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An anonymous “White Male Artist” will sell tins of poop as part of a project called $HT COIN.
Cassils, a transgender creative who studies the power dynamics in society through physical demonstration, is gearing up to auction feces-filled tins on July 29 in partnership with Phillips. Influenced by the diets of acclaimed artists, the poop cans are bundled with NFTs and are valued between $1,900 and $4,000 in the cryptocurrency Ether. Beginning his research last summer, the artist matched his own diet with that of top-grossing artists, igniting “a battle about whose crap costs the most.” Donating 10 percent of the proceeds to For Freedoms, Cassils is helping organize a new fund for trans and non-binary artists of color. “White Male Artist operates as a Trojan horse circulating seamlessly with the crypto bros,” Cassils says. “But this project is not about getting rich. We’re thinking about systems like NFTs and how we can wield them as artistic tools.”
Plans to build a $2.1 billion AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport get approved by the government.
Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared plans to build a $2.1 billion AirTrain to New York’s maligned LaGuardia Airport. The project has long been championed by governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been committed to transforming the oft-derided airport into a “world-class” travel hub. The project isn’t without detractors, who criticized its indirect route (from Willets Point, in Queens) and the potential disruption to local communities recently ravaged by the coronavirus. Construction is expected to kick off before the summer ends and wrap up in 2025.
Design Miami returns to Basel with a shoppable exhibition and partnership with Superblue.
Design Miami is gearing up to return to Basel this September with an action-packed lineup and digital offerings. This year, the show will feature items on the floor from galleries such as Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Friedman Benda, and Galerie Patrick Seguin available to view and shop online in real time as well as digital programming including virtual tours and talks. Aligned with curatorial director Aric Chen’s selected theme of “Human Nature,” the fair will also partner with Superblue to present Shylights by DRIFT, a dynamic installation in which sculptures unfold and retreat in a choreography that mirrors the “sleeping” pattern, nyctinasty, of real flowers. The fair will take place Sept. 21–26 at Basel Messeplatz.
Frida Kahlo’s 114th anniversary is being celebrated with an immersive show in Mexico.
The steadfast individuality of the Mexican artist and feminine icon Frida Kahlo is revived in a new experiential exhibition in Frontón, Mexico. Celebrating the 114th anniversary of the valorous artist, the immersive experience animates 26 of Kahlo’s signature artworks and projects them around the exhibit, creating a sensorial adventure that resonates Kahlo’s existing status and peeks inside the familial side of Frida. Credited as an artist that captivated the world with her art, appearance, and lifestyle, the multi-sensory journey fosters the active connection between Kahlo and her audience with an interactive drawing room, wherein visitors may digitally express themselves, and the “Fantastic Creatures” room which enables guests to select characters from Kahlo’s work that they best identify with. Lasting from 45-90 minutes, this homage to the brave artist introduces Kahlo to a new generation and celebrates her legendary reputation.
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Thanks to new development, UNESCO strips Liverpool of its status as a World Heritage Site.
Recent developments in Liverpool have stripped the English city of its global world heritage status. In an effort to revamp its historic docks, the Liverpool Waters project was perceived as too modern, despite locals vouching for the initiative’s employment offerings, leading to the city being listed as one of 53 settings on UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger index in 2012. The construction of a new soccer stadium for Everton on its Bramley-Moore docks, however, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. UNESCO notes the city’s deletion was “due to the irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding universal value of the property.” In light of Liverpool being stripped of its World Heritage status, the mayor Joanne Anderson says “Our World Heritage site has never been in better condition having benefited from hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across dozens of listed buildings and the public realm.”
California’s widespread shift toward electric cars is sparking an environmental debate.
Initially described as “compliance cars,” the electric vehicle industry transcended its initial undesirability to become a global phenomenon in the move toward sustainability. California’s own electric car insurgence, however, is speculated to trade one environmental crisis for another. Bloomberg notes that the transaction of electric cars will soar to a staggering 8.5 million by 2025, ranking California as the largest market for electric vehicles in the United States. Accordingly, the larger volume of raw materials required to build lithium batteries are planned to be sourced through under-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean and landfills in northern Nevada. The consequence of sourcing these materials locally foresees the destruction of marine ecosystems and lands steeped in tribal culture. The question of sustainability in an exclusively electric vehicular forum lingers as the environmental impact remains adverse on both sides of the coin.
Norway plans a $2 billion project to sink nearly 1.4 billion tons of carbon into the North Sea.
As part of its effort to become net-zero by 2050, Norway is launching an “absolutely necessary” project to bury an extensive amount of carbon under the North Sea. Called “Project Longship,” the scheme aims to absorb carbon dioxide emissions and drive it into exhausted oil and gas fields, estimating a sum of 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide to be buried deep underwater. The project’s initial phase is slated for completion by 2024 with an extraction of 1.65 million tons per year. Norway’s efforts to decelerate climate change are forecasted to increase employment rates and act as an incentive for other European countries to proactively reduce C02 emissions. “There are no guarantees but we know that carbon capture and storage is absolutely necessary for Europe and the world to reach the temperature targets in the Paris Agreement,” says Tony C Tiller, state secretary at Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
