KALEIDOSCOPE

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ISSUE 43 FW23

KALEIDOSCOPE's Fall/Winter 2023 issue launches with a set of six covers. Featuring Sampha, Alex Katz, Harmony Korine, a report into the metamorphosis of denim, a photo reportage by Dexter Navy, and a limited-edition cover by Isa Genzken.

Also featured in this issue: London-based band Bar Italia (photography by Jessica Madavo and interview by Conor McTernan), the archives of Hysteric Glamour (photography by Lorenzo Dalbosco and interview by Akio Kunisawa), Japanese underground illustrator Yoshitaka Amano (words by Alex Shulan), Marseille-based artist Sara Sadik (photography by Nicolas Poillot and interview by Daria Miricola), a survey about Japan’s new hip-hop scene starring Tohji (photography by Taito Itateyama and words by Ashley Ogawa Clarke), Richard Prince’s new book “The Entertainers” (words by Brad Phillips), “New Art: London” (featuring Adam Farah-Saad, Lenard Giller, Charlie Osborne, R.I.P. Germain, and Olukemi Ljiadu photographed by Bolade Banjo and interviewed by Ben Broome).

FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE

ISA GENZKEN

For her retrospective exhibition at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, Isa Genzken has presented 75 sculptural assemblages from across her career to celebrate her 75th birthday. On this occasion, we sorted through her archive of invitations cards—historical documents which double as allegories of communication and traces of an unfixed identity.

HARMONY KORINE

With a career stretching from the pre-9/11 nihilistic hedonism of New York City to the gamified, small-screen fictions of TikTok’s psychedelic everyday, American filmmaker and artist Harmony Korine is emblematic of America’s aesthetics. His latest film, Aggro Dr1ft, combines worldbuilding and AI into a heightened, hyperreal, dreamlike state, pushing narrative cinema to its glitching limits.

ALEX KATZ

Born in New York, where he still lives and works, Alex Katz has been painting for 78 years. Across these decades, he’s maintained a revelatory and playful eye for the essence of the image: whether it’s a landscape, a self-portrait, flowers, his wife, or images appropriated from advertising, there’s a glossy, stylized truth at the heart of the work.

TREND REPORT

The most ubiquitous of fabrics, with a history dating back to the 17th century and a lead role in many subcultural revolutions, denim has recently been dominating the stage once again, undergoing a new transmogrification. Paying homage to its undying relevance, this report explores the startling ways in which designers are reconceptualizing denim through the warping lens of luxury fashion, emancipating it altogether from its material base.

SAMPHA

The long awaited sophomore album from Sampha, Lahai, released this fall to universal acclaim. Titled after the artist’s middle name—a tribute to his grandfather—the record is an exploration of loss and healing, reflecting on the passing of his parents, the birth of his daughter, and the inevitably cyclical nature of life and memory.

EGYPT

The Faiyum Oasis is a small sanctuary of life springing out of the harshness of the desert in Egypt. Led by a desire to reconnect with his own roots, British-Egyptian photographer Dexter Navy spent time with the Bedouin tribes who populate the region, navigating existence with graceful frugality.

ESCAPE TO MIAMI

The most southernly city in the US, Miami exists in the tropical recesses of the American imagination: land of celebrity, thunderstorms, Tony Montana, and Art Deco architecture. Here, we meet the latest generation of Miamians—committed radicals in the fields of art, fashion, and music, who are dreaming up new narratives for the city they call home.

CAT POWER

In a career stretching over 30 years, Chan Marshall, under the moniker of Cat Power, has established herself as one of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters of the century, creating some of the most emotionally powerful music ever recorded. Among her talents, she can turn cover versions into moments of transcendent beauty.

ANDREW DOWNTOWN

Nick Katz, Pres Rodriguez, and Adrian Douzmanian met when Nick was building a community skate park and Adrian and Pres were hosting parties at a nightclub that shared the same space. Together they formed Andrew, a skate shop and apparel brand named after the most devastating storm to hit Florida.

NITE OWL DRIVE-IN

Miami born and bred, Nayib Estefan has been running creative cinematic endeavors for over a decade. At the Nite Owl Drive-In, nestled between neon-lit high-rise condos, he shows 35mm repertory prints ranging from classic to guilty pleasure while, at Dream Arcade, he’s building an interactive piece of lysergic art.

SUSAN KIM ALVAREZ

Born in Honolulu and raised in central Florida as part of a Cuban, Vietnamese, and Jewish household, Susan Kim Alvarez returned to the Sunshine State after graduating from art school. Now based in Miami, she makes rich, abstract compositions, exploding with strange figures and fantastical narratives.

FARED MANZUR

Built in 1905 and left uninhabited for decades, artist Fared Manzur has turned Rice Hotel in Downtown Miami into a studio space for himself, and a gallery of sorts. Here, leaving the architecture of the space largely untouched and bare, he welcomes artists from across the world to work, exhibit, and experience the city.

NEW ART: LONDON

The art world’s compulsion to categorize by the yardstick of “hot or not” has historically been the driving force behind the market and the gallery system. Commerce is intertwined with this metric, spurred on by the insatiable appetite to find talented young things to build up. This system is uninteresting: what’s in vogue rarely reflects those operating at the cutting edge. Who are those young emerging artists making work against all odds—work that is difficult and costly to make, store, exhibit, move, and sell? These five individuals typify this path. Working across video, sound, installation, and sculpture, they march onwards, carving out their own niche—exhibiting in empty shop spaces one day and major institutions the next. For them, making is guided by urgency, and persistence is motivated by blind faith.

ADAM FARAH-SAAD

Working in a range of media and performative gestures, Adam Farah-Saad dwells on various ephemeral and poetic moments in order to open up critical reflections and connections. His works revisits and explores past experiences revolving around the mnemonic and a process of mapping.

CHARLIE OSBORNE

Working across video, performance, sculpture, and sound, Charlie Osbourne’s films have been screened alongside artists such as Ryan Trecartin, Mica Levi, and Tai Shani.

R.I.P. GERMAIN

Drawing from Black experience, R.I.P. Germain’s practice delves with double meanings, deep resonances, and a tension between accessibility and occlusion.

OLUKEMI LIJADU

Focusing on moving image and sound, Olukemi Lijadu is an artist and DJ who uses the power of cinema to take listeners on sonic journeys weaving between cultures and time.

LENARD GILLER

London-based artist Lenard Giller explores the life-spans of time-based technologies and their translations into language, memory, and perception.

KAYODE OJO

Out of cheap jewelry, wigs, mirrors, fake fur, and counterfeit luxury goods, New York-based artist Kayode Ojo makes precarious, luminous sculptures—delicately arranged accoutrements of fake glamor. Titled “Eden,” his latest exhibition at 52 Walker is both a reference to the mythic garden of Bible legend, and an exploration of America’s history and present politics.

TOHJI

The hip-hop artists of the Reiwa era emerge from a tangled mesh of cultural references that Japan has imported, exported, and re-imported again, in an endless loop of cultural osmosis with the West. None exemplifies this more than Tohji, whose new-wave music and potently nostalgic Y2K asthetic seem to fulfill the broken promise of a futuristic utopia.

SARA SADIK

KALEIDOSCOPE hosted a solo exhibition by Marseille-based artist Sara Sadik (b. 1994, Bordeaux), in November 2023 at Spazio Maiocchi in Milan, with the support of Slam Jam. Inspired by videogames, anime, science fiction, and French rap, Sara Sadik’s work explores the reality and fantasies of France’s Maghrebi youth, addressing issues of adolescence, masculinity, and social mythologies. Her work across video, performance, and installation often centers on male characters, using computer-generated scenarios to transform their condition of marginalization into something optimistic and poetic.

FROM THE SHOP

FROM THE ARCHIVE

230321 MKE KALEIDOSCOPE Shot 10 032 RGB HD

THE (UN) OFFICIAL PREPPY HANDBOOK

TOSH BASCO

MARK FLOOD

MANIFESTO

In 2023, from June 22 to June 24 during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, KALEIDOSCOPE and GOAT presented the new edition of our annual arts and culture festival, MANIFESTO. Against the unique setting of the French Communist Party building, a modern architectural landmark designed by legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the festival will bring together visionary creators from different areas of culture across three days of art, fashion and sound. The 2024 edition will run from June 21 to June 23.

CAPSULE PLAZA

In April 2023, a year after the launch of the magazine, Capsule introduced Capsule Plaza, a new initiative that infuses new energy into Milan Design Week by redefining the design showcase format. A hybrid between a fair and a collective exhibition, Capsule Plaza brings together designers and companies from various creative fields, bridging industry and culture with a bold curation that spans interiors and architecture, beauty and technology, ecology and craft. The 2024 edition will run from April 15 to April 21.

THE DOLLS

AUREL SCHMIDT

TEXT BY SOPHIE KEMP

At once precious and repellant, Aurel Schmidt’s ongoing series of doll drawings tell a story about New York, the art world, and the hell of being a pretty young thing.

A very long time ago, in another dimension, there were 17 girls, and they all lived in a shipping container on the East River in a far-away land called New Yawk, New Yawk. In this very long time ago, the sun was always at high noon, and everyone was always chitchatting about sexual freedom. As in: you could suck a guy’s dick in front of a bar called Ancient Clandestino. As in: you could suck a guy’s dick in front of a restaurant called Ancient Lucien. As in: when you looked at the sun, which was always at high noon, there was comfort in that. As in: the value of the dollar was good, and the secret brotherhood known as the Securities Exchange Commission was protecting us all. As in: if you are one of the 17 girls who lived in a shipping container on the East River, everyone gave you the appellation Doll. No one called you by the name mommy and daddy gave you when you were a small fry being born of the womb. You were Doll.

To be called Doll was considered to be one of the best appellations you could get at this time. Better than slut. Better than Miss. Better than Lil’ Fucker. Better than “Hey sugar, do you have a kiss for daddy?” The Dolls acknowledged that they were lucky. That they had hit the jackpot. That they got to saucily saunter through the streets of New Yawk, New Yawk, and it was true that they looked so good. This is what they were doing today: Braiding each other’s hair. Painting each other’s fingernails. Putting in hot rollers. Varnishing their lovely and plump lips. Playing the ancient game of paddy cake paddy cake baker’s man. They were doing all of this for a very good reason. The reason was that the Dolls (all 17 of them) had plans. Here is to what: a gallery opening. Here is why: because when you were a Doll (and not a slut or a Miss), you experience fine art. Someone gives you a coupe of champagne, and you stand in front of greatness and say, I’m really feeling a lot of things, man, I’m really feeling it all.

The gallery was in a very ancient part of New Yawk, New Yawk, called the Lower East Side. In those days, this area was ruled by a man they called the Catulus of Ludlow Street, and he was an absolute tyrant. Just a total bad vibes cunt. Rumors were circulating that he would often go to a gallery opening and talk loudly on his cell phone about various numbers and costs. That’s not going to sell, he would shout. Don’t be a little bitch. I’ve been in this industry for twenty years. It was almost certain that the Catulus of Ludlow Street would be there, at the gallery opening. And that when faced with this hardcore absolute tyrant, the Dolls would have to do feats of strength.

Merrily they rolled along over the hill and over dale. When you are a doll, you live a life oh so charmed. Everyone complimented the 17 girls as they walked alongside the East River in their frocks. They gave them roses and counsel and a carton of Marlboro Reds and a live chicken for slaughter. A wise man driving a car called a Nissan even rolled down the windows of his vehicle to show them his penis and asked if anyone wanted to get raped. The Dolls thought about this and decided that they had to get to the gallery soon, so there wasn’t any time for a rape. But they were delighted by all of this. They lit up the cigarettes from the carton, and sniffed the roses. The bravest of the Dolls, who used to go by the name Bethany, pulled a box cutter out of her pocket book and slit the chicken’sthroat so they could all be full of nutrients before they viewed the fine art. The chicken started to flap its wings wildly, and then slumped over cradled in used- to-be-named-Bethany’s arms, stone-cold dead. They lit a fire in a trash can to cook the chicken’s meat, then said a prayer:

Yummy Yummy
In My Tummy
This Chicken
Is really good
Does anyone have some BBQ sauce?

When they reached the gallery, the Dolls were met by an oracle wearing a pair of low-rise jeans and a whale tail. The Oracle was standing over an ancient plate called an iPad Pro, and you could see her whole butt crack. Are you on the list? Said the Oracle. Right now, it’s just for family and friends. The Dolls whispered amongst each other for a minute, and then used-to-be-named-Bethany walked back up to the oracle. Hey babe, said used-to-be-named-Bethany, part the red sea for us, won’t you? We’re the Dolls. The Oracle looked back at the ancient plate, furrowed her brow. I’m sorry, she said, I don’t see that name on the list.

A black car pulled up to the gallery and out popped a man talking on his cell phone. Manon, he said, addressing the Oracle, are you trying to turn away this much hot ass from the gallery opening? I’m the Catulus of Ludlow Street. Do as I say. I know all about the art world. The Oracle bowed her head and then allowed the Dolls to cross the threshold into the gallery, one of the most beautiful places they had ever seen. The Catulus of Ludlow Street hung up his cell phone call and gazed upon the most beautiful sight he had ever seen: 17 Dolls being convivial at a gallery opening. He went up to used-to-be-named- Bethany and offered her a card. Sex sells in the crazy town they call New Yawk, New Yawk, he said. The sun is always at high noon here, and a pretty young thing like you could really turn a trick or two. We’ll be in touch.

Aurel Schmidt (Canadian, b. 1982) is a New York-based mixed-media artist who infuses ordinary objects and contemporary lifestyles with an edge of grotesquerie, often featuring element of trash and garbage. Her next solo show will open at Gathering, London, in July 2023.

Sophie Frances Kemp is a Brooklyn-based writer, freelance journalist, creative consultant, and an adjunct professor in creative writing at Columbia.

IMAGE COURTESY: THE ARTIST