Hrag Vartanian

In Quebec’s federal by-elections yesterday there was a lot of controversy over whether Muslim women should be required to show their faces as proof of their identity, The Toronto Star reports:
Controversy in the lead-up to the vote over a decision by Elections Canada to allow veiled women to vote without showing their faces, which all [...]

[Read more →]

Images like these make me miss Toronto.

{courtesy the amazing Toronto photo blog Daily Dose of Imagery}

[Read more →]

Nothing is more contentious nowadays than oil. Wars are fought over it and economies are dependent on it like heroin addicts looking for a fix.
Wired just published a great interview with YES MEN’s Andy Bichlbaum who, along with fellow Yes Men member Mike Bonanno, impersonated oil industry officials and announced a plan to turn human [...]

[Read more →]

My article original printed in the Brooklyn Rail (June 2007).
When I was in college in the 1990s, there was an emerging movement called Gay Art; it was akin to Feminist Art, but focused on radical Queer Theory and its impact on male gay identity. Gay Art embraced everyone from photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to artist Keith [...]

[Read more →]