Hermann Rorschach

Latest Articles

Voodoo economics

What vampire and zombie movies can tell us about the future of capitalism
To paraphrase The Communist Manifesto , a specter is haunting Hollywood. Actually, two of them: zombies and vampires. The undead.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 21, 2010

Review: The Box

David Kelly boxes himself in
First-semester social-science students would wince at the overreaching metaphors in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s latest Rorschach test.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 10, 2009

Love bug

Damián Ortega rides into the ICA
At the 2003 Venice Biennale, Damián Ortega presented what has become his signature sculpture, Cosmic Thing . He dissected a 1989 Volkswagen Beetle and suspended the individual parts in mid air so that they resemble a 3-D assembly diagram.
By GREG COOK | September 25, 2009

Manufactured landscapes

Highlights from a banner year in wordless music
Depending on our mood, most of us seek out albums that coddle our hopes, fears, and concerns; failing that, we want escapism, foreign environments that either take us where we want to be or startle us with the thrill of the new.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY + ANDREW FREDERICK | May 13, 2009

Epochalypse soon

The end is nigh! Or not.
The end times do indeed commence on December 21, 2012. On that date, this fragile blue orb of ours will suddenly cease to be a very fun place to live.
By MIKE MILIARD | March 25, 2009

Nude vs. prude

Some Things at Trinity
Sally Mann doesn’t take photographs, she does Rorschach tests.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 27, 2008

His last year at Marienbad

Alain Robbe-Grillet: 1922–2008
Alain Resnais, perhaps as a dig at his screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet, sometimes tells a joke about their notorious 1961 movie.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 26, 2008

Dan Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche: Ultimate Reality

Carpark
Kind of like one long Rorschach test, Ultimate Reality is a collaboration between experimental music producer Dan Deacon and visual artist Jimmy Joe Roche.
By BEN WESTHOFF | December 31, 2007

Road to ruin

Exploring “Urban Landscapes” at Brown
In contemporary art, Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River is a 1.3-mile-wide symbol for humanity’s hubris.
By GREG COOK | May 01, 2007

Creation’s silent roar

Nicole Duennebier astounds at Aucocisco
Nicole Duennebier’s painting reaches into a primordial deep-sea darkness to pull out luminescent patterns dotting undulating shapes.
By IAN PAIGE | March 07, 2007

Origin of species

Jennifer Bartlett’s breakthrough masterpiece and photographers of the future
When in 1976 Jennifer Bartlett premiered her epic painting Rhapsody, John Russell, the chief art critic of the New York Times, proclaimed it “the most ambitious single work of art that has come my way since I started to live in New York." “Jennifer Bartlett: Early Plate Work” at Addison Gallery of American Art ”50 Photographers of Tomorrow” at Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University
By GREG COOK | October 18, 2006

Not aht

2nd Story’s Godot is free of pretentiousness
What a pity that Samuel Beckett’s plays aren’t more widely appreciated.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 30, 2006

Different strokes

The Boston Underground Film Festival
Some say the movie impulse comes from voyeurism, but I think a case could be made for sado-masochism, especially after watching some of the selections in this year’s Boston Underground Film Festival.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 17, 2006