Download Whitewall’s Fall 2020 Debut Collaboration Issue

We are excited to share Whitewall‘s Fall 2020 issue with you, available to download now. For our debut Collaboration Issue, you’ll find four covers featuring Kerby Jean-Raymond x Delphine Diallo, Toyin Ojih Odutola, FUTURA2000 x Virgil Abloh, Daniel Arsham x Alexandre Arnault, and Adrian Cheng.

We sent this issue to print in August with a heavy heart. Here in the U.S., protests continue, reinvigorated by the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Today, the pandemic rages on as the number of dead passes 200,000. Borders are closed and restrictions on daily life are in place. The presidential election looms large, just a few weeks away. Some schools have opened while others remain closed for online learning. Caregivers, like myself, are expected to do it all without any support.

And yet we have found a way to exist in this new normal, and hopefully here and there, find some bright spots. We have learned to truly value human interaction and connection—even, or especially, with masks on and socially distanced. With that in mind, we’ve put together our very first Collaboration Issue. Many of the conversations you’ll find here took place via Zoom or over the phone. All inevitably reflected on the past few months and how the pandemic has impacted their lives personally, professionally, and otherwise.

The spring of lockdown in New York gave cover artist Toyin Ojih Odutola time to reflect on her recent magnum opus, “A Countervailing Theory,” which has opened (after being delayed due to COVID-19) at the Barbican in London. Considering the viewer a collaborator and participant in her practice, she sees the changed timing as having been in her favor—the pandemic and recent racial justice movements shedding new light on the narrative.

Having first met on the Internet, it was fitting that artist FUTURA2000 and designer Virgil Abloh chatted with each other via Zoom for this issue. They have years of collaborative projects—between them and so many others—under their belt, and the pair shared their thoughts on worthwhile partnerships, the future, and the concept of legacy.

Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond, photographed by and in conversation with artist Delphine Diallo, has taken this moment to evaluate his pace and relationship with others. The two discuss how they are trying to show up for the present, a new Black renaissance, and what it means to forgive.

We also caught up with Rimowa’s Alexandre Arnault and recent collaborator, artist Daniel Arsham, who addressed the luxury and now the privilege of travel; as well as K11’s Adrian Cheng about the ongoing #LoveWithoutBorders campaign and initiative.

We enter the remaining quarter of the year with the hope that change will come, that we will find a way to heal, and that we will be together soon. Until then, we will continue to do the work, share the voices of artists, and find the beauty in our new everyday.

—Katy Donoghue, Editor in Chief