Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS Will Become a Feature-Length Film, and Other News

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Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS Will Become a Feature-Length Film

Kahlil Joseph’s riveting short films and installations challenge representations of Black life in the United States. For his most famous work, BLKNWS, the Los Angeles artist created an ambitious original newscast in the form of a two-channel video montage that combines found internet footage with archival, newly shot, and current news clips. By juxtaposing images on two screens, Joseph explores and reengineers how images of Black lives and achievements can be delivered. “I recognized the power of stuff that’s already out there,” Joseph told Surface in a 2019 cover story. “Anything can be news, given context. That’s why there are two screens. Things immediately have context once you start pairing them with something.” 

In a cryptic Instagram post, A24—the film distributor behind Hereditary, Moonlight, and Midsommar—has announced plans to develop BLKNWS into a feature-length film. The post revealed little details beyond “coming soon,” but the news isn’t too surprising given Joseph’s rising profile and the project’s critical acclaim. Since he showed BLKNWS at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale, where it was widely regarded as a must-see highlight, the project has been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Underground Museum, Stanford University, and a barbershop in Washington, DC. Further details of the film, of course, are forthcoming.

Populous completes the Ice Ribbon skating arena for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Only one new stadium was built for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the National Speed Skating Oval by the firm Populous. Composed of 22 illuminated ribbons, the arena nicknamed the Ice Ribbon is set to become the center point of the games and will host all of the speed skating events. When it makes its debut, it will be one of the first ever ice surfaces using eco-conscious carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling.

Stella McCartney’s “empowerment” outfit for Minnie Mouse causes internet backlash. 

To celebrate International Women’s Month and the 30th anniversary of Disneyland Paris, Stella McCartney was commissioned to reimagine a new outfit for Minnie Mouse. The English fashion designer replaced the character’s iconic red dress for a polka-dot pantsuit, saying her new style is a “symbol of progress and empowerment for a new generation.” But the initiative is being cast as a performative gesture akin to Mars Inc’s recent rebranding of its cartoon M&M characters, which many called “slut shaming” because of the “faux-woke” makeover of the female green candy that eliminated its signature makeup and boots for sneakers.  

A school board has banned Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust. 

In Maus, Art Spiegelman’s famous graphic novel, the author recounts the harrowing story of his parents’ survival of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. Members of the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted unanimously to ban the book from classrooms over concerns of language and nudity, a decision that Spiegelman described as “Orwellian.” Since being published in 1980, the hand-illustrated novel has received a dozen literary awards and became the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Icelandic gallery i8 kicks off its new location with a year-long Aicja Kwade exhibition. 

i8 Gallery has opened its latest location in Marshall House, a cultural center in a former Reykjavik fish factory that houses the Living Art Museum and Olafur Eliasson’s private studio. Across two sprawling floors will be year-long presentations dedicated to a single artist that will evolve and feature new work as the year progresses. Kicking things off is “In Relation to the Sun” by Polish artist Alicja Kwade, who will present new mixed-media works and sculpture. “[Alicja] was a natural fit to inaugurate our new space as her practice deals with issues of time, space, and conceptual considerations,” co-founder Börkur Arnarson told Wallpaper.

A new study suggests that gas stoves leach as much methane as 500,000 cars.

Even when gas stoves aren’t in use, they’re leaking harmful indoor pollutants such as heat-trapping methane and nitrogen oxides that can trigger asthma and other respiratory issues. According to a new study conducted by Stanford University, the impact of gas stoves on the atmosphere is equivalent to that of 500,000 cars. “Gas stoves warm the planet and release indoor air pollutants that you breathe—you get both,” Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford, told Bloomberg, suggesting that new homes should have gas service eliminated. “Otherwise, we’re locking in treehouse gas emissions for decades to come.” 

Retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will keep judging the Pritzker Prize. 

Justice Stephen G. Breyer may be retiring from the Supreme Court, but that doesn’t mean his days of casting votes are over. Since 2011, Breyer has served as a juror for architecture’s most prestigious honor: the Pritzker Prize. Despite having never studied architecture, Breyer has contributed to the design of a federal courthouse in Boston and authored the foreword to Steven Flanders’s book “Celebrating the Courthouse: A Guide for Architects, Their Clients, and the Public.” During his two years as chair of the committee, he was praised by Tom Pritzker, the chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award, for his “devotion to civic-minded architecture” and “his unparalleled ability to guide a group deliberation.”

Today’s attractive distractions:

Astronomers have discovered a powerful cosmic object that they can’t quite define.

This label maker has a Braille input feature that prints tactile, touch-friendly labels.

A graphic designer introduces a typeface that recalls the culture of colonial Bombay.

Cardboard furniture is going viral, but does the flimsy material have staying power?