When art intersects with other practices like popular culture, food and fashion, the results create more room for appreciation, understanding and joy. In this spirit, STIR looks back at some pieces from 2024 that have highlighted the intersection of art with activism, culinary arts, sports, video games and even toys. These crossovers reflect the widespread importance of artistic practice and arts-led perspectives in a range of spheres. STIR revisits some of its most exciting stories from 2024, documenting these intersections.

Wency Mendes’ ongoing art project centres on Goan fish curry rice

Indian artist Wency Mendes’ 2024 project, kalchi kodi—a fish curry and rice story, brings this humble Goan household meal to cultural attention. The multimedia exhibition uses photographs, a photodocumentary, audioscapes and long-form interviews to contextualise the site-specific installation of the meal at a communal table. For Mendes, the dish symbolises the impact of modernity on the fishing ecosystems of Goa, threatened by climate change and the cultural shifts in the community of indigenous labourers and craftsmen. The name ‘kalchi kodi’ translates to ‘yesterday’s curry’ and refers to the practice of saving a fish curry and eating it over multiple days, with the flavour of the curry deepening and changing with every meal. In collaborating with local artisans and spotlighting age-old familial practices, Mendes disrupts conventional ideas about what art can be and how it can be created. He uses the tangible and familiar to explore what he calls the “fleshiness of the world”.

Is orange protest’s super colour?

Social media has brought attention to sociopolitical issues, with many causes and organisations adopting symbols, aesthetics and slogans to capitalise on this reach. STIR examined some of the protests that have captured the mood of the moment in recent years and found an unexpected link: the colour orange. Orange has become synonymous with climate change activism groups worldwide, with the most notable being Just Stop Oil. In 2022, when members of the group threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting, Sunflowers, in London’s National Gallery, their actions and the climate justice movement both went viral. Even before them, the colour was adopted by The Colour Orange initiative during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to protest human rights violations in China. Orange also finds itself in the history books through the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine in the wake of a problematic presidential election process in 2004. The colour has been chosen as a symbol opposing climate change, communism, consumerism and rights. In this article, STIR looks at what makes orange such a popular choice for social causes.

Nathan Sawaya's LEGO® sculptures reinvent the Danish-made toy bricks

What began as a hobby for a corporate lawyer soon turned into an obsession that would lead to his artwork being showcased in a travelling exhibition at The Boiler House in London. American artist Nathan Sawaya uses LEGO® bricks to create huge three-dimensional sculptures rendered in careful detail. His recreations of classic paintings such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Kiss earned him acclaim, while his life-size LEGO® Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton (created with 80,020 LEGO® bricks) earned him a Guinness World Record. The Art of the Brick, featuring 100 sculpture pieces by Sawaya at The Boiler Room in London, through its whimsical approach to art, pushes audiences to reimagine the possibilities of everyday materials and toys.

Exploring the work of 10 Olympian artists ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics

The 2024 Olympic Games unfolded in Paris over July and August. While art and sport may seem distant today, in ancient Greek society, the cradle of the Olympic Games, they were closely linked. The arts, such as sculpture, literature, poetry and painting, were also Olympic disciplines until the 1948 Games, with medals being handed out to artists. Many athletes at the Olympics have kept the artistic spirit alive, STIR discovers. Jean-Blaise Evéquoz won the bronze medal in fencing for Canada in 1976 before becoming a founding member of the Art of Olympians movement and aiding in the formation of OLY Arts (the World Olympians Association Art Committee). The organisation champions work by athletes such as Kader Klouchi, a former French-Algerian long jumper who captures motion in his paintings and sculptures and Canadian speed-skater Brooklyn McDougall, whose series of portraits celebrates female Olympians.

Power move: Breaking makes its Olympic debut at Paris 2024

Although breaking had a short-lived tenure as an Olympic sport with a single appearance in 2024, its inclusion was a heartening representation of street dance and hip-hop culture. Competitors took turns to perform 60-second segments called ‘throwdowns’, consisting of an escalating set of movements ending with ‘power moves’ that were the competitor’s signature. However, the overly subjective assessment required made its inclusion controversial, and there were concerns that the expressive, community-based practice would not adapt well to the rigid structure of the Olympic Games. In 2024, the 33 b-boys and b-girls who competed at the Games brought the best of breaking to the international stage. Philip Kim, or ‘Phil Wizard’, took the men’s gold for Canada while Ami Yuasa, known as ‘Ami’, secured the women’s gold for Japan.

Fashion unwrapped: Diane von Furstenberg at Skirball Cultural Center

Organised by the Fashion & Lace Museum in Brussels, the touring exhibition Diane von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion debuted in North America at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It traced the evolution of the eponymous designer’s practice and the iconic wrap dress she is credited with popularising. The exhibition, curated by Cate Thurston, holds over 50 archival garments, original sketches, fabric swatches and media. It tells the story of a young Belgian woman creating a revolution in American fashion through her focus on women’s comfort and freedom. The exhibition also touches on her family history— von Furstenberg’s mother was a Holocaust survivor, and her lineage became a powerful influence on her work. The first section, The Wrap Dress, pays homage to the garment that became iconic in the 70s, allowing women entering the workforce to be comfortable in style. The other sections, Inspiration and Celebration, The American Dream and WeAr(e)Able Stories trace her influences, impact and philanthropic work.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley gamifies the fight for visibility at Berghain

LAS Art Foundation in Berlin presented an innovative game-based installation by British new media artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. The exhibition was the second ‘episode’ of THE SOUL STATION series, titled ARE YOU SOULLESS, TOO? The installation at the iconic Halle am Berghain nightclub allowed audiences to form teams and play out a multiple-choice adventure story based in a dystopian parallel timeline. These collective experiences were paired with several SOUL STATIONS (2024), which prompted individual players to engage with their morality in what the artist conceived as a process of soul cleansing. THE SOUL STATION was commissioned by the LAS Art Foundation, with artist and curator Mawena Yehouessi as guest curator. The unique blend of videogame, art, philosophy, sound design and the iconic interiors of Berghain created a transformative experience highlighting social persecution and systems of oppression and prompting viewers to reflect on their complicity in these structures.

These are just a few of the exhibitions and cultural moments from 2024 where art intersected with other fields to create thought-provoking and boundary-pushing results.

STIRred 2024 wraps up the year with curated compilations of our expansive art, architecture and design coverage at STIR this year. Did your favourites make the list? Tell us in the comments!

(Text by STIR intern Srishti Ojha)