In image-driven societies, acts of resistance are reduced to pictures on the wall. — Raymond Hains’ medium was the city; its accumulation was his work. The French artist was one of the founding members of the Nouveaux Réalisme movement, mingled with Yves Klein, and remains one of the most celebrated artists of décollage, the act of tearing away paper rather than pasting it on…

In 1963, a Japanese artist used interactivity to defy the state — If you found yourself exiting the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum on March 1, 1963, you would not make it far before noticing a clothespin stuck to your coat. You, along with many others who had attended the 1963 Yomiuri Independent Exhibition, had not only participated in a work of art, but…

Was The Grudge inspired by an ancient Japanese handscroll? — A unique aspect of Japanese horror films lies in their attention to silence. Suspense is integral to any film, Japanese and otherwise, but the sustained tension that permeates throughout films such as Ringu, Ju-on: The Grudge, and Dark Water creates an atmosphere of constant dread with relatively simple techniques. …

For queer authors, separating fact from fiction is a uniquely difficult task. — When I came out in my senior year of high school, I was eager to leave behind the false identity I had developed during my adolescence. This identity was that of a straight boy, who hung out with guys, flirted with girls, and was totally comfortable in the boys locker…

In many ways, the boundary between graphic design and art is disappearing. We see artists like Damien Hirst recontextualizing the language of everyday branding in order to make a point, and designers often create completely conceptual visual identities for subjective purposes. However, one fundamental difference still exists between the two…

How an image of private suffering became a tool of propaganda — Yamahata Yosuke’s photographs of Nagasaki after the atomic blast remain some of the most revealing, devastating depictions of the aftermath of nuclear war. One photograph in particular, “Two Brothers”, was especially circulated, as the anonymous nature of the depicted figures and location allowed it to represent a number of different…

What is the role of the artist in the industrially produced landscape? — Interchanges of black and gray lines connect, overlap, and go their separate ways. I am leaning against the window of the bus that is taking me home, back to school after another painfully short Thanksgiving break. As I stare out into the dark, we pass under two bridges and for…

The isolated face of a geisha floats on a starkly monochromatic red field. Her eyes peer through a mask of makeup, discreetly avoiding the eye of the viewer in favor of gazing towards the ground. The solid red expanse behind her serves as both a background and another layer of…

Freeze. A sea of textures, colors, words, and images, interrupted by a bold, jarring X. On an otherwise blank cover, a bright orange line cuts through a winding green fern. No author name or title is present here. The contrast between organic curves and stark solidity stops me in my…