Xin Lius Inward Expeditions | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2024-03-13 | Nimbly combining the tools of art and science, artist Xin Liu expresses what it means to be human through a diverse body of work that includes frost-coated sculptures, a bubbling fountain of crude oil, and a performance in outer space. Xin Liu was born in 1991 in Xinjiang, China, and currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/xinliu.CREDITS | Director & Producer : Andrea Yu-Chieh ChungExecutive Producer: Tina Kukielski Series Producer: Nick RavichEditor: Yeon ParkCinematography: Mark Lee Walley, Yunbo WuField Producer: Angela Guerra WalleyAssistant Curator: Jurrell Lewis Color Correction: Max BleckerSound Design & Mix: Collin BlendellDesign & Graphics: ChipsMusic: Liquid Memoirs, Musical Mandalas, The Working Bamboo, ZHRØAssistant Editor: Michelle HanksArtwork & Archival Courtesy: Xin LiuThanks: Glen Andrews, Artpace, Dylan Brainard, Ella Brenzel, Ruth Bushman, Caliente Hot Glass, Vivian Chui, Jingyi Deng, Emma Garcia, Ada Genitempo, Zindy Infante, Domeinic Jimenez, Ruben Luna, Pioneer Works, Riley Robinson© Art21, Inc. 2024. All rights reserved.Music:“soft music” by ZHRØ is licensed under CC BY 4.0 - freesound.org/people/ZHR%C3%98/sounds/535934“PianoAmbient” by TheWorkingBamboo is licensed under CC BY 4.0 - freesound.org/people/TheWorkingBamboo/sounds/108487Featured artworks include:Cry:0 (2023)At the end of Everything (2023)Living Distance (2020)Orbit Weaver (2018)The White Stone (2021)Living Distance | A Performance in Outerspace. by Xin LIUhttps://www.xinliu.art/"New York Close Up" is made possible with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Henry Nias Foundation, and individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. SHOP EXCLUSIVE ART21 MERCH: shop.art21.org#XinLiu #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Artist Charles Gaines turns trees into numbers on a grid #shorts #art #artist #ytshorts Art21 2022-12-14 | ...
Charles Gaines: Systems & Structures Art21 2022-12-14 | Episode 285: Investigating the production of knowledge and culture, artist Charles Gaines uses rule-based systems to create paintings, drawings, musical compositions, and sculptures. Culminating in the completion of Moving Chains (2022), a 100-foot-long public sculpture on Governors Island in New York City, this film traces the connections Gaines makes between our lived experiences and the systems that shape them.Gaines’ works are crafted to reveal the process of their own creation, making visible the “rules” that dictate their final forms. In Walnut Tree Orchard (1975-2014), Gaines uses a numerical system to turn photographs of 26 walnut trees into silhouette drawings, which are then shown individually and layered atop one another. In his work with music, the artist employs another system of translation, turning written text into musical notation. Using the text of the Dred Scott v Sandford decision made by the United States Supreme Court in 1857, along with a letter written by Frederick Douglass in response, Gaines composed Manifestos 4 (2021). In the summer of 2022, the piece was performed at Times Square alongside the public sculpture Roots (2022), a series of seven Sweetgum trees planted upside down in the middle of New York City’s busiest neighborhood. These works are the first chapter in a three-part work called The American Manifest, presented by Creative Time, Governors Island Arts, and Times Square Arts, which includes Moving Chains as well as a 2023 performance along the Ohio River. In Moving Chains, Gaines constructs a massive metal and wooden structure resembling the hull of a ship along the shoreline of New York’s Hudson River. As viewers walk through the structure, nine large chains rotate above in relation to the speed of the river currents, clanging loudly against the metal and wood supports. Exploring the long history of enslavement and its aftermath in the United States, Moving Chains and The American Manifest make clear the structural entanglement of capitalism, enslavement, and the injustices we witness today. “How do we improve the world? How do we improve life for everybody? Well, I don’t know if that’s possible.” says Gaines, “But when the bad things happen, we’ve got to complain about them in order to reduce them.”Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/charles-gainesCREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Sue Ding, Ian Forster. Editor: Alexandra Brown. Camera: Sean Hanley, Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers, Doug Potts. Sound: V Lopez, Fivel Rothberg. Assistant Camera: Jules Rico. Production Assistant: Adam Varca. Colorist: Doug Potts. Sound Mix: Collin Blendell. Assistant Editor: Michelle Hanks. Music: Blue Dot Sessions, Dew of Light, Epidemic Sound, Joel Pickard, Cora Zea. Artwork Courtesy: Charles Gaines, Hauser & Wirth. Special thanks: Charles Gaines Studio, Creative Time, Governors Island Arts, Scholes Street Studio, Times Square Arts, Tolo Architecture, Torsilieri. “Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision”: Composed by Charles Gaines. Arrangements by Charles Gaines and John Eagle. Vocals: Darian Clonts, Piano: David Friend. Flute: Gina Izzo. Oboe: Mekhi Gladden. Clarinet: Ian Tyson. Bassoon: Joy Guidry. French Horn: Jeff Scott. Music Director: John Eagle. Producer: Madeline Falcone."Extended Play" is supported by Henry Nias Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community.#CharlesGaines #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Richard Mosse: What the Camera Cannot See Art21 2022-11-30 | Episode 284: Artist Richard Mosse documents humanitarian crises and environmental catastrophes by making the unseen visible. This film follows Mosse and his collaborators Ben Frost and Trevor Tweeten as they travel across the world to film under-reported world events in zones of conflict, repurposing surveillance technologies and scientific tools to capture stories and scenes that evoke deeper understanding and motivate audiences to act. In locations like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where over 50 armed groups are engaged in combat, or along paths of migration from the Middle East and North Africa into the European Union, the artist works to bring attention to conflict and suffering around the world. “My power, if I have any,” says Mosse, “is to be able to show you the things that I’ve seen in a more powerful way than perhaps the pictures you’ve seen in the newspaper of the same thing.” Mosse’s work calls specific attention to the tools we use to capture and distribute information about global events. He actively questions why certain conflicts remain relatively unseen, as in the DRC with "The Enclave" (2012-2013), or interrogates systems of targeted surveillance and dehumanization, as in "Incoming" (2014-2017). These projects point not only to the problems of the situations and locales in which Mosse and his collaborators work, but also the difficulties that we encounter in perceiving and understanding these events and processes as viewers. The conflicts and crises that Mosse documents are seemingly too opaque and complex to be appropriately described, and so often go hidden or misrepresented. This issue is especially present in his recent projects, which center on the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon is at the heart of his new works "Broken Spectre" (2018-2022) and "Tristes Tropiques" (2018-2022), which bring the realities of climate change into focus by revealing both its mundane operations and its catastrophic effects. The artist uses multispectral imaging, cameras that capture ultraviolet light, and tropes of Western media to show audiences the various scales and impacts of deforestation in the Amazon as well as their own implication in it. “We can’t see the climate changing, and that’s really the inherent problem.” says Mosse, “It’s on a scale beyond what we can perceive.”CREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster. Editor: Riley Hooper. Camera: Sean Hanley, Andrew Kemp, Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers. Assistant Camera: Oscar Harrison. Sound: Fivel Rothberg. Colorist: Russell Yaffe. Sound Mix: Collin Blendell. Assistant Editor: Michelle Hanks. Music: Blue Dot Sessions, Joel Pickard. Artwork Courtesy: Richard Mosse, Jack Shainman Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, Altman Siegel Gallery. Artwork Collaborators: Ben Frost, Sound; Trevor Tweeten, Cinematography & Editing; Jerome Thelia, Colorist; Matthew Warren, Studio Manager; Metropolis Film Labs, Film Scanning; Spectral Devices, Multispectral Camera Engineer. Amazon Behind the Scenes Video: Richard Mosse, Edimar Tozzo, Gabriel Uchida. Special Thanks: 180 Studios, Irish Pavilion of the 55th Venice Biennale, National Gallery of Victoria.Learn more about the Hutukara Yanomami Association and help the Indigenous people to hold up the sky at paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=G56QEGMA9Y56J&source=url "Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/videos/tj4u1PE6Wygt/info/richard-mosse-what-the-camera-cannot-see/?team=art21#RichardMosse #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Song Dong explores the power of memory. #art21 #ytshorts #shorts #art #artist #father #calligraphy Art21 2022-10-26 | ...
Song Dong: 生 / Shēng | Art21 Extended Play” Art21 2022-10-26 | Episode 283: The impermanence of life is held at bay by the power of memory and our relationships to others. The artist Song Dong explores this truth throughout his body of work. Entwining art and life, absence and recollection, parent and child, the artist bridges the gap between the past and present, allowing him to forge new paths and relations in the future. Working with his wife, artist Yin Xiuzhen, and daughter, Song ErRui, Song Dong directly addresses the theme of 生 / Shēng, which the artist describes as “the living, life, and reproduction.” As a child, Song Dong practiced calligraphy with water on stone. This experience inspired "Water Records" (2010) and "Traceless Stele" (2016), which are shown installed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In "Water Records," the artist records himself using an ink brush to paint images and write texts on stone that begin to evaporate before they can be completed. In the gallery, "Traceless Stele" stands nearly eight feet tall – a steel slab inviting viewers to create their own vanishing works with water. Shown walking through the hutong (a traditional Beijing residential community composed of buildings, courtyards, and alleyways) where he grew up, the artist describes how his relationship with his father inspired a series of works which began with "Touching My Father" (1997). Projecting an image of his hand upon his father, Song reaches out to touch him after years had passed without any physical contact between the two, calling attention to the distance that grew between them since Song’s youth. Family and collaboration are at the heart of "The Way of Chopsticks," an ongoing project and series of exhibitions shared by Song and artist Yin Xiuzhen, his wife. Nearing the 18th anniversary of "The Way of the Chopsticks," Song and Yin invited their daughter to participate in the fourth iteration of the exhibition. The collaboration is thematized around the concept of 生 / Shēng, shining a light on the centrality of life and collaboration in Song Dong’s own practice. For Song Dong, art is about growing and learning together. “It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s an artwork or not,” he says, “Instead, what matters is the relationship between us and the thinking it provokes.”Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/song-dongCREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Directors: Bryan Chang, Andrea Chung, Vicky Du. Editor: Kira Dane. Camera: Yang Bo, Bryan Chang, Christoph Lerch. Sound: Zhou Yang. Assistant Camera: Oliver Richardt, Yifan Wen. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: EJ Markland. Assistant Editor: Mengchen Zhang, Michelle Hanks. Music: Blue Dot Sessions. Artwork Courtesy: Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen, Song ErRui."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. #SongDong #Art21 #ExtendedPlay
Jaimie Warren gets inspired by #DIY #Halloween #Costumes. #shorts #ytshorts #performanceart #Art21 Art21 2022-10-07 | ...
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s repetitive & relentless motion #Levis #2010 #ytshorts #performanceart #art21 Art21 2022-09-30 | ...
Diane Severin Nguyen questions the divide #photography #shorts #contemporaryart #foryou #art21 Art21 2022-09-21 | ...
Diane Severin Nguyen’s Transfigurations | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2022-09-21 | Fingernails, karaoke YouTubers, grass jelly, make-up tutorials, and anti-war anthems all find themselves colliding in the work of artist Diane Severin Nguyen. Mixing and matching disparate elements, Nguyen creates lush photographs and videos that question the divides between trashy and intellectual, organic and fake, alienating and intimate. Mirroring the visual abundance of its subject’s artworks, this short film is a portrait of a uniquely wide-ranging photographer and filmmaker as she works in her Lower East Side studio.Crucial for Nguyen’s work is our contemporary experience of social media and the Internet. Its endless production of images and text is both a massive archive for her to draw from and a creative model for generating a new, open-ended visual language. In her video works “Tyrant Star” (2019) and “If Revolution Is A Sickness” (2021), Nguyen appropriates, remixes and synthesizes disparate cultural materials like Vietnamese folk poetry, anti-war anthems, and “K-Pop” music to mine what is discovered in their difference.Another kind of creative alchemy happens in her studio where the artist choreographs ephemeral processes like burning and everyday substances like styrofoam to make her enigmatic photographs. Intentionally obscuring the identity of her subject materials is core to the artist’s larger project. Says Nguyen, “I try to work against that impulse to identify and get more towards a place of feeling…The moment that you speak or communicate, there's already mediation. There's something that's about intimacy that is actually more important than knowing.”Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/diane-severin-nguyenCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Producer: Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell. Editor: Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell. Cinematography & Sound: Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell. Additional Camera: Brian Ashby. Color Correction: Cédric von Niederhäusern. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: Ryder Bach, Trevor New. Artwork Courtesy: Diane Severin Nguyen. Thanks: Lynn Do, Margaret Kross, Hannah Park, Angelina Pei, Renaissance Society, SculptureCenter."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/videos/9UetSl6fvU5O/info/diane-severin-nguyens-transfigurations-art21-new-york-close-up/?team=art21#DianeSeverinNguyen #Art21 #NewYorkCloseUp
Rachel Rossin makes plexiglass molds. #contemporaryart #shorts #ytshorts #arts #art Art21 2022-09-16 | ...
James Turrell visits his skyspace installation, Second Meeting (1989). #ytshorts #shorts #art21 Art21 2022-09-07 | ...
#AlexDaCorte tells a new story. #PinkPanther #Television #TV #characters #art #art21 Art21 2022-08-30 | ...
Doreen Garner shifts her tone. #sculpture #sculptor #ytshorts #shorts #art #artist #art21 Art21 2022-08-26 | ...
David Altmejd blurs distinctions of representation & abstraction #Art21 #Shorts #art #sculpture Art21 2022-08-19 | ...
Nick Cave creates “Soundsuits” #NickCave #ContemporaryArt #Soundsuits #Art21 #Chicago Art21 2022-08-04 | ...
Rose Salane’s Lost & Found | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2022-07-13 | Behind a thick pane of glass the proprietor of a pawn shop appraises an assortment of rings for their latest owner, artist Rose Salane, as she carefully notes his descriptions. This collection, composed of rings lost on New York City’s thousands of trains and buses in 2016, was initially assembled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and later sold to the artist through a public auction. For Queens-born Salane these rings can be entry points into the lives of the commuters she’s ridden alongside for much of her life and into the city that is still her home today. Consulting with the pawn shop owner, genetic scientists, and an intuitive reader and psychic, this documentary short follows Salane as she uncovers the myriad hidden values in these “lost” objects, re-presenting and re-circulating them to the New York public that left them behind.Fundamental to Salane’s practice is the question of value. “How do we determine something is worth something, or of some importance to a place or a person?” asks the artist. Salane uses a variety of methods of evaluation, including scanning for mitochondrial DNA and analyzing metal detector readings, to determine an object's potential significance. Intentionally layering disparate economic, scientific, and spiritual values together, Salane displays her findings as museum style wall text alongside each object. The exhibited works can be read as a series of often poignant micro histories, as well as a much larger, overarching story of New York’s cultural and economic networks. This effect is especially prominent in works like “64,000 Attempts at Circulation” (2022), installed at the 2022 Whitney Biennial “Quiet As It’s Kept”. Salane sifted through and categorized approximately 800lbs of “dummy coins” - arcade and casino tokens, hardware washers, plastic play money - that riders had attempted to use in lieu of actual bus tokens and that the MTA collected and stored over the years. Spread across several tables at the Whitney, the coins create an unexpected aerial view of the city, evidence of an unconscious collaboration between New York City commuters and municipal institutions. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/rose-salaneCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producer & Sound: Ava Wiland. Production Services: RAVA Films. Color Correction & Editor: Russell Yaffe. Cinematography: Rafael Salazar Moreno. Assistant Camera: Michael Sassano. Additional Camera: Sean Hanley. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Andy Cahill and Chips. Composer: Matt GK Wong. Music: Will Patterson and Max LL. Artwork Courtesy: Rose Salane. Thanks: Kareem Atallah, Sami Atallah, Cash in A Flash Pawn Shop, Carlos/Ishikawa, Taber Colletti, Genspace, Linda M, Igor Myakotin, James Santiago, Beth Tuck, The Whitney Museum of American Art. © Art21, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/blqXiGQYSvk5/info/rose-salanes-lost-found-art21-new-york-close-up/?team=art21#RoseSalane #Art21 #NewYorkCloseUp
Heidi Lau’s Spirit Vessels | Art21 New York Close Up” Art21 2022-06-01 | The first ever artist-in-residence at famed Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, sculptor Heidi Lau channels personal history, colonial culture, and the spiritual world through her hands and into her otherworldly clay works. Delighting in chance and improvisation, Lau shapes all her clay sculptures by hand and applies overlapping layers of glaze to create iridescent works that resemble architectural forms, funerary vessels or mourning garments. “Instead of me sculpting it, it's like it's sculpting me back," Lau says of her chosen medium. Set on the grounds and in the Catacombs of Green-Wood, this film explores a uniquely tactile yet spiritual relationship between an artist and her material. Growing up in Macau Lau explored the colonial ruins left behind from Portuguese rule, while also being immersed in the city’s original Chinese culture and history. Lau’s later sculptures call back to these disparate influences, intermingling Portuguese and Chinese architectural elements while also drawing on Taoist mythologies. In New York City where Lau now lives, she frequents Wing On Wo, a 130 year old store in Chinatown, comforted and inspired by the traditional Chinese ceramics on display. There the artist consults with owner Mei Lum on her latest sculptures, chainmail garments and urns modeled after the Han and Qing dynasty burial objects that Lau began researching after the passing of her mother. Labor intensive and, in the artist’s own words, intentionally impractical, Lau’s self-taught creative process allows the artist to grieve “with her hands.” These works and others make up Lau’s latest exhibition, Gardens as Cosmic Terrains, sited within the Catacombs at Green-wood. Lau sees her work as a bridge between opposing worlds, that of the human and non-human, known and unknown, and sculpts in clay to create “remnants of memory which will eventually rebuild something.”Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/heidi-lauCREDITS | “New York Close Up” Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Bryan Chang. Editor:Leah Galant. Cinematography: Sean Hanley, Sana A. Malik, Eric Phillips-Horst, Jeff Sterrenberg. Production Services: Meerkat Media. Color Correction: Sean Hanley. Sound Design & Mix: Bryan Chang. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: APM Music. Artwork Courtesy: Heidi Lau. Thanks: Mei Lum, The Green-wood Cemetery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wing on Wo. © Art21, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/8UnJ39mjrv4j/info/heidi-laus-spirit-vessels-art21-new-york-close-up/?team=art21#HeidiLau #Art21 #NewYorkCloseUp
Richard Misrach: Never the Same | Art21 Extended Play” Art21 2022-05-11 | Episode 282: While at work in the San Francisco Bay Area, photographer Richard Misrach reflects on his decades-long career, realizing that there is still more to learn about photography and himself after all this time. Myriam Weisang Misrach, author and wife of the artist, first wrote about Richard’s practice when assigned to profile him for a magazine and has continued to document their travels with insightful and poetic descriptions of his process and work. Together they have visited nuclear test sites, open burial grounds for dead animals, and arid alien landscapes, uncovering an often unseen beauty and liveliness in things dead, destroyed, and left behind. “I know the viewer can’t think what I’m thinking, and that’s fine,” says Misrach, “But I wanted everything here to have a conceptual foundation.” Early COVID-19 lockdowns prevented Misrach from traveling in his normal fashion when the Pritzker Psychiatric Clinic at the University of California – San Francisco commissioned him to produce work for their new building. As a result, Misrach returned to the vast archive of negatives and contacts housed in his studio, many of which have never been printed. With a new embrace of technologies like Photoshop, the artist was able to create new works based on his existing photographs and negatives, “riffing” on images to build a new visual language. Misrach was initially surprised to be commissioned for this project because of the intensity of the imagery and subject matters he is known for. However, in reexamining his archive Misrach realized that he always sought out beauty to counter the darker themes of his other work. “50 years looking back,” the artist says, “I realize I needed beauty in my life.”Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/richard-misrachCREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno, Ava Wiland. Producer: Ava Wiland. Editor: Russell Yaffe. Cinematographer: Rafael Salazar Moreno. Associate Producer: Igor Myakotin. Assistant Camera & Sound Recordist: Ben Derico. Colorist: Russell Yaffe. Sound Mix & Design: Gisela Fullà Silvestre. Music: Luke Atencio, Blue Dot Sessions, Free Music Archive, How Great Were the Robins, Evan Hutchings, Eric Kinny, Live Footage, The Music Bed, WEI. Artwork Courtesy: Richard Misrach. Writings by: Myriam Weisang Misrach. Special Thanks: Sekou Cherif, John Pritzker, Matthew W. State MD, PhD, Connie Wold, Eric Zhang."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/p3diTVPtBIOo/info/richard-misrach-never-the-same-art21-extended-play/?team=art21#RichardMisrach #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Nicholas Hlobo: Drifting Free | Art21 Extended Play” Art21 2022-04-06 | Episode 281: As someone who grew up listening to the radio, Nicholas Hlobo learned that by not having all the information you activate the imagination. In the artist’s Johannesburg studio he and his assistants are at work cutting, stitching, and sewing new paintings and sculptures. “It's always good to just take a risk and just draw a line,” says Hlobo in describing how he embarks on each piece. Hlobo also uses words as starting points, as he did with the painting Fak’unyawo (2017) which contains the heel of a shoe last from which multiple lines of stitching extend. This Xhosa word, fak’unyawo, means “testing the waters,” the artist explains.While stitching leather with ribbon, Hlobo reflects on creating Mphephethe uthe cwaka (2017). The piece is composed of trumpets, bugles, and other wind instruments that the artist had planned to use in a canvas, but instead developed into a standalone sculpture. Elongating and twisting the copper and brass tubes, Hlobo radically changes his materials while retaining their identity as musical instruments. Through this transformation, Hlobo asks viewers to open themselves to new metaphorical possibilities.Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/nicholas-hloboCREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster. Editor: Beyza Boyacioglu. Camera: Natalie Haarhof, Motheo Moeng, Fredrik Streiffert. Assistant Camera: Matome Thomo, Nkateko Ngomane. Sound: Ruan Van Tonder. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Collin Blendell. Artwork Courtesy: Nicholas Hlobo, Lehmann Maupin. Special Thanks: Sekou Cherif, Thuli Lote, Uppsala Art Museum, Isaac Zavale."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/cDaUgCw4SOoP/info/nicholas-hlobo-drifting-free-art21-extended-play/?team=art21
Azikiwe Mohammed is a Guy Who Makes Stuff | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2022-03-23 | What is the story of New York City, and who gets left out?“The word artist is a little funky … I would self-describe as a ‘guy who makes stuff.’” Rejecting the centuries long cult of the genius artist, Azikiwe Mohammed embraces the modest, the eclectic, and above all the helpful. Mohammed works in a range of mediums and skill sets from painting to puppets to furniture to tapestries, informed by the unpretentious aesthetics of the Black homes and spaces he traverses. Exploiting what he describes as a “bonus of the art space”, Mohammed sells and exchanges these art objects to operate more “useful to humans” activities. In his home of New York City the artist organizes free food distribution across the boroughs through the New Davonhaime Food Bank, and creates space for creative expression through his free mobile school, the Black Painters Academy. For his latest project, Mohammed opens Big Apple Gifts and Souvenirs in the Seaport area in Lower Manhattan, selling classic souvenirs like shirts, umbrellas, and jewelry that nod to the people and neighborhoods typically overlooked in New York City tourist shops. Animated by Mohammed’s humor and energy, this short documentary film captures an artist charting a creative path uniquely his own, sharing the fruits of his labor with the communities of New York City.Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/azikiwe-mohammedCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Editor: Brian Redondo. Cinematography: Nick Capezzera, Brian Redondo. Sound: Mariya Chulichkova. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Color Correction: Addison Post. Design & Graphics: Chips. Artwork Courtesy: Azikiwe Mohammed. Thanks: Anna Zorina, Beverly’s, Ysabel Pinyol Blasi, Black Gotham, Sekou Cherif, Creative Time, Gallery Walk NYC, Anne-Laure Lemaitre, Mana Contemporary, Marie Nyquist, Teresita Redondo, Topolski Jewelry, Diya Vij, Kamau Ware. © Art21, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/HtNga5drrO7d/info/azikiwe-mohammed-is-a-guy-who-makes-stuff-art21-new-york-close-up/?team=art21#AzikiweMohammed #Art21 #NewYorkCloseUp
Tommy Khas Bits & Pieces | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2022-03-09 | A photographer searches for ways to be seen.In his hometown of Memphis, artist Tommy Kha dons a black garbage bag and a Batman mask before stepping in front of his camera and taking a photograph, recreating a scene from his childhood. Kha, looking straight at his camera, photographs himself playing his younger self, an Asian-American boy searching for ways to be seen in a sometimes hostile culture. The moment encapsulates Kha’s unique creative vision, an uncanny mix of comic, tender, theatrical and documentary impulses. Now based in New York City, the artist frequently mines his own biography as well as the cultural landscape of his childhood to create photographs and installations that not only reveal the vulnerabilities and contradictions of his own self and family, but also critique the nature of representation itself. From his childhood backyard to his grandfather’s grave to Memphis’ famed Elvis Week gatherings, this short documentary film follows Kha photographing throughout the city, as he tries to reconnect with his hometown and come to terms with fundamental questions around the self and his chosen medium. As Kha asks, “Where do I stand in the picture? What’s the best way to arrive at ourselves through photography?” Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/tommy-khaCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Editor: Jia Li. Cinematography: Jia Li. Sound: Carver Audain. Sound Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Color Correction: Addison Post. Design & Graphics: Chips. Artwork Courtesy: Tommy Kha. Archival Media: Yale University Library. Thanks: Ava Chin, Emmi Dunn, Monica Horn, Alison Kuo, Ziggy Mack, Katrina McElyea, John Morgan, Nathalie Karg Gallery, Cooper Lee Perkins, Pho Binh Restaurant, Lilly Robicsek, Silver Art Projects, Luke White. © Art21, Inc. 2022. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: amara.org/en/videos/L4OXcGdixncz/info/tommy-khas-bits-pieces-art21-new-york-close-up/?team=art21#TommyKha #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: A Crack in the Hourglass | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2022-02-23 | Episode 280: In the midst of loss and isolation, an artist’s anti-monument, “A Crack in the Hourglass” (2021), brings communities together to mourn, remember, and feel connected again. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is most interested in monuments that “disappear, question themselves, that complicate some of the stories that we tell ourselves.” This anti-monumental approach creates platforms for self-representation through large-scale participatory installations such as “A Crack in the Hourglass” (2021). Shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 2022, the artwork memorializes those lost to COVID-19. After hearing stories of families and friends unable to gather and grieve, Lozano-Hemmer and his studio team decided to “create a way for people to be able to come together and remember our loss.” Through custom software, a robotic arm, sand, and a live video feed, the artist has provided an opportunity for communities to experience an event which memorializes their loved ones. Anyone can submit a photograph to http://www.acrackinthehourglass.net and gather remotely or in-person to watch a portrait of a friend or family member be drawn by the artwork. A single body of sand produces each of the hundreds of portraits over the course of the installation. After a portrait is complete, the image tilts and the sand slides away to be recycled. In the face of an invisible virus, Lozano-Hemmer hopes to build “a sense of universal solidarity” and connect the individuals depicted in the installation. “The ephemeral helps us remember,” states Lozano-Hemmer.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/rafael-lozano-hemmerCREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster. Editor: Janah Elise Cox. Camera: Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers. Sound: David Hocs. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Music: Blue Dot Sessions. Artwork Courtesy: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Special Thanks: Lauren Bierly, Brooklyn Museum, Lozano-Hemmer Studio, Taylor Maatman, Hazen Mayo, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Gabriel Rizzotti, Drew Sawyer, Harry Tinh, Milagros Verendia."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/gvwcVgQIvIiX/info/rafael-lozano-hemmer-a-crack-in-the-hourglass-art21-extended-play/?team=art21#RafaelLozanoHemmer #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Salman Toors Emerald Green | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-11-17 | How does a painter put freedom and vulnerability on the same canvas?In a light-filled Bushwick studio, painter Salman Toor calls his father to let him know that "one of the best things that’s ever going to happen, ever" is on the horizon. Toor is at work on a new figurative painting, "Museum Boys" (2021), to be presented alongside canvases by Johannes Vermeer at Frick Madison in New York City. The painting is the latest in the artist’s alternately tender and comic exploration of his own highly cultured queer community, imagining moments of quiet intimacy as well as scenes of public violence and repression. Moving from his home country of Pakistan to the United States in 2002, the artist had his first experience in an openly gay community while also coming under the influence of Western figurative art traditions like Dutch Golden Age painting. Working on multiple small canvases at the the same time, Toor paints images of queer sociality: "femme" and fashionable young men dancing together in living rooms, gathering at bars, and grooming before mirrors. Many of the works are colored in a signature emerald green, evoking for Toor the nocturnal glamor and fantasy of a freely gay life, and often contain what the artist slyly calls "fag puddles," offered as "heaps of objects and tubular body parts." Toor's phrasing is an apt description of the central figure depicted in "Museum Boys," who lies in a vitrine with a urinal, a high heel, and other more ambiguous objects strewn over their sleeping body. Both "fabulous, and a bit pathetic," the tragicomic figure is rendered with the same tender, light touch and cartoonish forms the artist uses throughout his works, mirroring his own emotional identification with—and critical distance from—the figures he paints. Toor’s paintings are often inspired by his own community of queer friends, including fellow artist Doron Langberg, whose work is exhibited along with Toor's as part of "Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters," on view into January 2022 at the temporary location of The Frick Collection on Madison Avenue. Strolling through the museum's galleries together, the two friends are energized to see their work placed next to paintings by artists who are so central to the Western art canon. But Toor’s creative sensibility and personal history adds a uniquely contemporary layer. Raised in a country forever altered by European colonialism and educated in those same Western traditions, Toor’s inclusion at the Frick Madison feels particularly "important and poetic"—a return in a cycle of influence and transformation that began centuries ago. Salman Toor (b. 1983, Lahore, Pakistan) lives and works in New York City. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/salman-toorCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Adam Golfer. Editor: Lorena Alvarado. Cinematography: Jake Robbins and Adam Golfer. Assistant Camera: Sofie Kjorum Austlid. Sound: Matthew Brown and Pat Raymond. Music: Ryan Scales. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Color Correction: Cédric von Niederhäusern. Design & Graphics: Chips. Artwork Courtesy: Salman Toor. Thanks: Caroline Burghardt, Doron Langberg, Frick Madison, Luhring Augustine, Alison Peknay, Heidi Rosenau, The Frick Collection, and Daniel Umstaedter. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/G26PzKqlqMfc/info/salman-toors-emerald-green-art21-new-york-close-up#SalmanToor #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
John Akomfrah: Conversations with Noise | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-11-10 | Episode 279: Known for his visually stunning, multichannel video installations, artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah shares a lesser acknowledged, but equally vital component of his work: sound. From his London studio, the artist discusses the transformative and essential role that sound has played in both his artwork and his experience of the world.Between sessions editing recently-shot footage, Akomfrah recalls his early experiences with sound. The artist witnessed the ways that music fostered the social connection at the nightclubs of his youth and co-founded the artist group Black Audio Film Collective, which saw itself primarily as an experimental auditory outfit. His seminal experience with sound came as a university student, when Akomfrah heard the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt for the first time. Pärt's music reconfigured Akomfrah's understanding of time and of himself within it, motivating his filmic work which weaves together footage from divergent time periods, histories, and themes. While aware that early critics of his work found his use of sound and music "vulgar," Akomfrah retorts, "I like the vulgarity of it." "That's the point," he adds. "The new comes into being via the pathway of vulgarity."In all his work since, Akomfrah has utilized overlapping audio tracks and a range of sounds, from musique concrète to opera, classical, and folk forms. The artist explains his interest in using noise to create conversations and suggest direction for images, as well as the role that sound plays in crafting narrative and conveying history. "The forms themselves and the range of uses change, but the investment in the sonic is as long lasting as the investment in images," says the artist. "That's not going to change."John Akomfrah was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1957. A pioneering filmmaker, Akomfrah creates multichannel video installations that critically examine the legacy of colonialism, the Black diaspora, and environmental degradation. Akomfrah weaves together original footage with archival material to create stirring, layered narratives that juxtapose personal and historical memory, past and present, and environmental and human crises.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/john-akomfrahCREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster. Editor: Alex Tyson. Camera: Andrew Kemp, Christoph Lerch, and John Marton. Assistant Camera: Charlie Stoddart. Sound: Sean Millar. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Collin Blendell. Artwork Courtesy: John Akomfrah, Black Audio Film Collective, Lisson Gallery, and Smoking Dog Films. Special Thanks: Ashitey Akomfrah, ICA Boston, and Venice Biennale."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/EOtbNk0vv502/info/john-akomfrah-conversations-with-noise-art21-extended-play#JohnAkomfrah #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Doreen Garner on Her Own Terms | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-11-03 | How do we get the skin tone right?From her Brooklyn studio to international art fairs to a Juneteenth barbecue, sculptor and tattoo artist Doreen Garner navigates two very different communities—the highly public, collector-driven world of galleries and museums and the private, deeply interpersonal world of client tattooing—carefully carving out space for creative fulfillment and emotional self-care.Working in the intensely political climate of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing unrest sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Garner takes a hard look at some of the most basic assumptions of her practice and the art market in which her work circulates. While Garner's past works featured silicone fragments of Black bodies to address the traumatic histories that Black people have endured, the artist is now at work in her Sunset Park studio on a series of new sculptures that depict white flesh. Exploring disease, toxicity, and the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade for an upcoming exhibition in Europe, the artist states, "I don’t want to put bloody Black bodies by themselves as entertainment. I want [audiences] to think about ways that their whiteness adds to racism experienced across the globe, regardless of whether they think that they’re involved or not." Garner is all too aware of the contradiction between her creative dedication to making tonally realistic white flesh and a lifetime witnessing the ways Black bodies have been aesthetically misrepresented by white creators. This deep disparity of care is mirrored in the reception of Garner’s work, as she notes that her sculptures of Black bodies have sold more rapidly on the art market than her sculptures of white bodies. Discomforted by the racial dynamics at play and the inevitable cycles of acceptance and rejection in the art world, Garner turns to tattooing for a sense of personal affirmation and community. A licensed tattoo artist, Garner draws upon Black American heroes and imagery in her tattoos, rejecting the typical imagery of a traditionally white male industry. From her Brooklyn studio, Garner tattoos her friend and fellow tattoo artist, Debbi Snax, enjoying the freedom of working one-on-one with clients who are often unaware of her fine arts practice. For Garner, her tattoo works are also unique but accessible art objects that a wide array of people can collect. As she visits Luna Park in Coney Island with Debbi and throws a Juneteenth picnic in Prospect Park for tattooed friends and clients, Garner’s communal, uplifting vision of her tattoo practice becomes clear. "I’m just trying to create the images that Black people want to get on their body forever," says the artist, "Things they resonate with and things that make them feel beautiful."Doreen Garner (b. 1986, Philadelphia, PA, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/doreen-garnerCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Naima Ramos-Chapman. Editors: Ephraim Kirkwood and Nadine Mundo. Additional Editors: Alexander Mejia and Carlos Galek Sefchovich. Camera: Harold Erkins, Alexander Mejia, and Naima Ramos-Chapman. Sound: Edwin Diagon and Carlos Galek Sefchovich. Production Assistant: Suzette Burton. Music: Akeema-Zane. Color Correction: Addison Post. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Chips. Artwork Courtesy: Doreen Garner. Thanks: Azikiwe Aboagye, Francis Agyapong, Chashama, Tichina Collins, Oasa DuVerney, Halle Fur Kunst Steiermark, JTT Gallery, Lita Lofton, Brian Redondo, Debbi Snax, Jasmin Tsou, and Zach Wampler. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/9ZVmpOd1FQS2/info/doreen-garner-on-her-own-terms-art21-new-york-close-up#DoreenGarner #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Tanya Aguiñiga: Crafting Lineage | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-10-27 | Episode 278: Shown at work in and around her studio in Los Angeles, California, Tanya Aguiñiga revisits the paths that place her work amongst a history of creative traditions, forging her own journey to making work that speaks to a wider audience.Aguiñiga, who grew up in Tijuana and migrated to San Diego every day for school, studied furniture design in university as a way to pursue her creative interests, while also learning technical skills like woodworking and welding that her parents would appreciate. Through her studies, she developed a respect for legacies in craft and an admiration for traditions that have been passed down through generations. "A lot of us whose parents’ migrated don’t have lineages," says the artist. Aguiñiga found inspiration through her teacher, Japanese-American furniture designer Wendy Maruyama, whose provocative work around gender and identity taught her how to explore her own struggles with identity through her work. Today, Aguiñiga blends her craft and art practices, integrating various materials and methods into her sculptures, installations, and performances. Carrying on the tradition of community collaboration and information sharing, she works with a team of artists and craftspeople, while also including her daughter in hands-on artmaking. Aguiñiga often utilizes fabric and fibers in her work, explaining how working with textiles empowers makers with both self-sufficiency and ownership of their identities. The artist travels to the San Ysidro border crossing point in Tijuana, the site of her 2016 "Border Quipu" project, and reflects on the ways in which she believes art can be of greater service than she previously understood. "Art can offer different ways of getting to an answer, it can offer different possibilities, generative space, power over your own identity," says Aguiñiga. "For a lot of us that are marginalized or seen as 'others,' it can explore different ways of telling our stories."Tanya Aguiñiga was born in 1978 in San Diego, California, and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. An artist, designer, and craftsperson, Aguiñiga works with traditional craft materials like natural fibers and collaborates with other artists and activists to create sculptures, installations, performances, and community-based art projects. Drawing on her upbringing as a binational citizen, who daily crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego for school, Aguiñiga’s work speaks of the artist’s experience of her divided identity and aspires to tell the larger and often invisible stories of the transnational community.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/tanya-aguinigaCREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster, Rafael Salazar Moreno, and Ava Wiland. Editor: Janah Elise Cox. Field Producer: Yadira Avila. Camera: Christian Bruno and Rafael Salazar Moreno. Sound: Veronica Lopez and Ariel Baca. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Music: Blue Dot Sessions. Artwork Courtesy: Tanya Aguiñiga and Wendy Maruyama."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/6vu4pyDtGR1b/info/tanya-aguiniga-crafting-lineage-art21-extended-play#TanyaAguiniga #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Kameelah Janan Rasheed: The Edge of Legibility | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-10-20 | logo·phile | \ ˈlȯ-gə-ˌfī(-ə)l : a lover of words. A self-described "learner," immersed in books since childhood, text-based artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed is uniquely fascinated with the written word and its power to both define and destabilize how we understand the world. Rasheed photocopies pages from books and printed materials, cuts out words and sentences, and re-arranges them in poetic, provocative, or even confusing combinations. The resulting sprawling wall collages, billboards, films and public installations encourage viewers to do the work of understanding. "It’s really an invitation," says Rasheed, "Come think with me." This short documentary film explores the artist’s expansive ideas and miniaturist process in her book-filled, Brooklyn home studio; the film’s exclusively close up style mirrors Rasheed’s own preoccupation with fragments, slowly building up a portrait over time.From her studio, Rasheed sorts through stacks of childhood drawings and family photographs while recounting her father’s conversion to Islam in the early 1980s. His method of note taking, excerpting, and annotating inspired Rasheed’s own artistic practice. "I was thinking of this idea of talking back to a text," says the artist, "Each time we read something, we’re annotating on the page or in our heads and creating a new text. It’s this act of collaboration between the reader and the writer." At work on a new piece, Rasheed searches her books for specific shapes and styles of lettering, rather than particular words. She pieces together these fragments into longer phrases and sentences, intuitively creating combinations that code or complicate that which could be said plainly. Rather than jumping to understanding, viewers are invited to move more slowly and engage with works over and over again to create layers of meaning. For Rasheed, this approach also presents a powerful possibility for how we can publicly move through the world and create a kind of self-protection. "I think a lot about what it actually means to make myself legible," says the artist. "How you present yourself to the world that's legible and appealing to people, versus I'm not gonna make myself known until I'm ready." Kameelah Janan Rasheed (b. 1985, East Palo Alto, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/kameelah-janan-rasheedCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Producer: Carrie Hawks. Editor: Brian Redondo. Cinematography: Rose Bush. Additional Camera: Diana Larrea. Sound: Monica Rodriguez. Additional Animation: Carrie Hawks. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Color Correction: Addison Post. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: Blue Dot Sessions and Th&o. Artwork Courtesy: Kameelah Janan Rasheed. Thanks: Angie Gonzalez, Betty McGhee, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, and Octavia Yearwood. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/TdzjdZqQrBPL/info/kameelah-janan-rasheed-the-edge-of-legibility-art21-new-york-close-up#KameelahJananRasheed #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Guadalupe Maravilla & the Sound of Healing | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-07-28 | Does healing have a soundtrack?Sculptor, performer, and sound healer Guadalupe Maravilla combines his personal experiences as a formerly undocumented immigrant and cancer survivor with ancient and indigenous knowledge to create new rituals for healing. An impressionistic and kaleidoscopic look at Maravilla's multifaceted practice and biography, the film follows the artist as prepares his solo exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, New York and conducts healing sound performances for his community. From his Brooklyn studio, Maravilla recounts his personal journey as an unaccompanied minor fleeing the civil war in his native El Salvador and migrating through Central America to the United States. As an adult, Maravilla was diagnosed with colon cancer, which he considers a physical manifestation of the trauma he experienced as a child. During his radiation treatments, Maravilla was introduced to the sound bath, where participants are "bathed" in sound waves meant to encourage therapeutic processes. Struck by the healing potential of sound, Maravilla vowed to learn and share sound healing with others if he overcame cancer. Back at Socrates Sculpture Park, Maravilla casts recycled aluminum into twisting coral-like forms to create the centerpiece of his exhibition. Titled "Disease Throwers (#13, #14)," these works are towering and totemic sculptures that are at once shrines and instruments, decorated with symbolic materials collected from the places Maravilla crossed as a child and activated through sound performance. Using gongs, singing bowls, conch shells, and other instruments, Maravilla hosts healing workshops for undocumented immigrants, cancer survivors, and those who have lost loved ones to cancer. "Having a community that has gone through similar experiences can be really empowering," says Maravilla. "Making these elaborate 'Disease Throwers' is not just about telling a story from my past, but it's also about how this healing ritual can continue in the future, long after I'm gone."Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976, San Salvador, El Salvador) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/guadalupe-maravillaGuadalupe Maravilla: "Planeta Abuelx" (2021) at Socrates Sculpture Park:socratessculpturepark.org/exhibition/planeta-abuelxCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producers: Ava Wiland and Alexandra Lenore Ashworth. Editors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Russell Yaffe. Cinematography: Rafael Salazar Moreno. Production Services: RAVA Films. Gaffer: Swelee Joseph. Sound: Pasquin Mariani and Ava Wiland. Aerial Photography: Mark DiConzo & KMDECO. Color Correction: Russell Yaffe. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: Lowercase Noises, Saint Mesa, and Young Collective. Artwork Courtesy: Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York. Archival Media Courtesy: Willem van Bergen, J. Paul Getty Museum, Dennis Jarvis, Kent MacElwee, Frank Morrow, and Pond 5/mavelar. Thanks: Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, John Hatfield, Whitney Hu, Kent Johnson, danilo machado, Estrella Nova Martinez, Eric Matthews, Julia Metro, Terrence McCutchen, Sara Morgan, Mx Oops, Anna Reyes, Dan Roberts, Adan Palermo Rojas, Juan Carlos Ruiz, A.J Sanches, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Takashi Vishnu, Jess Wilcox, Sam Xŭ, Chris Yockey, Michelle W. Yun, and Chris Zirbes.This film is possible thanks to Socrates Sculpture Park and Bloomberg Philanthropies."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/cpFNy4NnvjBI/info/guadalupe-maravilla-the-sound-of-healing-art21-new-york-close-up#GuadalupeMaravilla #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Wangechi Mutu: Between the Earth and the Sky | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-07-21 | Episode 277: From her Nairobi studio, artist Wangechi Mutu considers her relationship with the natural world and the ways in which it has influenced her variegated artistic practice. A self-described "city girl with a nature brain," Mutu recounts her upbringing in Kenya, memories of playing in her family’s garden, and attending an all-girls Catholic school. These experiences instilled a profound respect for both nature and the feminine in Mutu, alongside a curiosity about the African history, heritage, and culture that was omitted from her studies. Today, Mutu’s monumental sculptures of hybrid female, animal, and plant forms assert "how incredibly important every single plant and animal and human is in keeping us all alive and afloat." Tracing her journey from Kenya to New York, first as a university student and later as an established exhibiting artist, Mutu charts the evolution of her artwork from her collage paintings, to explorations with photography and heroic sculptures made from earth and bronze. In her early collage paintings, Mutu explored the tension created by mixing cut outs from wildlife and fashion magazines with vintage illustrations and her own watercolors. As her dense and colorful collage works grew in scale, the artist began incorporating her own photography into her paintings. This combination sparked Mutu’s reflection on the wider history of photography, colonization, and how Black and female bodies have been photographed, packaged, and consumed. In her most recent works, including the "Sentinel" series (2016–present), "The NewOnes, will free Us" (2019) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and "Crocodylus" and "MamaRay" (2020) at Gladstone Gallery, Mutu draws upon her reverence for the divine feminine and her frustration with the schism between "the way we worship the image of the woman, but denigrate the actual human being." The artist’s elegant and powerful hybrid female-animal figures command viewers’ attention and regard. Unable to return to her native Kenya for many years while living and working in New York, Mutu reflects on the convergence of African and Western influences that have informed her artwork and her binational identity. Mutu now works between her Nairobi and New York studios, looking to compare, combine, and understand herself from these multiple viewpoints.This film is among a collection that comprise Art21’s participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.Wangechi Mutu was born in 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya. In her collages, drawings, sculptures, and films, Mutu centers the female body to create powerful and self-possessed figures that are hybrids of human, plant, animal, and machine forms. Sampling from a diverse array of sources—from natural materials to fashion magazines, medical diagrams, and traditional African arts—the artist creates otherworldly realms that examine cultural identity, the feminine, colonial history, and global consumption.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/wangechi-mutuCREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster and Jackie Lebo. Editor: Rosie Walunas. Camera: Joan Poggio. Field Producer: Chelagat Tum. Additional Camera: Mariam Dwedar and Sean Hanley. Sound: Lee Smith. Assistant Camera: Saul Ogada. Driver: Martin Mwaniki. Music: Blue Dot Sessions. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: E.J. Markland. Archival Material: AP, Brooklyn Museum, Cynthia Edorh, Nathan Keay / © MCA Chicago, J. “Quazi" King for mater mea, Pond5, Jason Schmidt, and Adi Shniderman. Artwork Courtesy: Wangechi Mutu, Gladstone Gallery, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Special Thanks: Danielle Brock, Michelle Coffey, Content House, Andrew Huff, Lambent Foundation, and Astrid Meek."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; Mercedes Vilardell; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/yN6vk5U4YEeV/info/wangechi-mutu-between-the-earth-and-the-sky-art21-extended-play#WangechiMutu #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Adam Milner Takes Care of the Details | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-07-14 | What can the little things tell us about the big things? From flower petals to eyelashes, plastic gemstones, a friend’s hair or Babybel cheese wax casing, artist Adam Milner mixes and matches a range of overlooked, but deeply resonant objects into artworks that explore our often fraught relationships with the things that fill our lives. Identifying as a collector and arranger of objects, Milner works primarily at home in Brooklyn, New York, intentionally intermingling the creative process with the items, spaces, and rituals of domestic private life. Self-consciously working against the grain of popular home decor shows like "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo" and "Hoarders" and their stigmatization of household objects, Milner says, "A lot of these philosophies are about getting rid of things, but I'm really interested in this idea of vibrant matter…that everything is active and when we're done with something, it still exists in the world." As part of the artist’s regular practice, Milner visits a neighborhood thrift shop and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, observing the varying levels of care and categorization each space brings to its objects. Artworks and functional items are sold side by side at the thrift shop, their cultural and economic distinctions flattened in a cozy sprawl. The museum attempts to create a more idealized theatre of display, carefully highlighting rare individual works, but disappearing the brackets and hardware that uphold them. For Milner, the jump from home to retail space to curated museum is an on-going lesson in the malleability of cultural values and hierarchies. For the 2021 exhibition "Public Sculptures," produced through the nomadic museum Black Cube, Milner draws upon these lessons and creates new contexts for audiences to access and understand art. The artist installs carefully calibrated sculptures—a conch shell with a metal filled interior and a tableaux of costumed deer figurines—in public spaces like a neighborhood bodega and friend’s car. "Everything is porous and everything is always absorbing the thing next to it," says Milner. "If it’s confusing where things begin and end, it’s a lot harder to divide and segment. I’m always trying to resist the clean category."Adam Milner (b. 1988, Denver, Colorado, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/adam-milnerCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Producer: Lorena Alvarado. Editor: Lorena Alvarado. Cinematography: Demi Waldron. Additional Camera: Sean Hanley. Sound: Mariya Chulichkova. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Color Correction: Addison Post. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: Cloud and Raw Paws. Artwork Courtesy: Adam Milner. Thanks: Black Cube, Hannah James, Alexandra Kozlakowski, Restoration Worship Temple, Second-hand Shop, Rebecca Schear, Cortney Lane Stell, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Two Ways Supermarket. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/uMGLH3QikjnO/info/adam-milner-takes-care-of-the-details-art21-new-york-close-up#AdamMilner #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Phyllida Barlow: Homemade | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-07-07 | Episode 276: Sculptor Phyllida Barlow discusses her idiosyncratic approach to making art, learning and teaching, and building a career as an artist. From her home studio in London, Barlow recalls her childhood, where she witnessed her mother's ad-hoc way of making clothing and toys for her children. Her mother treated the materials of everyday domestic life as resources with endless potential, an attitude that has affected Barlow's artmaking. Shown at an exhibition at @Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, Barlow's anti-monumental, yet enormous tilting and teetering sculptures are composed of nontraditional materials like cardboard, plywood, and colorful fabric.As an art student in London in the 1960s, Barlow struggled with the techniques, processes, and forms that were expected of sculpture. "All sorts of things were taboo, like domesticity or certain crafts that were perhaps more associated with women," says the artist. "It was the big, heavy traditions of sculpture that were important to learn and I wasn't that good at them." However, this experience later informed Barlow's approach as a teacher, where she encouraged students to develop practices that unraveled their personalities, aspirations, and desires rather than following a particular tradition. For Barlow, art and artists exist regardless of whether they are seen by an audience. "There are plenty of artists who don't have exhibitions, there's plenty of art that's never seen," states Barlow. "Many artists endure that for their entire lives and it's heroic." Intrigued by the unseen and the unknown, Barlow affirms her belief in "the creative act as a deeply private experience."Phyllida Barlow was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in 1944. Inspired by the urban environment, Barlow’s sculptures marry unconventional materials such as cardboard, plywood, plaster, and cement with vibrantly colored paint and fabrics. Her invented forms are created through layered processes of accumulation, removal, and juxtaposition—gestures that Barlow describes as “more functional than artistic.” The resulting massive works challenge viewers’ experiences of physical space, stretching the limits of mass, volume, and height as they tower, block, and interrupt space. Yet these works remain distinctly anti-monumental; the artist leaves exposed, unfinished seams, revealing the means of the works’ making and playing with the tensions between hardness and softness, the imperious and the comic, and the painterly and the sculptural.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/phyllida-barlowThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.CREDITS | Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster. Editor: Drigan Lee. Camera: Andrew Kemp and Anne Misselwitz. Sound: Sean Millar. Assistant Camera: Clemens Rosenow and Charlie Stoddart. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Music: Joel Pickard. Artwork Courtesy: Phyllida Barlow, Haus der Kunst, and Hauser & Wirth. Archival Images: Phyllida Barlow and Fabian Peake. Special Thanks: Elena Heitsch, Damian Lentini, and Lucy Wilkinson."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/XnvA4HRfBvIK/info/phyllida-barlow-homemade-art21-extended-play#PhyllidaBarlow #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Rachel Rossins Digital Homes | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-05-05 | How do you create comfort and care in the realm of the digital?Synthesizing the traditional mediums of painting and sculpture with new technologies like augmented and virtual reality, Rachel Rossin fluidly blurs the digital and physical, exploring the emotional potential of an in-between space. The artist recounts the intensity of her childhood in Florida, how she taught herself to hack and program computer software, and her use of both the Internet and artmaking as vehicles for escape and refuge.From her DUMBO, Brooklyn studio, Rossin works on a new painting and plays with the markerless motion capture software that she often uses for her virtual works. For VR works such as "Skin Suits" (2019) and "Man Mask" (2016), Rossin pulled from an archive of characters and imagery that she hacked from video games, including the male avatar from her teen years playing the popular first-person shooter game, Call of Duty. For Rossin, the male avatar is not just a creative choice, but a reaction to the reality of being a young woman in a male-dominated online gaming culture and the need to protect oneself from online harassment and bullying.Working on a series of plexiglass sculptures for an exhibition with Rhizome and Hyundai Motor Company, Rossin uses her own body to shape and mold the panels into three-dimensional sculptures. The resulting forms act as hollow-body imprints of the artist and protective shields. The central image embedded into the plexi surface—a half-woman, half-bird harpy avatar that Rossin has used throughout her creative life—is fundamental to the artist's sense of herself and the larger cultural experience of being in two places at once. "So much of our emotional, cognitive space [is] lived in virtual spaces," says the artist. "For me, it always comes back to my own embodiment and how to anchor this very abstract loose [digital] space in the same dimension that I'm in." Rachel Rossin (b. 1987, West Palm Beach, Florida USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/rachel-rossinThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Danielle Brock and Vicky Du. Producer: Vicky Du. Editor: Winnie Cheung. Cinematography & Sound: Jia Li. Additional Camera: Julia Lohmann. Production Services: Meerkat Media. Color Correction: Addison Post. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Chips. Music: APM Music. Artwork Courtesy: Rachel Rossin. Archival Media: Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Pioneer Works, and Karen Rossin. Thanks: 14a, Marie Becker, Michael Connor, Elene Damenia, Rhizome, Rob Ruth, and Smoo (Studio Cat). © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/vNgcZn5XaUxe/info/rachel-rossins-digital-homes-art21-new-york-close-up#RachelRossin #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Guan Xiao: Breaking Free | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-04-28 | Episode 275: From her Beijing studio, Guan Xiao resists the distractions and expectations of our modern era. The sculptor describes the meditative experience of making work in her studio, where she is forced to step away from her phone and computer. "Even if your body feels tired," explains the artist, "your spirit is totally relaxed."Guan similarly reflects on the importance of diverging from the expectations placed on Chinese artists to produce work with overt social or political meanings. While the generation prior to hers felt more pressure to address politics through their work, Guan identifies a bellwether opportunity for her and her peers to subvert these expectations. The artist conveys her hope for more variety in the type of work that Chinese artists are able to make, exhibit, and sell. "Everything an artist does is to express their sense of freedom," says Guan. "To break our ideas free of the frames that are holding them in. That is actually what is political."In her sculpture and video work, Guan Xiao juxtaposes discordant images, diverse cultural artifacts, and modern technology to create objects that are futuristic, referential, unsettling, and humorous. Working with traditional Chinese sculpted tree roots, 3D fabrications, and readymade industrial objects, Guan Xiao epitomizes the next generation of artists from China, rooted in transnational culture and immersed in our technology-fueled present. Her video works mirror viewers’ experiences of the Internet and personal memories, where seemingly unrelated images find inexplicable yet resonant connection.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/guan-xiaoThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.CREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Bryan Chang, Vicky Du, and Ian Forster. Editor: Jia Li. Camera: Yang Bo and Bryan Chang. Sound: Long Lv and Zhou Yang. Assistant Camera: Yifan Wen. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Assistant Editor: Mengchen Zhang. Music: Blue Dot Sessions, Nathan Feddo, and Henry White. Artwork Courtesy: Guan Xiao."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/B9HLrZ27IKw4/info/guan-xiao-breaking-free-art21-extended-play#GuanXiao #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Lynn Hershman Leeson: Drawing Breath | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-04-21 | Episode 274: Recalling her formative years as an artist in the 1960s and 1970s, Lynn Hershman Leeson recounts the suppression of her literal and figurative voice that continues to motivate her work today. Shown at work in her San Francisco, California studio, Hershman Leeson describes her drawing practice as a meditation and a basic language that plays a role in all her projects. "It's all about collaging," says the artist of her work.In 1965, Hershman Leeson suffered a near-fatal complication during her pregnancy. The experience inspired her to record and incorporate audio of her breath into wax sculptures cast from her own face. "To me, it was like a drawing," explains Hershman Leeson. "It was sound that extended into space."When the wax sculptures were exhibited in the 1970s, they were denounced by an exhibiting museum for "not being art." Indicative of the struggles of many female artists at the time, this rejection by the museum system ultimately fueled Hershman Leeson and shaped her work. "The cultural experience of having your voice suppressed has made speech and talking and having a voice really important in what I do," states the artist. "A lot of what I do as being an artist is creating a voice for myself because I didn't have one for so long."Lynn Hershman Leeson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1941. At once a pointed critic and a sly practical jokester, Hershman Leeson has worked across a wide range of mediums, from drawing, painting and sculpture to interactive films, net-based media works, and artificial intelligence. Overlooked for the better part of her decades-long career, Hershman Leeson is a pioneering multidisciplinary artist, critiquing the deep seated gender biases that have excluded her and other women artists.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/lynn-hershman-leesonThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.CREDITS | "Extended Play" Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director: Ian Forster and Christine Turner. Editor: Morgan Riles. Field Producer: Laura Wagner. Camera: Ethan Indorf and Tyler McPherron. Sound: Kevin Crawford. Production Assistant: Trinity West. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Artwork Courtesy: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Bridget Donahue, and Yerba Buena Center For The Arts."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/ITPB7yN7wTfM/info/lynn-hershman-leeson-drawing-breath-art21-extended-play#LynnHershmanLeeson #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Loie Hollowells Transcendent Bodies | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-04-14 | How do you paint a pregnancy?Painter Loie Hollowell creates highly abstracted and yet deeply personal representations of the human body, evoking our universal experiences of sensuality, desire, pleasure, and pain. A California native, Hollowell works with a vocabulary of elemental, organic shapes and renders them in vibrant, high-contrast color, evoking the “pure light, pure space, [and] pure emotion” of creative heroes like Robert Irwin and other California-based Light and Space movement artists.Returning to her Ridgewood, Queens studio after her second pregnancy, Hollowell and her assistants build up sinuous forms directly upon the surface of her canvases. For Hollowell, this strategy transforms the works from two-dimensional paintings to three-dimensional hanging sculptures, upon which she can play with real and illusory light, space, and shadow. The physicality of the surfaces is echoed in the abstracted imagery that Hollowell paints upon them including reproductive organs, breasts, and other bodily forms. The artist candidly recounts the corporeal memories that have informed her work: her mother letting down in public shortly after Hollowell’s younger sister was born, the artist’s experience with abortion in her twenties, and the mental preparation for and experience of giving birth to her second child. Although often regarded as taboo, Hollowell is driven to make work about these bodily experiences all the while questioning her own creative desires and assumptions. “What is beauty and why is it beautiful?” asks the artist.Loie Hollowell (b. 1983, Woodland, California, USA) lives and works in New York, New York. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/loie-hollowellThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition initiative. Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change.CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Editor: Anna Barsan. Camera: Rose Bush. Sound: Rose Bush and Anna Barsan. Music: Blue Dot Sessions, Gisela Fullà-Silvestre, and Ryan J. Raffa. Color Correction: Addison Post. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Andy Cahill and Chips. Artwork Courtesy: Loie Hollowell. Archival Media: Artbound / KCET, City of Huntington Beach, Sharon Mollerus, and United States Navy. Thanks: Alicia Adamerovich, Brian Caverly, Linden Caverly, Felix (studio cat), Juniper Hollowell, Pace, Dan Perkins, and Hannah Root. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/N83t24IPWqx3/info/loie-hollowells-transcendent-bodies-art21-new-york-close-up#LoieHollowell #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Michael Rakowitz: Haunting the West | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-02-17 | Episode 273: Drawing upon his Iraqi-Jewish heritage, Michael Rakowitz critiques ongoing systems of colonization in his sculptural and participatory work. The artist recounts a formative memory from his childhood, when his mother took him to see reliefs depicting the lion hunt of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian galleries at the British Museum and posed the question, "What is this doing here?" For Rakowitz, this moment crystalized his understanding of museums as places of extraction, colonization, and crime. In his work today, Rakowitz explores ways to subvert the imperialist role of museums, interrogate the value they place on objects over people, and create ongoing systems for repair and accountability. From Jane Lombard Gallery in New York City, Rakowitz shares his recent bas-reliefs, "Room F, section 1, Northwest Palace of Nimrud" (2020), as part of his ongoing project, "The invisible enemy should not exist," which began in 2007. Originally focused on creating the more than 8,000 artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq following the 2003 U.S. invasion, the project has expanded to include architectural reliefs stolen from the Assyrian palace of Nimrud, which was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. Rakowitz refers to his works as "ghosts" of the original artifacts, returning to haunt Western institutions. He uses the packaging of Middle Eastern food goods as papier mâché to create the reliefs and sculptures shown at Jane Lombard Gallery and the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, explaining that "if a ghost is going to properly haunt, it has to appear differently than the entity appeared when it was living." Rakowitz recounts his grandparents' journey, fleeing from Iraq following the "farhud," a violent dispossession of Jews from Baghdad in the 1940s, and subsequently immigrating to the U.S. He calls them as "the first installation artists" that he ever met, describing the importance of the Iraqi objects, furnishings, and food that filled their home. Now, food packaging and products function symbolically in the artist's work, from his "Enemy Kitchen" (ongoing from 2003) cooking workshops to his monumental "Lamassu of Nineveh" (2018) sculpture, composed of Iraqi date syrup cans and installed on the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. These works offer new ways to discuss Iraq and Iraqi culture outside of media narratives of war and violence, while addressing issues of empire and provenance, and proposing routes for decolonization. At his studio in Chicago, Rakowitz describes the importance of keeping his studio connected while working apart during the COVID-19 pandemic. His assistants work independently on sculptures and busts from their homes and then gather at the studio's outdoor space to review their work and pick up more materials. For Rakowitz, this project to create over 8,000 missing Iraqi artifacts, much like decolonization, is an ongoing process—one that will likely outlive both the artist and his studio. Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/michael-rakowitzCREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster. Interview: Ian Forster. Editor: Thomas Niles. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Camera: Jarred Alterman, Ian Forster, Andrew Kemp, and Keith Walker. Assistant Camera: Charlie Stoddart. Sound: Rich Pooler. Music: Blue Dot Sessions and Nazem al-Ghazali. Archival Material: ABC; CBS; CNN; Daoud Shamoon Family Archive; Beit Hatfutsot; Caius Julyan, Pond5; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Montalvo Arts Center; Otniel Margalit Collection; Pandastock, Pond5; Dr. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin; and UNESCO."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/EpLcmITcXqR1/info/michael-rakowitz-haunting-the-west-art21-extended-play#MichaelRakowitz #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Firelei Báez: An Open Horizon (or) the Stillness of a Wound | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-02-10 | Where can beauty be subversive?Working in her Bronx studio, artist Firelei Báez creates a series of paintings that draw upon the rich folklore and colonial history of the Caribbean, where she was born and raised. Exquisitely detailed and vibrantly colored, Báez’s paintings of dramatically shapeshifting figures assert the power of the female form and challenge fundamental ideas around beauty and agency. Shot primarily on film and featuring original choreography inspired by her paintings, this film is a portrait of an artist in creative transition—like the figures in her work—and in constant motion, traveling her surrounding Bronx neighborhood as well as to her glass mosaic commission at the 163rd Street-Amsterdam Avenue subway station in Manhattan.Raised on the border of Dominican Republic and Haiti, the artist recounts her early creative experiences making hand-sewn books and paper dolls, activities which her family members largely perceived as trouble-making behavior. Today in her work, the artist evokes a similarly misunderstood character from Domincan folklore, the ciguapa, an evasive and cunning female figure. Although traditionally regarded as a siren-esque figure that ensnares explorers and derails society, Báez regards the "ciguapa" as a beacon of the "highly independent, self-possessed"—a deeply feeling woman she hopes to see in the world. Báez also references the 18th-century colonial taxonomist Carl Linnaeus—subverting his depictions of Black and Brown bodies that equated them to animals or monsters—in order to create new, more expansive possibilities for Afro-Latina and Afro-Caribbean peoples. For Báez, the layered histories and symbols in her paintings are in conversation with the past, while holding a limitless hope for creating a better future. "Every choice we make is predicated by the people we love in the past and the people we hope to love in the future," says the artist. "It’s always within your grasp to make something new."Firelei Báez (b. 1981, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic) lives and works in New York, NY. Learn more about the artist at: art21.org/artist/firelei-baezThis film is among a collection that comprise Art21's participation in the multi-institutional Feminist Art Coalition (FAC) initiative. FAC is a platform for art projects informed by feminisms, fostering collaborations between arts institutions that aim to make public their commitment to social justice and structural change. Learn more about FAC at: feministartcoalition.orgCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Souki Mehdaoui. Producers: Souki Mehdaoui and Hannah Swayze. Editors: Drigan Lee and Souki Mehdaoui. Cinematographer: Daniel Contaldo. Additional Camera: Souki Mehdaoui. Steadicam Operator: David Quateman. Assistant Camera: Rachel Fedorkova & Charlie Muentes. Gaffer: Luke Carquillat. Location Sound: Eamon Redpath. Sound Engineer: Jennifer Ruffalo. Production Assistant: Jo Barba. Choreographer: Maleek Washington. Dancers: Amanda Castro and Maleek Washington. Costume Designer: Meirav Ong. Music: Qasim Naqvi and Trevor New. Color Correction: Addison Post. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Andy Cahill and Chips. Additional Editor: Ora Dekornfeld. Artwork Courtesy: Firelei Báez, Dan Bradica, James Cohan Gallery, and Phoebe d’Heurle. Thanks: Ataria Pictures, Du-All Camera, Dungeon Beach, Anne Hubbel, Kodak, Camila Nichols, David Norr, Jake Oleson, and Jack Rizzo. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved.This film is possible thanks to Dawn and Chris Fleischner. "New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/tPRr9CN8miTt/info/firelei-baez-an-open-horizon-or-the-stillness-of-a-wound-art21-new-york-close-up#FireleiBaez #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Shaun Leonardo: The Freedom to Move | Art21 New York Close Up Art21 2021-02-03 | How can splintered stereotypes become mechanisms for portraying a fuller self?Summoning experiences from his formative years, performance and socially-engaged artist Shaun Leonardo embarks on bold explorations of the ways that art has allowed him to expose and distort societal perceptions of Brown and Black people, and, in the process, make sense of his identity. Born to Latin American immigrants in Queens, New York, and recruited to play football at a private New England college, Leonardo recounts a seminal moment on the playing field: a beloved coach provokes him to play as if he was "just let out of Rikers." For Leonardo, the incident revealed the hypervisible and dehumanizing ways that Black and Brown bodies are perceived, setting him on a path to seek ways that he might exist more fully and freely in his body.Leonardo recounts early performances of "El Conquistador vs The Invisible Man" (2006) and "Bull in the Ring" (2008), which drew upon his experiences as a former athlete. In each, Leonardo puts himself through physically exhausting processes, reflecting violence and hypermasculinity back to the audience. In more recent works, such as "Primitive Games" (2018) and "Mirror/Echo/Tilt" (2019), he engages participants in movement workshops and nonverbal storytelling exercises as a way of understanding their own experiences. Spurred by the police killings of young Black men, Leonardo reflects on the community of his youth and asks, "Why me? Why was I the one that was able to make it out?" This questioning led Leonardo to more direct action with Assembly, an arts diversion program for court-involved youth that he co-founded with the non-profit organization Recess in 2017. Since that time, Leonardo has grappled with the philosophical crisis of operating within a criminal justice system, but remains committed to directly engaging with and caring for the participants. "Being able to exist in your own body and understand that you do not need to be defined by an experience—arrest and incarceration—allows you to move forward with a little more sense of joy," says the artist. "To get anyone to start imagining possibilities for themselves again, that is what we all should be after."Shaun Leonardo (b. 1979, Queens, New York, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/shaun-leonardoCREDITS | "New York Close Up" Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director: Nick Ravich. Editor: Nadine Mundo. Additional Editor: Troy Herion. Cinematography: Jarred Alterman. Additional Camera: Logan Quarles and Brian Wengrofsky. Grip: George Schramm. Sound: Trokon Ngabe. Production Assistant: Meghan Garven. Color Correction: Addison Post. Sound Design & Mix: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Design & Graphics: Andy Cahill and Chips. DIT & Assistant Editor: Jasmine Cannon. Music: Troy Herion. Artwork Courtesy: Shaun Leonardo. Archival Media Courtesy: Melvin Barinas, Brad L. Cooper, Melanie Crean, Armando Croda, Sebástian Diaz, Mariam Dwedar, Giacomo Francia, Adam Gundersheimer, and Sable Elyse Smith. Thanks: Melissa Saenz Gordon, High Line, Brian Losier, New Museum, Emma Nordin, Recess, Sugartone Brass Band, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Justin Waldstein, and YouTube Space NY. © Art21, Inc. 2021. All rights reserved."New York Close Up" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; and by individual contributors.Digital exhibition of "New York Close Up" films is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/6JZ9uCCJPTAs/info/shaun-leonardo-the-freedom-to-move-art21-new-york-close-up#ShaunLeonardo #Art21 #Art21NewYorkCloseUp
Abigail DeVille: Light of Freedom | Art21 Extended Play Art21 2021-01-27 | Episode 272: Sculptor and installation artist Abigail DeVille reveals the ideas and inspirations behind the making of her public art commission, "Light of Freedom" (2020). The large sculpture of a scaffolded torch, with flames composed of dozens of blue mannequin arms, was motivated by the Black Lives Matter marches of summer 2020, when waves of demonstrators hooked arm-in-arm to rally against racial injustice amidst the threat of a global pandemic.Recounting the influence of her fourth grade teacher, DeVille describes her continued interest in history and the active role that she believes every person has in shaping the future. "Light of Freedom," installed in New York City’s Madison Square Park, draws upon layers of New York and United States history—summoning the words of Frederick Douglas and the public display of the Statue of Liberty's hand with torch in Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882, while commemorating the lives of Black people in North America throughout the last four centuries. Collapsing the past, our turbulent present, and her hope for a better tomorrow, DeVille asks viewers to consider the notion of freedom, which “is under continual construction and reconstruction from generation to generation,” and what role we can play individually and collectively. Maintaining a long-standing interest in marginalized people and places, Abigail DeVille creates site-specific immersive installations designed to bring attention to these forgotten stories. DeVille often works with objects and materials sourced from the area surrounding the exhibition site. Though collected objects are essential to her installations, DeVille’s priority is the stories her installations can tell. DeVille’s family roots in New York go back at least two generations; her interest in the city, and her work about it, is both personal and political.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/abigail-devilleCREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster. Interview: Ian Forster. Editor: Stephanie Andreou. Camera: Sean Hanley. Sound: Fivel Rothberg. Colorist: Jonah Greenstein. Sound Mix: Adam Boese. Music: Blue Dot Sessions. Additional Footage: John Mattiuzzi. Artwork Courtesy: Abigail DeVille and Madison Square Park Conservancy. Special Thanks: Brooke Kamin Rapaport, NYC Ferry, Pioneer Works, and Tom Reidy."Extended Play" is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Dawn and Chris Fleischner; the Art21 Contemporary Council; and by individual contributors.TRANSLATIONSTranslated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors:amara.org/en/videos/qrewemyomyIf/info/abigail-deville-light-of-freedom-art21-extended-play#AbigailDeVille #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay
Postcommodity in Borderlands - Extended Segment | Art21 Art21 2020-10-08 | Art21 proudly presents this special extended segment as a complement to the "Borderlands" episode from the tenth season of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. Edited to focus on a singular artist narrative, this film contains original material not included in the television broadcast."Borderlands" premiered in October 2020 on PBS. Watch now at Art21 or on the PBS Video app:art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/borderlandspbs.org/video/borderlands-4m0kefThe interdisciplinary collective Postcommodity creates site-specific installations and interventions that critically examine our modern-day institutions and systems through the history and perspectives of Indigenous people. Influenced by growing up in the southwestern United States, the artists Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist revisit their 2015 public installation, "Repellent Fence," produced with previous Postcommodity artist, Raven Chacon. A two-mile-long line of enormous balloons across the Arizona-Sonora border, "Repellent Fence" symbolically sutured together cultures and lands that had been unified long before borders were drawn. Shown installing ambitious architectural interventions at the Art Institute of Chicago and LAXART in Los Angeles, Martínez and Twist consider how American cities have been supported by and will continue to be transformed by the migration of Indigenous peoples from Mexico and Central and South America. To examine our cultural institutions and their demographic future, the pair thinks of the coming decades, when the U.S. Census Bureau predicts a non-White majority. “Our job is to allow a new public memory to be born,” says Martínez. “Here’s our lens; take a look at the world through it, and tell us what you think.”Other featured projects include "Do You Remember When?" (2009), produced in collaboration with previous Postcommodity artist Raven Chacon (2009–2018), co-founder Steven Yazzie (2007–2010), and co-founder Nathan Young (2007–2015).Learn more about the artists at:art21.org/artist/postcommodityCREDITS | Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producer: Ava Wiland. Editors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Russell Yaffe. Director of Photography: Rafael Salazar Moreno.Production Services: RAVA Films. Assistant Curator: Danielle Brock. Associate Producer: Julia Main. Post-Production Coordinator: Alexandra Lenore Ashworth. Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc. Composer: Joel Pickard. Additional Music: Amalia Mondragón. Advising Producer: Ian Forster. Additional Art21 Staff: Lauren Barnett, Lolita Fierro, Joe Fusaro, Meghan Garven, Jonathan Munar, and Emma Nordin.Additional Photography: Elan Alexenberg, Robert Biggs / Phoenix Drone Pros, Gina Clyne, Adrian Gutierrez, Nick Kraus, Christoph Lerch, and Alejandro Almanza Pereda. Tijuana Field Producer: Yadira Avila. Location Sound: Ariel Baca, Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach, Nikola Chapelle, Michael Cottrell, Rayell Abad Guangorena, Veronica Lopez, Baili Martin, Nathalie Piché, Chris Tolan, and Ava Wiland. Production Assistants: Ben Derico, Jake Grossman, Jacquelin de Hoyos, Keira Kennedy, Zac Settles, and Jorge Villarreal. Digital Intermediate: Cut + Measure. Post-Production Producer: Alex Laviola. Colorist: David Gauff and Jerome Thélia. Post-Production Sound Services: Konsonant Post. Re-Recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Online & Conform: David Gauff. Additional Animation: Andy Cahill. Assistant Editor: Jasmine Cannon, Jonah Greenstein, and Mengchen Zhang. Translation: Ava Wiland and Russell Yaffe. Video Quality Control: Jonathan Hansen.Artwork Courtesy: Tanya Aguiñiga, Guillermo Galindo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, Postcommodity / Cristóbal Martínez & Kade L. Twist, Bockley Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Pace Gallery, and Volume Gallery. Past Postcommodity Collaborators: Raven Chacon (2009–2018), Steven Yazzie (2007–2010), and Nathan Young (2007–2015).Public Relations: Cultural Counsel. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq. Interns: Shane Daly, Grace Doyle, Eda Li, Daniela Mayer, Jason Mendoza, Nikhil Oza, Anika Rahman, Ana Sanz, Sara Schwartz, Victoria Xu, and Sadie Yanckello.Postcommodity Artwork: "A Very Long Line," 2016. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Director’s Discretionary Fund, Russell Cowles and Stuart & Kate Nielsen.Major underwriting for Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" is provided by PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, Lambent Foundation, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Toby Devan Lewis, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Henri Lambert, Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman, and Sakana Foundation.Series Creators: Susan Dowling and Susan Sollins.©2020 Art21, Inc.#Postcommodity #Art21
Richard Misrach in Borderlands - Extended Segment | Art21 Art21 2020-10-07 | Art21 proudly presents this special extended segment as a complement to the "Borderlands" episode from the tenth season of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. Edited to focus on a singular artist narrative, this film contains original material not included in the television broadcast."Borderlands" premiered in October 2020 on PBS. Watch now at Art21 or on the PBS Video app:art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/borderlandspbs.org/video/borderlands-4m0kefA pioneer of large-format color photography, Richard Misrach has photographed the American desert for decades, examining the impact of human activity on the natural landscape. From his Berkeley studio, the artist recounts his early work, "Telegraph 3 AM," in which he depicted the homeless population of 1970s Berkeley. Disillusioned with the commercial success of his photographs that he hoped would instigate social change, Misrach turned to the deserts of southern California, Nevada, and Arizona. Creating otherworldly images of cacti and rock formations and unsettling pictures of military bombing ranges, nuclear test sites, and man-made fires, for his ongoing "Desert Cantos" series, Misrach explains how “our culture stands out in very clear relief in the desert.” The artist recounts the origins of his "Border Cantos" series, which focuses on the U.S.-Mexico border wall and the artifacts left behind by migrant crossings. This segment follows the artist as he travels to remote parts of the desert, photographing the visual contradiction of the ominous wall against beautiful landscapes and collaborating with the composer Guillermo Galindo to create installations and musical performances that utilize the items found in the desert. Collectively, Misrach’s work chronicles the places where nature and culture collide, highlighting where beauty and ugliness exist side-by-side.Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/richard-misrachCREDITS | Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producer: Ava Wiland. Editors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Russell Yaffe. Director of Photography: Rafael Salazar Moreno.Production Services: RAVA Films. Assistant Curator: Danielle Brock. Associate Producer: Julia Main. Post-Production Coordinator: Alexandra Lenore Ashworth. Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc. Composer: Joel Pickard. Additional Music: Amalia Mondragón. Advising Producer: Ian Forster. Additional Art21 Staff: Lauren Barnett, Lolita Fierro, Joe Fusaro, Meghan Garven, Jonathan Munar, and Emma Nordin.Additional Photography: Elan Alexenberg, Robert Biggs / Phoenix Drone Pros, Gina Clyne, Adrian Gutierrez, Nick Kraus, Christoph Lerch, and Alejandro Almanza Pereda. Tijuana Field Producer: Yadira Avila. Location Sound: Ariel Baca, Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach, Nikola Chapelle, Michael Cottrell, Rayell Abad Guangorena, Veronica Lopez, Baili Martin, Nathalie Piché, Chris Tolan, and Ava Wiland. Production Assistants: Ben Derico, Jake Grossman, Jacquelin de Hoyos, Keira Kennedy, Zac Settles, and Jorge Villarreal. Digital Intermediate: Cut + Measure. Post-Production Producer: Alex Laviola. Colorist: David Gauff and Jerome Thélia. Post-Production Sound Services: Konsonant Post. Re-Recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Online & Conform: David Gauff. Additional Animation: Andy Cahill. Assistant Editor: Jasmine Cannon, Jonah Greenstein, and Mengchen Zhang. Translation: Ava Wiland and Russell Yaffe. Video Quality Control: Jonathan Hansen.Artwork Courtesy: Tanya Aguiñiga, Guillermo Galindo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, Postcommodity / Cristóbal Martínez & Kade L. Twist, Bockley Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Pace Gallery, and Volume Gallery.Archival Materials: AMBOS Project; Antimodular Research; AP Archive; ApertureArtbound / KCET; Isaac Arnstein / Cinewest Archives; Jenna Bascom, Courtesy of Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Border Art Workshop / Taller de Arte Fronterizo; Cecilia Brawley; Critical Past; Cory Doctorow; Sam Wainwright Douglas / Big Beard Films; Benjamin Duffield / Fierce Bad Rabbit Pictures; Filmoteca UNAM; Jason Grubb; John McNeil studios; NASA; Pond5; and Jack Snell.Public Relations: Cultural Counsel. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq. Interns: Shane Daly, Grace Doyle, Eda Li, Daniela Mayer, Jason Mendoza, Nikhil Oza, Anika Rahman, Ana Sanz, Sara Schwartz, Victoria Xu, and Sadie Yanckello.Major underwriting for Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" is provided by PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, Lambent Foundation, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Toby Devan Lewis, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Henri Lambert, Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman, and Sakana Foundation.Series Creators: Susan Dowling and Susan Sollins.©2020 Art21, Inc.#RichardMisrach #Art21
Tanya Aguiñiga in Borderlands - Extended Segment | Art21 Art21 2020-10-06 | Art21 proudly presents this special extended segment as a complement to the "Borderlands" episode from the tenth season of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. Edited to focus on a singular artist narrative, this film contains original material not included in the television broadcast."Borderlands" premiered in October 2020 on PBS. Watch now at Art21 or on the PBS Video app:art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/borderlandspbs.org/video/borderlands-4m0kefThe binational artist Tanya Aguiñiga pushes the power of art to transform the United States-Mexico border from a site of trauma to a creative space for personal healing and collective expression. Reflecting the cultural hybridity and community of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, the artist discusses her upbringing in Tijuana, her training as a furniture and craft designer, and her artistic beginnings with the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo collective. From her studio, the artist and her team produce objects like jewelry and housewares to fund their social-justice-based projects, workshops, and performances. Aguiñiga returns to the site of one of these projects, titled "Border Quipu," where she and her team recorded the stories of daily commuters from Tijuana to San Diego. This segment also follows Aguiñiga as she prepares for "Metabolizing the Border," a performance and personal reckoning with the pain caused by the border wall. The work is a demanding physical feat: the artist walks along the border wall in a glass suit that is designed to break, in order to express the effects of the wall as wounds on her body and to symbolize the struggle of the migrant experience. Aguiñiga demonstrates how art can be both a personal “physical and emotional outlet” and a vehicle to help others “empathize and think about how we’re all connected to each other.”Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/tanya-aguinigaCREDITS | Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producer: Ava Wiland. Editors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Russell Yaffe. Director of Photography: Rafael Salazar Moreno.Production Services: RAVA Films. Assistant Curator: Danielle Brock. Associate Producer: Julia Main. Post-Production Coordinator: Alexandra Lenore Ashworth. Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc. Composer: Joel Pickard. Additional Music: Amalia Mondragón. Advising Producer: Ian Forster. Additional Art21 Staff: Lauren Barnett, Lolita Fierro, Joe Fusaro, Meghan Garven, Jonathan Munar, and Emma Nordin.Additional Photography: Elan Alexenberg, Robert Biggs / Phoenix Drone Pros, Gina Clyne, Adrian Gutierrez, Nick Kraus, Christoph Lerch, and Alejandro Almanza Pereda. Tijuana Field Producer: Yadira Avila. Location Sound: Ariel Baca, Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach, Nikola Chapelle, Michael Cottrell, Rayell Abad Guangorena, Veronica Lopez, Baili Martin, Nathalie Piché, Chris Tolan, and Ava Wiland. Production Assistants: Ben Derico, Jake Grossman, Jacquelin de Hoyos, Keira Kennedy, Zac Settles, and Jorge Villarreal. Digital Intermediate: Cut + Measure. Post-Production Producer: Alex Laviola. Colorist: David Gauff and Jerome Thélia. Post-Production Sound Services: Konsonant Post. Re-Recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Online & Conform: David Gauff. Additional Animation: Andy Cahill. Assistant Editor: Jasmine Cannon, Jonah Greenstein, and Mengchen Zhang. Translation: Ava Wiland and Russell Yaffe. Video Quality Control: Jonathan Hansen.Artwork Courtesy: Tanya Aguiñiga, Guillermo Galindo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, Postcommodity / Cristóbal Martínez & Kade L. Twist, Bockley Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Pace Gallery, and Volume Gallery.Archival Materials: AMBOS Project; Antimodular Research; AP Archive; ApertureArtbound / KCET; Isaac Arnstein / Cinewest Archives; Jenna Bascom, Courtesy of Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Border Art Workshop / Taller de Arte Fronterizo; Cecilia Brawley; Critical Past; Cory Doctorow; Sam Wainwright Douglas / Big Beard Films; Benjamin Duffield / Fierce Bad Rabbit Pictures; Filmoteca UNAM; Jason Grubb; John McNeil studios; NASA; Pond5; and Jack Snell.Public Relations: Cultural Counsel. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq. Interns: Shane Daly, Grace Doyle, Eda Li, Daniela Mayer, Jason Mendoza, Nikhil Oza, Anika Rahman, Ana Sanz, Sara Schwartz, Victoria Xu, and Sadie Yanckello.Major underwriting for Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" is provided by PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, Lambent Foundation, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Toby Devan Lewis, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Henri Lambert, Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman, and Sakana Foundation.Series Creators: Susan Dowling and Susan Sollins.©2020 Art21, Inc.#TanyaAguiniga #Art21
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in Borderlands - Extended Segment | Art21 Art21 2020-10-05 | Art21 proudly presents this special extended segment as a complement to the "Borderlands" episode from the tenth season of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. Edited to focus on a singular artist narrative, this film contains original material not included in the television broadcast."Borderlands" premiered in October 2020 on PBS. Watch now at Art21 or on the PBS Video app:art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/borderlandspbs.org/video/borderlands-4m0kefKnown for his large-scale, interactive installations, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses contemporary technologies like computerized surveillance, heart-rate sensors, and robotics to create participatory experiences and platforms for public participation and connection. The artist frequently works in and transforms public spaces, creating awe-inspiring, poetic, and critical installations, like "Voz Alta": a massive megaphone system erected in a Mexico City plaza to commemorate the infamous Tlatelolco student massacre in 1968. Spurred by his Mexican heritage and the growing nationalism in the United States, Lozano-Hemmer embarks on his most ambitious project to date: "Border Tuner," an enormous intercom system at the border between El Paso and Juárez that allows participants from both sides to speak and listen to each other via radio-enabled searchlights. At his studio in Montreal, the artist works with a team of scientists, engineers, programmers, architects, and designers to develop the project; at the El Paso–Juárez border, he invites local artists and performers and members of the public to use "Border Tuner" to listen to, share, and visualize their voices and stories. Highlighting the intimate, personal relations in a public space that is otherwise systematically dehumanizing, Lozano-Hemmer explains, “The most important role that art can play is that of making complexity visible. The usage of technology is inevitable; it’s up to the artist to use those technologies to create experiences that are intimate, connected, and critical.”Learn more about the artist at:art21.org/artist/rafael-lozano-hemmerCREDITS | Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Directors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Ava Wiland. Producer: Ava Wiland. Editors: Rafael Salazar Moreno and Russell Yaffe. Director of Photography: Rafael Salazar Moreno.Production Services: RAVA Films. Assistant Curator: Danielle Brock. Associate Producer: Julia Main. Post-Production Coordinator: Alexandra Lenore Ashworth. Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc. Composer: Joel Pickard. Additional Music: Amalia Mondragón. Advising Producer: Ian Forster. Additional Art21 Staff: Lauren Barnett, Lolita Fierro, Joe Fusaro, Meghan Garven, Jonathan Munar, and Emma Nordin.Additional Photography: Elan Alexenberg, Robert Biggs / Phoenix Drone Pros, Gina Clyne, Adrian Gutierrez, Nick Kraus, Christoph Lerch, and Alejandro Almanza Pereda. Tijuana Field Producer: Yadira Avila. Location Sound: Ariel Baca, Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach, Nikola Chapelle, Michael Cottrell, Rayell Abad Guangorena, Veronica Lopez, Baili Martin, Nathalie Piché, Chris Tolan, and Ava Wiland. Production Assistants: Ben Derico, Jake Grossman, Jacquelin de Hoyos, Keira Kennedy, Zac Settles, and Jorge Villarreal. Digital Intermediate: Cut + Measure. Post-Production Producer: Alex Laviola. Colorist: David Gauff and Jerome Thélia. Post-Production Sound Services: Konsonant Post. Re-Recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Online & Conform: David Gauff. Additional Animation: Andy Cahill. Assistant Editor: Jasmine Cannon, Jonah Greenstein, and Mengchen Zhang. Translation: Ava Wiland and Russell Yaffe. Video Quality Control: Jonathan Hansen.Artwork Courtesy: Tanya Aguiñiga, Guillermo Galindo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, Postcommodity / Cristóbal Martínez & Kade L. Twist, Bockley Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Pace Gallery, and Volume Gallery.Public Relations: Cultural Counsel. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq. Interns: Shane Daly, Grace Doyle, Eda Li, Daniela Mayer, Jason Mendoza, Nikhil Oza, Anika Rahman, Ana Sanz, Sara Schwartz, Victoria Xu, and Sadie Yanckello.Major underwriting for Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" is provided by PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, Lambent Foundation, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Toby Devan Lewis, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Henri Lambert, Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman, and Sakana Foundation.Series Creators: Susan Dowling and Susan Sollins.©2020 Art21, Inc.#RafaelLozanoHemmer #Art21
Preview: Borderlands from Season 10 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (2020) | Art21 Art21 2020-09-30 | Preview for the "Borderlands" episode from Season 10 of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series, featuring artists Tanya Aguiñiga, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, and Postcommodity.Watch the FULL EPISODE on PBS and the PBS Video app:pbs.org/video/borderlands-4m0kefWatch the EXTENDED ARTIST SEGMENTS on Art21.org:Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/rafael-lozano-hemmer-in-borderlands-extended-segmentTanya Aguiñiga: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/tanya-aguiniga-in-borderlands-extended-segmentRichard Misrach: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/richard-misrach-in-borderlands-extended-segmentPostcommodity: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/postcommodity-in-borderlands-extended-segment"Borderlands" from Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" premiered October 2, 2020 on PBS.Set in the region between the United States and Mexico—long a site of political conflict, social struggle, and intense creative ferment—four artists respond to one of the most divisive moments in the history of this area.Learn more about the new season at:art21.org/season10
Preview: Beijing from Season 10 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (2020) | Art21 Art21 2020-09-23 | Preview for the "Beijing" episode from Season 10 of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series, featuring artists Guan Xiao, Liu Xiaodong, Song Dong, Xu Bing, and Yin Xiuzhen.Amid Beijing’s dizzying economic, urban, and cultural transformation, five artists respond to the region's relentless evolution with urgency and ambition, all the while contending with many centuries of Chinese cultural traditions.Watch the FULL EPISODE on PBS and the PBS Video app.Watch the FULL ARTIST SEGMENTS on Art21.org:Xu Bing: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/xu-bing-in-beijing-segmentSong Dong & Yin Xiuzhen: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/song-dong-yin-xiuzhen-in-beijing-segmentGuan Xiao: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/guan-xiao-in-beijing-segmentLiu Xiaodong: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/liu-xiaodong-in-beijing-segment"Beijing" from Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" premiered September 25, 2020 on PBS.Learn more about the new season at:art21.org/season10
Preview: London from Season 10 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (2020) | Art21 Art21 2020-09-16 | Preview for the "London" episode from Season 10 of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series, featuring artists John Akomfrah, Phyllida Barlow, Anish Kapoor, and Christian Marclay.Buoyed by London's history of artistic excellence, four artists draw inspiration from decades of British art while contending with the repercussions of colonialism and xenophobia during a time of massive political upheaval in the country.Watch the FULL EPISODE on PBS and the PBS Video app.Watch the FULL ARTIST SEGMENTS on Art21.org:Anish Kapoor: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/anish-kapoor-in-london-segmentJohn Akomfrah: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/john-akomfrah-in-london-segmentPhyllida Barlow: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/phyllida-barlow-in-london-segmentChristian Marclay: art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/christian-marclay-in-london-segment"London" from Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" premiered September 18, 2020 on PBS.Learn more about the new season at:art21.org/season10
Trailer: Season 10 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (2020) | Art21 Art21 2020-09-01 | A new season of the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated television series, "Art in the Twenty-First Century," is here. The landmark tenth season of the longest-running television series on contemporary art premiered Friday, September 18, 2020 on PBS and Art21.org.Watch FULL EPISODES on PBS and the PBS Video app.Watch FULL ARTIST SEGMENTS on Art21.org:"LONDON"Anish Kapoor - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/anish-kapoor-in-london-segmentJohn Akomfrah - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/john-akomfrah-in-london-segmentPhyllida Barlow - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/phyllida-barlow-in-london-segmentChristian Marclay - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/christian-marclay-in-london-segment"BEIJING"Guan Xiao - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/guan-xiao-in-beijing-segmentLiu Xiaodong - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/liu-xiaodong-in-beijing-segmentSong Dong & Yin Xiuzhen - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/song-dong-yin-xiuzhen-in-beijing-segmentXu Bing - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/xu-bing-in-beijing-segment"BORDERLANDS"Tanya Aguiñiga - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/tanya-aguiniga-in-borderlands-extended-segmentRafael Lozano-Hemmer - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/rafael-lozano-hemmer-in-borderlands-extended-segmentRichard Misrach - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/richard-misrach-in-borderlands-extended-segmentPostcommodity - art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s10/postcommodity-in-borderlands-extended-segmentTwelve artists and one collective are presented across three episodes, charting artmaking in London, Beijing, and regions around the United States-Mexico border. Now entering its third decade on television, the globally-revered "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series provides unprecedented access to the leading creative minds of our time.For the first time in the show’s history, the filmmakers chronicle artists' responses to an entire bi-national region, the U.S.-Mexico border, where artists create platforms for an assembly of voices to speak. In London and Beijing, artists contemplate disruptions caused by the rapidly changing political and architectural landscapes of their cities.Learn more about the new season at:art21.org/season10Major underwriting for Season 10 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" is provided by PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, Lambent Foundation, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Toby Devan Lewis, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Henri Lambert, Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman, and Sakana Foundation.#Art21 #ArtInTheTwentyFirstCentury #Art21Season10 #Art21PBS
