by Craig Silver, The Culture Mulcher, Forbes One of the best features in American Heritage magazine, at one time owned by Forbes, was the recurring section titled “Overrated / Underrated.” Unabashedly subjective and ideologically unpredictable—it even punctured St. Reagan–it offered nuggets of controversy on every sort of subject. American Heritage no longer publishes the feature, [...]
Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography May 7, 2010–March 21, 2011 The Edward Steichen Photography Galleries, third floor The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) 11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019 For much of photography’s 170-year history, women have expanded its roles by experimenting with every aspect of the medium. Pictures by Women: [...]
Yoko Ono still wants to reconnect humanity with its long-lost id. From Fluxus to songstress, the 77-year-old has used every free-associative vocal, literary, and visual avant-garde tool at her disposal to help resuscitate the uncensored thoughts of audiences around the world. Born in 1933 in Japan, Ono was the first female artist to market experimental primal wails as legitimate music at a time when demure vulnerability was prized over a woman’s angst-ridden screams. Her proto-feminist punk, often orgasmic vocals were inspired by childbirth; musically, her spawn includes bands like Deerhoof, Animal Collective, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill and the whole riot grrrl gang- who owe their flagrant embrace of the loud and the absurd to Ono’s radical displays of freedom.
After a touring retrospective and the reissue of eleven albums, it’s time to take Yoko Ono seriously While Yoko Ono is still regarded by many as the Beatles’ persona non grata, a quiet re-evaluation of her art and music has been underway for some time. A sort of subcultural logic has dictated that anyone [...]
