Announcement of 2013 Makers Muse Recipients
• Nao Bustamante • Cohdi Harrell • Trevor Paglen • Dread Scott •
Lorna Simpson • Erika Wanenmacher • Juice Rap News •
Hanging weightlessly from ceilings; casting spells and crafting sculptures; capturing the remote identifiers of war; burning money; rapping reportage on tendentious issues with hilarity and accuracy; taking traditional notions of culture and identity by the horns and hair; brazen stage performance and cheeky video making—these are just some of the fierce sparks of skill and talent that this year’s Makers Muse Recipients have in their pockets.
It’s our five-year anniversary for the Makers Muse Award. Half a decade and twenty-nine recipients later we could not be more proud and excited to share with you our awardees for 2013.
This group of seven is our most cross-disciplinary crew yet. Hailing from various fields, they typify the feisty spirit of this award. Each artist on this list breaks boundaries with tenacity and grace. They all show us what it can mean to be a Maker and they’ve got us on the edge of our seats.
Trevor Paglen lives and works in New York.
Recently, she turned to moving images – in film and video works. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Miami Art Museum; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
A fusion of biting satire, rigorous academic research, anarchic home-made costuming, and deftly-performed rap rhyming, Juice Rap News is a cult success story of the interwebs which quickly garnered a loyal online following, racking up over 12 million views over 30 episodes, and featuring cameos with icons and influential figures such as Julian Assange, Noam Chomsky, Normal Finkelstein and Senator Scott Ludlam.
The hard-hitting and hilarious news show broadcasts free on YouTube and is created by Giordano Nanni and Hugo Farrant, who combine their skills of philosophy, historical perspective, comedy and rap together into a unique and addictive brew. The team are now working on Season 4 of the series, and are looking forward to opening more people’s eyes to the truth of the show’s slogan: History Is Happening.