Authors: Parker Scott Mortensen
Review: Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Bloodlight and Bami pulls back the curtain and gives us the fly-on-the-wall cinema verité approach—this is a portrait of the artist, not just of Jones but of the artist as identity. … read more
Review: Celeste
For a game about a young girl climbing a mountain, Celeste is surprisingly less a coming-of-age story and more a story about how hard it is to take the tremendous first steps towards better health. … read more
Review: The Red Strings Club
Red Strings Club is a game that tugs at your philosophical leanings, asking grand and granular questions that it demands you answer. But most importantly, Red Strings weaves a familiar paranoia using the root of cyberpunk: that corporations increasingly own our well-being, and, to a large extent, we’ve come to like it. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Bernard and Huey
Bernard and Huey is about what happens when two middle-aged men meet 25 years after their young friendship ran its course. It’s a film about men navigating their relationship to sex in the shadow of their own egos, of the confident and put-together women they fuck and, of course, each other … read more
Goodnight 2017: UMOCA’s 2018 Galleries
the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) put on a fabulous all-museum exhibition opening for five new shows from dozens of artists, including a collection curated by Earl Gravy. Artist in residence Justin Watson also unveiled a curated project of 30 artists, and UMOCA’s smaller galleries are now home to some excellent works by Eric Overton and Merrit Johnson, all exploring physical and political landscapes through nontraditional inquiry. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Hyperreal: Adam Watkins’ Echoes of a Morning Star
As you head down the stairs at Bountiful Davis Art Center, you see the first piece of Echoes of a Morning Star, Adam Watkins’ collection of photographic tableaus. From his BeneathME series, the piece is titled The Mirror. … read more
Your Demon or Your Angel: Noah Jackson and Jacob Haupt
Nox’s upcoming show between Jacob Haupt and Noah Jackson could not exist without the friendship the two share. Angels Don’t Cry, Demons Don’t Cry is a collaboration between them, which feels de facto for the pair. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Songs in the Sun
What Songs in the Sun ultimately wrings from its premise is three women whose varying abilities to function rub up against myth and legend in a way that ultimately heals them, though not always in ways that seem just. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Birds Without Feathers
Birds Without Feathers is the tale of six strangers whose lives intersect and collide in delusional episodes where people manage to interact despite existing in completely different paradigms. … read more
Another Valley: Granary Art Center
The exhibits in Granary each explore the idea of travel and presence: the anxiety and compulsion to travel, to document and to frame—to have been somewhere and, years later, still be unraveling what it all means. … read more