Elephant Magazine Issue 37

The moment of birth can be many things. In this issue we meet five artists who explore creation and the ever-growing trend of humans playing God.

The moment of birth can be many things—painful, surprising, harrowing, joyful—and this isn’t just childbirth: the idea of creation and newness appears in many forms in art and visual culture. Many artists look to the future, considering the idea of new life through computer algorithms, which take on their own momentum once set in motion by their mastermind. In this issue we meet five artists who explore creation and the ever-growing trend of humans playing God—well, at least until the machines are officially Mum and Dad.

This issue also features Encounters with legendary New York painter Alex Katz, Turner Prize-nominee Nicole Wermers and French musical duo The Blaze, whose vigorous but nuanced videos explore gender, race and friendship. Elephant also meets the new guard, interviewing Joy Labinjo and Aliki Braine.

Regular columnists, Mel Byars and Federico Florian explore expensive taste and anticipation, respectively, while Katya Tylevich dives into rebirth, imagining a possible visa form for a self-reinvention centre.
In the Paper Galleries are profiled the unsettlingly beautiful work of Lothar Baumgarten, and  two young female painters are paired: Sofia Stevi and Maria Farrar.

Find out more about Elephant here.