This Is Class War
The latest on the student protests in France, the art world’s AI problem, one-on-one with Rosana Paulino, and Beer With a Painter featuring Melissa Brown.
The subway rattles, shakes, and screeches as it tunnels from Brooklyn to Manhattan. My eyes are glued to an ad for Les Misérables on the platform. Social media only shows images of looting and vandalism in France, despite the largely peaceful student protests. Art world elites cancel Art Basel Paris and flee the city. The Louvre shuts its doors to safeguard its treasures.
At a benefit dinner for an art residency, donors generously contribute to the cause. Upstairs, an inscription reads, "It's what we save rather than what we earn that ensures a competence for the future." Outside, Midtown Manhattan buzzes with neon lights, but a bodega window advertises a Powerball jackpot of $650 million. A barista struggles to buy a ticket for a movie about Elizabeth Holmes, now a cultural figure among the elite.
On the return subway ride, I become engrossed in an essay about Kazimir Malevich's "White Abyss," missing my stop by an hour. I find myself in an impoverished neighborhood with graffiti scrawled on a residential building, proclaiming "Class War."
Written by urgent.news from Hyperallergic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
