Ugh, As If! - contemporary art and culture podcast · Lisa Fevral

Nationalism in/out of art is not gonna save us - 4x14

·44 min·3 clips

“You want to talk politics? Well, learn politics of the place you're in first.”

1. Ugh, As If! - contemporary art and culture podcast centers this episode on nationalism, white supremacy, and a conflict at Access Gallery in Vancouver. 2. The speaker presents as a vice president of the gallery board and frames Masha Kleiner, a far-right activist, as the reason for the dispute. 3. The episode asks whether nationality can excuse support for OneBC, Aidar Battalion iconography, and residential school denialism. 4. The speaker says an Access Gallery post on February 9 announced their board role and triggered comments attacking them for being Russian-Canadian. 5. A commenter raised Ukraine, leadership silence, and the gallery’s political posture, while the speaker says the gallery had recently shown work about drones and Ukraine. 6. The speaker describes OneBC as a far-right British Columbia party with anti-trans policy, tax cuts for the rich, privatization of healthcare, and support for U.S. annexation. 7. The episode cites a OneBC Wikipedia entry about the December 2, 2025 documentary 'Making a Killing: Reconciliation, Genocide and the Plunder of Canada.' 8. The speaker says that documentary and OneBC are connected to denial of Indigenous genocide and residential school history. 9. Residential schools are described as a system that closed in 1997 and still leaves mass graves and unmarked graves of children. 10. The speaker says Masha follows a far-right figure named Masha and also follows Turning Point USA and Ben Shapiro content. 11. The episode names Sergey Milnichenko as the founder of 525 Myth and says he posts Aidar Battalion photos and sells merch with its iconography. 12. The speaker quotes Wikipedia on Aidar Battalion as a self-funded volunteer militia in Donbass with controversy over far-right and neo-Nazi associations. 13. The speaker rejects the idea that criticism of Aidar equals anti-Ukrainian politics and says many Ukrainians opposed the Nazis in World War II. 14. The speaker says they will not debate far-right people, will not legitimize white supremacy, and will not appease anyone trying to separate identity from politics. 15. The speaker argues that a Ukrainian refugee in Canada should not support a party that strips Canadians of rights while benefiting from Canadian public resources. 16. The episode links the conflict to UBC, Canadian taxes, Gaza, Sudan, water scarcity, and the next 10 to 15 years of resource conflict. 17. The tone is combative, rhetorical, and densely political, with repeated direct address to Masha and frequent interruptions for emphasis. 18. The format feels like a spoken statement built from Instagram captions, with the speaker reading, revising, and reasserting claims in real time. 19. People interested in art-world politics, anti-fascist arguments, and Canadian activism would likely follow it. 20. Listeners wanting a calm arts interview or non-political conversation may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Ugh, As If! - contemporary art and culture podcast