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“The Collective,” Divided: A Review

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*Lillian Li*

Don Lee’s prose is not pretty, or even particularly effortless in his novel. He tends towards wordy, didactic passages and heavy-handed, eye-rolling dialogue—one racist bar customer calls Eric a “Chinese wonton” (297). His characters remain characters, never fully embodying the human beings they wish to represent, and many seem to step in only to move the plot along or provoke an epiphany from the myopic narrator. But in failing to write movingly about ethnicity and/in art, Lee has also managed to succeed.

“The Collective,” Divided: A Review Read More »

*Lillian Li*

Don Lee’s prose is not pretty, or even particularly effortless in his novel. He tends towards wordy, didactic passages and heavy-handed, eye-rolling dialogue—one racist bar customer calls Eric a “Chinese wonton” (297). His characters remain characters, never fully embodying the human beings they wish to represent, and many seem to step in only to move the plot along or provoke an epiphany from the myopic narrator. But in failing to write movingly about ethnicity and/in art, Lee has also managed to succeed.

Julie Schenkelberg Builds Shipwrecks of Hope: “Symptomatic Constant”

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Within the materials lies Schenkelberg’s remarkable talent for recapturing wonder. “Symptomatic Constant” is a massive work. It starts as rubble on the marble floor with plaster dust and shards of ceramic, resembling a shore of beach glass, then steadily the work grows up into the high space of the lobby’s ceiling with fabric draped to an old cast-iron heating register. Schenkelberg builds in layers with architectural salvage culled from the site itself as well as local thrifting. Her cultural archeology is distinctive in its details and restless as the whole of her ship-like installation.

Julie Schenkelberg Builds Shipwrecks of Hope: “Symptomatic Constant” Read More »

Within the materials lies Schenkelberg’s remarkable talent for recapturing wonder. “Symptomatic Constant” is a massive work. It starts as rubble on the marble floor with plaster dust and shards of ceramic, resembling a shore of beach glass, then steadily the work grows up into the high space of the lobby’s ceiling with fabric draped to an old cast-iron heating register. Schenkelberg builds in layers with architectural salvage culled from the site itself as well as local thrifting. Her cultural archeology is distinctive in its details and restless as the whole of her ship-like installation.

On Never Having Read Anne Frank

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I am 43 years old. I am Jewish. I wrote a novel about the Holocaust. I grew up in a synagogue headed by an Auschwitz survivor and by his wife, also an Auschwitz survivor. I have taught my students work by Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Charlotte Delbo. But until this month, I had never read the diary of Anne Frank.

On Never Having Read Anne Frank Read More »

I am 43 years old. I am Jewish. I wrote a novel about the Holocaust. I grew up in a synagogue headed by an Auschwitz survivor and by his wife, also an Auschwitz survivor. I have taught my students work by Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Charlotte Delbo. But until this month, I had never read the diary of Anne Frank.

Crystal Bridges Museum logo

Crystal Bridges to Where?

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* Kaveh Bassiri *

I looked forward to “State of the Art,” which opened on September 13, 2014 as the Crystal Bridges Museum’s first exhibition not based on its permanent collection. Such exhibit should tell us about the museum’s aspirations. Curators Don Bacigalupi and Chad Alligood traveled to about 1,000 artist studios in 170 cities from 44 states, and they selected 227 works made since 2011 from 102 artists, half of them art educators. Their vision in the catalog says, “What we are attempting here is to rethink the shape of contemporary art in this country.”

Crystal Bridges to Where? Read More »

* Kaveh Bassiri *

I looked forward to “State of the Art,” which opened on September 13, 2014 as the Crystal Bridges Museum’s first exhibition not based on its permanent collection. Such exhibit should tell us about the museum’s aspirations. Curators Don Bacigalupi and Chad Alligood traveled to about 1,000 artist studios in 170 cities from 44 states, and they selected 227 works made since 2011 from 102 artists, half of them art educators. Their vision in the catalog says, “What we are attempting here is to rethink the shape of contemporary art in this country.”

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