The belief that a person has a share in an unknown life to which his or her love may win us admission is, of all the prerequisites of love, the one which it values most highly and which makes it set little store by all the rest

MASS IN MOTION

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Diogo Duarte

ART SKOOL

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Lisbon, Portugal born artist Diogo Duarte's self-portrait project, Unconscious Commands and Judgements of our Century. From the artist:

"I ‘perform’ different aspects of my personality in front of the camera with the intention of creating an inner dialogue of self-acceptance.

The staged photographs where every single character plays a role in the conversation, are almost knee jerk reactions to notions I have always been conflicted by such as sexual expression, sexual orientation and gender identity. From image to image, characters talk to each other in a constant swing between freedom of expression and repression.

Aspects of my personality that were once hidden away, are amplified and exaggerated in front of a surreal backdrop so their existence can no longer be ignored. The Fool - and many others - are dramatised and imagined just like children would when trying to explain what they don’t understand."

Hence one meets in polite society few novelists, or poets, few of all those sublime creatures who speak of the things that are not to be mentioned

MASS IN MOTION

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Xavier White

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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Xavier White is Caught Up In Living. You will be too. Get it.

Caught Up In Living is out now.

Every person whom we love, indeed to a certain extent every person is to us like Janus, presenting to us the face that we like if that person leaves us, the repellent face if we know him or her to be perpetually at our disposal

MASS IN MOTION

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WIINSTON

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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Here's the stunning video for Danish group WIINSTON's Rosa. Get it.

Rosa is out now.

NoMBe

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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Los Angeles-based artist NoMBe is back with the Drama. It's from his upcoming debut album They Might've Even Loved Me. Get it.

Only Love is out now.

Yuno

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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There's still a month until Yuno's Moodie EP drops. In the meantime, here's the gorgeous, bittersweet No Going Back. Get it.

No Going Back is out now.

Jeff Is He

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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In his new video Mistress, we discover queer Seattle rapper Jeff Is He with his male lover - who's treating him like a mistress, rather than a partner.

There's an excellent interview with Jeff here. Get it.

Mistress is out now.

I live so resolutely apart from physical contingencies that my senses no longer trouble to inform me of them

MASS IN MOTION

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Rough Trade

ART SKOOL

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Fischerspooner

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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Fischerspooner's new album, Sir, has come arrived. It's Spooner's "Homeric Odyssey through the clandestine world of sex, drugs, and dark rooms, spurned by a serious break up. 'I started dating a much younger, crazy hot guy who was super gay. He was the one who was like ‘You take this pill, you go at this time, you do it this way.’ He really opened my everything. My friends all think I’m having a midlife crisis running out with 25 year olds doing modelling on circuit parties.'" Get it.

Sir is out now

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We ought not to attach ourselves to beings, it is not beings who exist in reality and are amenable to description, but ideas

MASS IN MOTION

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We do not include the pleasures we enjoy in sleep in the inventory of the pleasures we have experienced in the course of our existence

MASS IN MOTION

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Edward Melcarth

ART SKOOL

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An exhibition of the work of Edward Melcarth is currently on display at Institute 193, until 17th February. From Institute 193:

"Edward Melcarth (1914 - 1972, born Louisville, Kentucky) was an American painter known primarily for his sensitive, emotional, and often heroic portrayal of the male figure. Melcarth’s subjects were blue collar workers, hustlers, addicts, and trade with whom he had intimate relationships. These men also frequently make appearances in work by other gay artists who were living and working in New York at the same time, namely Henry Faulkner of Lexington, Kentucky, and photographer and archivist Thomas Painter. Despite showing widely and prominently in the 1940’s (his work is included in the collections of MOMA, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) Melcarth has since faded into relative obscurity.

Melcarth’s portrayal of working class and otherwise down and out men who read as straight, and often defined themselves as such despite having sex with other men, and his often glorified or romantic treatment of their image, served dual function in the historical context of their making. For straight viewers of the work, the paintings become quintessential images of the American workforce where grit, brute strength, and the ability to wade through difficulty, especially economic, is rewarded and mythologized. For gay men, and for Melcarth himself, the images served as a vehicle to examine socially unacceptable desire in relative safety. For both groups, a one way mirror is constructed, allowing for a selective understanding of the work, dependent on point of view.

However, Melcarth was uniquely situated and deeply conscious of these perspectives. He was a militant communist with radical views on how the working class should be organized and treated, as well as a largely out-of-the-closet homosexual, and was closely monitored by the FBI as a result of both. As noted in Erin Griffey and Barry Reay’s article about the artist, entitled, ‘Sexual Portraits: Edward Melcarth and Homoeroticism in Modern American Art,’ Thomas Painter speculates that Melcarth's lack of relative commercial and critical success compared to similar artists working concurrently was largely due to his Jewish background, militant communism, and open homosexuality.

Despite this, Melcarth remains an influential and foundational figure in early twentieth century gay American art. A reconsideration of his work, legacy, and contributions are long overdue, and the themes explored in his work remain pertinent to contemporary concerns."

Bodily passion, which has been so unjustly decried, compels its victims to display every vestige that is in them

MASS IN MOTION

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Jussie Smollett

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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Jussie Smollett follows up January's Freedom with '90s-flavoured head-bopper Catch Your Eye. Get it.

Catch Your Eye is out now.

My aching heart was soothed; I let myself be borne upon the current of this gentle night...

MASS IN MOTION

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snny

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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New Yorker snny releases the glorious Let's Not Pretend. Get it.

Let's Not Pretend is out now.

The theatre of the world is stocked with fewer settings than actors, and with fewer actors than situations

MASS IN MOTION

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IAAF World Indoor Tour Dusseldorf 2018

A R E N A

IF IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO WINS OR LOSES, THEN WHY DO THEY KEEP SCORE?

Here's the complete stream of the IAAF World Indoor Tour in Dusseldorf yesterday.

The UK's Adam Gemili finished third in the 60m, behind Michael Rodgers (US) and winner Su Bingtian (China). Here's the full results.

Luke Austin

ART SKOOL

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My aching heart was soothed; I let myself be borne upon the current of this gentle night...

MASS IN MOTION

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Starchild & The New Romantic

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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“I want this to be a declaration of what black boys can be,” Starchild & The New Romantic's Bryndon Cook says of his new album, Language, “what we can sound like, what influences we can draw from, and how serious we can take ourselves or not.” Get it.

Language is out now.

Character

ART SKOOL

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Ramin Djawadi

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
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“This world is a lie. This world deserves to die because this is your world. We’ve lived by your rules long enough. We can save this world, we can burn it to the ground and from the ashes build a new world: our world...”

It's fair to say that Westworld's season two trailer pretty much broke the internet over the weekend, and not just because of the stunning visuals and doom laden narration. What I wanted to know was how I could get my hands on a full length version of Ramin Djawadi's epic and devastatingly beautiful version of Kanye West's Runaway. Get it.

Runaway is out now.

We remember the truth because it has a name, is rooted in the past, but a makeshift lie is quickly forgotten

MASS IN MOTION

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