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In this launch piece Violence: The Directors Eye Brad Evans and the Academy Award Winning movie director/producer Oliver Stone, discuss a range of issues from the directors personal experience of war to wider problem of violence in contemporary societies The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Jan 23rd 2017.
In Confronting the Intolerable, Brad Evans and Gottfried Helnwein discuss the artists background growing up in the shadow of World War II, the recurring motif of the wounded child in his work, the aesthetics of intolerability, onto the importance of the arts as a political form of intervention. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Jan 23rd 2017.
In Violence is Our Present Condition, Brad Evans and the Chilean born studio artist and architect Alfredo Jaar, discuss the purpose of art in the context of violence, the aesthetic turn in political thinking and how we might resource the arts better in developing a critique of violence. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Feb 6th 2017.
In Songs in the Key of Revolution, Brad Evans & the Soweto born composer, musician & writer, Neo Muyanga, talks about his life growing up in apartheid South Africa, legacies of colonialism, and the power of protest music in what he terms: "Songs in the Key of Revolution". The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 27th 2017.
In Literary Violence, Brad Evans & the British novelist and writer Tom McCarthy discuss the implicit and explicit nature of violence in his work, his personal literary and philosophical influences, his fascination with Patty Hearst, onto some of the broader themes featured in his recently published book Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 8th 2017.
In Landscapes of Violence, Brad Evans & the artist and film-maker John Akomfrah discuss the relationship between violence, race and aesthetics, the political importance of returning to the history of slavery, onto his personal influences and friendship with the late Stuart Hall. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, June 5th 2017.
In Violence to Thought, Brad Evans & the David Theo Goldberg discuss the intellectual conditions of violence, his personal responses to threats to academic freedom, the persistence of racial markers, onto the question of justice. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, July 10th 2017.
In Operatic Violence, Brad Evans & Christopher Alden discuss the importance of Opera in terms of developing a critique of violence, its problematic history in terms of gender, and its relevance for thinking about performance and witnessing. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, September 11th 2017.
In Violence to Art, Brad Evans & the British artist Jake Chapman discuss art as a form of creative destruction, the aesthetic importance of engaging with violence for making sense of the human condition, the continued influence of Goya in their work, and his personal theoretical interests. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, October 5th 2017.
In Affect - Power - Violence: The Political is Not Personal, Brad Evans & the critical theorist and philosopher Brian Massumi discuss his long standing interest in the concept of affect, how this relates to politics in the contemporary moment, onto the viability of meaningful resistance. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, November 13th 2017.
In Recovering from an Addicted Life, Brad Evans & the comedian and actor Russell Brand discuss his new book, Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions, in which he shares the hard lessons he has learned over the years and how he found solace in more human connections. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, November 15th 2017.
In The Intimate Life of Violence, Brad Evans & Professor of Aesthetics Elaine Scarry, discuss a range of issues from her earlier work and contemporary thinking on the body in pain, the question of trauma and victimhood, onto the future role for the humanities in reclaiming human dignity. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 4th 2017.
In Neuro-diversity & Policing the Norm, Brad Evans & Erin Manning, discuss the politics of thought itself as it connects to issues of deviancy and disability; looking in particular at autistic perception and the violence often associated with the medicalisation and policing of different modes of perceiving and thinking about the world. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, January 2nd 2018.
In Living With Disappearance, Brad Evans & NYU Professor Allen Feldman, discuss the problem of human disappearance, how it connects to logics for power and rule, onto regimes of denial concerning absence and effective memorialisation for the victims and wider communities. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, February 26th 2018.
In Violence & the Art of the Political Brad Evans & Michael J Shapiro, discuss the the importance of disciplinary engagements with the problem of violence, and what political studies can learn from the arts in terms of developing a viable critique - notably from cinema to music. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, April 2nd 2018.
In Non-Violence & the Ghost of Fascism, Brad Evans & Todd May, discuss the contemporary problem of fascism, and moving beyond narratives of passive resistance, why non-violence is an effective counter to systems of oppression and the denial of human freedoms. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 21st 2018.
In Without Exception: On the Ordinariness of Violence, Brad Evans & Lauren Berlant, discuss the problem of with the politics of the exception, the act of silencing, and what narratives of vulnerability offer in terms of thinking about violence. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, July 30th 2018.
In Anatomy of Destruction, Brad Evans & Gil Anidjar, discuss the concept of destruction, how the question of ruination plays out in the philosophical and technical fields, and what remains hidden within the spectacular. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, September 17th 2018.
In The Intimate Witness: Art & the Disappeared of History, Brad Evans & the Mexican born abstract artist Chantal Meza, discuss the history of the Nations art, its relationship to the tragic, and the ethical and aesthetic challenges when dealing with human disappearance. The article featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, October 22nd 2018.
