Martin Creed's Neon "Understanding" Sculpture at The Brooklyn Bridge Park In New York

Times Square marquees, roadside signs, and advertising logos are the stock-in-trade for giant neon signs. Martin Creed has adapted the medium for his own colossal sign, proclaiming a word rather than selling a product. His chosen word, “understanding,” is fundamental to communication between people. Spelled out in ten-foot-tall letters mounted on a 50-foot-long steel I-beam, Understanding rotates 360 degrees, constantly shifting our perspective on the work. The beam spins at varying speeds, the rhythm determined by a computerized program designed by the artist. Developed by former Public Art Fund Curator Andria Hickey, Understanding can be viewed until October 23, 2016 at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York. 

Marguerite Humeau "FOXP2" @ Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Palais de Tokyo has invited Marguerite Humeau for her first major solo exhibition. The artist has produced an entire series of new work for the project; a physical and sensory experience at the crossroads between research and fiction. Myths, speculations and fantasies are at the heart of Marguerite Humeau’s artwork. The development of each project includes a phase of extensive research and collaboration with numerous specialists and scientists. At Palais de Tokyo, Marguerite Humeau re-enacts the origin of life and the development of conscious life forms in an ominous atmosphere. Marguerite Humeau "FOXP2" will be open until September 11, 2016 at Palais de Tokyo in Paris. 

Watch The Premiere Of Neon Indian's Music Video For The Track Annie

Neon Indian releases the official music video for the track Annie, off their current album Vega Intl. Night School. Directed by lead singer, Alan Palomo, the music video is essentially a karaoke video turned fever dream in which Alan has to traverse B-roll cityscapes, taped over TV shows, and phone sex commercial breaks in search of a missing ex-lover. Shot over 8 cities on Neon Indian's last tour of Asia, all libidinal hell breaks loose in this glistening meta ode to laserdisc-era sing-alongs.

Courageous Writing For IRL Cowards: Novelist Matt Binder Chats With Novelist Clancy Martin On Making Bad Decisions and The Thin Veil of Fiction →

In 2012, shortly before I lost my mind and committed myself to writing fiction, I was sitting at a pal’s apartment in San Diego, waiting on him to shower and ready himself for a night out, when I picked up a copy of the Vice fiction issue. I flipped through the magazine’s pages looking for something of interest. A story titled “Whores I Have Loved” immediately resonated with me. I understood the sentiment completely. I read with ferocious curiosity as the writer sermonized on the dangers of falling in love with prostitutes in locations foreign and remote. Prior to reading the piece, I didn’t think it possible for a work to exist that was so honest, tender, and vulnerable about a subject so fraught with moral pitfalls. Click here to read more. 

Ron Arad's "Curtain Call" With A Live performance By Lail Arad And Visuals by Flo Kohl and Ellis Pendens @ The Roundhouse In London

Singer-songwriter Lail Arad reunites with photographer/filmmaker Flo Kohl and filmmaker and editor Ellis Pendens for a remarkable video and live music event. This collaborative performance piece has been composed for the second series of Ron Arad's groundbreaking Curtain Call, an immersive 360° video experience at the Roundhouse in London. This piece submerges the viewers in a virtual undersea environment, and invites them to dive in to Arad's playfully poetic lyrics and flowing melodies. Shot in six locations in four countries, the video is a celebration of Arad's second album, The Onion, released by The Vinyl Factory in April 2016. Flo Kohl co-directs the video with his longtime collaborator, Ellis Pendens. Drawing visual inspiration from their shared early-childhood fascination with fountain pens and inks, they have crafted an aquatic kaleidoscope of in-camera effects, bringing movement to Kohl's acclaimed stills. As Arad's lyrics flicker across the enormous screen of flexible silicon rods, they dissolve in tides and rapids, are swept away by waterfalls and float through inky seascapes. Ron Arad's "Curtain Call" will be open, on and off as a canvas for other live performances and happenings, until August 29, 2016 at in the mainspace at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London. photographs by Flo Kohl

Watch The Music Video For Cass McCombs' Track "Medusa's Outhouse" Starring Real Porn Actors

Cass McCombs and frequent collaborator Focus Creeps present a new video for “Medusa’s Outhouse,” off upcoming album Mangy Love. As described by Focus Creeps’ Aaron Brown, “the video for ‘Medusa's Outhouse’ has to do with wondering what are the fantasies of the people who act out our fantasies for us? Where does fantasy end?” Mangy Love is McCombs’ eighth full-length album and debut for ANTI. It’s his most blunt, tackling sociopolitical issues through his uniquely cracked lens of wit and singular insight. With a common thread of opposition sewing the album together, the severity of his lyrics is contrasted by the music, which ventures into groovy realms of Philly soul, Norcal psychedelia and New York paranoia. Mangy Love is available for pre-order now. 

Omul Negru Group Show @ Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles

Spanning forty artworks, Omul Negru is an anthropological occurrence, one comprised of both cultural enactment and ritual embodiment, invoked to explore the varied notions of the Boogeyman. It is a celebration of civilization’s most important character, a figure that has transcended in the 21st Century into a monster of ever-expanding applications. This spectrum of visual culture’s darkest corner is traced through artists, martyrs, serial killers, madmen, and monsters; to explore the many faces as well as the facelessness of the Boogeyman. It traverses the origins, stereotypologies and embodiments of the Boogeyman through contemporary, historical, and archetypal lenses - staging an ominous atmosphere of summoning and possession. Omul Negru will be on view until August 20, 2016 at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles. photographs by Sara Clarken

Joan Jonas "From Away" @ DHC/ART In Montréal, Canada

From Away is the first retrospective in Canada devoted to the American multi-media artist Joan Jonas (b. 1936). It will give insight into the artist’s œuvre, spanning over five decades. It begins with her early choreographic works and pioneering video performances, such as the Organic Honey series, and culminates with her most recent piece They Come to Us without a Word, which was presented in 2015 at the Pavilion of the United States for the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale, and will premiere in North America at DHC/ART. The multimedia installation and performance They Come to Us without a Word is emblematic of the artist’s long-term interest in environmental politics, the landscape and ghost stories of Nova Scotia as well as the writing of the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness. Joan Jonas "From Away" will be on view until September 18, 2016 at DHC/ART 451 & 465, St-Jean Street Montréal, Québec.

Modes Of Conduction Group Show Presented by Overnight Projects @ The Moran Plant in Burlington, Vermont

Overnight Projects presents the group exhibition Modes of Conduction, which invites Germany-based artists Vesko Goesel, Peter Miller, and Viktoria Strecker to create site-responsive, installation-based works in the abandoned Moran Plant on Burlington, Vermont's waterfront. The Moran Plant functioned as a generator of energy. A machine whose massive turbine generators and switchgear assemblies were activated by workers-like-conductors to set off a daily assemblage of sounds. The machine, a monstrous skeleton of steel wrapped in skin of cinderblock, emitted a cacophony of industry: harmony, rhythm, and melody, the chorus of grinding gears and humming motors. Each day, workers-like-spectators witnessed the light moving across Moran's vast interiors, changing its colors from blue to amber, signaling the end of the day, the end of the concert. In this exhibition, Goesel, Miller, and Strecker will reactivate the machine that is Moran, and conduct through material interventions, a series of sounds, sights, and phenomena: Goesel through large, reflective fabrics, Miller through works imbued with uncanny sensations, and Strecker with automatic musical instruments and sounds created with rainwater collected in the building's inner troughs. Modes of Conduction is on view now by appointment only – there will be an artist lecture at Burlington City Arts on Thursday, August 11th at 6pm, and a closing event at Moran on Sunday, August 28th from 5-8pm. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Shaky Towns Group Show Organized By The Battery Art Program @ The Alter Space Gallery In San Francisco

Alter Space presents Shaky Towns, an exhibition in two parts. Featuring work by fourteen artists currently living and working in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Shaky Towns will be held in two parts simultaneously at Alter Space and The Battery. Conceived and co-organized in conjunction with The Battery Art Program, the exhibition functions as a visual dialogue between the two cities, while concurrently addressing their divergent attributes. Thematic for its emphasis on work produced by a selection of contemporary artists working in California, Shaky Towns is uniquely attuned to the variant of the two physical spaces, reflected in the selection of work. Shaky Towns will be on view until September 17, 2016 at Alter Space Gallery in San Francisco. photographs by Bradley Golden

Breakfast and Chill: Watch "Croissant Castles" A New Fashion Film From Down Under

Starring Helen Bedz from Folk Collective and directed by Amy Dellar, aka Indoor Fountains, Croissant Castles is a fashion film for breakfast gluttons, featuring clothing by Base Range and new Melbourne fashion by Sister Studios and Nylons jewellery – all styled by Cecile Huynh with makeup by Rob Povey and hair by Xeneb Allen. The short film also features original music by Mitchell Wood from Leisure Suite and production design by Sara Glaoua.