The Cut - Nan Goldin’s Happy Ending

“My work has always been about making the private public but to a very limited audience,” says the photographer Nan Goldin, ashing an American Spirit. We are sitting in her sunny living room in Clinton Hill, treetops visible through the window. On the coffee table are cans of La Croix on Hilma af Klint coasters from the gift shop at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, which recently showed six of Goldin’s slideshows and video installations in a retrospective titled “This Will Not End Well.” Peter Hujar’s black-and-white portrait of her friend the artist and activist David Wojnarowicz hangs above the mantel.

The show in Sweden (Amsterdam is the next stop) isn’t what’s making Goldin anxious; instead, it’s Laura Poitras’s documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which tells the intertwined stories of Goldin’s art and activism. The movie didn’t win the Oscar it was nominated for but is now streaming on HBO Max. “Think about if there was a two-hour film about you in the world,” Goldin says. “It’s an ambivalent experience. There’s a lot of good feelings and bad feelings.” She feels in her body the vulnerability of being exposed to such a large audience: “It’s in my skin. It’s not about thinking how people respond; it’s not about worrying about the audience reaction. It’s about my own reaction.”

Ai Weiwei re-created Monet’s Water Lilies ​out of 650,000 LEGO ​bricks, and you’ve got to see it​.​ If Boygenius decided to bring on a fourth friend/band member/sycophant, we’d gladly volunteer. Imagine a world where getting out of subscription and membership services isn’t like pulling teeth. Brooklyn Beckham clearly doesn’t know what a thruple is. People are really out here thirsting after the TikTok CEO like he’s not being shady about the app’s connections to China. But at least it’s not overshadowing everyone’s thirst for Pedro Pascal. Thank you for all the good times, Ash Ketchum. The future is fungi. Who wouldn’t invite Sam Irby to their party?​ ​​​​​And last night, the aurora borealis was visible in parts of the U.S. and Canada — see pictures here.

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