September 14, 2022 • View in browser

Good morning. 🌤️ If you happen upon the southeast entrance of New York's Central Park these days, you'll encounter a massive sculpture depicting 23 children sprouting from a woman's body. The work, titled "Ancestor," is by artist Bharti Kher and draws from Hindu and Buddhist motifs. What I like most about this sculpture is that it's different from the outdated bronzes we're used to seeing in Central Park. It's also better.

Today we also pay tribute to Jean-Luc Godard, the legendary film director who died at 91 by assisted suicide, examine how artists are being pushed off Instagram, investigate how energy companies are threatening Indigenous rock art in Utah, and lots more.

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Artists Tell Instagram: We're Done!

Artists are resorting to platforms like Onlyfans and Pornhub to show work that was banned from the social media network. | Emma Shapiro

LATEST NEWS

FBI art crime investigators pose with pieces of a 2,000-year-old Italian mosaic that they helped return to the country. (all photos courtesy the FBI)

• A 2,000-year-old Roman mosaic returns to Italy thanks to an anonymous tip and some intensive efforts on behalf of the FBI’s Art Crimes division.

• Jean-Luc Godard, one of the key filmmakers of the French New Wave, died yesterday, September 13, at 91.

HISTORIES & PUBLIC ART

Bharti Kher's Monumental "Ancestor" Sculpture Watches Over Central Park

The artist says her sculpture of a mother figure, located at the southeast entrance of the park, represents “a guide to search and honor our past histories.” | Elaine Velie

Fred Wilson Summons Ghosts of the Past to Confront the Racism of the Present

Wilson's installation challenges not just outwardly violent historical figures but subtle colonial aesthetics still embedded in the city’s more liberal public monuments. | Billy Anania

The Real Story Behind Banksy’s “Parking” Mural in LA

Much coverage of the upcoming sale of the building that houses the mural portrays it as a covert intervention into the urban fabric, but the reality, like most things Banksy, is more complicated. | Matt Stromberg

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Energy Interests in Utah Threaten “World’s Longest Art Gallery”

Since the discovery of natural gas reserves near Nine Mile Canyon two decades ago, conservationists have found themselves at odds with regional energy companies. | Scotti Hill

Miami, Chonga Girls, and Claiming an Aesthetics of Excess

Author Jillian Hernandez theorizes the intersecting formations of gender, class, and race in relation to the self-presentation of Black and Latina women and girls. | Alicia Eler

Marina Abramović, Mobs, and the Cult of the Hero

The internet can be a crucible for both cruelty and the complexities of trying to counter it. What if we let the heroes stay dead? | A. V. Marraccini

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