Latest news with #socialCommentary
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Tegan Bennett Daylight's young adult novel How to Survive 1985 draws on memories 'burned into' her brain
What would you do if you came out of a cinema and found you had somehow gone back in time to the 1980s? That's the predicament facing Shannon, the teenage protagonist of Tegan Bennett Daylight's new young adult (YA) novel, How to Survive 1985. The book follows Shannon as she tries to find her friends — who have also travelled back in time — and a way to return to her usual life. While it would be easy for a time travel tale to embrace the cliches of the era and have its characters get around in acid wash jeans while listening to power ballads on their walkmans, Daylight's book has fun with its setting — but takes a different path. How to Survive 1985 uses its time shift for social commentary, as Shannon reflects on how society has changed in the past four decades. Seeing a less inclusive Australia leads her to celebrate progress on gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights and environmental issues. She also becomes thankful for the modern medical advances that help people live longer, happier lives. Daylight says she has seen teenagers become more compassionate and inclusive, and wanted to celebrate this change. "I come across Gen-Xers who seem to think that all the radical work stopped with us, as though we'd done everything that we needed to do, or that Gen Z are a hopeless bunch. I just don't believe that at all. "I've been teaching for 30 years, and I've got kids, and I have found that young people are lost in some ways, but they just get kinder and kinder." While Daylight, who turned 16 in 1985, consulted with some Gen X friends about their memories of the 1980s, she didn't have to do too much research to set the scene. "That part of your life gets burned into your brain," she explains of being a teenager. "Anything that happens then stays [with you], so it was very, very easy to remember my attitudes, clothing, the music I was listening to and what the world looked like." She can also easily recall the connection she felt with her family as a teenager. In the book, Shannon hangs out with her teenage mother and reflects on her hopes and dreams for the future. Daylight says the storyline was close to home for her. "I asked my oldest child what they would do if they went back to 1985, and they said, 'I'd look for you.' That was a lovely thing to hear. "I also realised as I was writing that it was likely to be something I'd do as well." One key difference with setting a book in the 1980s is that the characters can't communicate with mobile phones or the internet. "Taking phones out [of the story] is a great thought experiment to see what young people who are used to phones might do," Daylight says. "It's also a great plot point, because they know they want to find each other but don't know how. So that gives them this lovely adventure to go on." Daylight, who published her first adult novel, Bombora, in 1996, never planned to write YA fiction. "I just had this idea of six teenagers trapped in Penrith Plaza," she says of her previous book, Royals. (How to Survive 1985 features the same characters, but can be read as a standalone book.) "But once I'd written that, I was like, 'OK, cool, I've finished my YA.' "A few people said to me, 'Are you going to write a sequel?' and I said 'No way.' But then this other idea [for How to Survive 1985] just turned up and kept hanging out with me." Now, she's even working on a third book in the series that she never intended to write. Daylight says the main difference she has found between writing literary fiction and YA is promoting the work. "YA is a different space; it's much less heightened and poised than literary, where you're really curating yourself," she says. She has found that while there is less focus on YA in the media and at writer's festivals, it has a vibrant and enthusiastic readership. "Even though you might be quite visible as a literary writer and less so as a YA writer, what happens is the books actually sell. "They call it young adult, but [the character ages] start at about 10 and go to 25, so it's quite a broad market, and it's been super interesting." And Daylight is delighted that her time travel fiction is striking a chord. How to Survive 1985 (Simon & Schuster) is out now.
.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Vogue
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Robby Hoffman Season Is Officially Upon Us
Appearing as a guest on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney—Mulaney's dryly absurdist, essentially experimental late-night Netflix series—is not for the faint of heart. Robby Hoffman, however, carried it off like a pro. On a recent episode titled 'Are You Ready for Real ID?,' the 35-year-old comedian stole the show. Wearing her signature wire-rimmed glasses, button-down shirt over a white tee, and low, carefully slicked-back bun, she generously procured a vape from her pocket to share with Andy Samberg; displayed her catlike ability to steal out of an airplane seat without disturbing her neighbors; and pointedly referred to the government's new ID requirements for domestic travel as 'an attack on the poor, like everything else is.' (Her argument: 'Who has passports? Wealthier people. The poorest people don't have ID.') From some Los Angeles-based alt comedians, the latter might sound like a bid for socialist cred. But as the seventh of 10 children raised by a single mother, Hoffman knows what she's talking about. 'We had nothing,' Hoffman tells me plainly, describing her Hasidic Jewish childhood in Brooklyn and, later, Montreal. 'But my mom's taste in culture and art and movies was phenomenal. We watched everything: Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand.'
South China Morning Post
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How Weak Hero and D.P.'s Han Jun-hee masterfully draws modern audiences
Director Han Jun-hee is carving out a distinctive creative signature in Korean content with his unique approach to genre storytelling. From the gritty military drama D.P. to the high-school action series Weak Hero , Han's works resonate with both domestic and international audiences for their complex narratives and sharp social commentary. Rather than relying solely on action, Han's storytelling integrates layered plotlines. It blends suspense, drama and satire to highlight institutional violence and systemic injustice, often set within confined social spaces such as schools or military bases. These themes have struck a chord with modern viewers who are increasingly drawn to stories that ask deeper questions about power and accountability. Play
Forbes
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How 'Typologien' at Fondazione Prada Explores German Photography
Heinrich Riebesehl "Menschen Im Fahrstuhl" (People in the Elevator, 1969), Berlin Heinrich Riebesehl, by SIAE 2025 We live in an age defined so much by image-making. We, even the least of us digital natives, communicate through image, real or constructed, and are documented constantly—too often without our knowledge or consent. Which makes the latest exhibition at Milan's Fondazione Prada all the more poignant. 'Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany' is a fascinating exploration of the photograph and place, of image-making as both historical record and social commentary. Focusing on 25 diverse photographers working throughout the 20th century in Germany, 'Typologien' examines how photography has been used to express collective, social, political and personal ideas. Fondazione Prada, by Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), functions as the fashion house's cultural hub Nargess Banks Opened in 2015 (the Torre building joined in 2018), Fondazione Prada functions as the fashion house's cultural hub. The design, by Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and led by the maverick architect Rem Koolhaas, is pretty spectacular. Built on the site of a former early 20th-century gin distillery in Largo Isarco, an industrial area in Milan, the buildings blend old and new, industry and art, for a complex and dynamic space that brilliantly communicates its place as a platform for open discourse on arts and ideas. (As a side note, for anyone interested in culture, a trip to Milan should include a visit to Fondazione Prada.) Karl Blossfeldt "Adiantum pedatum, haarfarn, junge, noch eingerollte Wedel" (Maidenhair fern, young, still curled fronds), Courtesy Berlin University of Arts, Archive Karl Blossfeldt Collection in cooperation with Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Colognecourtesy Berlin University of the Arts, Archive – Karl Blossfeldt Collection in cooperation with Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne The 600-plus images on show at 'Typologien' are organized typologically rather than chronologically, with the curatorial direction inviting us to view this turbulent time in Germany's history—and the role and scope of photography—through multiple lenses. Though varied in approach, the works on show here are united by a shared intent: to classify, to order, to make sense of the world through image. The architecture certainly adds another layer of intrigue. These are clear, quiet spaces, a system of suspended walls offering geometric partitions to instigate unexpected dialogues between artists and artistic practices—and time. August Sander "Sekretärin beim Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln" (Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne, 1931) Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archive, Cologne; SIAE, Roma, 2025 The idea of 'typology,' a system first used in 17th and 18th-century botany to classify and study plants, found its way into German photography in the early part of the last century. And while typology is by nature a rigid, formal framework, it's somewhat allowed for surprising connections between German artists across generations, and through to the digital age. The exhibition opens with Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932), one of the first artists to adapt the classification system used in botanical studies to photography. His detailed plant atlas also represented a clear moment for 'New Objectivity,' the movement born during the Weimar Republic to promote clarity and documentation of realism, with photography seen as a medium to explore the very idea of typology. Isa Genzken Ohr 1980 Galerie Buchholz Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz Isa Genzken, by SIAE 2025 Particularly intriguing is the space dedicated to August Sander (1876–1964). The photographer made a portrait of society through its people with his utterly brilliant 'People of the 20th Century' project grouping individuals—from farmers to bakers, artisans to artists, and the bourgeoisie—into social types. It's an incredible document on class and identity in Germany between the wars, capturing the brief, though culturally and politically significant moment, that was the Weimar Republic before its disappearance. Sander's portraits inspired generations of photographers, including the influential duo Bernd and Hilla Becher and their Düsseldorf School successors. Thomas Struth Musée du Louvre IV, Paris 1989 Thomas Struth / Courtesy ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe Elsewhere we encounter Hans-Peter Feldmann (1941–2023), who caught on camera everyday objects and historical events with a strange mix of humor and systematic cataloguing and documentation. In his series, he invented personal yet very political typologies and adopted a deliberate snapshot approach with a commercial aesthetic. In another space, Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas' (1962–present) unfolds as a sprawling so-called private album, composed of found imagery—snapshots, pornographic material, press clippings, historical photographs. Among them: stark documentation of Nazi concentration camps, the Red Army Faction, and German reunification. Richter seems to reject the notion of typology altogether, pushing instead the idea of visual equivalence to its limits, exposing how images (regardless of weight or meaning) can be trivialized through repetition. The result is a deeper awareness of a suppressed collective memory. Hilla Becher "Studie eines Eichenblatts" (Oak Leaf, 1965) Estate Bernd & Hilla Becher, represented by Max Becher, courtesy Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur – Bernd and Hilla Becher Archive, Cologne, 2025 In the 1970s and 1980s, in dialogue with their mentors Bernd and Hilla Becher, artists like Andreas Gursky gradually moved away from black-and-white purism, embracing color and exploring banal themes through portraits, cityscapes and cultural landmarks. Around the same time, Isa Genzken engaged directly with photography, subverting the traditional portrait by focusing instead on physiognomic detail to examine individuality and typological categorization. 'Only through juxtaposition and direct comparison is it possible to find out what is individual and what is universal, what is normative or real,' explains curator Susanne Pfeffer, art historian and director of Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. 'The typological comparison allows differences and similarities to emerge and the specifics to be grasped. Unknown or previously unperceived things about nature, the animal, or the object, about place and time become visible and recognizable.' Andreas Gursky "Untitled XVIII" 2015 Atelier Andreas Gursky Andreas Gursky, by SIAE 2025; courtesy Sprüth Magers Pfeffer speaks of how the unique and the individual are being absorbed into a global mass. 'The internet allows typologies to be created in a matter of seconds. And yet this is precisely when it seems important—to artists—to take a closer look. When the present seems to have abandoned the future, we need to observe the past more closely. When everything seems to be shouting at you and becoming increasingly brutal, it is important to take a quiet pause and use the silence to see and think clearly. When differences are not seen as something other, but turned into something that divides us, it is crucial to notice what we have in common. Typologies allow us to identify remarkable similarities and subtle differences.' 'Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany' is on at Fondazione Prada in Milan from April 3 to July 14, 2025. Read my highlights from Milan Design Week 2025; see what's happening at the 24th Triennale Milano here, and read my year in art.
