rea mcnamara

Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.

korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in

Maga is fundamentally a populist white racism. The slogan "Make America Great Again" is more accurately described as "Make White America Greater." The fact that the tariff policy insisted on a 50% tariff only on steel and aluminum stems from the concentration of these groups in the Rust Belt.

The massive crackdown on illegal immigrants at the Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions joint venture plant in Georgia must be understood in this context. The scenes of our workers being chained and escorted away were reminiscent of the dragging of African slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Department of Homeland Security boasted of "the largest single-site raid in history," and Immigration and Customs Enforcement even brazenly released footage of the raid, which was highly violating human rights, as if to boast of their "achievement."

Far-right whites may have secretly rejoiced. Even politicians like the Georgia governor and local lawmakers, who had been active in attracting factories, have shifted their stance and sympathized with their grievances. This is likely because it's difficult to ignore the anti-immigrant sentiment of native Americans. Like the McCarthyism that swept through American society in the 1950s, irrational madness dominates American society. The recent visa issue, which could have been resolved diplomatically with advance notice from an ally, is difficult to explain beyond political maneuvering. The fact that they mobilized helicopters and armored vehicles for show, as if they had been caught, is difficult to explain.

idk if you've seen this south korean editorial that ran a few days ago. google translate version scorched my eyebrows www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion...

Skawennati’s Cyberpunk Future Is Now The artist’s mid-career survey features Indigenous sci-fi retellings of Hotinonshón:ni cosmology and histories, expressed through her avatars.

“As a very small child, my first love was textiles. There’s a language to textiles and fashion that is more decipherable to people than the language of machinima or computation.” — Skawennati, multidisciplinary artist

Caribbean Artists Take on the Myth of Tropical Escapism The art in Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt. reflects on the vastness and precarity of the Caribbean landscape, the ebb and flow of its rising sea levels, and coastline erosion.

While the contested notion of “paradise” is a well-trodden trope in Caribbean art curation, a new show at Remai Modern is savvy in its nuanced approach to the region’s aesthetic practices, particularly in how this extends into its diaspora.

Caribbean Artists Take on the Myth of Tropical Escapism The art in Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt. reflects on the vastness and precarity of the Caribbean landscape, the ebb and flow of its rising sea levels, and coastline erosion.

for @hyperallergic.com, i reviewed @remaimodern.bsky.social's current "land. sea. sugar. salt." show featuring artists with familial + lived ties to the region. i found it particularly moving, especially amidst dei crackdowns and "difficult" budgetary contexts hyperallergic.com/1033734/cari...

key terms: fan-curator, fanworks, the k-pop shelf, art about fandom, shipping, jikookisreal 😅

big ty to @fansplaining.bsky.social for the chance to revisit the curatorial essay for 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘒-𝘱𝘰𝘱 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘴, and deepen our exploration of fandom as an expanded curatorial methodology. (also, if it's tl;dr, you can listen to bo and i read the text) 🔊🔊🔊

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet Never Backed Down to the Art World The trailblazing Afro-Indigenous sculptor’s life and everlasting impact are the subject of a long-overdue retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum.

True to its fierce title, “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch” at the Brooklyn Museum illustrates the resilience and ingenuity of a trailblazing Afro-Indigenous woman sculptor.

No food, aid, or fuel have entered Gaza since March 2.

Community kitchens have closed. Children are sick, thirsty, and starving.

Now Netanyahu’s government wants to occupy Gaza and shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the UN and its humanitarian partners.

Arms embargo now.

YouTube video by Made in Busan Jimin talking about the process of writing the bridge for "Disease"

lol... i meant to say that "dis-ease" BRIDGE jimin WROTE... he just started humming it... good gawd, park jimin! you take the words from me youtu.be/H4fatspIweg?...

i think my headcanon remains that BRIDGE jimin in like what? five minutes? for "dis-ease"

praxis: scanning PCs at 600 dpi for 11x17 print

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme Create a Poetic, Web-based Space for Mourning Postscript exudes a rare ease of accessibility, permitting viewers to linger and acknowledge the nuances of grief.

in 2021, i reviewed the first part, which, at the time, was focused on covid-19 grief and loss. as we see the unprecedented purging of government online archives, it will be interesting to see how this project continues to take shape hyperallergic.com/629875/basel...

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme Refuse to Forget As the US government expunges identities through words and names, the artists’ online archive of videos proposes that holding onto these moments is a powerful political act.

natalie haddad reviews the second part of basel abbas and ruanne abou-rahme’s "may amnesia never kiss us on the mouth" online project, which has become a poignant archive of found footage from border-zone communities in iraq, palestine, yemen, and syria hyperallergic.com/998353/basel...

"you are the dreamer and the dream"

OK SO, 25% book tariffs are set to go live April 2. this is tricky for a number of reasons but the simplest is that most books are published & warehoused in the US, even those by Canadian authors, so this makes it infinitely more complicated than "Buy Canadian Authors" or slapping on a sticker

pleased to share that a #toronto show i am co-curating on #kpop fandoms will open 3/31, featuring local collections w/work by jiwon choi + lux pyre. would you believe this is the first irl show i've curated since... 2019? so, you know, do that thing + come thru www.eventbrite.ca/e/i-came-to-...

With Trump’s Tariffs, the Canadian Art Market Looks for Opportunities Elsewhere Canada’s robust network of active institutions and enthusiastic collectors paired with stronger relationships with Mexico and Europe could make engaging with the U.S. art market optional.

i was waiting for someone to write about tariffs and the impact on the cdn art market—many dealers expectedly considering pulling out of us fairs, art toronto shifting its focus on mx dealers and eu artists observer.com/2025/03/us-t...

"at war for oppa and identity" really has quite the ring to it—nonetheless, interesting read on "competitive performativity" vs toxic fandom in k-pop circa 2018 repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcont...

‘I was in shock’: DC gallery pulls exhibits of Black and LGBTQ+ artists amid Trump DEI crackdown Art Museum of the Americas’ abrupt cancellation after anti-diversity order is ‘how fascism unfolds’, curator says

“there’s a long hist of the arts being attacked by conservative forces...what i’m disappointed about w/the OAS is that this is not trump’s action; this is anticipating. this for me is even scarier b/c it feels like we have this closeup view to how fascism unfolds” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

watched on a meta quest 3 fan-made 360 vr experiences of k-pop concerts—yes, it exists. is it good? well...

Once more, with feelings.

structures of belonging have an exterior. toxic fandom is that shadow of non-belonging—that pressure to try to uncritically uphold this idea of community around an consumer object

great piece from @drcherylt.bsky.social on how much of the recovery of local black histories often begins with social media postings and online blogs, since many of these stories aren't taught in schools. as big tech capitulates to dictatorship, how does this on/offline restorative work now occur?

can't believe this k-pop author has a back-dated due south fic

lisa frank! virgil abloh! hong jang hyun! if this spread had a fan chant, that's how it would start

Life’s too cool to keep getting hurt and I love my work and my friends and what we do in culture so I don’t have time or willingness to go through useless pain anymore

Kathy Acker, from I’M VERY INTO YOU

"as we’ve been all too aware recently, there’s much more we can do, to be fairer and freer and better. to be, as morley said, a 'beacon to the world.' but also to be as great as we’re able for each other."

Donald Trump is not joking about making Canada the 51st state, Justin Trudeau warns Donald Trump has securing Canada's resource wealth on his mind, and "one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country. And it is a real thing.”

#Breaking: Donald Trump is not joking about making Canada the 51st state, Justin Trudeau warns

GovWayback Access historical versions of U.S. government websites from before January 20, 2025 via the Wayback Machine

Some friends created this handy tool with the help of Wayback Machine. Access archives of now deleted U.S. Gov websites pre-Jan 20, 2025: govwayback.com