questionable behavior, navigating pronouns and more—with real experiences from those in the scene. Ask’s elegant design, helmed by Glasgow-based Giulia Saporito, makes the conversations more accessible, as the minimalist, soft visuals are inviting rather than clinical. “Interacting with and speaking openly about campaigns like ours will help us form better habits with a better understanding of respecting each individual’s boundaries as unique and wholly important,” says the collective. Learn more about them and the zine at It’s Nice That.

Image courtesy of Giulia Saporito: Ask. Copyright © Ask Campaign Collective: Doyenne/Consent is Rad/Consent for Breakfast/Hera Skate (2022)

The Bird-Shaped Canairi Monitor Tracks CO2 Levels at Home

Alluding to the canaries that were taken into coal mines to detect air quality, Canairi is a bird-shaped fresh air monitor that keels over if CO2 levels rise too high inside a home. The whimsical mechanism, funding on Kickstarter now, is the vision of two Copenhagen-based designers and a simple reminder to ventilate. If air quality does initiate the bird’s downward droop, it takes roughly 10 minutes for it to rotate back up after a window is opened—further, if the battery needs to be charged, the canary will drop to 90 degrees. Read more at Fast Company.

Image courtesy of Canairi

Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning. Hero image courtesy of Nhac Nguyen/AFP

No Responses to “Link About It: This Week’s Picks”

Post a Comment