Kim Gordon’s Body Part 2: Kool Things
Kim Gordon grinds handrails with a Jazzmaster, vacuums in MNZ heels, and sings of capitalism’s end while modelling for its tastemakers. Object of Projection channels the aesthetics of resistance, but is it rebellion or just another symptom of “conservative cool”?
In Los Angeles June 6, 2019, another video performance work presented as a part of Object of Projection, Gordon uses her Jazzmaster as a skateboard, grinding handrails, benches, and cornices of downtown LA’s municipal architecture. In interviews, Gordon mentioned she was inspired by the way the Dogtown skaters “repurposed corporate buildings.” Craig Stecyk called Dogtown’s Z-Boys “urban guerillas” in 1976, and their illegal activities in the concrete playground of Santa Monica and Venice eventually made them “rock stars” in their own right. By 1970, the area had become a “seaside slum” and a mecca for the DIY culture of disenfranchised youths.
Exclusive to the Magazine
Kim Gordon’s Body Part 2: Kool Things by Audrey Schmidt is featured in full in Issue 2 of Memo magazine.
Get your hands on the print or electronic edition through our online shop or save up to 20% and get free domestic shipping with a subscription.
Related
Hollywood thinks it’s exposing the art world’s grift, but it’s just another con. From Velvet Buzzsaw to Picasso Baby, cinema keeps repackaging conceptual cringe as critique—while artists play along. If contemporary art is now just another film genre, it’s a bad one.
“It is no longer my face (identification), but the face that has somehow been given to me (circumstantial possession) as stage property.” — Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh, Omnicide: Mania, Fatality, and the Future-in-Delirium
The APY Art Centre Collective scandal, ignited by Murdoch’s The Australian, exposed more than allegations of interference—it revealed power struggles in the Aboriginal art industry and became a flashpoint for culture wars. As institutions, dealers, and politicians jockeyed for position, the artists were caught in a battle over authenticity, control, and the future of Aboriginal contemporary art.
