Michael Premo, Rachel Falcone and Dexter Wimberly, The Gentrification of Booklyn: The Pink Elephant
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First broadcast February 5, 2010
AIR's Jeannie Hopper speaks with Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone, co-founders of the ongoing multimedia project Housing Is a Human Right, and Dexter Wimberly, curator of the 2010 exhibition The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at Brooklyn's Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. Premo and Falcone discuss how their initially distinct interests--Premo was following a career in theatre, Falcone in oral history documentation--brought them to their joint project, which provides a portrait of the struggles many face in finding a home and seeks to dissect what "home" means. Their 2009 exhibition The Soapbox Series was located in the Wash and Play Lotto Laundromat in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Wimberley describes himself as "an artist with a lower case a" and an artist representative, advising others on how to manage life as an artist. He explains how he came to curate this exhibition, curation not being foremost in his artistic background, and what his personal investment in it is. Offering a description of the exhibition itself, he also offers an introduction to many of the notions behind the underlying concepts of gentrification (37 minutes).
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Dennis Oppenheim
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First broadcast January 29, 2010
AIR's Alanna Heiss and artist Dennis Oppenheim share their memories of P.S.1 during the period of the Heiss-curated 1991 retrospective Dennis Oppenheim: Selected Works 1967 - 1990, which then went on a lengthy and variegated tour to, ending at the Musee D’Art Moderne de la Communaute Urbaine de Lille. Oppenheim remarks upon some of the pieces that appeared in this exhibit and its traveling iterations, among them his machine pieces and Attempt to Raise Hell and Protection, his "dog piece," the latter two of which explore notions of art, the former in the discomfort of its potential relation to violence, the latter in its perceived sanctity. He also discusses some of his forays into a variety of since-codified movements, among them land art, body art and installation art, as well as the similarities between his work and that of his friends Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman and his relationships with each. Also investigated are Oppenheim's fascination with kisses, animals and how a work is altered when it changes location (50 minutes).
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Luigi Russolo, the Intonarumori, and The Art of Noise
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First broadcast November 22, 2009
Composer and historian Luciano Chessa speaks to David Weinstein about his research, re-imagining, and reconstruction of the legendary noise intoners or Intonarumori that were built by Futurist painter and author of The Art of Noise, Luigi Russolo. From the instruments' first appearance in 1913, to the legend of their fiery demise in WWII, Chessa has investigated the techniques and aesthetics that so many experimental sound aficionados have dreamed of for nearly a century. We also include an audio sample of the instruments, made during their rehearsal in our studios in advance of a performance at New York’s Town Hall on Nov. 12, 2009 (56 minutes).
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Fischerspooner 2009
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First broadcast November 1, 2009
Alanna Heiss hosts Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner, the front men of the beloved electroclash act Fischerspooner in advance of their PERFORMA 2009 opening night show at MoMA. Fischer and Spooner prove that even cultural icons do normal things like have families. But they also do super cool stuff like make sculptural musical performances. Or endurance based performances that last 6 hours straight. Which is why they're cultural icons in the first place. The dynamic duo spin some tracks from their latest album and talk about what it's like to get dissed by Jeffrey Deitch (50 minutes).
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Carlos Giffoni: No Fun Fest
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First broadcast October 16, 2009
AIR's humblest seeker after truth Elliot Stapleton speaks with musician and label owner Carlos Giffoni. Giffoni runs No Fun Fest, an annual noise music festival that features some of the premier bands of the genre. After six years of holding the festival in Brooklyn, Giffoni switched things up a bit in 2009 and headed to Sweden, hoping to broaden the festival's appeal and bring in new fans. Giffoni has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians, including Thurston Moore and C Spencer Yeh (33 minutes).
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Ben Miller, Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra
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First broadcast September 21, 2009
David Weinstein talks to composer and musician Ben Miller on the eve of his performance at the Brooklyn Lyceum, where he premiered his Symphony of Suspicious Activity. Miller is best known for his work in the genres of punk/avant rock and electronic/noise. But here he's he traded in his guitar for a conductor's baton to lead a 14-piece saxophone ensemble, the Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra (SSO), through a rousing evening of musical offerings. While some may wonder about a symphony composed mainly of saxophones, Miller says that by using an entire orchestra with only a single instrument, the over-all sound
is as if one gigantic instrument is playing (23 minutes).
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Kevin Cunningham, 3-Legged Dog Theatre Group
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First broadcast August 31, 2009
Kevin Cunningham is the Art & Business Director of New York's multimedia theater group 3-Legged Dog, which has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting and provocative artistic organizations in the country. AIR's David Weinstein speaks with Cunningham about the current environment for running an arts group in a
bad economy, their incredible multi-theatre space and their use of new video
technology, including 3D projections. Their 2009 exhibition (Sept. 4-Oct. 3 with a gala on Sept. 9) Why Aren't You Naked? compiles imagery from the organization's vastly experimental and pioneering 13-year history (20 minutes).
To listen to an interview with Allison M. Keating, 3-Legged Dog's Artistic and Development Associate, click here.
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Anne Livet & Diego Cortez: Art & Sex
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First broadcast June 30 and July 16, 2009
Long-time friends Anne Livet and
Diego Cortez discuss, in terms conceptual and blunt, the vagaries, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions of and behind sex and sexuality. The two have led prodigious lives spanning fields artistic, curatorial, educational, managerial and commercial, often working together through their respective organizations, Livet Reichard Company, Inc. and Diego Cortez Arte Ltd (Pt. 1: 50 minutes; Pt. 2: 55 minutes).
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Nora York and Stephen Kaliski
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First broadcast June 11, 2009
AIR's Jeannie Hopper speaks with musician and multimedia artist Nora York and director, actor and playwright Stephen Kaliski; these two mighty forces collide for My Heart Says Go, a June 28, 2009 benefit performance presented by Page 121 Productions that finds York songs wending through an advance reading of Kaliski's new play, West Lethargy (45 minutes).
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Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Dia:Beacon
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First broadcast May 8, 2009
AIR's Beatrice Johnson ventures up the Hudson to capture the seventh and final series of Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Beacon Events at Dia:Beacon; this marked the culmination of Cunningham's two-year residency at the institution. Listen to snippets of the performance as well as interviews with dancer Daniel Madoff and musician David Behrman, and be sure to check out Beatrice's interview with Dia Art Foundation Director Philippe Vergne here. The recorded event took place on May 16, 2009 (51 minutes).
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Philippe Vergne, Dia Art Foundation
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First broadcast May 29, 2009
AIR's Beatrice Johnson speaks with Philippe Vergne, the Director of Dia Art Foundation, who discusses his vision for continuing Dia's tradition of carrying out "the heroic voice of the artist" even while readjusting for the contemporary artistic and ontological moment. Merce Cunningham recently completed a two-year residency at Dia:Beacon, over which period he developed seven works entitled Beacon Events; Johnson and Vergne here discuss Cunningham's final performance and Vergne addresses Dia's particular relationship with the artist and the artist's process, his interest in evolution as opposed to revolution, and his commitment to matters of time over those of space (32 minutes).
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Sharjah Biennial 2009
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First broadcast May 29, 2009
AIR's Alanna Heiss hosts a series of interviews with artists and organizers during the ninth Sharjah Biennial, which took place from March 19 through May 16, 2009, in the third largest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Hosted by Sharjah’s Department of Culture and Information, this event was smaller than those of years past, but has secured itself a reputation as one of the most geographically inclusive biennials, particularly of its region. Similarly, it is widely regarded as one of the Middle East's most tenacious supporters of artists and artistic production (32 minutes).
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Fritz Welch & Andre Stitt, SHIFTwork
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First broadcast April 20, 2009
Hosts Jeannie Hopper and Beatrice Johnson speak with artists
Fritz Welch and Andre Stitt
about SHIFTwork, their exploration of art's relation to
capitalist production; the result investigates notions of the
artist as "worker" and of the artist's method of production as "work." The collaborative installation/performance piece
ran at Roger Smith Lab Gallery in April 2009 (48 minutes).
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Staten Island: Art by the Ferry 2009
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First broadcast April 15, 2009
Host David Weinstein chats with Staten Island Creative Community (SICC) members
Ira Goldstein, Susan Gramel, Ken Struve, Joyce Malerba Goldstein and Marian Fontana about the second annual
Art by the Ferry festival, which takes place in June 2009. The organization and the
festival are designed to promote the arts, enhance economic development and encourage tourism in New York's vibrant,
beautiful and, perhaps, least understood borough. Here's a reason to step off the ferry (32 minutes).
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Natalie Kovacs and Noam Gonick: Volta NY
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First broadcast March 23, 2009
Host David Weinstein speaks with independent curator Natalie Kovacs and filmmaker Noam Gonick.
Kovacs co-curated the 2009 film and video installation
project A New Stance for Tomorrow
with Sketch's Victoria Brooks for Volta NY.
Gonick collaborated with writer and
artist Luis Jacob for their contribution to the
exhibit: Wildflowers of Manitoba, an installation of four films held within a geodesic dome, with music by Québécois rock visionaries Harmonium (18 minutes).
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Michel Auder & Andrew Neel, The Feature
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First broadcast March 5, 2009
Alanna Heiss interviews filmmakers Michel Auder and Andrew Neel about their cinematic collaboration The Feature. The film, a "surrealistic take on the traditional bio-pic" that takes Auder as its subject, combines a variety of cinematic forms and methods with footage taken throughout Auder's long and respected career, creating a subversive investigation of the subjectivity of biography (24 minutes).
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