Waterboarding, Iraq, Katrina, Immigration: these are among the charged subjects that inspire projects at Creative Time. One of Nato Thompson’s first projects as Chief Curator at the public art organization took him to the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans for Paul Chan’s production of Waiting for Godot. In 2008, the organization produced Steve Powers’ pointed Waterboard Thrill Ride on Coney Island, and the next year Thompson accompanied an Iraqi War veteran, an Iraqi citizen, and artist Jeremy Deller on a cross-country series of public conversations. This year Thompson worked with artist Tania Bruguera on Immigrant Movement International, an advocacy organization based in Queens.

“It’s almost very personal to talk about,” Performa founder and curator RoseLee Goldberg says of commissioning live performances, “because I feel that commissioning is about desire.” In 1999, Goldberg saw Shirin Neshat’s video Turbulent at the Venice Biennale and imagined the presence of the performers, seeing the piece as a live artwork. That experience resulted in Goldberg’s first commission and Neshat’s first performance work, Logic of the Birds, the success of which fed into the founding of Performa, a biennial of live artwork and a crucial advocate for performance pieces.

Hany Armanious’ sculptures are deceptive: a table with a vase is, in fact, an elaborate cast of a table with a vase. Adding another layer of complexity, that’s a Picasso bust contemplating the banal domestic vase (well, actually a cast of a styrofoam copy of Picasso’s sculpture). Armanious’ subtle take on Duchamp’s readymade has earned him comparisons with Joseph Beuys, though his work also draws from a wide range of references. Noses are a particular obsession in his pavilion at the Biennale, including a strange and sinister take on Giacometti’s Le Nez.

Amani Olu talks about getting started in New York, training his eye for photography, and building an online photography community.