He rips the covers from encyclopedias and law books – the texts of power – and stitches them together into artwork that is moving and beautiful. “Some individuals have found it problematic that I’m destroying this material.” Destroying or reconfiguring? A conversation about art and authority at the International Print Center New York, with … Continue reading »
Category Archives: Art
Episode 233: Anthony Haden-Guest
Admired for his astute observations of the upper classes and the art world, he is loath to write about, let alone revisit, scenes of his own past: “I don’t want to see a bunch of young people running around doing what I used to do.” With music from the suspiciously youthful Vanisha Gould and the … Continue reading »
Episode 184: Kameelah Janan Rasheed and Marwa Helal
Surely a Muslim TSA agent will be sensitive to the feelings of Muslim travellers. And by “surely,” I mean “surely not.” Writer Marwa Helal and artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed describe their encounters with the TSA, disheartening stories delightfully told. Plus tales of the weight room and the irrational fear of Egyptian pumpkin seeds. A conversation … Continue reading »
Episode 178: Hallgrímur Helgason
Iceland is a paradise for writers, with its highly literate population, generous government grants and total absence of cockroaches. Unfortunately there are only 330,000 Icelanders, so even if they all buy your book your horizons are limited. Fortunately that’s why the novelist (and print-maker, and translator and more) Hallgrímur Helgason visited America. A conversation at the … Continue reading »
Episode 174: Benjamin Swett
Diane Arbus’s old contact sheets include images she never meant us to see, so would perusing them violate her rights as an artist? Photographer Benjamin Swett says he’d look at them with pleasure, and he makes a persuasive case that he’s not going to hell. Plus, the invention of the circular saw and celibacy reconsidered: surprisingly … Continue reading »
Episode 154: Maya Lin
At 22, she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; she’s since created the stirring Wavefield at Storm King and is currently working on the Smith College library. So, artist or architect? “There are architects that make art, and then I think there are artists who make architecture,” she says, “and I would sort of see myself … Continue reading »
Episode 151: Renee Cox
Do happy artists produce better work than gloomy artists? Renee Cox contemplates her own work and says yes. I say: Beethoven. We considered the matter at the Interntional Print Center in conjunction with their exhibition Black Pulp. The featured musical performer was Norris Bennett of the Ebony Hillbillies, whose work made me so joyful … Continue reading »
Episode 147: Katherine Bradford
If an artist begins a work not with an abundance of ideas or an outpouring of emotion but only in puruit of a paycheck, is the work doomed? Painter Katherine Bradford took up this question at Planthouse Gallery with sharp analysis and grim personal experience – my favorite combination. Plus astute remarks about Philip Johnson … Continue reading »
Episode 132: Rick Moody and Fred Tomaselli
If we decline to buy an iPhone or a pair of sneakers made under miserable working conditions, how should we respond when a band leader brutalizes his musicians? Artist Fred Tomaselli and writer Rick Moody took up that question, praised the bleak arid landscapes of the Southwest and had some hard words for gulls when … Continue reading »
Episode 120: Gregory Crewdson
Photographer Gregory Crewdson takes pictures much the way a director makes movies: working with a crew, including a DP, and never touching a camera. The results are haunting and beautiful. We convened at Planthouse Gallery with musical guest Paul Grimstad. PERSON: his father, Frank Crewdson PLACE: Upper Goose Pond THING: a Fender Stratocaster guitar … Continue reading »
Episode 97: Barbara Bloom
Internationally known for her installations – at MOCA, MOMA, the Venice Biennale, The Stedelijk in Amsterdam – she does work that often has a kind of implied narrative: you get the previews, the posters, the ads, but not the movie itself. This was the first in a series of shows at Glenn Horowitz Booksellers. … Continue reading »
Episode 77: Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl came to fame in the New York art world of the nineteen-eighties (well yeah, not the eighteen-eighties) an experience he describes in Bad Boy: My Life on and off the Canvas. One thing it omits: we went to school together, at Cal Arts, in 1973, but we didn’t know each other then, a … Continue reading »