Twelve Quarters of Alexadre Diop @ Rubell.

Twelve Days of Christmasⁱ
Twelve Stations of the Cross
Twelve Apostles of Christ
Twelve Tribes of Israelⁱⁱ
Twelve Gates of Jerusalem
Twelves Quarters of Alexandre Diopⁱⁱⁱ

L’Histoire du Monde – Le Temps et L’Espace by 27-year-old French-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop was the single most impactful artwork that we experienced at Miami Art Week 2022. And that’s saying something, because we took in thousands. It’s still stuck in my head now, speaking in tongues and transcending the written word. Asking – almost begging the question – what if words aren’t enough?

What if sights, smells, sounds, and touch^iv are more powerful than our post-modern metaverse-fetishising typically conceive? What if the collage of voices that are capable of speaking to our animal spirits turn out to be infinitely more complex than what can be captured by our over-powered binary-running weaving machines? What if we’re more primitive than we ever imagined, more primitive than even the “primitives” we thought we conquered, but who in fact conquered us?^v

All together now!

Part Duchamp, part Margiela, part Basquiat,^vi part Scripture, part Schiele — these are the stories of our creation — mixing and remixing layers of found materials from the Miami area as part of this year’s artist-in-residence programme at Rubell Miami.

But the question for the future remains: Will we still be able to think without our batteries?^vii

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1. Merry Christmas btw! It’s been *checks notes* 7 years since we published on Christmas Day, all the way back in 2015, and before that it was 2011!↩
2. And Happy last night of Hanukkah to my fellow yids! ↩
3. What, you think ants invented quartering? ↩
4. I couldn’t have been the only one who went batshit insane without touch during the pandemic. ↩
5. Per Taleb:
   

   France took Algeria, hoping for a country to eat cassoulet and instead France is now eating couscous.

   And per Little Richard:

   
   

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6. Speaking of Basquiat, he was also on display in Miami earlier this month, not only at the commercial trade shows but also at the Perez, which featured one of the 100+(!) works that he co-created with world-famous Amiga artist Andy Warhol. Who knew!

   

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7. Per Diop:
   

   I see it coming, the Jeff Bezos, the guys like this, the Teslas, they try to fuck us. I can tell you these guys will try to sell us artificial realities, virtual reality, modern technology. They are just cartels and they are going to hit you harder. You are going to be stuck in this thing and addicted and there is no way to return. You won’t be able to think without your battery.

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