Kaleidoscope #28 – Fall 2016

Kaleidoscope's new Issue #28 (Fall 2016) introduces a new editorial structure with Myriam Ben Salah as new Editor-in-Chief and Alessio Ascari shifting to the role of Publisher and Creative Director.
This kickoff issue, launching in London during Frieze Week, comes with a set of two stunning covers. One features American sensation Jordan Wolfson, who is also the subject of our extensive MONO section (with an original photo shoot by Jason Nocito). Swinging between ambition and ambiguity, Wolfson's production has been consistently thought provoking for over a decade and is about to be celebrated by a career-defining exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. For this occasion, Jordan talks here at length with the Stedelijk's director, Beatrix Ruf, while Kaleidoscope's New York editor Alexander Shulan discusses his arcane mixture of absurd humor, spectacle and desire, channeling a dark strain in American culture.
The second, limited-edition cover—printed in 500 copies coming soon only to select stores—features an unpublished image by photographer Ari Marcopoulos. Showing a detail from David Hammons' New York studio door, the shot is a powerful hint to a current state of urgency. As best exemplified by Marcopoulos' series, the VISIONS section is becoming more and more of a site for radical, specially-commissioned contributions by artists and creators who shape and disturb our visual landscape. These include a visual dialogue between Kahlil Joseph and Deana Lawson, diving into the realms of beauty, history and identity; a tribute to French designer Pierre Paulin created by singular polymath Shawn Maximo (text by Julia Trotta); an interview with fashion designer Nhu Duong (by Christie Chu) accompanied by an original photo shoot by Ilya Lipkin; and more outstanding contributions by Darja Bajagić, Georgi & Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Korakrit Arunanondchai (text by Carol Yinghua Lu), and Julie Verhoeven (interview by Francesca Gavin).
In the opening section of HIGHLIGHTS, 12 profiles account for the best of the season: Katja Novitskova (by Samuel Leuenberger), Tamara Henderson (by Jesse McKee), Jeffrey Joyal (by Maxwell Smith-Holmes), Donna Huanca (by Gerardo Contreras), Metrograph (by Christopher Schreck), Camille Blatrix (by Ruba Katrib), Kelly Akashi (by Franklin Melendez), Bury Me With The Lo On (by Bonz Malone), Iiu Susiraja (by George Vasey), K.r.m. Mooney (by Jeanne Gerrity), Venus Lau (by Daniel Ho), and Stuart Middleton (by Matt Williams).
Following an ongoing and quite personal research project, Myriam Ben Salah edits this issue's MAIN THEME survey dedicated to the subject of Disorientalism, or the deconstruction of a preconceived Middle-Eastern aesthetic. Featuring a generation of artists using alternative narratives and a new visual language to challenge the questions of representation of the region and the expectations placed upon their production, this section is comprised of two interviews, with artists Sophia Al-Maria (by Asad Raza) and Meriem Bennani (by Martha Kirszenbaum); two essays, ArabPop (by Andrew Hammond) and Medya (by Hito Steyerl); the case study of influential magazine/collective Bidoun (by Myriam Ben Salah); and a round table of young artists and practitioners, including Slavs and Tatars, Fatima Al Qadiri and Tala Madani.
The coming issues will witness the arrival of new voices, starting here with Piper Marshall, who's joined the ranks of our closing section of REGULARS for some much-needed “Cheap Talk,” and Alessio Ascari, probing the blurred lines of the visual reign in a new series entitled “Visualize.” For our ongoing columns, Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen talk to conceptual photographer Christopher Williams as part of the “Pioneers” series; in “Futura 89+,” Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets (with Katherine Dionysius) interview young artist Jasper Spicero; Jeffrey Deitch remembers punk legend Alan Vega in his “Renaissance Man” column; Fiona Duncan meditates on Alexa Karolinski and Ingo Niermann's Army of Love as part of “Pro/Creative”; and lastly, in “What's Next,” we look forward to the season with Kickstarter's Director of Arts Victoria Rogers.