We are so pleased to finally release our conversation with artist, performer, and curator Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for our Art, Gender, and Sexuality segment. We talk about Bhutto’s journey around the world to his current home in San Francisco, his queer, Muslim, futuristic, revolutionary, zombie drag performance alter-ego Faluda Islam, Bhutto’s collaborations, and his work in Queer Muslim Futurisms.
Tori Currier
Hello from summer intern, Tori Currier
Hi everyone, my name is Tori Currier and I am excited to intern at Critical Bounds this summer. I am a first-generation college student who transferred to Smith College last fall. I am an Art History major with a focus on LGBTQ+ art, but my studies began at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
HCC offers a program called “Learning Communities.” Learning Communities give students from many walks of life the opportunity to take courses at local 4-year universities, like Smith College. During my time at HCC, I was fortunate enough to take a Learning Community that met at Smith. The course was about “the New York School,” a group of experimental visual artists, writers, musicians, and dancers in 1950’s and 1960’s New York. In these courses alongside Smith students, I discovered my capability and passion for art history. I am particularly passionate about the art of artists who have been traditionally marginalized, like those from the LGBTQ+ community, and women artists of the New York School. (One of Elaine de Kooning’s self-portraits is framed on my bedroom wall.)
At Smith, I have become especially focused on the art of the AIDS crisis. I am using my practice to spotlight the influence of AIDS crisis art on art today and challenge the societal assumption that HIV/AIDS is a virus of the past instead of an ongoing epidemic.
Under ‘read more’ you can find some of the artists and works that inform my practice.
As a creative writer working toward a career in higher education, I am also passionate about alternative modes of education, like historical fiction. Presently, I am developing a television screenplay about LGBTQ+ artists during the 1960’s - 1980’s, hoping to educate younger generations about the community’s history and the social roles that art has played.
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From top left: Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman, Dr. Eric Avery in studio (photo by Charlie Warden), Carrie Redway, Bethany Tabor, J Simmz, Dr. Bettina Judd.
All the Updates
It has been a busy past month, with moving, settling in, and recording.
During the past few weeks we have been fortunate to speak with several illuminating guests: Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman spoke with us about his upcoming feature film Early Stage, “…an anthology film, speculating about the inner life of artificially intelligent networks.”
For our segment on Art and Death, we conversed with Bethany Tabor, a cultural arts programmer whose work focuses on death and end of life practices, J Simmz, a curator, writer, and co-founder of Doppelgänger Projects in New York, who works closely with the Death Positive Movement. Simmz conceptualizes exhibitions with heavy focus on the cycles of life and death, mysticism, and transcendence. This segment also included poet, mixed media artist, founder of Thedna Arts, and death doula Carrie Redway. Redway’s work with death is closely related to cycles of nature, folklore, mythology, and ritual.
We also delved more deeply into our Art and Health segment, speaking with artist and physician Dr. Eric Avery. Avery’s work has spanned several decades, and includes work exploring the social side of the AIDS/HIV crisis, as well as emerging infectious diseases, human rights abuses, death, and sexuality. We were also excited to speak with Dr. Bettina Judd, a writer, artist, performer, current Assistant Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington, and author of Patient, a book of poems that explores the historical utilization of, and standardization of the dehumanization of Black, non-cisgender male bodies in the field of Eurocentric healthcare that continues today.
Our new intern, Tori Currier.
We would also like to take this time to welcome our summer intern Tori Currier! Tori is originally from East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She currently resides in Northampton, Massachusetts where she attends Smith College. Tori is a junior (2022J) majoring in Art History. Focused on LGBTQ+ art, she is passionate about the role of art in social movements. Presently, she is conducting research for an honors thesis about AIDS crisis art and its continued censorship in the art world today.
Tori intends to pursue a career in higher education. Her ambitions include changing how art history is traditionally taught by giving more attention to artists who have long been excluded or underappreciated. Interested in how history can be conveyed through creative fiction, Tori is developing a television screenplay about LGBTQ+ artists from the 60’s - 80’s, hoping to educate younger generations about the community’s history and the significant social roles that art has played throughout these decades.
As an intern for Critical Bounds, she will strive to facilitate conversations about the importance of art in critical global issues. She is enthusiastic about how programs and websites in the social media age can become spaces for marginalized voices as well as tools to make education more accessible.
Tori will be doing research, handling a lot of our social media, and taking over the blog for the next few weeks, as well as making an episode of her own in August, and we are so happy to have her.
"What Are You Reading" with Dean Jones AKA The Well-Seasoned Librarian
A few months ago, I did a fun Q&A with librarian Dean Jones (also known as The Well-Seasoned Librarian). I just realized that although I posted about it on Instagram, I never linked to the full interview. Find it here.
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Performance by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Faluda Islam the zombie, video projections by Anum Awan in 'Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth_ The Queer Intifada AkA Alif is For Intifada' June 20-22 2019, CounterPulse Theater, SF. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Updates + Even More Art-Related Things to Do and Funds Available
I hope you are all making through the isolation (or in some cases, lack of isolation) okay. This week I am very excited to speak with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Jr. for our segment on Art, Gender, and Sexuality. Bhutto’s last name may sound familiar to some of you, and yes, he is named for his grandfather, the People’s Party former Prime Minister of Pakistan in the 1970s. We will talk about Bhutto’s alter ego Faluda Islam, Queer Muslim Futurism, and I am pretty sure that we will at least touch on the current crises and how they factor into a queer Muslim artistic practice.
Read MoreStay At Home (but go out virtually)
Hi All, I hope everyone is healthy and feeling as safe as it is possible to feel right now. We are all on edge, and uncertain of the future, but we are all in this together, even while we are apart. It’s fine to feel anxious or depressed, or sad or angry. These are all valid feelings, and if you need help or to talk, reach out to someone you trust, or a stranger on the internet. I promise you, most of us are feeling that way too and you are not alone.
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Things to Do While Stuck at Home
Being under quarantine (or social distancing, if you aren’t under actual quarantine yet) can feel eternal. Although I am part of the population who is still going to work every day, I sympathize with the prospect of having my movements even more limited than they currently are. Luckily, we exist in the age of the Internet, and there are Many, Many ways to pass the time:
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