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Alexander Christie-Miller
ALEXANDER CHRISTIE-MILLER  is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. His writing about Turkish politics and culture has been published in Newsweek, the Times, the Atlantic, and other publications. He is a regular contributor to The White Review.


Articles Available Online


Ada Kaleh

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Issue No. 17

Alexander Christie-Miller

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Issue No. 17

When King Carol II of Romania set foot on the tiny Danubian island of Ada Kaleh on 4 May 1931, it was said among...

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October 2015

War is Easy, Peace is Hard

Alexander Christie-Miller

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October 2015

At around midday on 19 July, Koray Türkay boarded a bus in Istanbul and set off for the Syrian...

Image: ‘visionary company’ (2021) by Wu Tsang, at Lafayette Anticipations © Pierre Antoine   On entering Visionary Company (2020), Wu Tsang’s exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, visitors walk down a curving, carpeted pathway that resembles a backstage corridor In The show is over (2020), a film by Wu Tsang made in collaboration with the poet Fred Moten, the camera follows a set of bodies that move around a stage The floor is wet with mud, and the bodies bask in a dark blue light Nearby, Tsang has placed a sculpture which takes the form of an illusory Penrose triangle, an impossible object that appears as a motif in The show is over (2020) To make the film, Tsang translated Moten’s poetry into choreography, the choreography into film, the film into sculpture – all blending into one space   Tsang works across many mediums, but her recurrent lines of inquiry are translation and community building While studying at the University of California in the late 2000s, Tsang lived in McArthur Park, a historically Latinx and Asian neighbourhood, and one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles She came across Silver Platter, an unassuming bar and home to Latin gay and drag communities since the 1960s It was there that she co-created Wildness in 2008, a weekly club night for experimental performance and electronic music, eventually producing the documentary WILDNESS (2012) The film cast a reflexive gaze on the club night, raising complex questions of responsibility and privilege   Tsang’s practice continues to expand through kinship In 2014, she began working with performer Tosh Basco (also known as boychild) on the sci-fi film A day in the life of bliss (2014–ongoing) It follows Blis (played by Basco), a young pop star by day and underground performer by night, who navigates a world where thoughts are controlled by centralised artificial intelligence Two years later, Basco and Tsang co-founded Moved by the Motion, a collective with fluctuating members – including the dancer Josh Johnson, an early Wildness collaborator, musician Asma Maroof and Fred Moten The collective is shaped by experimentation and friendship Eight members of the group joined

Contributor

August 2014

Alexander Christie-Miller

Contributor

August 2014

ALEXANDER CHRISTIE-MILLER  is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. His writing about Turkish politics and culture has been...

Forgotten Sea

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Issue No. 11

Alexander Christie-Miller

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Issue No. 11

I. As I stood on the flanks of the Kaçkar Mountains where they slope into the Black Sea near the town of Arhavi, the...
Occupy Gezi: From the Fringes to the Centre, and Back Again

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July 2013

Alexander Christie-Miller

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July 2013

Taksim Square appears at first a wide, featureless and unlovely place. It is a ganglion of roads and bus routes, a destination and a...

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Interview

November 2016

Interview with Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Cassie Davies

Interview

November 2016

Njideka Akunyili Crosby first encountered Mary Louise Pratt’s ‘Arts of the Contact Zone’ (1991), which identifies ‘social spaces where cultures meet,...

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September 2013

To Sing the Love of Danger

Adnan Sarwar

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September 2013

The Gulf War made my first year at Towneley High School uncomfortable. White lads taunted us Pakistanis with pictures...

poetry

May 2012

REGULAR BLACK

Sam Riviere

poetry

May 2012

Who wouldn’t rather be watching a film about werewolves instead of composing friends’ funeral playlists all day I’ve been...

 

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