Amy Rice, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
First broadcast August 20, 2010
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Two years before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States, New York-based filmmaker Amy Rice had the idea to begin filming the career of the then-junior senator from Illinois. In the lead-up to the general election, Amy and her co-director, Alicia Sams, were granted unprecedented access to the inner-workings of the campaign that landed Obama the presidency in 2008. The nearly three years on the road culminated in the feature documentary film By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. The documentary, which was produced by actor Edward Norton's Class 5 films, has now been nominated for three Emmys, including Best Director, Non-Fiction Special and Editing. Host Marisa Mazria-Katz asks Rice about the film and the process that led to its completion (14 minutes).
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Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller, LTMH Gallery
 First broadcast August 6, 2010
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Host Marisa Mazria-Katz speaks with Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller, founder of New York's LTMH Gallery, one of the only galleries in the US that has devoted nearly its entire repertoire to Middle Eastern artists. In 2009, Heller helped organized Iran Inside Out, one of the biggest exhibits of Iranian art in the US, at New York's Chelsea Art Museum. This year alone she has mounted five exhibits, each of which has focused on the work of artists from Iran, Turkey and Iraq, at home or in exile. Heller discusses her transition from life in her native Iran to working in the New York art world after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and speaks to art's vibrant and integral part of life in Iran (23 minutes).
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James Salomon and Beth Rudin DeWoody, Hunt & Chase
First broadcast August 6, 2010
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Artist Sabina Streeter jets out to Salomon Contemporary Warehouse
in the woods of East Hampton for an interview and walking tour with
gallerist James Salomon and his co-curator and collector Beth Rudin
DeWoody. Their show, Hunt & Chase, runs through August 15, 2010. The
exhibition includes artists Marina Abramović, Robert Mapplethorpe,
Alexis Rockman, critic-painter Noah Becker, Walton Ford and dozens
more. The three draw up their history--Salomon worked for Mary Boone
for years; DeWoody has a real appetite for new work--discuss the
social and aesthetic serendipity that brought the show to life and
give generous descriptions and backgrounds as they trek through the
space (46 minutes).
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Maira Kalman
First broadcast July 23, 2010
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Maira Kalman is an illustrator, author, satirist and social observer with a keen eye on all things stylish, political and current. During the Contemporary Jewish Museum's 2010 retrospective of her more-than-30-year career, host David Kaufman sat down with Kalman to talk politics, pop culture and the creative process (25 minutes).
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James Franco
First broadcast June 25, 2010
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AIR's Alanna Heiss and Will Corwin speak with artist and actor James Franco, whose 2010 exhibition at AIR's Clocktower Gallery, The Dangerous Book Four Boys, was the first solo exhibition of the young artist. Heiss speaks to what first attracted her to Franco's work and why she decided upon his work to be the subject of the first solo show at Clocktower. Franco speaks to his attraction to the numerous media with which he works--not just visual artistic media, but also acting and writing--and the artists and ideas that most acutely provoked him toward the work on display in his Clocktower exhibition--most of which artists are as untied to any genre or media as he is. In addressing the exhibit, Franco broaches many of the topics explored in his work, such as narrative, domesticity, violence and sexuality, as well as his interests in experimenting with the pliability of archetypes and tradition. As further tantalization, he also offers candid assessments of his own work and the stories and creative impetuses behind his it--including the origins of Dicknose, America's latest sweetheart (55 minutes).
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Francisco Mela & Adam Hertz
First broadcast June 25, 2010
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DJ Jeannie Hopper speaks with jazz drummer Francisco Mela and Blue Note International's Adam Hertz. Since first attending the Berklee College of Music in 2000, Mela has fast established himself as one of the most innovative and exciting jazz musicians to emerge in decades. He here discusses his musical background and the impetus for many of the pieces on his first album, Malao, the title of which is the Spanish word for sugar cane syrup--a kind of longing reference to Cuba, where he was born, and his relationship to which informs much of his music. Mela speaks to his earliest exploits as a painter, before he had any musical training or conscience interest in becoming a professional musician, and talks about what has inspired and led him to become the unique musician he now is (59 minutes).
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Dor Guez
First broadcast June 11, 2010
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Journalist David Kaufman speaks with Dor Guez, an Israeli video artist whose work centers on the little-known Arab-Christian community in Israel. Focusing on the Monayers, a family connected to his mother, Guez explores what has happened to Arab-Christians in the wake of Israel's 1948 independence. Guez's work is both political and enlightening, aiming to confront passive observers with an unknown reality which touches upon centuries-old totems of ethnicity, faith and factionalism (24 minutes).
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Murad Khan Mumtaz
First broadcast June 4, 2010
or listen to Pt. 1 with iTunes (18 minutes)
or listen to Pt. 2 with iTunes (17 minutes)
Isn’t it illegal to paint on top of dollar bills? Murad Khan Mumtaz seems undaunted. Host Peter Brock speaks with the Pakistani-born artist about his exploration of the tension between tradition and modernity through the alteration of iconic images (e.g. dollar bills). Through the techniques of traditional Persian miniature painting, Mumtaz creates haunting and ominous images with far-reaching implications.
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Charles Mee & Anne Bogart
First broadcast April 16, 2010
HERE Art Center's Pete McCabe speaks with playwright Charles Mee and director Anne Bogart, Artistic Director of SITI Company, where Mee is Playwright in Residence. Bogart, a frequent collaborator with Mee, shares a previously-secret period of McCabe's past and discusses how SITI, a "gym for the soul," is particularly suited for bringing the sundry meditative and delightful elements of Mee's work to the stage. Mee, in turn, discusses the theatrical elements of Robert Rauschenberg's work, and how this inspired him to create his seminal bobrauschenbergamerica, less--indeed, not at all--a document of the artist's work than an exploration and embodiment of its essence. The work of these three artists--Mee, Bogart and Rauschenberg--all address notions of America and "Americanness," which leads to a discussion of the state of America and the salience of engagement and presence in any work of art, elements sorely lacking in much of the dissociated, irony-laden work of the contemporary period. They also discuss the history, future, practice and mission of the peculiar and unique SITI Company (24 minutes).
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The Copyright Corner
listen to Pt. 1 |
listen to Pt. 1 with RealPlayer (33 minutes)
listen to Pt. 2 |
listen to Pt. 2 with RealPlayer (28 minutes)
First broadcast April 2, 2010
AIR's Jeannie Hopper speaks with Michelle Bogre, Associate Professor in the School of Art, Media and Society at Parsons and founder of The Copyright Corner. She discusses her decision to go to law school to study copyright and intellectual property in order, largely, to teach it to other artists. This led her to create Intellectual Property Law, the course that has made Parsons one of the only--if not the only--art and design schools with a full fifteen-week course on copyright; the Copyright Center has become the more accessible locus of this information. She speaks to the particularly contemporary challenge of creating a new business model by which artists may be paid for their work in the Information Age without hindering either the availability of any individual artist's work or artistic progression and innovation in general. Along with numerous invaluable pieces of advice on copyright law and protecting one's work, Bogre offers a brief history behind The Copyright Center and the impetus behind its creation, as well as an explanation of the sundry purposes of the site and her future plans for it.
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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
listen to Part 1 |
listen to Part 1 with RealPlayer
listen to Part 2 |
listen to Part 2 with RealPlayer
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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