Travis Diehl

1 month ago | artreview.com | Travis Diehl

The problem is the impulse to defend ‘DEI’ as a metaphor without making the case for its essential valueWith the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the US right’s antipathy toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) follows a long line of linguistic takeovers. The left can’t seem to prevent the MAGA movement from coopting its terms. ‘Woke’ is now a joke, ‘deplorables’ a badge of honour, and ‘critical race theory’ is reverse-racist. When the left tries the same tactic, it often falls flat.

1 month ago | nyra.nyc | Travis Diehl

This winter, visitors to Madison Square Park’s greensward were treated to a hunk of postindustrial kink. Artist Nicole Eisenman’s Fixed Crane is fixed, mobility-wise, but broken—a superannuated antique model that, if it weren’t gracing this snow-dappled ellipse in Manhattan, would be rotting in a boneyard. The forty-foot dinosaur rests on its side, lewdly displaying its undercarriage and treads, with its engine, gears, and hook tastefully scattered around the lawn.

Jan 8, 2025 | nytimes.com | Travis Diehl

On Nov. 6, the day after the presidential election, the aCrtist Hank Willis Thomas was at his studio in Brooklyn. His production assistants were poring over tables strewed with blobby red white and blue silk-screen prints of the words "Fragile/ Democracy / Handle With Care" in capital letters. The design is one of Thomas's many riffs on familiar phrases, meant to spur voters toward civic engagement. One version of the print ran on the cover of The New York Times Sunday Opinion section on Nov. 3.

Dec 18, 2024 | nytimes.com | Travis Diehl

"Vital Signs: Artists and the Body" draws from MoMA's 20th-century collection to show that identity is broader than physical form. But in skipping social media the show can't go far enough. Any show about "the body" has the backhanded blessing of wide appeal. Everybody has one - so what?

Dec 5, 2024 | flash---art.com | Travis Diehl

Matthew Barney’s latest film, Secondary (2023), builds to a single moment — a balletic reenactment of the infamous 1978 American football tackle, when Jack Tatum hit Darryl Stingley hard enough to break his neck. In Secondary, as in life, this instant of violence transforms both players into metaphors: one of them a victim, the other an unrepentant assassin. Football is a pantomime of war, complete with generals, strategy, tactics, and drills.