Articles

Kurt Gottschalk attended a New York performance of Max Richter's SLEEP, in which audience members are invited to stay overnight at a concert, slowing down to share a collective, somatic experience of music. Gottschalk reported on the experience for White Fungus. Speaking to other composers on the topic, and revisiting historic works, he extended his inquiry to consider at length this different process of listening.

Kyra Kordoski revisits the pantheon-building art theory of Clement Greenberg and its connection to modernity through the prism of the matsutake mushroom.

Sam Wallman is an award-winning Melbourne comics artist who utilizes journalism and the expanded canvas of the web to detail the lives of his subjects while delivering a penetrating social message. Drawing on his co-pursuits as a trade unionist and political activist, Wallman explores topics ranging from the history of trade unionism, meth use among gay, bi, and queer men, to the arbitrariness of human detention. Tim Bollinger interviewed Wallman and wrote an overview of his work for White Fungus.

New Zealand's Pink and White Terraces were dubbed the "8th wonder of the world." But in 1886, they were lost forever in a single night of violent volcanic destruction. Tim Bollinger wrote about the Terraces and their storied history for White Fungus.

Lin Chi-Wei is a key member of the pioneering generation of Taiwanese noise/sound artists that emerged in the 1990s. Lin has made landmark contributions as a writer, performer, artist, and member of Z.S.L.O (Zero Sound Liberation Organization). In Lin’s Tape Work, the artist sits in the center of the audience and unfurls a tape of ribbon or paper upon which characters are hand-printed or embroidered. Passed hand to hand through the crowd, each audience member/participant vocalizes the succession of phonetic symbols. The result is the creation of a multi-headed human tape machine. In the Taiwanese-language version of the work, Lin reactivates the “killing tone” or (Rù tone 入聲) from the medieval Chinese seven-tone system.

Kalisolaite ‘Uhila is a Tongan performance artist based in New Zealand. In his 2011 work "Pigs in the Yard", 'Uhila challenged western notions and treatment of the pig. In traditional Tongan culture, the pig is sacred. 'Uhila's performance afforded pigs this reverence while challenging audiences to reappraise their relationship to these sentient creatures.