Nathan SponAug 6, 20187 min readKaleidoscopic Codes: Queer Identity Construction in Pink NarcissusSurrounded by shimmering decor, a young man lays in bed before a gaudy mirror. He inspects his striking reflection with amorous eyes, his...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20183 min readFitting/Friction: The Queer Subject in Sara Ahmed In “Queer Feelings” from The Cultural Politics of Emotion, theorist Sara Ahmed details relations between queer subjects and...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20182 min readAnguished & Untamed: Bourgeois Plights in Bunuel & PasoliniIn Luis Bunuel's 1962 Surrealist film The Exterminating Angel, a group of bourgeois partygoers become inexplicably trapped in a room for...
Nathan SponMay 29, 201811 min readEmpathy, Animism & Hexing the Patriarchy: A Conversation with Indira AllegraI sauntered down to my dorm kitchen at 10 AM to interview Indira Allegra. A multidisciplinary Bay Area artist, Allegra uses video,...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20182 min readColonialism & Masculinity in Beau TravailIn Claire Denis’s 1999 film Beau Travail, a military veteran named Galoup narrates his final days in the French Foreign Legion. While...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20184 min readSpace of the In-Between: A Symbolic Location in Pasolini's Mamma RomaMamma Roma is the second film by Marxist provocateur Pier Paolo Pasolini. In post-WWII Italy, the title character is a middle-aged sex...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20184 min readFlesh-Slathered Flora: The Historical Contexts of Takato Yamamoto Contemporary artist Takato Yamamoto imbues his paintings with decorative intricacy, Japanese culture and mysterious eros. Pale, enigmatic...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20182 min read Phantoms and Fragments: The Art of Lana Crooks“A Memory” is the new exhibition by Lana Crooks at Albuquerque's Stranger Factory Gallery. Crooks’ self-proclaimed “no guilt specimens”...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20182 min readThe Feminine Spectacle in Blue Velvet & The Night PorterIn the act of seeing, an active viewer attains power over a passive subject. We relinquish a certain self-determination to any stranger’s...
Nathan SponMay 29, 20183 min readFilm Analysis: Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom On November 2, 1975, Italian Marxist filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered by a street hustler in Rome. His final work, Salo: Or the...