- Cell phone video of cops shooting yet another unarmed black man is making its way around. This time, police shot Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist trying to calm an autistic man, while he was laying on the ground with his hands up announcing that he didn’t have a weapon. When asked why they shot him, the officer replied “I don’t know.” And then handcuffed the bleeding victim. Can we please stop handing guns to the members of the population who exhibit the least capacity for critical thinking? This is the biggest WHAT. THE. FUCK. video of them all. Utterly inexcusable. [Facebook via Shaun King]
- There’s an exhibition at American University of North Korean Socialist Realism. I really want to see this. [National Geographic]
- Behold: the bizarre street carnival of protesters and supporters at Trump’s surreal RNC. Hillary Clinton as Cersei Lannister, a Sikh Captain America, Chewbacca detained at the border, and plenty of Trump “fan art”… the art of the RNC looks a lot like the world’s angriest ComicCon. [The Atlantic]
- Related: a map of Donald Trump’s Manhattan real estate empire. [Curbed]
- Even more on the growing feud between anti-gentrification activists and art spaces in LA’s Boyle Heights. It seems like some of these spaces have been in the neighborhood for decades, but real estate speculators didn’t start moving in until after the Gold Line light rail connected the neighborhood to downtown. The cause-and-effect here is specious at best. [artnet News]
- Speaking of the never-ending dance between luxury development and galleries, Robin Scher traces the long history of art spaces founding, leaving, and returning to what’s now known as “Billionaire’s Row,” a.k.a. 57th street in Manhattan. It’s a pretty interesting read. [ARTnews]
- The Durst Organization has commissioned Stephen Glassman to create a 32,000 pound steel sculpture inspired by the Hudson. The piece will adorn the main entrance of The Bjarke Ingels-designed tetrahedron, Via 57 West, and is supposed to look like the river. [Curbed]
- Alan G Brake visits The Hills on Governors Island, a major landscape intervention/earthwork by the firm West 8. Brake argues that the new vantage point afforded by The Hills allows us to recenter our psychogeographical map of the city. From there, it’s easier to conceive of the metropolis as an archipelago, with views toward the island of Manhattan, Liberty Island, Staten Island, and the boroughs on Long Island. [Dezeen]
- In a brief essay titled “The creepiest work of public art ever,” Howard Halle claims that Union Square’s 1999 “Metronome” from Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel “looks and functions like an asshole.” [Time Out New York]
- In an all-too-common case, international retailer Zara has been ripping off designs from independent artist Tuesday Bassen for years. Apparently the fast-fashion chain can’t come up with its own shit as fast as sweatshops can churn it out. [Refinery29]
