SLUG Contributor Limelight
December 30, 2015
Contributor Limelight: Kathy Zhou
Kathy Zhou
Editorial Intern, Writer, Copy Editor
It only took a couple writing assignments for us to know that Kathy Zhou would be a SLUG Mag gem. Kathy came onto the SLUG writing team in December of 2014, and her elegant writing, refined self-editing skills, attention to detail and artistic eye quickly illuminated that she’d make for a stellar Editorial Intern. Since the onset of her internship in February of 2015, Kathy has become an invaluable in-office team member who helps streamline the editorial process by organizing content and other information that pulses through the veins of SLUG. She soon joined the copy editing team, and has applied her keen eye for many documents that SLUG has published. Kathy has nurtured her knack for writing about the art world, and continues to do so in her interview feature of Slamdance poster artist Rosie Lea on pg. 28—also read her features about María Magdalena Campos-Pons and God Hates Robots on slugmag.com. We couldn’t be more proud to have Kathy on Team SLUG.
Articles by contributor
Review: The Muscadettes – Side A EP
The Muscadettes = Alvvays + Best Coast + Slutever … read more
Review: The Funs – My Survival
The Funs = Savages x Pega Monstro … read more
Review: The Black Ryder – The Door Behind the Door
The Black Ryder = Slowdive + My Bloody Valentine … read more
Review: Thayer Sarrano – Shaky
Thayer Sarrano = Des Ark x The Black Ryder + Chelsea Wolfe … read more
Review: Sharon Van Etten – I Don’t Want to Let...
Sharon Van Etten = Julianna Barwick x Waxahatchee … read more
Review: Savages – Adore Life
Clad head to toe in black, Savages strove for uncompromising authenticity as they brought the impatient and thunderous heart of post-punk back, topping off their unforgiving album with singer Jehnny Beth’s 36-line manifesto, which sharply decried a world of far too many voices and distractions clamoring for our attention. … read more
Review: Pega Monstro – Alfarroba
Pega Monstro = Moonhearts x Slowdive … read more
Review: Negative Scanner – Self-Titled
Negative Scanner = The Fall x Wipers + The Sound … read more
Review: Mas Ysa – Seraph
Mas Ysa = (Xiu Xiu x Perfume Genius) + M83 … read more
Review: M83 – Junk
M83 = Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming ^ (Tangerine Dream x George Michael x Mister Rogers)
… read more
Review: Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, girl
Jenny Hval Apocalypse, girl Sacred Bones Street: 06.09 Jenny Hval = Laurie Anderson + Kate Bush + FKA Twigs Apocalypse, girl is intimate, redolent of how an experimental documentary art film might translate to sound. Jenny Hval pervades her reality with musings about her state of being in the world—how she wants to live and
Review: Joanna Newsom – Divers
Joanna Newsom = Dirty Projectors + Björk + Kate Bush … read more
Review: Gel Set – Human Salad
Gel Set = Chris & Cosey x Throbbing Gristle + Chromatics … read more
Review: Death Index – Self-titled
Frontman Carson Cox of Merchandise and Marco Rapisarda (from labels Hell, Yes! and No Good) have teamed up to deal out their latest noise-soaked, hardcore-meets-art punk side project: Death Index. Their heady, self-titled debut album is punishing yet majestic, with a mission firmly rooted in those “primordial days of art punk”—think another punk duo, Suicide, and their nervy tendencies—that traverses doom, goth and post-punk in its hardcore endeavor. … read more
Review: Coromandelles – Late Bloomer’s Bloomers
Coromandelles = Cold Showers x Melody’s Echo Chamber x Kurt Vile … read more
Review: Broken Water – Wrought
Broken Water = Milk Music + Unwound … read more
Review: Beach House – Depression Cherry
Beach House = (Spiritualized + Galaxie 500) x Exitmusic … read more
Review: Bambara – Swarm
Bambara = Iceage + Swans + The Birthday Party … read more
Film Review: The Farewell
The Farewell is embedded in a melancholic push-pull of mourning, nostalgia and outsiderness, but of course, it’s readily and incisively funny, too. … read more
Birds of Passage (Pájaros de verano)
Birds of Passage unfurls its tale of one indigenous Wayúu family within the expansive Guajira Desert and the early Colombian drug war. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
The Pieces I Am crafts a wondrous portrait of Morrison that is both intimate and reverent. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Skynd Deg Sakte (Hurry Slowly)
Skynd Deg Sakte is a gorgeous, affecting tribute to the things we sometimes overlook or undermine. … read more
Sundance Film Review: WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES
A punch-pop-stomp ride from start to finish, WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES chronicles four school-uniform-wearing strangers, averaging 13.5 years of age. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Advocate
Along with Jones and Bellaïche’s primary narrative, Advocate also delves into Tsemel’s personal life, insofar as it informs her practice today. … read more
Sundance Film Review: MERATA: How Mum Decolonised the Screen
Her mission, in her words, was to decolonize and indigenize our screens. With Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen, her son Hepi Mita continues the task. … read more
Slamdance Film Festival 2019 – Boni Bonita
Boni Bonita was shot over three years and magnificently across three formats: Super 16, 16 mm and digital. “When writing this film, I always pictured it with a nostalgic look,” says Barosa. … read more
Film Review: Sorry to Bother You
Buoyed by its people-power, anti-capitalist, revolution-minded readiness to jolt us awake, Riley’s filmic storytelling debut stays daring and endlessly inventive. … read more
Film Review: Eighth Grade
Like eighth grade, Bo Burnham’s feature-film debut will have you wincing in secondhand (and firsthand) embarrassment and laughing through heart-pangs. … read more
Damn These Heels 2018: Close-Knit
Naoko Ogigami’s thoughtful, pastel-hued family drama Close-Knit follows the self-sufficient and searching Tomo, played by Rinka Kakihara. … read more
Fazilat Soukhakian
Fazilat Soukhakian’s approach is an active, inquiring one. The Iranian artist-photographer’s work continually records and questions what it means to exist in our contemporary world—what it means to engage with it, to have a stake in it. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Film Review: The Rider
Melding fact and fiction, Chloé Zhao’s second feature film, The Rider, remains on the Pine Ridge Reservation to paint an aching portrait of rodeo cowboys among Oglala Lakota Tribe (Sioux) community. … read more
Film Review: Foxtrot
Foxtrot’s three acts are tonally distinct, each bringing their own lurching plot twists, each grim or violent or (bleakly) humorous in their own ways. But the final chapter becomes oppressive in its reality, and however Maoz employs the hypnagogic and the hyperreal, he asks his audience to ponder war and borders. … read more
Film Review: Loveless
From the director of Gloria and Leviathan comes Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s bleak depiction, simultaneously brutal and measured, of a failed marriage and fractured family—a lost child and a lost society. … read more
Film Review: A Fantastic Woman
Director Sebastián Lelio crafts an empathetic and surprisingly soft portrait of Marina (Daniela Vega), a trans woman, as she pushes fiercely for a chance to carve out space for herself, a space to mourn. … read more
Personal/Public: Artist Jorge Rojas on Performance
For the last 10 years, Jorge Rojas has focused on performance art, veering between intimate moments and dramatic gestures, drawing from lived and shared experience, intercultural and contemporary identity, and much more. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Film Review: Phantom Thread
In Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s vision is as exquisite, meticulous and fixated as that of his lead character, Reynolds Woodcock. With superb cinematography, Anderson’s is a ravishing inspection of the pursuit for aesthetic perfection, of love and power and their dizzying, sickly, perverse intimations. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Anote’s Ark
Stretching along the Central Pacific equator, the island nation of Kiribati rests, on average, only two meters above sea level. Based on the latest scientific consensus, all of Kiribati’s 33 coral isles and atolls will be completely underwater within the century. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Shirkers
Sandi Tan might’ve been a strange teenager, but it was in the very best way. Growing up in Singapore, she published a zine and scribbled hundreds of handwritten letters and postcards. Mostly, she obsessed over film. … read more
Sundance Film Review: White Rabbit
White Rabbit is a wide-eyed and heartfelt dramedy, compelling with a clever, entertaining premise before digging into its lead heroine. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Instant Dreams
In this visual essay, Baptist mirrors the power of photography, fixating on the Polaroid as not only an artistic medium, but also a decisive technology and cultural document, a record of time that continually develops and evolves with the contemporary world. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Fish Bones
Tenderly told and visually sublime, Joanne Mony Park’s Fish Bones closely follows Hana (Joony Kim), a Korean immigrant living in New York City, during her winter break. … read more
Quiet Heroes: Kristen Ries and Maggie Snyder’s Legacy at Sundance
Through home video, archival material and more, Quiet Heroes compellingly highlights Kristen Ries’ and Maggie Snyder’s exceptional work and compassion. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | Fashion | LGBTQ+
Film Review: Call Me By Your Name
Burnished and sensuously crafted, Call Me By Your Name is an ambrosial painting of adolescence: of intimacy and love, of bodies and sensuality, of decisive moments and how they unfold. … read more
Film Review: Lady Bird
Lady Bird careens and dives into heartbreak and disappointment. She also picks herself up, sometimes with grace, sometimes without, and forges on. … read more
Riot Act Takes On An Enemy of the People
Riot Act tackles Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play, an ever-relevant drama that offers an at times scathing commentary and critique on the individual versus the collective, action versus inaction, whistleblowers and accomplices. … read more
Film Review: mother!
Despite the more literal aspects of its storyline and the parallels to Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, mother! isn’t entirely centered on Mother’s pregnancy. … read more
In a State of Play: Balqis Al Rashed
Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, for 16 years, Al Rashed translates her lived experience into works that examine personal and collective identity. … read more
Film Review: A Ghost Story
Lowery masterfully immerses us into the themes he explores: life, existence. Haunting, piercing and dripping with sensation, A Ghost Story is a cosmic feat. … read more
Ellita: CLC Artisan
A self-taught illustrator, Mendoza brings their work to life with bold strokes and bright color. “The themes of my work are liberation and representation,” they say. “I want to make the art that I wish I had growing up.” … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | Fashion | LGBTQ+
Utah Museum of Fine Arts: Reopen + Reenvision
Since the building first opened over a decade and a half ago, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) is undergoing its most comprehensive permanent exhibition reinstallations. … read more
Damn These Heels 2017: Tamara
Elia K. Schneider’s bracing narrative feature draws inspiration from the incredible life of Venezuela’s first transgender elected official, Tamara Adrián, to tell the story of Teo’s long, lonely and demanding journey to transition. … read more
Damn These Heels 2017: Signature Move
It’s not an uncommon storyline, two women meeting and falling in love and learning from each other, but Signature Move celebrates a breadth of identities, experiences and cultures. … read more
Damn These Heels 2017: Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall
Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall follows the charismatic star as he begins his ambitious 2016 undertaking, Straight Outta Oz. … read more
Damn These Heels 2017: Don’t Call Me Son (Mãe só...
Don’t Call Me Son starts out like many a queer coming-of-age film, but refreshingly, Muylaert expertly weaves in more dramatic elements and premises. … read more
Topaz Museum: Remembrance and Tribute, 75 Years On
Located on Delta’s Main Street, the Topaz Museum is now home and testament to about 120 pieces of art created by internees; countless artifacts and documents; telling films and photographs; and, behind the building, an actual barrack from the Topaz site. … read more
Just Our Type: Actual Source’s Contemporary Design + Multi-Format Publishing
Just over two years ago, graphic designers Davis Ngarupe and JP Haynie presented their design-geared exhibition, Actual Source, at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. … read more
We Are Here: Utah’s WNBTQ Artists of Color
We Are Here, a Utah collective by and for Utah-based women, nonbinary and trans people of color, will present Color Against White Canvas on June 17 at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. … read more
Movie Review: The Lovers
The Lovers is a patient and disciplined study of modern love and marriage. The flick is also quietly hilarious and deeply, deeply human. … read more
Movie Review: Paris Can Wait
Eleanor Coppola’s narrative-film directorial debut, Paris Can Wait, is a stale jaunt through French terrain by way of a Peugeot convertible, exorbitant dinners and flat—mostly nonexistent—romance and comedy. … read more
Review: KONUS Redan Button Up (Black) and Stern Button Up...
Like most of KONUS’ designs, their new shirts maintain the brand’s emphasis on sleek, street-savvy functionality. … read more
Filling the Void: Vintage, Art and Music at VOID MRKT
VOID MRKT is one of the newest local art events on the scene. The first installment of the series hits Vague Space this Sunday, May 21, with vintage goods, art, music and much more. … read more
Suite Space: Three Emerging Choreographers at the Sugar Space Arts...
This Friday and Saturday, April 28 and 29, three emerging choreographers will premiere Suite Space at the Sugar Space Arts Warehouse, made possible by the Sugar Space Foundation Artist in Residency Program. … read more
Bodies in Space: Rona Pondick and Robert Feintuch at UMOCA
Painter Robert Feintuch and sculptor Rona Pondick each embrace the long lineage of humankind’s fascination with the body and the figure. Heads, Hands, Feet; Sleeping, Holding, Dreaming, Dying is the first extensive museum exhibition of both Pondick and Feintuch’s work. The exhibition will be on show at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) through July 15. … read more
Art on Violence: The Future Isn’t What It Used to...
In The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be, a group exhibition curated by South Florida–based Susan Caraballo, 10 artists confront us with “manmade atrocities,” not through explicit spectacle or slaughter, but through rumination and social practice. View the exhibition at UMOCA through May 13. … read more
Huge: The Benefit Art Show for Comunidades Unidas
The Huge Benefit Art Show will be held on Feb. 11 at the Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts to raise awareness and funds for Comunidades Unidas. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Crown Heights
Based on the true story of Colin Warner, Crown Heights is a harrowing reminder of just how little has changed in the U.S. by way of race, law enforcement and criminal justice. … read more
Sundance Film Review: The Incredible Jessica James
Director Jim Strouse decided to write an entire film tailor-made for Jessica Williams in the lead. The result is a lighthearted indie comedy that shines—especially through the effortlessness with which Williams commands each scene. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Manifesto
In Manifesto, Cate Blanchett takes center stage in a stunning homage to some of the most emphatic declarations of 20th-century art and art history. Blanchett takes on 13 different roles, examining how these truths hold up in our contemporary world. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Person to Person
Comprising a series of vignettes shot entirely in a nicely textured and nostalgic 16mm, Person to Person brings an unassumingly hilarious and real, life-sized take on several characters as they contend with both the humdrum and the unexpected. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Jia (The Family)
Patient and poised, Shumin Liu’s feature-film debut is a measured masterpiece. From muted start to wrenching denouement, Shumin Liu brings a considered and stylish sensibility to the ordinariness that imbues The Family’s story. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Withdrawn
Director Adrian Murray’s first feature film, “Withdrawn,” is somewhat of a dry farce that manages to be both entertaining and subdued. The broke, basement-dwelling, band-tee-wearing Aaron spends his days mostly alone, preoccupying himself by playing video games, trying to solve a Rubik’s Cub and also trying to find ways to pay bills that he can’t afford. When he finds a lost credit card, Aaron decides to hatch a defrauding scheme. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: The Children Send Their Regards
The Children Send Their Regards is relentlessly eye-opening and excruciatingly detailed in its examination of the corruption that pervades throughout the clergy—and throughout a society with a legal system and statue of limitations that protects the abusers over the abused. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Strad Style
Danny Houck is a 32-year-old eccentric. He wears a long scarf around his head at almost all times, and he has a mania for violins. In particular, he’s obsessed with the two greatest violinmakers in musical history, the Masters of Cremona: Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. Director Stefan Avalos’ “Strad Style” has us cheering for Danny from beginning to end. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Dim the Fluorescents
Fitted with long scenes, on-point characters and justly over-the-top dialogue, Dim the Fluorescents is as imaginative and entertaining as are Audrey and Lillian’s sensational corporate demonstrations. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Hotel Coolgardie
Pete Gleeson’s documentary, “Coolgardie,” is about a remote town in Western Australia. After getting their credit cards stolen and travel savings drained in Bali, Finnish travellers Lina and Steph decide to work in the town’s pub, hoping to replenish their funds. Coolgardie, however, isn’t anything close to what Lina and Steph were prepared for. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Aerotropolis
“Aerotropolis” follows Allen, a young, middle-class man who invested everything he owned into a beautiful apartment and unused aerotropolis land. Lulled in by the aerotropolis’ “promised land,” Allen is instead ensnared by the pitfall of financial pressures and an existence stripped of meaning. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Wexford Plaza
Toronto-based Joyce Wong’s first feature film, Wexford Plaza, is an at-times painfully real-life comedy about suburbia, isolation and ennui. The film follows the lives of 19-year-old, late-night security guard, Betty (Reid Asselstine) and the well-meaning, deadbeat bartender, Danny (Darrel Gamotin), as they find their lives unraveling. … read more
Kuro: Voice and Vignette
Joji Koyama and Tujiko Noriko’s Kuro is a beautiful and slow-burning film that will steep audiences in ambiguity during its world premiere at Slamdance 2017. … read more
Salt Lake City Staycation
You may be in town for some film festivals, or you may be a born-and-raised, diehard Salt Laker. Either way, you deserve your Salt Lake City staycation. … read more
Growing La Barba
Cozy yet luxurious, old-world yet modern, inventive yet approachable, La Barba Downtown has become a treasured Salt Lake hub for coffee culture and education. … read more
Boozetique’s Picks
With Ivy Earnest’s continual work of stocking the Boozetique emporium with modern knick-knacks and cutting-edge cocktail accessories, longtime fans and patrons are sure to find something new each time they step foot into the shop. … read more
Movie Review: The Handmaiden
The latest from South Korean director Park Chan-wook is a stylishly erotic thriller that dazzles and seduces audiences with exquisite visuals, Gothic sensibilities and a classic tale of deception—with several unexpected twists and pivots. … read more
Farm to Glass
Now in its sixth year, Salt Lake Magazine’s Farm to Glass Cocktail Contest will bring together 24 of the city’s most visionary mixologists to handcraft an original cocktail that uses local liquors and at least two ingredients sourced from Utah farms. Voting runs throughout the month of September, the height of Utah’s harvest season. … read more
Annika Quinn Jewelry: Craft Lake City Artisan
“I’ve always used jewelry as armor,” says metalsmith and jewelry maker Annika Quinn Nelson DiMeo. Armor indeed: Her commanding signature pieces, mostly made of copper, brass or silver, traverse minimal geometries and silhouettes while toying with dimension. From loud knuckle rings and sheath-like wrist cuffs to sleek earrings and necklaces, every one of DiMeo’s pieces emanates power. … read more
LOCS: Craft Lake City Artisan
LOCS iHorns4U@gmail.com Frank Falk is a litigation consultant, married to his high school sweetheart, a father of seven and a grandfather of four. He’s also an avid historian and storyteller, an antique-collecting artisan and a handy audio specialist—all trades that manifest through his iHorns. Now in their fourth year, these iHorns have come a long
Root + Rise Botanicals: Craft Lake City Artisan
Made from natural ingredients sourced from her local community garden, sustainable wildcrafting and Mountain Rose Herbs, Amy Menzel’s lovingly crafted Root + Rise Botanicals creations will revitalize your body, mind and spirit. … read more
Silver Still Image: Craft Lake City Artisan
Silver Still Image silverstillimage.com The 19th century tintype photograph has evolved into a modern art form, one that ceaselessly captivates Silver Still Image’s Sylvia Weston. After studying at Utah State University, Weston moved to New York City and worked as a photographer’s assistant and at the Penumbra Foundation. When she took a tintype workshop from
Damn These Heels Film Review: From Afar
Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’ Golden Lion–winning feature debut is a terse and gripping story of two men and their relationship’s shifting dynamics of power, affection and closeness. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Review: Out Run
Out Run illuminates the complexities of LGBTQ+ lives and identities and how they interact with political movements, cultural norms and global progress toward—or away from—LGBTQ+ equality. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Review: MAJOR!
In her biographical doc, MAJOR!, director Annalise Ophelian celebrates the immense life and history of Miss Major. … read more
2016 Damn These Heels Film Reviews
Featuring films like Desde Allá (Lorenzo Vigas), Southwest of Salem (Deborah Esquenazi) and more, the Utah Film Center’s 13th annual Damn These Heels Film Festival continues to celebrate LGBTQ films, filmmakers and narratives. … read more
Damn These Heels Presents: Oriented
Paramount to Oriented are the conflicts and confluences within each of the three characters’ personal expression of his Palestinian nationalism and his sexuality. “The complexity of their identity is bonkers,” says Witzenfeld. “The fact that they can speak about it with such control, command and self-awareness inspires me enormously.” … read more
M83, Bob Moses @ The Saltair 05.30
I stumbled upon M83 at just the right time, a few years ago, to instantly fall in love with their music: the eternal summers of Saturdays = Youth, the soaring space of Before the Dawn Heals Us, the breakthrough cinematics of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. … read more
Red Rock Brewing: Local, Grassroots and True to Style
Folks might recognize Red Rock Brewing for its delectable brewpub fixings or its 500-ml. bottles of Elephino: A local favorite, it’s an American-style, big-hop, creamy Double IPA laced with tropical fruits and herbal notes. … read more
SLC Pink
Chloe Monson and Elaine Sayer, co-founders of SLC Pink and The Creative Collective, want to be your (art) moms. As in, they want to foster an inclusive and welcoming space for anybody who wants to make things in Salt Lake City. The Creative Collective’s latest and most involved endeavor thus far, SLC Pink, is a submission-based multimedia zine of writing and art by women and non-binary folks, releasing May 1. … read more
Autism in Love
Now in its fifth year, the 2016 Peek Award will honor director Matt Fuller and producer Carolina Groppa for their work on the poignant Autism in Love. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Driftwood
Writer/director Paul Taylor’s first feature, Driftwood, is a small, intimate and refreshing chamber piece that still manages to speak in droves—an impressive feat, considering that the entire film is dialogue-free. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Peanut Gallery
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker and Gasland producer Molly Gandour has taken her work to the intensely personal and unblinking Peanut Gallery. Sixteen years after the loss of her older sister, Aimee, Molly decided to return home to Indiana to finally cope with her sister’s death. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Last Summer
Last Summer is a supremely elegant and stylish feature film debut from director Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, who electrifies audiences with a tense and sophisticated exploration of a mother-son relationship that begins as soon as it ends. Set to see its US premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, the taste-making film is a nonpareil must-see. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Hunky Dory
Sure to be one of this year’s must-see Slamdance gems, Hunky Dory is an opulent, gender-bending and audacious feat that can be described exactly as music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described David Bowie’s 1971 album of the same name: “a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class.” … read more
Slamdance Film Review: MAD
After finalizing her late-in-life divorce, Mel finds herself crying uncontrollably and past the point of a nervous breakdown. Connie and Casey, her two adult daughters, convince her to spend a week in the psych ward. As the three women try to work through their own uncertainties, what ensues is MAD—mutually assured destruction—a farcical dramedy that manages to be both biting and poignant. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: 1ha 43a
When visual artist Monika Pirch inherits of plot of farmland, she embarks on a poetic and multifaceted exploration of the field in an effort to reconnect with her ancestry and the soil. Her deeply personal quest simultaneously sheds valuable light onto some of the most impactful, consequential, and very real questions of our world. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites
Alvin Ng is the agoraphobic and endearing protagonist of Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites, a perplexing yet tender film that delves into the confines of Alvin’s world—that is, the one-bedroom apartment that Alvin hasn’t left in over 18 months. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Chemical Cut
Chemical Cut follows 23-year-old Irene, a creative and dewy-eyed LA misfit. After bleaching and dying her hair platinum blonde, Irene gets scouted by a modeling agency and soon finds herself entrenched in an alluring, toxic and surreal world. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Fursonas
The furry fandom is as closely knit and enthusiastic as it is diverse and complicated. Fursonas takes us behind-the-scenes to get to know a few of the faces and fuzzy tails that make up the furry community. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Honey Buddies
When a jilted former child actor is dumped by his fiancée, his irrepressibly gung-ho best man convinces him to continue on the planned honeymoon anyway, together—as honey buddies. A seven-day backpacking trek through the Oregon mountains ensues. … read more
Review: The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait
The Splendid Things We Planned is a deeply felt, one-punch chronicling of familial love—its contradictions and limits—and the spectacular things we do to, and for, the people we love. … read more
Impossible to Ignore: Slamdance 2016 Artist Rosie Lea
Each year, the Slamdance Film Festival, which emphasizes the creative force of emerging and independent filmmaking, enlists a featured artist to contribute their work to the showcase. For 2016, Slamdance chose to present the graphic art of Bristol, UK–based screenprinter and illustrator Rosie Lea. … read more
Review: Feel Hood Stay Hood – Hooded Scarf
My favorite and most stylish coats don’t come with hoods, so I didn’t realize how unnecessarily cold my ears, neck and face were until I tried on one of Feel Hood Stay Hood’s hooded scarves ($50–80). … read more
Review: Men Explain Things To Me
Men Explain Things to Me is a tribute to the women who came before; the women still going; and the women who will come after, for whom we struggle, and who will continue the struggle. … read more
Review: Palate Polish
Portland-based Palate Polish has the whole package: Their nail polishes are all handcrafted in small batches, vegan and 5-free—meaning that they don’t contain toxic chemicals like formaldehyde or toluene. … read more
Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq: This Is An Emergency
Chi-Raq, Spike Lee’s latest satire-meets-agitprop, is incendiary, uneven and heavy-handed with the polemics, musical cuts and rhythm-centric dialogue. It’s also the most electrifying that we’ve seen from Lee in the past decade. … read more
Top 5 Art Albums That Should Be Sold At The...
God Hates Robots opened their doors this year, and this is an appeal to hang these art albums on its walls. These art albums paved new ground in 2015. … read more
Angel Olsen with Lionlimb @ Urban Lounge 10.14
I remember the way Angel Olsen’s songs steeped into the air, lingering, leaving me dazed for hours. … read more
Tina Misrachi Martin: Alberto, Frida y Galería Misrachi
By the 1930s and ‘40s, following an artistic revolution and the peak of the Mural Renaissance, Mexico City had flourished into a thriving meeting-place of culture. … read more
The Art of Safe Sex: Planned Parenthood
There’s been ample precedent for an art-and–Planned Parenthood alliance, what with runway shows featuring dresses fashioned out of condoms, IUDs-turned-jewelry and condom packages touting designs by famous artists. This month, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is forging its own art-making, action-taking collaboration for its upcoming signature fundraising event: The Art of Safe Sex. The
Go, Find and Make Your Own Friends: Brian Bress @...
Brian Bress’ work is characterized, literally, by a motley squad of imaginative, humanoid figures—friends—crafted out of upholstery foam, clay, paint, found objects and, in some instances, googly eyes. … read more
Mudson Leaps Into Its Fifth Anniversary Season
During Mudson’s final installation at the Masonic Temple, Breeanne Saxton—currently a guest dancer for Ririe-Woodbury through the fall season—performed an in-progress work that dealt with processing a death in her family. By the end of the piece, Saxton folded up small but precious objects into a towel and smashed them. The piece was well received:
SLUG x FYF Fest 2015: Day Two
FYF Day Two was hotter and more crowded than ever, but the highly anticipated and top-notch Sunday lineup kept the momentum going. … read more
SLUG x FYF Fest 2015: Day One
After smoothly making our way into LA’s Exposition Park for Day One of FYF Fest (aside from getting my perfume confiscated), we set about exploring the massive festival space, which comprises four major stages—Main, Lawn, Trees and Arena—and a new Woods Stage, which featured all-day-long DJ sets by Horse Meat Disco underneath shiny, colorful tassels.
Living (and Captured) Proof: Andrew Fillmore @ Mestizo Gallery
Salt Lake City–based Andrew Fillmore’s Proof is a jubilant photographic embodiment of something close to a personal manifesto. … read more
Fuck Yeah Grrl Idols: Must-See Acts of FYF Fest 2015
As soon as the FYF Fest lineup was announced back in May, I began eagerly planning my trip to the heart of downtown LA for the two-day-long festival (formerly known as Fuck Yeah Fest). … read more
Desert Rose: Craft Lake City Artisan
Desert Rose Jewelry desertroseshop.com Malinda Fisher’s favorite piece of jewelry that she’s ever made is also her very first metal work—a bold bracelet of hammered wire that wraps around her forearm. Fisher made the piece when she enrolled in a metal-smithing class in an effort to teach herself how to work with the raw material.
Impartworks: Craft Lake City Artisan
Impartworks impartworks.com Two years ago, Sacha Mercier took an unprecedented leap of faith into the world of functional design and community-centric craftsmanship. He thought of a name—Impartworks—and set his driveway up with a workbench, saw and drill. Using reclaimed wood—because free, recycled materials were initially his only option—Mercier built his first piece: a charming wall-mount
Little Teeth Marks: Craft Lake City Artisan
Little Teeth Marks etsy.com/shop/LittleTeethMarks Stacie Van Arsdale has created art—and stories—since elementary school. “I would bring materials from home and make these little pompom people,” she says. “I’d build a house for their sitcom lives.” Since then, the Davis County–based Van Arsdale has taken her wild imagination to run her Etsy shop, Little Teeth Marks,
Captured Locally: Logan Sorenson @ Sugar Space
Logan Sorenson—whose vibrant photographs you’ve more than likely seen in SLUG—documents people. Currently located in the high-ceilinged industrial charm of the Sugar Space Arts Warehouse is Captured Locally, Sorenson’s solo exhibition that fittingly showcases the freelancer’s vast portfolio of locally taken snapshots with people—dancers, musicians, strangers—in the limelight. For the opening reception of Captured Locally,
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood: Sunset Baby
Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby is a heartfelt, timely and at times untamable play that explores questions of reconciliation: of morality and principle, of the movement and its individuals, of saving and savoring the world, of freedom (or “No fear,” to go by Nina Simone’s definition) and how to attain it. At the center of
Damn These Heels Film Festival 2015
The 2015 Damn These Heels Film Festival played at the Utah Film Center from July 10 – 12, featuring independent films that meditate on queerness, love and society. … read more
Trent Call: Processed Opening Reception @ UMOCA Exhibit 12.12
In Processed, Call’s work uses collage, digital media, painting and found objects to manifest new ways of exploring the fast food industry, consumerism and our perceptions of art and the world around us. … read more
The Bee: True Stories from the Hive @ Urban Lounge...
On Dec. 18, The Bee debuted at Urban Lounge to an audience of over 200. The venue was pleasantly crowded and the audience was chatty and enthusiastic. … read more
![Illustrate, Illuminate: [con]text @ UMFA Exhibit](/uploads/exclusives/8733-cage_sumsion_1977_umfa_exhibit_2014_2015-crop-396x288.jpg)
Illustrate, Illuminate: [con]text @ UMFA Exhibit
Three curators at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts decided to navigate the usage of words and text in art and to showcase the versatility and artistry of language, particularly when it is used in works of art. So, they put together [con]text, an exploration of how visual artists have harnessed the power of language. … read more
Review: Pure Paint For Now People @ Weber State
Pure Paint for Now People, the current exhibition at the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery at Weber State University, seeks to explore the definition of contemporary painting with a curated selection of pieces by locally, nationally and internationally recognized artists. … read more
loveDANCEmore @ Memorial House 03.22
loveDANCEmore, a series of community events showcasing the dances and dancers of Salt Lake City, staged a one-day performance at the Memorial House. … read more
Naomi Natale: Art, Activism, Revolution
The intersection of art and activism has been explored and discussed endlessly, and for good reason. Sometimes, art is the only way to help others fully understand or express injustice. … read more
Kodak to Graph @ Kilby Court 04.21 With Big Wild...
I first listened to LA-based producer Michael Maleki—Kodak to Graph—when he opened at Slow Magic’s Urban Lounge performance last year. I was thrilled to hear that Maleki was returning to Salt Lake to headline his Break the Ice tour in support of the release of his debut LP, ISA. … read more
Repertory Dance Theater: From Radical Beginnings To A 50-Year Reunion
The Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) is at a threshold. It has been around 50 years since a group of Salt Lake City dancers secured a Rockefeller grant and founded “the nation’s first successful modern dance repertory company.” … read more
Sometimes, Life Feels Like a Story: David Sedaris @ Kingsbury...
We hear a lot about author and humorist David Sedaris’ incisive wit and genius storytelling. Until he visited Salt Lake as the final installment of Kingsbury Hall’s season, it never occurred to me just how impressive it was that Sedaris could fill up an auditorium by, essentially, reading his stories aloud. … read more
Play @ Photo Collective Studios 05.01
Throughout Play—an evening of dance performance, multimedia installation and license to discover—I found myself wanting to chorus a resounding “Yes!” to all of it: to women in collaboration, to dance, to the intersection of more art forms than one, to open-minded spaces, to inspired interaction. … read more
God Hates Robots Art Gallery
God Hates Robots has been a mission in the making for 10 years. Officially open since mid-May, this local experimental art gallery is one of the newest additions to the Broadway District. Founded by business partners Shon Taylor and Ray Childs, the art space sets itself apart with three core principles: All of the artists
Donning the Yellow Face: People Productions @ Sugar Space Warehouse...
Hollywood’s whitewashing is as blatant as ever—consider anything from Mickey Rooney’s racist depiction of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to the recent casting of Emma Stone in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha as a character of quarter-Chinese, quarter-Hawaiian descent. The same whitewashing can be said for the theatre. … read more
Heaven Adores You @ Broadway Centre Theatre 06.16
As a documentary, the film isn’t particularly unconventional. It comprises archival footage and nostalgic, sometimes teary-eyed accounts by those who were close to Smith and had worked with him, and it’s organized chronologically, from each of Smith’s projects or albums to the next, starting from his high school bands—Stranger Than Fiction and A Murder of Crows—and going up to the posthumously released From a Basement on the Hill. … read more
Kicking & Dancing: The Political/Poetical María Magdalena Campos-Pons
For Campos-Pons, Our America is important for a community that is often “undefined and without context,” she says. Latino Americans are “like the universe,” Campos-Pons says. “Look at how many galaxies, how many stars, came out of [the Big Bang]. The idiosyncratic physical and cultural makeup of the Latino people—their identity—is like that: a mix of many things that become one.”