As a founding member of crucial bands like Bikini Kill, the Julie Ruin, and Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna has spent the last few decades challenging mainstream ideas not just of who can make music, and why, but what that music looks like. Her visual syntax, shown on record sleeves, stage design, and video art, fetishizes machinery like a feminist Kraftwerk while building bridges between DIY punk and conceptual art traditions.

Her new memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, is a startlingly generous account of a life spent surviving worlds of male violence both personal and professional in order to build a better world for herself and the people she loves. It’s a riot. Hanna recently took a call from Surface to talk about infinite possibilities, her favorite photocopier, and the disrespectful interiors of the standard rock club.

Let’s talk about the visual vocabulary you’ve developed in your album covers and videos. Where was it coming from?

A lot of it was coming from work I was doing at the domestic violence shelter I worked at, which is really how I got a feminist education. I was a photographer so it made its way into my work. I was also part of a small group of six or seven women who met and talked about our work. We went to the library, waiting for High Performance magazine to come out, and Heresies, so we could Xerox articles and share them with each other.

So I was also really influenced by the obvious suspects like Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger and people who weren’t shying away from politics and were using text with images. My friends and I had an art gallery, and to keep the lights on we had punk shows, so I started making the flyers and then making stickers for bands. I really loved the cut and paste. It was interesting to utilize what we had at the time—and then to live through having Photoshop available with millions of images at your fingertips. I feel lucky that I’ve gotten to see this technological change in what people can do graphically.

The Bikini Kill artwork is so instantly recognizable. Were you thinking of branding or a kind of graphic identity?

Quite the opposite. We didn’t stick with one font for the logos. All my friends had little boxes of alphabet stampers. We’d go to the stationery store or someone would go to, you know, Sweden, and bring some back, the kind used for kids’ birthday cards. One of the big Bikini Kill logos is from that.

That handcrafted feeling really came to the forefront with the Julie Ruin artwork.

I was into elevating craft and thinking about quilting as art and women’s work being relegated to craft. The big thing about the Julie Ruin record was a new invention that came to town. Across the street from the library I went to was a small copy place with a color copier. The cover is actually a visually ruined record. I put a black and white photocopy cut out on top of a color copy and taped onto the back of an AC/DC record, because it was all black and I needed a black background of the right size.

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Global influences inform the design direction of Juno, a jewel-box omakase experience in the heart of London’s trendy Notting Hill neighborhood. There, executive chef Leonard Tanyag blends Japanese and Mexican culinary traditions in a 15-course tasting menu, from which local interiors firm Hamilford Design took cues to realize the intimate, six-seat space. The dining room, awash in gold light, features rattan wallcoverings, beachy blonde wood tones, abstracted wave wallpaper, and statement wall lighting that mimics the warmth of the sun’s rays shining onto the sands of Mexico’s beaches.

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Anyone familiar with the caliber of SCAD’s programming knows to expect the talents of future industry leaders on display at its student showcases, and “Power in Perspective” is no exception. German camera manufacturer Leica teamed up with the university to support the exhibiting students with equipment and mentorship from documentary photographer Cheriss May, who has captured presidents, their families, and whose work has earned the elusive A1 spot on the front page of the New York Times. She guided the 45 participants through the process of producing exhibition-caliber work.

Last week, the Photography Show made a triumphant return to the Park Avenue Armory, where the fair last exhibited in 2016. Top photographers, galleries, curators, museum directors, and industry leaders flocked to the show and enjoyed talks and book signings. The show’s Talks Series included addresses from 2024 AIPAD Award winner Vince Aletti, SFMOMA’s David Mahoney, and photography’s most illustrious names, captivating fair-goers each day.

When was it? April 25–28

Where was it? The Park Avenue Armory, New York

Who was there? Helen Toomer, Marina Abramovíć, Patricia Arquette, Maurizio Cattelan, Andre D. Wagner, Lydia Melamed Johnson, Renee Cox, Dawoud Bey, Carolyn Drake, Hej Shin, Vera Lutter, and more.

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Surface Says: One of France’s most venerated crystal manufacturers, Saint-Louis skillfully reconciles 19th-century artisan know-how with contemporary style. Some of our favorite designers—Paola Navone, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, Kiki van Eijk—have created unforgettable pieces for the company.

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