Aida Amoako

A Review of Volume 2 of Kevin Le Gendre's exploration of Black music in Britain

Wrote a review blurb of Nick Trend's What Art Can Tell Us About Love

A Review of David Rowell's The Endless Refrain

A new biography of Billie Holiday focuses on her relationships
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LONDON — It’s fair to say that Decolonised Structures (2022–23), a series of fiberglass sculptures inspired by public statuary, are the “stars” of Yinka Shonibare’s current exhibition, Suspended States.

Selected: ebook / ISBN-13: 9781399615969
Hardcover

Across photography, sculpture and painting, a new wave of Black artists is challenging persistent tropes in art and wider society to depict a richer portrait of the lives of Black people from all corners of the globe.
As We See It brings together 30 image-makers creating visually refreshing narratives on Black cultural identities, and exploring what Blackness brings to the making and viewing of art.

With the publication of her new book As We See It, about the groundbreaking work of a new wave of Black artists, Aida Amoako takes a close look at three artists taking collage and appropriation in a whole new direction
In his ongoing series As We Recede, Lagos and Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist Emeka Okereke presents a photograph of a photograph. The black-and-white image of a young woman dressed in a patterned dress, gele and holding a smart black handbag, stands out against the yello...

Twenty-five years after her untimely death, the legacy of Diana, Princess of Wales—more commonly known as Princess Diana—endures. For gender and cultural studies scholar Jane Caputi, who considered Diana’s iconic status in the years immediately following her death, the former royal’s image draws its power and longevity from mythology, specifically the parallels between the narratives of Diana, the goddess, and the life of Diana Spencer.

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Christian Dior’s debut “New Look” collection catapulted him to fashion stardom in 1947. He died just ten years later, but not before publishing his memoir, known in English as Dior by Dior but more revealingly in French as Christian Dior et moi [Christian Dior and me]. Through the construct of “two Christian Diors,” the iconic designer conveyed the tension between “public celebrity and intimate personhood,” a situation perhaps un...

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Discover Siren Eyes: it’s the viral TikTok beauty trend showcasing an elongated, black-winged eyeliner that promises to transform its wearer into a veritable seductress. The trend and its name, credited to beauty influencer Danielle Marcan, references the sirens, ancient mythological creatures know for their powers of allure through voice and song. But how did we get from figures imagined in millenia-old narratives to the modern ...

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In the mid-2010s, the Dark Academia “aesthetic” arose from the blogs of Tumblr, and for the past few years, it’s been experiencing a renaissance on newer social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok. Characterized primarily by autumnal colors, vintage clothing, the romanticization of liberal arts education, a pursuit of knowledge, and occasionally, a murder mystery, Dark Academia draws heavily from the campus novel, a genr...

John F. Kennedy may have been the first major political candidate to go on late-night television when he visited Tonight Starring Jack Paar in 1960, but one of the most significant appearances, the catalyst for so many in the years since, was Bill Clinton’s appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, when he infamously played the saxophone. A captive audience of millions, a relaxed atmosphere, a chance to seem relatable—why not?

Rolling Stone magazine called 1984 “the year that pop stood tallest”. It gave us a run of singles from Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”, as well as Band Aid and the largest Grammy Awards audience in the ceremony’s history. In Can’t Slow Down, the American critic Michaelangelo Matos concurs with Rolling Stone, dubbing 1984 pop’s “blockbuster” year. “Heavily commercial”, boosted by a bullish market and new formats like CDs, pop insinuated itself, Matos argues, into ...