Afterall

Afterall Online articles, interviews and reviews. Last updated 30th October 2007
Stephen G. Rhodes at Overduin and Kite Writing in 1975 as he toured the United States in search of cultural authenticity, Umberto Eco had little idea that exactly thirty years later the Vieux Carr�, his proposed seat of the American real, would be threatened with total destruction. Despite Hurricane Katrina and the levees that unleashed massive devastation onto much of New Orleans, the city�s historic French Quarter, situated above sea-level unlike much else in surrounding parts, was saved from submersion...	'Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists' at Hammer Museum Though Los Angeles is now considered a center for artistic production in the United States second only to New York, the burgeoning contemporary art scene here is by any normal measure still in its infancy. The relative brevity of the city's artistic history � arguably traceable to the mid-1950s and Walter Hopps's legendary Ferus Gallery � means that it is comparatively easy to gloss the aesthetic traditions that have predomi- nated among artists living and working in Los Angeles. Leaving aside the work...	Chen Xiaoyun at MC In Chen Xiaoyun's first US solo show, 'Faint', at MC, the artist seems to ask us to consider how we derive meaning from narrative. His video work has a literary quality, however, his use of overly wrought symbols empties this underlying narrative desire of any moral reward. Xiaoyun's work is brave and humble, as his fundamental self-mockery reveals the clich� allure of the solitary male...	Artists at work: Danh Vo Adam Carr: The first time I encountered your work was through 'Not a Drop but the Fall', a solo exhibition held at Galerie Klosterfelde in Berlin in 2005. With this project you seemed to break some rules and push some boundaries that both the art world and this world in general seem to impose. Since I have heard various conflicting stories, rumors and accounts with regards to this show...