artists are obsessed with being sexy now!!!!!!

On how mimesis and endurance in art and culture is becoming more and more looksmaxxy, and a very special interview with my pick for the future mayor of Los Angeles.

May 17, 2026

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🦿 HIP REPLACEMENT 🦿 this week is boneless as Ben Dietz’s son (and series producer), Campbell Dietz joins us to debate Charli XCX’s return, men trying to be hot forever, and if AI will ever be cool: listen on Substack!!

Israeli Medics Are Training On Dead Americans
The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians

While the Israeli Eurovision cheating scandal dominated conversation, these horrible stories may have disappeared in the process. Truly terrible, followed closely by US-assisted efforts like Hondurasgate and Iran war propaganda.

Iran says it will ‘never bow’

Where are we with this? Month three? God, this is dumb.

Germany’s far-right surge after it criticises Trump
Europe’s far right is not in decline

Blah blah blah Pedro Sanchez going anti-Trump blah blah blah, but did you realize this playbook is being used by the far right too? Political opportunism is political opportunism!!!!

Mamdani balances NYC budget
“they have fully balanced NYC’s budget”

The real international leader we need to be fawning over is Mamdani. More in a moment!

Rumours of French president, Iranian actress

The other huge political story of the week was about Macron’s alleged affair, which was great because it reminded of a normal political scandal versus — umm — trying to uproot democracy. The jokes about this have been so very, very rich (while unhinged posts have been unhinged).

Grocery prices jumped in April
America’s job market optimism gap
Americans still pessimistic about economy
“bad time to buy a house”
“THE TRUMP EFFECT!”

These are all related, are they not? This is again why simply giving away money and goods is a key to winning as a brand right now!

CA mayor resigns, agent for Chinese
“Who’s paying you?”
“We did not back down.”

A tale of two Chinese agents, one real and one not: the mayor of Arcadia was indeed acting on behalf of China (!!), while Canadian fuckass billionaire Kevin O’Leary accused local Utah activists of colluding with the Chinese due to their anti-data center-ness. The latter really shows the disconnect between those at the top and we at the bottom. Everyone hates data centers!!!!!!

P.C.O.S. Has a New Name

This speaks to the power of naming, and hopefully will lead to more — and better — care for persons dealing with such health issues.

Hantavirus: Officials Downplay Risks
How easily does hantavirus spread?

I have too much on my plate for this.

*Q1 analysis Trend Report: Trend Report™ is available for discount here.*

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The artist Fiona Connor is known for recreating everyday objects to an extreme degree. She isn’t using clay to sculpt hyper-realistic objects but instead finding a door, a stretch of sidewalk, or an entire classroom scene that she recreates by finding all of its parts and distressing them until they look identical to its reference. The art looks extremely regular, a normal thing or feature you could pass on any block in Los Angeles, removed from their context and placed within a gallery. The effect is disorienting but a reminder that life is art but also the recreation of life is art, making anything and everything art. Such was the feeling in 2012, of her piece Installation in Made in L.A. at the Hammer which recreated the museum’s steps, down to crumpled grit tape and smudged handrails, offering a déjà vu upon entry, encountering the stairs into the museum in the museum, a copy and pasting mounted against the window, an entry to nowhere but also to everywhere.

It may seem Connor is singular but I’d posit her Los Angeles inspiration has created a trending literal and metaphysical self-reflection given the work of other artists in the city: the comedy of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is hinged upon painstaking recreation of environments to perform and reperform scenes to yield life’s truths; Vita Kari’s reconstructs the self — specifically in digital spaces — to confuse what is and isn’t their body, what is and isn’t normal, suggesting mutability both of body and its circumstances; Shoji Yamasaki’s performance-sculptures tackle litter by recreating them as ephemeral dances, performances representing circumstances that capture the beauty and pain of our waste. This continuum widens further, as we find more works from the furthest continental American west that use reflection as a window to meaning: Ser Serpas uses found objects from the street to invert them into found-and-unfound readymade sculptures reflecting consumption but also what happens when our culture ends; Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake reflects people as emotion, specifically emotions leaked onto objects and or into foods; David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive is a deep meditation on the Western self reflected to the point of mania and delusion, of dreams for yourself becoming nightmares becoming dreams becoming nightmares; John Baldessari’s I Am Making Art reflects upon the artist’s body as art just by existing, therefore turning any movement, any bodily action, any anything into art.

All of this is technically mimesis versus (self-)portraiture, although you can make the case that it' is the latter too. In our century of the self, mimicking ourselves and our environments represents less a selfie (or the elevation of the selfie) and more a feeling of loss, that in a world of infinite possibility it is recreation and the bastardizing of recreation that is our most modern artform. Comedian Meg Stalter’s ongoing undoing of the expectations of a performance and performers is an example, artist Koki Tanaka’s ongoing recasting of everyday objects and actions as escapes from the ordinary is an example, Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Volume series where people are stuck in a day reflecting it’s circumstance until they — or the day — breaks is an example: if life is one long study session, so much of what creatives are making is concerned with recreating and recasting the everyday to turn it into the not-every-day, squeezing the unconventional out of the otherwise “normal.” Normcore as a spiritual exercise. Time looping as divinity.

Why? This century has been cast in the image of this singular American city, tasking all actors — a la: anyone with a phone — to ruminate on our abundance, becoming seduced (and limited) by ourselves and our surroundings, processing the processes we are within versus creating worlds of great fantasies. If this is the case, is the selfie through the current thinkpiece economy not an expression of extreme boredom with our circumstances? Is our shared state of wannabe glamorous philosophers not the result of a century where ennui has become our shared point of departure? This isn’t to say we are sad or depressed, but instead our common kingships — our current abundance state — has sent us into a frenzy of the ecstatic everyday, where everything normal is magical, where access becomes an arrest, that we are soft enough that our obsessions never wander from the body or our rooms, our gazes trapping upon ourselves as we indulge the bittersweetness of collective Narcissusization. Self-help (and celebrity memoir) over fiction, documentary over drama, reality over imagination: look in instead of out. The introspection of The Truman Show lost as its echoes have us pointing cameras upon cameras upon cameras at the self as we construct various recreation states. Covid less a fluke and more a bomb thrusting us further into our self-obsessions.

We can debate how this ties into wider wellness and therapy cultures, less in that either help the self and more that they offer excuses for us to nibble on complicity and avoidance — but I want to keep this focused on artistic output, that these are more signals of a decade (Century?) marked by culture recession due to culture makers being more and more self-obsessed, or at least enamored by their fingerprints. I find myself hiccuping on this more and more because of a trend of artists concerned — or overly concerned — with being hot, which isn’t just a playing into cultures of hotspans and looksmaxing but an admission that artists are losing the plot by becoming obsessed with what wider culture of beauty instead of leading culture into the future divorced of the image, to unthink the current line of thought. What started with Matthew Barney’s American football obsessions since the 1980s evolved into Cassils’ 2012 Becoming An Image, where the transgender body is presented in a performance captured in sporadic imagery as they fighting a mass of clay, both instances of “hotness” and athleticism being used as tools to dialogue directly with morphology and the body-as-canvas. This has pooled into more direct “athletic art” like Augustas Serapinas’ Čiurlionis Gym and Glen Pudvine’s workout portraits and EJ Hill’s Excellentia, Mollitia, Victoria and Dagoberto Rodriguez’s Gimnasio de pensamiento. Now, at the Venice Biennale, Florentina Holzinger’s Seaworld Venice has become the breakout thanks to viral performances, all of which is propelled by the artist’s playing with sexuality via fitness. Physique and fitness as focus in art is hardly new (And very queer, a la Mapplethorpe and Tom of Finland — all the way to antiquity.), but these worlds of physical perfection wandering toward and away from each other beg and beg artists to wonder about their body as an appealing object, leading Frieze to ask if bodybuilders are artists and Dazed to muse on Kathy Acker’s fitness fad. It’s unsurprising that gym bros and art bros are fusing, proving that the mind is no longer enough, that even the thinkers are done thinking and now have to be mindless meat too: no one gets to be not hot anymore.

We are all becoming losers in this process, the tastemaker now trend chasers instead of thinkers. Lookism has come for us all and we’re all worse because of it. The recreation of the self — or the self as point-of-departure — has cast a spell of mimesis and you-are-your-art onto everyone, ultimately caving to the male gaze and male power structures. The drag artist Lushious Massacr’s ongoing searing critique of famous queens like Bob the Drag Queen and Monet X Change for abandoning drag for male beauty says it. The viral discussion around liberal young people and their being staunchly anti-porn stance says it too, all a means to manage the imaginations of others instead of daring to dream. “Gender neutral” as masculine says it, that life outside the binary almost always skews to one category instead of the other. God making man in his own image, using the rib of a man to make a woman: mimesis as masturbation, the patriarchy as demented origin story for our constant seeking of a mirror. History repeats, repeats, repeats.

“You observe yourself, you watch yourself act, you hear yourself speak a line that is articulated and then articulated again,” Katie Kitamura writes in 2025’s Audition. “The meaning that is produced is at once entirely real — as it is experienced on stage, as it is experienced by the audience — and also the predictable result of your craft, the choices you have made, the control that cedes freedom.” But have we really achieved freedom? Is this really craft? That is the question Kitamura wrestles in her book and that I wonder again and again: are we not dreaming big enough because we’ve caught our own gazes in a reflection for too long? Are we too sick from years of taking pills from the systems of control (Tech, for example. Creative capitalism like social media, for example.) that we can no longer imagine bigger than the present? I love the work of Fiona Connor — and all the many artists of this ilk — but I wonder if we have become lost in our limitations. Perhaps we are becoming less and less capable of breaking through the looking glass to make it to the other side because what we see is simply too irresistible to fathom a state change.

Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Training AI
AI Dominates Cannes Buzz
Antonoff Slams People Who Make AI Music
Blanchett Co-Founds Non-Profit Around AI Usage

We’re coming closer and closer to a cultural breaking point with AI, as many in the arts (First and second story!) are giving into tech while many are continuing to get louder and louder (Third and fourth story!). A reminder to opt-out of those who are opting in.

People Who Don’t Like People Making Decisions
AI Won’t Be Eased by Universal Basic Income
“ethical AND SEXY”
“AI is not inevitable”
“living next to a data center”
“fully in plutocracy”

Which brings us here: culturally, a tide is turning to signal how none of this tech “is inevitable.” We don’t have to adopt any of this, nor do we have to take the bait offered to us that there are only so many solutions, ideas, or evolutions at hand. Are we willing to give up so easily? And to goons like Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etc.? WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!

Snack giant switches to black/white packaging

This is a result of the war but…this packaging goes hard, etc.

Arnell as first US chief brand architect
“Never forget the Pepsi rebrand”

Did you know an Airbnb co-founder is trying to revamp America’s online “brand”? Yes, that is dumb shit that is happening and it now involves the guy who did the really terrible rebranding of Pepsi.

MAGA Fans Revolt Over Phone Disaster
“$100 deposit”
“OMG hahahahahahaha”

lol

eBay Brutally Rejects GameStop’s $56B

Mackenzie Bezos, if you’re reading this, can you buy GameStop and use their storefronts for free stores or libraries? I’m done with this cultural storyline.

e.l.f. Co-Founder to Become Priest

Legally obligated to share this, as it was another breakout this week.

Arts ‘has same effect on ageing as a workout’

I feel like such a study happens twice a year, which is why I’m legally obligated to share this. I also wonder how the above complicates (Or lessens?) the impact.

Chris Brown: BROWN
“they thought the subhed”

In what felt like a peek at the internet from fifteen years ago, Pitchfork went viral for this fabulously scathing review of the new Chris Brown album, which also had PopBase’s media illiteracy to thank for its getting so big.

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Since Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election in New York, there has been an electricity around progressive American (And global!) politics, that people-first movements can and do win and that such energy can and will change the world. This is the change we non-billionaires have been craving! This is the fresh energy needed to take us into the future! This is what real progressive politics looks like, in a way that is both natural and future-facing, organic and of-the-moment without the bottlenecking of old guard ways of campaigning or politicking: the world can work and people can feel represented. The political system doesn’t have to be fucked up, and politicians don’t have to be useless figureheads constantly fumbling not only their promises but the lived reality of so many that they represent. We will study this moment for the rest of our lives, as his win has already reshaped the political landscape in a way we will never shift out of: such approaches are the future.

This, naturally, has created a real-and-not trend spectrum of political hopefuls who are fumbling around him (Jack Schlossberg.) as a larger collective of persons who really, truly, definitely are of-his-kind step forward, from Abdul El-Sayed to Graham Platner to Sam Forstag to Ruwa Romman: these are the faces of our future — and maybe you will be one of them too! One of the biggest conversations around Mamdani’s win in New York has been who the Los Angeles version of him is, and if that’s even possible. This is perhaps why a dumbass scammer like Spencer Pratt has swept up some buzz as a lost (rich) white and right wing-curious mindset indulge magical thinking as they’re desperate for something other than Karen Bass: he is a misdirect, who will torch the city further as his corruption stains more than just the Palisades. The most credible option is Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, someone who has worked for years to change the city, to usher in a new vision and new voice for the next generation of Angelenos. She’s the non-corporate, people-powered, DSA-origin candidate whose tenure representing District 4 and history as an urban planner speaks to real Angelenos (and creatives).

This election is increasingly being shaped around the rich inconvenienced by and uninterested in helping issues like homelessness and immigration, revealing a truth: Los Angeles is a city of two experiences now, one where you can afford to be above its problems and one where you’re confronted by what needs to change, all as foretold by LA writer Octavia E. Butler. We know Los Angeles needs change, which was my overall take in my recent coverage of the city earlier this year: it is the best city in the world, but it is perhaps one of the most bruised too. Los Angeles needs something different and someone who is like us — and that’s why I already voted for Nithya for the June 2 primary because she represents a future for the city that I not only want but that I see have experienced firsthand, in living under her councilmembership. I’ve even made this month’s monthly donation from profits of The Trend Report™ to her campaign!

To better understand where her head is at and what the subjects and trends she’s following are, we had a quick chat where I was able to get an idea of the subject she’s following and what she’s into right now. From locals filling in for governmental gaps to calling for the end of budgeting for failure (or “fail-flation,” as she coins), she really flexed why she is exactly the leader the city needs to get back on track.

Tell me about a trend you’re following that you’re really into.
Back in 2020, I heard about a “Community Fridge” that showed up in Mid City. It was stocked by locals to provide food and supplies to anyone in need. It was a totally free, decentralized way for neighbors to show up for each other. And it was a smart, creative approach to mutual aid. It’s something I was very familiar with from my work with SELAH, an organization I founded to address the homelessness issue in my neighborhood before I ran for City Council.
Mutual aid is not new, but since then, I’ve seen incredibly resourceful new approaches to it. During the writers and actors’ strikes, restaurants offered discounts and free meals to folks out of work. After the fires, we saw people set up and amplify fundraisers for victims. In response to the ICE raids, there were rapid response efforts on social media to warn of agents’ presence around the city. They set up meal trains to deliver groceries to neighbors who were too scared to leave their homes or go to work.
Angelenos are so compassionate and so creative. But it raises the question of why they have to do it in the first place? To me, that’s a signal. People are stepping in to fill the gaps where the system has broken down. They’re telling me what needs to be fixed.
What’s a trend you hope never dies?
There are certain very specific things that are visual shorthand for the city of L.A. The rainbow umbrellas over fruit carts. Taco trucks. Bacon-wrapped hotdogs. Our street vendors make L.A. feel unlike any other city in the world.
Not only that, they’re a huge part of our economy. But the city makes it difficult for immigrant-owned small businesses to get up and running and operate. That’s why I’ll set up a system in City Hall that makes it easier for immigrant entrepreneurs to get access to permits, funding, and support all in one place.
These Angelenos are often the least protected. Last summer, during the ICE raids, Angelenos saw street carts abandoned on the sidewalk after the owners had been kidnapped. That gut wrenching image became another kind of visual shorthand. That’s why I’m so committed to protecting our immigrant communities from ICE. So we don’t lose the people who make L.A. feel like L.A.
What’s a trend you are so over?
Budgeting for failure. Can we call it “fail-flation?” We can workshop it. But it’s that mental math we all do to account for little inconveniences: tacking 20 minutes onto your ETA because the bus is late. Calling a parking ticket “the cost of doing business,” because the city can’t be bothered to repaint a curb or replace a sign. Taking your film shoot outside of Los Angeles because the permits are impossible to get and too expensive if you do.
These stack up until it’s a foregone conclusion that things don’t work. But these are things we can fix! When I’m mayor, we’ll work with Metro to run buses more often and get them out of traffic. We’ll have a Capital Improvement Plan to fix our broken sidewalks, repave our streets, and turn the streetlights back on in days, not months. And we’ll staff an LA film office in the Mayor’s Office, led by people with real industry experience to make it easier and more affordable to film in LA.
We have to slash this “budget for failure,” or we’ll keep pricing people out of the city.
What are your thoughts on the rise in progressive leadership?
I came into politics because my neighbors and I couldn’t get our councilmember to return our calls about the homelessness crisis on our block. So I ran against him and I won. I am a mom and my young kids were seeing the homelessness crisis on our streets. I was so frustrated and I just refused to accept that this is just how things are. So I think that’s what connects this new generation of leaders. Zohran won New York City on a platform of making the most expensive city in America affordable again. James Talarico is fighting to show that Texas doesn’t have to be the way it is. We’re not career politicians who worked our way up through a system. We came in sideways — from organizing, from advocacy, from community work — because the system wasn’t delivering and someone had to do something about it.
The establishment has survived for so long because most politicians learn quickly that honesty is dangerous and compliance is rewarded. What this new generation is proving is that voters are hungry for something different. Not just different policies — a different relationship with power itself. One where the person you elected actually answers to you, not to the interests that funded their campaign.
What I’m trying to model in Los Angeles is that progressive values and delivering actual results are not in tension. They require each other. The most progressive thing you can do is make government actually work for the people who need it most. For the parents and caregivers who need a clean park to take their kids to. For the seniors who need a smooth sidewalk to travel down. For the workers who need an affordable place to live.
Voters aren’t just moving left or right. They are moving toward leaders with the courage to tell the truth — about what’s broken, about who broke it, and to make the changes it actually takes to fix it.
What’s an LA trend you’re paying close attention to?
I’m an urban planner by training. And there’s the idea of adaptive reuse, which is typically talked about in connection with real estate. But I think it can apply to the city as a whole. It’s not just about taking a historic bank building and turning it into luxury condos. It’s about turning parking lots into climate-resilient green gathering spaces. Turning vacant storefronts into popup businesses, which is something that’s had a ton of success in San Francisco. We can turn ADUs into starter homes Angelenos can afford, so that our neighborhoods stay diverse and vibrant.
Los Angeles has good bones that we can build a better future on, and I am excited to do that as Mayor.

Follow Nithya on her newsletter, Instagram, and TikTok. If you’re in Los Angeles and need help voting, note that tomorrow is the deadline for registration for the June 2 primary: learn more here and register here. Need help on who to vote for? Explore DSA-LA’s guide here and Los Angeles Public Press’ guide here.