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INTERVIEWS | NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PIECES | PRINT WORK | NEWS OF UPCOMING VOICES SIGHT UNSEEN
Sight Unseen is a weekly, half hour arts program shedding light on the creative world through candid conversations with the artists of our time. Sight Unseen both in San Francisco and in London, on-line through ART ON AIR and is podcasted. Every week, it asks poignant questions and engages listeners in an intimate dialogue with the artist and themselves, observing the cultural context we live in. The program airs weekly on Fridays from noon to 12:30 p.m. PST on KALX in Berkeley at 90.7 FM and on Resonance FM in London on Sundays at 11:00 p.m. GMT and on-line at ART ON AIR SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST (in iTunes, look for Sight Unseen) To listen to a show, click the title of the show.
ROBERT FRANK: THE AMERICANS (celebrating its 50th Anniversary) | PART ONE ROBERT FRANK: THE AMERICANS (celebrating its 50th Anniversary) | PART TWO
The Americans by photographer Robert Frank is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its publication in the US. A seminal photography book, it was first published in France 1958 and then here the following year. Robert Frank, originally swiss, had a distinctive eye on American culture and was able to look at it objectively, released from the image that America had of itself. The America we see through his lens is a lonely one, a segregated one, and in all honesty, one that hasn't changed much today. The show is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and it's quite extensive showing not only all the images from the book, but images from his previous books as well. I spoke with Corey Keller, assistant curator of photography at the museum. This was not the first time she worked on an exhibition of works by Robert Frank. In fact, she met him several years ago and holds dear memories of that encounter. Robert Frank went on to becoming a filmmaker after The Americans and one of his most well known films is called Pull My Daisy and it looks at the Beat Generation with an improvised narration from Jack Kerouac. Kerouac also wrote the introduction to The Americans saying, "with that little camera he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world." LORDS OF THE SAMURAI | YOKO WOODSON
Yoko Woodson is curator of the most recent exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Lords of the Samurai. The exhibition had the highest number of visitors on opening weekend than any exhibition at the museum since its opening in 1966. The Samurai are legendary holding a mysterious identity people have long been wanting to unravel. Take for instance the countless documentaries devoted to the Samurai, such as this one, that reflects upon the Katana, a Samurai sword. Or films, like Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai by Jim Jarmusch starring Forest Whitaker as a contemporary Samurai. Or RZA, from the Wu-Tang Clan, a seminal hip hop group who regularly identified with Samurai lords, referred to them in their music and even had collaborations with Samurai films. Needless to say, the Samurai carry a strong identity. But is that identity accurate? We get a strong sense of who the Samurai were in Lords of the Samurai which illustrates the breath of these warriors presenting what is often unknown about them. For instance, they held high positions in Japanese society and it was very important for them to not just know about weaponry and fighting but also about poetry, philosophy, culture and love. One might wonder why Samurai are in an art museum but looking at their armor and the paintings depicting their lives, flags representing different clans and even paintings that Lords made, we see just how beautiful these objects are and how much craft and workmanship has gone into them. I AM KURIOUS ORANGE: THE FALL | ANNE COLVIN
Curator and artist Anne Colvin shares her thoughts on her most recent exhibition, I am Kurious Orange. Inspired by the performance by the Michael Clark Dance company and the legendary band The Fall that happened in 1988 and was titled I am Kurious Orange, this iteration brings together an exhibition, an on-going performance, a residency and a rehearsal. The exhibition has built upon itself over the past month culminating in a final performance and exhibition that will manifest this saturday. The exhibition is at David Cunningham Projects, a gallery that from the outside seems completely imperceptible. Along a gritty street in San Francisco, is the door to this space where David Cunningham practices his love for engaging and contemporary work. There's a sense of possibility in the space of unplanned happenings, the unchartered course which seems to permeate a lot of contemporary work emerging from San Francisco. Over the course of my interview with Anne Colvin, we realized how much this show is emblematic of what is happening in the art community here—the immediacy of work, the sense of collaboration, the element of movement and the strength of performance. I am Kurious Orange includes work from William Blake, Anne Colvin and The Fall amongst others. CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM: CHAGALL AND THE ARTISTS OF THE RUSSIAN JEWISH THEATRE
Before history books existed, the past was shared and preserved through oral traditions. Sometimes this storytelling happened within the family, the immediate community and then it would extend into the larger cultural context. Beyond sitting around a fire or a dinner table, stories were shared through theatre where people could gather and observe actors, musicians, artists and playwrights come together to reflect their experiences and pre-occupations. Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949 presents a particularly potent time in Jewish theatre, productions that were created in the 1920s and 1930s. This was a time where leading artists like Marc Chagall, were coming together with avant garde actors, playwrights and producers to create productions that appealed to the masses. It was a time of great creativity, born out of challenge. We hear the voice of Connie Wolf, director of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, reflecting upon how dynamic this time in theatre was, the beauty and magic of Marc Chagall and the timeliness of this exhibit as artists today are becoming more and more innovative in the face of challenge and loss.
The nakedness of Mike Tyson in the James Toback film aptly titled TYSON is extraordinary. As many have noted, you feel like you are in his head, in his conscious and subconscious as he speaks about his fears, his regrets, his experiences with madness and rage, his relationships, his career, his obsessions, sexual and otherwise. There are no inhibitions, nothing is held back, nothing hidden or forced. No vindication, no escape, just Mike Tyson, sitting in a rented Hollywood mansion, walking on the beach, speaking exactly what is on his mind. James Toback has long been a renegade of the film industry. Well respected abroad, it was only recently that he received an award he believed was a long time coming. He started making movies at 29, working with great actors. The list of films includs: Fingers, The Pick-Up Artist, Harvard Man, Two Girls and a Guy and Bugsy. He doesn't sound like he's from Hollywood, his thinking and way of being seem almost from a different place, a different plane as he might refer to it. That may be why, over 20 years ago, on the set of one of his earlier films, The Pick-Up Artist, he and Mike Tyson made a connection. They were both thinkers, both outsiders, both loners seeking truth. And that may also be why James Toback was the only person who could have made this film. His connection to Tyson is so close, and the trust so deep, it was only through his guidance that we would see what seems to be the real Mike. The thing is that Mike Tyson has surely been demonized and deplored by the press. From his marriage to Robin Givens where she ridiculed him on the Barbara Walters show, to his stints in and out of Jail, to his infamous fight with Evander Holyfield where he bit off his opponents ear, the press has shown Tyson as an animal, someone that cannot be tamed, with no morals and ethics. But of course the media, of which I myself am part of, never quite gets the full story. Tyson, the film, seems to offer the real thing and Toback is all about what is real. At least that's what we hear in this interview I did with him when he was here in San Francisco speaking about his film and accepting an award at The San Francisco International Film Festival.
The San Francisco International Film Festival has opened its doors presenting some of the best new films from around the world. When I noticed that Atom Egoyan was on the bill, I was especially excited. Atom Egoyan is an Armenian filmmaker and I am of Armenian decent. Like most Armenians, I feel a sense of kinship, almost inexplicable excitement when I meet another Armenian, especially a filmmaker I admire. I first interviewed Atom Egoyan seven years ago when his film Ararat was released. Like many of his films, Ararat represented the main characters attempt to understand a somewhat obscured past. It showed us a process of sifting through stories, memories and history to come to a present understanding of a present condition. Sounds a bit complicated, well it is. As are most of Egoyan's films. There are layers and layers of meanings that we as viewers are invited to explore. His current film, Adoration, looks at similar themes—who are we, what have we been told, what is truth and how do we arrive at our own truth. In this case however, the virtual world is involved. This is the story. A young teenager, Simon, is doing a translation exercise in French class. In the exercise, the teacher is relaying a news story in English as the students translate it into French. The news story is about a couple who have fallen pregnant. The woman is on a flight to meet her partner's family in Jerusalem and unbeknownest to her, her husband has planted a bomb on her bag. The bomb never goes off and the child is saved. In the French class, Simon takes on this story as his own and shares it with his friends. It goes viral and suddenly Simon goes from being a student in a small highschool to a world known figure based on fabricated facts. What is our real identity, is it separate from the one created on-line and what are the dangers of this discrepancy?.
There must be hundreds of yoga studios in San Francisco. I have never taken the time to count but it seems like on nearly every other block, yoga classes are being offered. There's Jivamukti and Iyengar and Flow and Hatha and Anusara. There's yoga for kids, yoga for moms, acro yoga and even something called shadow yoga. The classes are not inexpensive and while you don't need much equipment, the accountrements are always beckoning—cute yoga pants, or a yoga top, a comfortable mat and maybe even a yoga pillow. It is only recently that yoga has gained popularity in the west and, as we tend to do here, we have really taken it to the extreme. When watching the most recent documentary from filmmaker Kate Churchill titled Enlighten Up, we are taken into yoga studios in India, which, to my surprise, were dominated by western practitioners. Isn't yoga supposed to be a spiritual practice and if so, how does the business of yoga fit in? Kate Churchill has been practicing yoga for more than a decade and while she began her practice with the intention of getting a physical workout, she found that some time into it, she began experiencing a spiritual transformation. So Kate decided to explore whether yoga had this inevitable effect. She asked an acquaintance Nick, who was completely new to yoga, to dedicate 6 months of his life to the practice, taking classes in NY, where he lived, and India, where they traveled to, speaking with yoga teachers, practitioners and experts to see if she could prove that yoga led to enlightenment. In Enlighten Up, we see Nick go on his journey and the relationship that ensues between Kate and Nick, and we observe the exploration around the beliefs and myths about yoga.
Pico Iyer is a journalist, writer, traveler, biographer and speaker. He has been a journalist for Time Magazine for 27 years, he has written for a vast number of publications including The New Yorker, The NY Times and Harpers. He has written 11 books and his last one was called The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. The Open Road was based on his travels with the Dalai Lama over the past 30 years. The New Yorker had this to say about The Open Road: “The bracing virtue of Iyer’s thoughtful essay is that it allows us to imagine the Dalai Lama as something of an intellectual and spiritual adventurer, exploring fresh sources of individual identity and belonging in the newly united world.” Interestingly, Iyer himself comes across as an intellectual and spiritual adventurer and when speaking with him, one witnesses the wisdom of experience and the the innocence of curiosity. Pico Iyer was in San Francisco for a talk that he gave with Dr. Paul Ekman about their individual experiences with The Dalai Lama and what we might learn from those, as individuals and as a society. Hosted by The Asia Society and moderated by Shambhala Sun, the talk reflected on how Iyer and Ekman had met The Dalai Lama, what they learned form him and the legacy he is creating. Iyer met the Dalai Lama when he was 17. The Dalai Lama was virtually unknown then and Iyer's father, a professional philosopher wanted Iyer to meet him. I wondered what was Pico Iyer like at 17 and how did that first meeting set him off on a life path. This is part one of a two part interview.
A pentecostal pastor in a modest congregation on the outskirts of San Francisco has received what he believes to be a message from God. During a moment of prayer on the top of a Eucalyptus covered hill, God has asked Pastor Richard Gazowsky to make an epic, biblical, science fiction film, the cost of which will be upwards of 100 million dollars, involving untrained actors and an untrained staff. Gazowsky turns his congregation into a functioning film studio and he forms WYSIWYG products, what you see is what you get. With the financial and emotional support of his congregation, Gazowsky attempts to make his film titled Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph, continuously reminding his staff that there is only one audience they have to think of, God. Young filmmaker Mike Jacobs learns of this story and decided to make a documentary of the making of Gravity. In a nearly cinema verite style (we hear one of his questions in the film, but just one) he follows Gazowsky, his family, the crew and slew of actors through San Francisco parking lots and Italian side streets, watching the creation of Gravity. What at first was going to be a film about filmmaking becomes a story about the limits or limitlessness of faith and how far it can take you. It also reveals the inner workings of Gazowsky, a charismatic man whose dreams seem to be out of touch with reality. This week, the voice of Mike Jacobs speaking about his film Audience of One. Here I mention to him how unsettled I felt after seeing the film and I wonder how he felt as he was creating Audience of One.
Christian McBride, one of the most acclaimed bassists today and surely one of the youngest, has played with the leading jazz musicians and aritsts of our time including Freddie Hubbard, Joshua Redman, McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny, Diana Krall and James Brown. He seems to be able to navigate a whole host of musical genres, playing with the likes of Sting and Queen Latifa and, a few nights ago, he shared the stage with Chick Corea, John McClaughlin and Kenny Garrett at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. Some referred to that show as phenomenal, as all the musicians on stage, experts with their instruments, created magic together. According to McBride, that's what makes all the hard work of being a musician worth it, those two hours where he experiences a kind of spiritual awakening, a reminder of the glory of what he does and the capacity of jazz to open ones mind and soul. Christian McBride grew up around music in Philadelphia, his father and great uncle were both bassists, and he himself began playing at a very young age. At 17, he was set to go to Julliard, the top music school in the country and one of the best in the world, but it turned out that when he arrived to NY, word on the street was that a great bassist was moving to the area and he was immediately picked up by some of the greatest bands around. Since then, he has truly played with legends of our time, a highlight being at Carnegie Hall with Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes in 2007, amongst countless others. I had the pleasure of speaking with the immensely affable and humble McBride in his dressing room at Zellerbach Hall. We spoke about the power of jazz to open ones mind, we explored the essence of spirituality and McBride shared stories about the early days of meeting his wife.
The SECA award, or The Society for the Encouragement of Art, is an award ultimately chosen by two San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curators and offered to four emerging Bay Area artists. It happens every two years and this year, the winners were Tauba Auerbach, Trevor Paglen, Jordan Cantor and Desiree Holman. It is difficult to say what emerging is today. It is even more challenging to qualify Bay Area art and according to Apsara DiQuinzio and Alison Gass, the two curators that picked this year's SECA award winners, both of those are somewhat fluid. Auerbach is from the Bay Area but she lives in NY now, Paglen is emerging but he is also very well known in certain circles. So what is SECA about and what does it ultimately represent? In this interview, the curators of SF MoMA's SECA Awards, Apsara DiQuinzio and Alison Gass speaking about Bay Area art, the Mission school and how it is to co-curate.
A wild party has ended and a young African American couple step out into the bright California sunlight, after a one-night stand they had just a few hours earlier. Names have not been exchanged and there is a distinct resistance on the part of the young woman, Jo, to connect with her lover, Micah. However, she leaves her wallet behind in a cab, he locates where she lives and a connection is deepened. This is the opening to Barry Jenkins' debut film Medicine for Melancholy, which looks at the the complex issues of race and class that exist in San Francisco, a city that for many proclaims a sense of liberalism and openness. Through a day and night we spend with Jo and Micah, Jenkins explores racial identity, class difference and broken hearts. He also explores the city itself, with its gorgeous hills, its majestic views, its unique quality. San Francisco is still reeling from an identity it established for itself in the 60s and 70s as a bohemian mecca but the fact is that it is the city with the smallest proportional black population of any major city in America. It is one of the most expensive cities in America to buy a home and its home owners are dominated by the middle and upper class. That said, it is still a special place. Some people who take a moment to think of these circumstances end up feeling confused by their choice to live here, just as filmmaker Barry Jenkins does. In Medicine for Melancholy, we explore these conflicts through the lens of Micah and Jo, two young black people trying to understand their geographic and emotional space.
There is no question that Andy Warhol is one of the most seminal artist of our time. Aside from the wealth of work he created—films, paintings, silk screens, sound pieces—Warhol also changed the way artists created and shared work. Often seen as an elusive and arrogant figure, historians and curators have a different take: Warhol as a humanist, who gathered people together to make change. Last week, a extensive exhibition opened at the de Young Museum that looked at yet another aspect of Warhol, his influence by and on music. He loved Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe, He was an avid Opera enthusiast, he had a sort of adoration for Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones and he managed the Velvet Underground. He also designed over 50 album covers for a wide range of genres and designed concert posters for clubs like The Fillmore here in San Francisco. This is Sight Unseen, a weekly program that speaks with artists of all different mediums to uncover the unseen aspects of their work and exploring the ways in which they see the world. This week, Tim Burgard, curator of American Art at the de Young Museum speaks with me about Warhol Live which opened on Valentine's Day. Here, Burgard reflects on the assumptions made about Warhol's character, and how they are inaccurate.
At the top of the show, the voice of Che
Guevara speaking to the UN
in 1964, at the height of his popularity. Listeners may not understand
his words but the tone surely invokes the passion and power he carried.
Since then, Che has become
something of an icon. He's on
t-shirts and hats, memorialized in songs and posters, he is seen
as revolution itself,
the voice of the underdog, and he's handsome. With his youth and his
charming presence, Che is loved all over the world. But who really knows
Che? When people, like Che and say Frida Kahlo move from being a person
to an icon to even a brand,
their true identity is lost and what they represented at the time morphs
into how people want to see them and adopt them to fit their own views.
This was one of the challenges Steven
Soderbergh faced when he made Che,
his epic film about the revolutionary who freed Cuba
from a dictatorship and failed at doing the same for Bolivia.
Soderbergh did not want to make a romantic movie about Che the icon
but wanted to show two very specific events in Che's life and through
that disclose the challenges and the unglamorous experience of revolution.
Thus, the real Che is revealed away from the t-shirts and the songs.
We are living a social disease. Our lives are so fast paced and our desire to succeed to so persistent that we are in a constant state of what's next rather than seeing what is. This is how filmmaker Wim Wenders sees it. Inspired, or should I say, terrified by seeing himself and others in this circumstance, Wenders made a film about well, life, or death really, placing his protagonist in a position that hopefully shakes him into seeing what is valuable rather than what is socially seen as successful. Palermo Shooting is Wenders latest creation and premiered at Cannes earlier this year. Here, in San Francisco, Wenders was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival where Palermo Shooting had its US premiere. It tells the story of Finn, a successful but deeply dissatissfied professional photographer, who comes face to face with death (disguised as Dennis Hopper) only to discover the complicated beauty of life in the dramatic setting of Palermo Italy. I spoke with Wim Wenders on the day President Obama was sworn into office. Here, he explains his initial relationship to Palermo.
At the age of 21, Yves Saint Laurent became the director of one of the most influential atelier's in the world, Christian Dior. He was a renegade if the fashion world, breaking boundaries in design, shape, fabric and concept. Two years into his time at the Atelier, Algerian born Laurent was called into war. Lasting just under three weeks, he fell under the stress of combat, was sent to a mental institution and given electroshock therapy. During this time, he was fired from Dior. He sued for breach of contract, he won and thus began his own fashion house. It was there that all the designs we know today came into play—the pant suit, the purse with a strap, fashionable safari wear, bright colors, beatnik styles, and the acceptance that women could both be sexy and strong at the same time. He was the first to use women of color on the runway and he was also the first designer to make it into an art institution. In 1983, he was given a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now, 25 years later, he has another solo exhibition, at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. Here we see the extraordinary influences Laurent drew upon, such as Marcel Proust, Van Gogh, vibrant fabrics and remarkable craftsmanship and we see the magic of Laurent's vision. Yves Saint Laurent died of brain cancer last June but his legacy lives on. In this program, curator of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition Jill d'Allessandro, speaks to how remarkable it was for Laurent to lead the House of Dior at such a young age. SF MoMA—The Art of Participation (PART ONE) SF MoMA—The Art of Participation (PART TWO)
For most of our parents and grandparents, art is something to be observed, a beautiful work that either represents a scene, an experience or, with abstract expressionism, an emotion. What seems to be most important for former generations is beauty, of color, of shape. This changed with the conceptual art movement, where ideas became beautiful and the notion of beauty was far less tangible or quantifiable. But what happened in the 60s was something quite special and that is represented in a sweeping exhibition at the SF MoMA titled The Art of Particiaption, 1950 to Now. The title speaks for itself since the exhibit presents works that either ask for our actual participation or were created based on the participation of others. The show is about us, so to speak, members of the public getting involved and making something happen. Curated by Rudolf Frieling, curator of new media at the museum, the show seems perfectly timed, when the need for participation seems at an all time recent high in America. On the show, Rudolf Frieling speaking about his exhibition, The Art of Participation, which features over 40 artists and countless works of art reflecting or requesting participation.
History is an interesting concept, shall we say. It is based on memories, on stories and on the act of preserving experience. Today we have so many tools to do so. We take pictures, video, we blog, we write articles, some of us even are crazy enough to do radio stories. But what happens to the stories that aren't told. Do they not exist, do they disappear, or are they asked to be uncovered by those who care. Producer Abigail Disney went to Liberia and discovered one of these stories, a history that changed the course of this blood ravaged country. She was so inspired by what she saw and determined that what she discovered had to be told so she decided to produce a documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell and asked GIni Reticker to direct. The story is this: In 2003, Liberia was in the midst of a very bloody and seemingly insurmountable civil war. The former President, Charles Taylor, who was Africa's leading warlord and is now an accused war criminal was leading a corrupt regime, inspiring his own people, young men in the country to terrorize Liberians, forcing them to flee their homes in an attempt to save their lives. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were being killed, tortured and raped and the situation was only getting worse. So a group of women stood up, claiming they couldn't take it anymore, their children were dying, their husbands were changing, their country was becoming destroyed. Thousands of women, both Christian and Muslim, came together forming a coalition group, armed with their voices and their convictions. They demanded to be heard, they generated peace talks, when those peace talks seemed like they would fail, they surrounded the Presidential Palace and ousted Charles Taylor paving the way for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to become Africa's first female head of state. Pray the Devil Back to Hell recounts the story of these powerful women and gives viewers a sense of the power of a unified voice, the strength of womanhood and the chance to change that which seems immovable. In this interview, we hear the voices of Abigail Disney and Gini Riticker speaking about the creation of Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Here Abigail Disney shares what inspired her to create the film and what brought her to Liberia.
From 1975—1990, Lebanon was in the midst of a civil war. Its factions within were constantly in conflict, allies had become ememies and then once again allies. There were terrorist acts, massacres, blackouts and a city thay was once called the Paris of the Middle East was completely desecrated time and time again. That city was Beirut and my family are Armenians who lived in Beirut. My grandparents stayed in Lebanon during the civil war, always hoping and thinking that the war would end and that they would be able to return back to a life that resembled normalcy. But that did not happen and till today, Lebanon continues to struggle with itself. One of the most damaging aspects of the war was the Israeli invasion. It's a complicated history and one that cannot be recounted in a simple introduction for an interview on a radio program but Israel came into Lebanon with young soldiers now knowing what they were doing, listening to orders they couldn't reason and shooting at anything that moved. Director Ari Folman was a soldier in the Israeli Army during the Invasion of Lebanon and he witnessed a particularly bloody and shocking aspect, the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camps. He wanted to make a film about the war and in particular about the complicated and intangible memories of that time. The film was made and it's called Waltz With Bashir. The premise is this. A friend comes to Ari and tells him about a recurring nightmare he is having. He dreams that 26, exactly 26 vicious dogs are chasing him through the streets of Tel Aviv. With their gnarled teeth and their menacing eyes, they threated death and torture. He never gets caught but every night the dream comes back. Ari wonders, why 26 and his friend shares that while in the Army , his commander knew he couldn't kill people so he was asked to kill dogs instead since dogs seemed to alert a town of oncoming strangers. He had killed 26 dogs in his tour with the army and these killings were haunting him. In Waltz With Bashir, Folman realizes that he has blocked out this part of his memory, particularly the part of the massacres at the Palestinian camps. So he goes on a journey, tracking down people he had been a soldier with and unearthing the stories of his time in the army. He speaks with friends, doctors, experts of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and he also spoke with the very first journalist to enter the Sabra and Shatila camps after the massacre. Inspired by memory and emotion, Waltz with Bashir is animated. It was filmed first and then animators drew images from the film. I spoke with Ari Folman when he came to San Francisco to speak about his work. As you will hear later in the show, he mortgaged his house and took massive loans to create this film, because he had to, because he knew it wold be worth it. As a contender for the Academy Awards, he may have been completely correct. Here I mention to him that I was thinking of doing an article on the film for a paper in Abu Dhabi.
If there is one thing nearly everyone in the modern Western world is familiar with, it's school. Who can forget the experiences of a first crush, or feeling we're not learning the way other students might be, the first time we flared up in class, or a teacher that had a huge effect on us. These are all fundamental and universal experiences and they are properly observed in the film The Class by Laurent Cantet. Winner of this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes, The Class is a fiction film based on a real classroom in inner city Paris. Laurent Cantet did not set out to make a documentary but the style of the film seems just like one. His actors are real students, real teachers and while the scenes are orchestrated, much of what we see is steeply based in truth, in what really goes on in a classroom at a public school where racial diversity exists, where students are trying to define themselves and where hormones and emotions run high. Laurent Cantet had always wanted to make a film about junior high and wondered how he would do it. Then he fell upon François Bégaudeau's book Entre Les Murs which chronicled his own experiences as a school teacher. This inspired Cantet to make the film and cast Bégaudeau in a role he was familiar with, the teacher. Interestingly, he both wrote the book and starred in the film that Cantet directs. The Class becomes not only a reflection of what happens in the classroom but a microcosm of French society itself, the challenges, the diversity and the necessity for equanimity. We hear Laurent Cantet speaking about his film, The Class which won the Palme d'Or and is the contender for this year's Academy in foreign film. I wondered if Cantet's own experience as a student led him to create this film.
The Sangati Center in San Francisco brings together world reknowned Indian classical musicians in a small space on a tree lined street that can easily be missed. Like many treasures in this city, it has to be excavated and because of that, it feels like a discovery every time one goes to see a concert there. Founded in 2006 by Gautam Tejas Ganeshan, the Center plays host to musicians from all over the world who find themselves in this calming, red and yellow walled room, sitting before an audience, doing what they love most, music. Ganeshan himself is a performer and while he studied philosophy and was tempted to become an ethnomusicologist, he decided to fly west, as many do, and follow his dreams to be a performer. Finding that there weren't places he liked to perform, he decided he would create the ideal space and found this one on a corner in the Mission. Sangati means to coming together in Sanscrit. Last week, after Barack Obama won the election, the streets in San Francisco were filled with music and dancing, people coming together to celebrate. Music is a form of celebration, it both engenders and reflects joy and emotion. And while the Sangati Center may not align itself with a historical event such as that one, in small but potent ways, it may offer some of the same feelings that were experienced on November 4th. First, a song played at the Center earlier this month by Anantha R. Krishnan. The instrument he is playing is called Mridangam.
For most of his life, artist Jordan Essoe has known that he didn't want to have children. After meeting his partner and getting married at the age of 25, he decided he wanted a vasectomy. Now, four years later, in an exhibition titled strictfathermodel, he has chronicled the experience in a 99 day multi media show where we see, amongst other things, a detailed video of the vasectomy itself and a series of paintings Essoe made with his semen, both pre and post operation. What is our role as humans, is it to procreate? And when we relinquish that role, are we letting go of a fundamental part of beimg alive. How did Essoe feel about his choice and how can making art around such a lasting and powerful decision effect the way you see that choice. In this interview I had with Jordan Essoe, we explore what fatherhood is, the fundamental impetus to procreate and the irrevocable choice to change your body. Here, Essoe shares the story behind the image that opens his catalog, a picture of a beach in Acapulco.
Wayne Wang, director of such films as Smoke, The Joy Luck Club and Maid in Manhattan, amongst others, is releasing his latest film on YouTube. Yes, YouTube, the seeming free for all, place any video you want to site. Some time ago, when a couple posted a feature length film they produced to great YouTube accalaim, they decided to create a space where filmmakers, aspiring and established , could premiere and show their films. That space is called The Screening Room and Wayne Wang is the most prominent filmmaker to be showing a film in that space. It represents a whole new dimension to the life of independent filmmakers, and, needless to say, it is extraordinarily contemporary. Much like Radiohead posting their album for free, established filmmakers can do the same, boost their viewership and thus their possibilities in the future. The film is part of what Wang calls a diptych. It's called The Princess of Nebraska and it's being released alongside another film that is oming out on the thetre called A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Both films are based on the short stories of Granta award winning author Yiyun Li, exploring the bonds of family and Chinese identity in the Modern world. Princess of Nebraska does just that as it looks at a young woman who travels from Nebraska to San Francisco to have an abortion. Impregnated by a friend she was just having fun with the week before she left China for America, the young woman is confused and she spends an eye opening night in San Francisco, empowered by more information to make the choice that is best for you. Shot with DV cameras and in a somewhat lo-fi way, the film is perfect for the format it is being premiered on and Wang is excited to be releasing two films at the same time in very different medias.
Charlie Kaufman has a cult following. Often times, when your style is so unique, people who respond to that style band together and follow you. The same is true for not only filmmakers but musicians fashion designers and artists. Kaufman in no way is immune to that. What is distinctuve about him however is the issues he grapples with, love, identity, loss, death, grief, remorse. Charlie Kaufman, who has written such films as The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation and Being John Malkovich has just premiered his most recent film Synechdoce, NY. Not Schenactady, the city but Synechdoce, which according to answers.com means "a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole ), the whole for a part , the specific for the general , the general for the specific , or the material for the thing made from it." The term is nearly as complicated as the film and while people may have trouble pronouncing it, the hope is they won't have too much trouble watching it. That said, there are two seeming divisive opinions on this film, either people hate it or they see it as a masterpiece. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in nearly every scene of this film, Synechdoce was five years in the making. Hoffman both wrote the script and directed the film, a first for him. With a star studded cast—Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson and Hoffman—Charlie Kaufman has amde a film about life, in all its messy, exhilirating, confusing, frightening, magical glory. At least that's how I see it. But as he points out, the film is in the hands of the viewer, much like beauty, and can only be interpreted and understood through them. There's no point explaining what it is, experience it. HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA and DR. PAUL EKMAN (PART ONE) HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA and DR. PAUL EKMAN (PART TWO)
In 2003, I traveled around asking people about Happiness. I thought, since I am traveling the States and since part of our Declaration of Independence endows us with the right to pursue Happiness, I wondered what were people doing with that right. What did they think happiness was exactly and what were the things that actually made them happy? Around that time, I read a fascinating article by Malcolm Gladwell, in The New Yorker about a scientist who studied the universality of facial expressions and the ways in which our expressions both reflect and create our emotional state. Smile and you will be happy, for instance. Frown and the muscles in your face will stimulate sadness. The scientist is Paul Ekman, I interviewed him, and at the time I never imagined it would lead to an interview with the Dalai Lama. Dr. Ekman and the Dalai Lama had had several meetings by that point, talking about emotions and science, east and west. They were so inspired by eachother, that they decided instead of meeting in bits here and there, they would come together for a week, in India and meet and speak there, almost 10 hours a day for five days. They did just that and the result is the newly released book Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Emotional Balance and Compassion. The book is an edited transcription of their conversation over that week in Dharmasala, India. It looks at emotions, where they come from, how we are aware of them, or not, anger, hatred, compassion and practice. Coming from the perspective of one of the world's most respected scientist and one of the world's spiritual leaders, Emotional Awareness is a rich book, filled with insights and ways in which we can generate awareness and effect change in ourselves and the lives of others. I spoke with the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania this summer. Here, the Dalai Lama expresses why he believed it was important to speak with Dr. Ekman and touches upon some of the things they explored together. This is a two part interview. RED POPPY ART HOUSE (PART ONE) RED POPPY ART HOUSE (PART TWO)
The Red Poppy Art House sits on the corner of a main thoroughfare of San Francisco, Folsom Street, a wide street, lined with beautiful, massive trees, victorian houses, bodegas, playgrounds, vacant lots, and, on one special corner, a unique art space. I fell upon the Red Poppy when I first moved to San Francisco, to hear the work of Pablo Neruda, right after the 30th anniversary of his death. The Art House had a series of events, a book launch, concerts. And then some more indescribable ones, consisting of dancers and artists, of performances one could not re-create. It seemed almost like a lab, with its warm lighting, its inviting presence, its undefinable and almost intagible nature. The Red Poppy has now become a premoer location in San Francisco for artistic innovation, where artists from all over the world, come to play music, engage with each other's work, learn, teach, have residencies and simply live as artists, creative minds seeking connection. In a highly institutionalized and structured art world, spaces like the red poppy are becoming much more rare and thus more valued. And now Red Poppy has been chosen by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a residency where they will have a series of events exploring "The Living presence of Space", looking at the power that small spaces hold as vibrant centers where artists gather, create and make their home, thus the Red Poppy Art House. I spoke with Todd Brown, founder of the Red Poppy Art House, Meklit Hadero, co-director and resident artist and Caleb Duarte, a resident artist at the affectionately called Poppy. Frida Kahlo may be the most reproduced artist ever, or as curator John Zarobell notes, she definitely is in the top ten. She is surely an icon, her open hearts and her serious gaze, her vibrant colors and her notorious relationship, her sublime beauty and her pained physical existence, all of these are known and all the more felt when one looks at her paintings. We see her on the covers of journals, as pins, t-shirts, magnets, people like to dress like her and there are even groups that imitate Frida. While she didn't create art to be used as a consumerist commodity, she has been adopted by people around the world as a mirror of their inner turmoil and as a beacon of female power. The current exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art takes us on a journey through her life, in fact, it was co curated by her biographer and we see Frida as she saw herself in her work. We also see the actual Frida Kahlo through a large collection of photographs. In this interview, the voice of John Zarobell, co curator of the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the MoMA in San Francisco. In this conversation, we look at why this exhibition has a particular resonance in San Francisco, what makes the work so powerful and how Frida was seen as a female artist in her time. CHRIS AND DON (a documentary about the love between writer Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy)
In the early 1950s, a beautiful and, some say, controversial love affair was blossoming. Two men met on a beach in Los Angeles and soon fell in love. They were Christopher Isherwood, acclaimed british author, and well known intellectual and the virtually unknown and significantly younger Don Bachardy. They were 30 years apart in age, they were gay and they were open about their relationship at a time when homosexuality was still very much taboo, even in California. However, what ensued was a 30 year relationship, that only ended with Isherwood's passing and a love story that any couple would want to emulate. Isherwood was the author of Berlin Stories, A Meeting by the River and over twenty other works of fiction and translations. Bachardy is an internationally known artist. This context inspired filmmakers Guido Santi and Tina Mascara to make a film about the love between Isherwood and Bachardy titled Chris and Don: A Love Story. The core of the film is the love, respect, friendship and comraderie between these two men from disparatre backgrounds and different generations. But beyond that is the extended community around Chris and Don, the filmmakers and artists, Tennessee Williams, Raymond Carver, WH Auden, Leslie Caron, Liza Minelli and loads of other well know literary and film figures. There is incredible archival footage of all of these. And of course the art work created by Bachardy himself, decades of portraits that he continues to create today. In this interview, I spoke with filmmakers Guido Santi and Tina Mascara and artist Don Bachardy about the film Chris and Don, about Don's memories of Chris and about the intimacy of portraiture, amongst other things.
Islam and homosexuality have never mixed well. the Qu'ran very clearly condemns homosexuality leaving muslim gay men and women to feel a deep conflict. When everything that you have grown up with is in direct opposition to how you feel, a deep tension arises and in that comes suffering. Parvez Sharma was a journalist before he decided to make a documentary and travel to 12 different countries to explore this issue. Over the course of six years, A Jihad for Love was created and that film has now come to San Francisco just in time for Pride week. Sharma himself is gay and muslim, open about his sexuality and committed to his religion. As he points out in this interview, Islam isn't just a religion, it's a culture, a way of living, a language, a sense. To turn away from that is to turn away from so much of what makes up ones foundation. In this film, we see the stories of many men and women exploring, struggling with and making conclusions about their culture and their sexuality. The honesty and nakedness of A Jihad for Love is precisely what has made it a world reknowned film, bringing the discussion of homosexuality and Islam into the forefront. In this interview, we speak about the actual term Jihad, its original meanings and the way it has been transformed over the last few years.
San Francisco probably has the highest number of therapists per capita in the US. I haven't checked that fact but given the nature of this city and its residents, it would not surprise me if that were true. It further doesn't surprise me that an artist might explore that phenomena and eight years ago, artist Josh Greene did just that by opening what he called an unlicensed therapy office. It was opened in the Mission district and it garnered a regular clientele but it was soon shut down. Real therapists were not pleased. I mean, what about the thousands of dollars and hours they spent on their education! However, the office has been revived in an exhibition titled Amateurs that is at the Wattis Institute in San Francisco. Curated by former Wattis Institute director Ralph Rugoff, Amateurs presents either collaborations with amateurs or work created as amateurs. Unlicensed Therpay fits perfectly in this description. But this is hardly all JoshGreene has done in his artistic career thus far. He has put his apartment up for sale, he has sold money for less than its value, he has represented the artistic process in gallery spaces, and we speak about all of these in this interview we had at his unlicensed therapy office at the Wattis looking at the ephemeral nature of his work, the sometimes boring therapy sessions he has had and whether being an artist has proven to be the right choice for him. NOTE BY NOTE: The Making of a Steinway L1037
One cannot deny the fact that in the western world, we live in a mass production culture. The notion that something can and is handmade seems tremendously outdated. With the influx of technology and its promises of speed and efficiency, it almost seems illogical to make something by hand. That was the first thing that caught filmmaker Ben Niles by surprise when he read an article about the Steinway company, a 150 year old company that has been making each of their pianos, and tuning them, by hand since their inception. The skill it takes to make a grand piano is extraordinary, let alone the time—a full year. In the newly released film Note by Note, Ben Niles tracks the process of making a Steinway L1037. We travel through the factory, with the men and women who craft these fine objects, we observe the characters of the pianos, of the masters that play them and we return to a time where the piano was a galvanizing force, central to the family and community, a time before technology, and we re-visit the strength and potency of craft and the individuality of an object.
In 2001, when I was living in the East Village of New York City, I was talking a walk through the tree lined streets, a stroll really. I wasn't headed anywhere in particular and so I wasn't concerned with time. I happened upon a conversation with a young man, sitting on a stoop, reading a book. He was strangely aloof and intriguing and there seemed to be no agenda on either of our parts. We were just engaging in a conversation for this particular period of time We spoke for two hours and then I never saw him in person again and it didn't matter. That wasn't the point. A few months later, I was looking at the photographs of Ryan McGinley, an artist who later would be the youngest perosn to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in it was that young man I spoke with, Eric, laying next to a friend, looking passed out, on a ruffled bed, its sheets seemingly in card for, an arm above his head, stopped in a moment of time, much like we were on that stoop in the Fall of 2001. Ryan McGinley has since gone one to win prestigious awards, to show his work in all parts of the world and in international magazines. He has done several series of works for the New York Times and the New Yorker recently commented on his current exhibition, I Know Where the Summer Goes, and I am paraphrasing here, as nearly perfect. Spring and By Summer Fall is McGinley's latest exhibition and it is here in San Francisco at Ratio 3. When walking into the light filled space, one is struck by large and small color photographs of young and supple and naked men and women jumping through the air, standing against cliffs, being embraced by bears, standing in fields, living and experiencing what seems like an utterly carefree existence. McGinley has often observed young people as they let themselves go, be it with drugs or sex, at concerts or in water. There's always this sense of release and in that release a deeper sense of mystery and surprise. It is this surprise element that McGinley tends to be attracted to. In this interview with Ryan McGinley, he speaks about the work at Ratio 3, about the element of fantasy, about the medium of photography and about being an observer. I spoke with Ryan at the gallery as they were setting up for the show so you may hear some noise in the background. PHILIP WOOD and CITIZEN: CITIZEN—PART ONE PHILIP WOOD and CITIZEN: CITIZEN—PART TWO
Philip Wood, creative director and founder of the internationally recognized art and design company Citizen: Citizen, grew up and lived in a small town on the South Coast of England until he was 34 years old. Thomas Hardy's birthplace, Dorchester, nurtured his craving for beauty and history but left him hungering for a culture he couldn't find there. He became a woodworker, designed and manufactured furniture, opened a furniture and interiors store, then opened a retail clothing store and then left all of this in 2002 to travel the world for a year. He was on a quest to discover what he truly wanted to do in life, where he wanted to live and how. He is now in San Francisco, and by his account, he seems to have found just that. As he recently said while leaving the launch of "Untitled", one of his latest products, "I look at projects like this and I think to myself there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing." Citizen:Citizen was initially established in 2004 with two partners, one of whom Philip had known from his days in England, a friend and colleague whom he believed saw the world in similar ways that he did. And that is precisely what Citizen continues to be founded upon, ways of seeing. In 2005, Citizen took a journey across the states, this time with one owner, Philip himself, and a curatorial vision that continues to manifest itself. It is nearly impossible to describe what Citizen is exactly and at the same time it is simply one thing, a landscape within which objects live to inspire thought and engagement enhancing the way we see and live our daily lives. Philip is the curator of the collection of objects ranging from books, to jewelry, to vibrators, to tables, to ceramics. He manufactures these objects and retails them in stores across North America. Some of his works are in galleries and museums. Beyond that, Citizen offers a whole host of experiences, from virtual galleries to national events, interactive e.mails to blogs. I spoke with Philip Wood at his home in San Francisco, a home filled with furniture he made himself in his former incarnation.
It was 1994 when I first learned of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's work. Even though I had lived in San Francisco and had visited the bookstore and publishing company he had started in 1953, City Lights Books, it was until a very close friend from NY suggested I read A Coney Island of the Mind. Just the title itself was enough to enchant, the idea of Coney Island, a coastal place of all sorts, walking down a board walk with images of hot dogs and the zooming sounds of roller coasters. The reality of Coney Island is fantastic enough. To actually make it a place of the mnid seems even more extreme. This collection poems is seeing its 50th anniversary this year and for that reason, I had the opportunity to interview Lawrence Ferlinghetti the day before he was slated to leave for Italy and France. He's 89 years old, he has lived in San Francisco for 57 years, he published Allen Ginsberg's HOWL, he created the center for the beats, he was San Francisco's first poet laureate, there is a street named after him , he has traveled the world, he saw the destruction of Nagasaki, charred bodies, that changed his idea of politics and the "truth" forever. I visited Lawrence Ferlinghetti at his home in North Beach, a quintessential San Francisco neighborhood that still has the energy of another time, with its winding streets, its Italian trattoria's, and, at its center, City Lights Books. Ferlinghetti's most recent book of poetry is titled Poetry as Insurgent Art and in this interview, part one of two, we visit the power of poetry, the evolution of political action, and what it feels like to be 89 years old.
Filmmaker, writer, actor, cinematographer, artist, collector and producer John Waters has always been a performer. When he was in highschool, he put on puppet shows for kids and later, finding himself a bit bored by the cleanliness of the shows, decided to throw in some blood and guts....He knew what his calling was from early on and he had the community and the stamina to bring his calling to fruition. His first film, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, was made when he was 18 years old but the film that made him infamous was the one that came 8 years later, Pink Flamingos. In preperation for this interview, I watched Pink Flamingos for the first time having heard it countlessly referenced but never really knowing what it was about. I was shocked, truly shocked. I wondered how a filmmaker who had directed a 200+ cross dressing actor to bend down and eat dog feces had become so famous, and now, almost, just almost mainstream. What makes Pink Flamingos and all of John Waters' subsequent films so special is not the shock effect (one that comes naturally to Waters). One of the things that makes his work stand out is the compassion in them, the sensitivity, the sense of comraderie. and all of this is reflected very much in his character. The latest incarnation of John Waters is Hairspray. It was first made by him in 1988, it then turned into a huge Broadway hit and now he has executive produced the remake of the film. Needless to say, John Waters has surely developed since his earlier films that were made on the smallest of budgets and consisted of a cast of characters that were his friends. The thing is that, as much as he could, John Waters did things his way, and this, along with so many other talents, makes him one of the best filmmakers today. Recently John Waters has had a more recent incarnation, that of artist and art collector. His new show titled, Reckless Eyeballs, is a reflection of some of John Waters' social fascinations. The work in the show, most of which is photography but also includes a sculpture and two sound pieces, looks at the world of film, of art, and of politics. Waters holds no punches and the show is irreverent and hilarious and poignant. It is at the Rena Bransten gallery and I spoke with John Waters at the gallery.
Steve Buscemi has been a fixture in the independent film circuit for nearly 20 years and has been acting for most of his life. He has over 100 acting credits to his name, he has written, produced, been part of soundtracks and directed. His most recent film, Interview, which he both directed and stars in, marks the first in yet another foray of Buscemi's, bringing the films of assassinated filmmaker Theo Van Gogh to the screen. You may remember the violent death of Theo Van Gogh at the hands of an Islamist fundamentalist in the streets of Amsterdam. Theo Van Gogh was shot and then nearly decapitated, a 5 page note was attached to his body with a knife. Theo Van Gogh was quite vocal about his anti Islamic sentiments yet the backlash that he received seemed to shock the world. Now, in his memory, Steve Buscemi has created the film company Triple Theo and will re-create three of Theo Van Gogh's films. Interview is the first. Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn NY, his father was a sanitation worker, his mom a hostess at the local Howard Johnson motel. Before he began his acting career, Buscemi was a NY city firefighter in Little Italy, NYC for four years. He joined the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group and his acting career grew. Steve Buscemi often plays neurotic characters, full of angst and frustration. He is a permanent fixture in films by the Coen brothers but the role that really put him in the spotlight was that of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs. Buscemi's character in Interview is not neurotic but quite persistent. The story is this: Pierre Peders, a war reporter for a Washington newspaper is asked to do a fluff piece on a well known b actress, the reason being that his "facts" in his political pieces have not been very reliable. Uninterested and frustrated with this assignment, he does nothing to learn about the actress who gets extraordinarily frustrated herself. What ensues is a seeming cat and mouse chase in the actress' loft where each party reveals more or maybe less than they would like to. The film is disquieting and uncomfortable and memorable. I spoke with Steve Buscemi while he was in San Francisco promoting his film, Interview.
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PIECES BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION | WOMAN'S HOUR
For over 50 years Woman's Hour has featured the famous and infamous, men and women who have, quite literally, defined their times. Live broadcasting, with all its risks and rewards, has always been fundamental to Woman's Hour. Even in the early days, when a slip of the tongue could prompt a national outrage, the programme never shirked from tackling inflammatory items. Today Woman's Hour combines live and pre-recorded material and is the longest running and one of the most listened to programs on the BBC. For more information, visit the Woman's Hour website.
Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River. Known during the Depression years as "Alabama Africa", it was the site of cotton plantations owned primarily by Joseph Gee. The poor rural hamlet has recently enjoyed huge success as an exhibition of quilts has toured the United States. The town’s women have developed a distinctive, bold style based on African American colours, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts. The New York Times called their quilts "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced." Tania Ketenjian visited the exhibition, which has now reached de Young Museum in San Francisco, where she met curator Diane Mott and some of the quilt makers, namely Lucy Marie Mingo, Loretta Petway, Louisiana Petway Bendolph and Mary Lee Bendolph. BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION | THE WORLD SERVICE—CULTURE SHOCK The BBC World Service is the leading international broadcaster. Services are also available online and on video. Our network of correspondents provide impartial news, reports and analysis in 33 languages from locations around the world. We are celebrating our 75th anniversary. The Strand is the daily arts and culture program. Please click here to listen to The Strand . POP-UP RESTAURANTS, CHANGING THE WAY WE EAT AND INTERACT
ROBOTS ARE IN OUR FUTURE—SHE CAN EVEN CLEAN THE KITCHEN...
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN SAN FRANCISCO?
CAN YOUR BLACKBERRY TELL YOU WHERE THE COOL SPOTS ARE IN THE CITY? FIND OUT HERE
HYBRID CARS, A GALLERY SPACE AND GOOD PEOPLE ALL IN ONE?
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION | THE WORLD SERVICE—THE STRAND RACE EXCHANGEABILITY IN THEATRE ROLES
WAYNE WANG, YOUTUBE and THE CHANGING FACE OF INDEPENDENT FILM
RTE-Ireland's national RADIO BROADCASTER | THE ELEVENTH HOUR The Eleventh Hour is RTÉ Radio 1's new late night arts and culture show, presented by Páraic Breathnach. As well as covering arts and cultural events and festivals, The Eleventh Hour will initiate debate, argument and creative participation among its late night audience. The programme will also be working with arts and cultural groups on projects and events that will allow listeners to get involved in the creative process. For more information, visit the The Eleventh Hour website.
Vivienne Westwood, the one-time creator of the punk aesthetic with Malcolm McLaren, is now one of the leading figures in haute couture. Much of Westwood's work is inspired by painting and costume history. A major exhibition of her work took place in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London last year, and the same exhibition is now on view in San Francisco. Tania Ketenjian is a radio presenter living in San Francisco who met Vivienne Westwood, and on tonight's show we hear her interview with the designer. ACCENT ELIMINATION by NINA KATCHADOURIAN
Artist Nina Katchadourian lives in New York and every day she comes across posters advertising courses in "accent elimination". Both her parents have very strong and very distinct accents. Her father is Armenian, raised in Lebanon and French educated and her mother was born in Finland and speaks Swedish (she also happens to be quite the linguist and can pick up all kinds of languages). As a child, Nina would always try and imitate her parents' accents to no avail. For this project, she invited her parents towork with a speech coach to try and eliminate their accents as she conversely tried to adopt theirs. This project reflects "the tricky maneuvering between the desire to preserve the distinctive marks of one's culture, on one hand, and to decrease them in order to seem less foreign, on the other." CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION | DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA
Definitely Not the Opera is created by a dedicated and talented gang of audio mercenaries based in Winnipeg and Toronto. We survive on an unhealthy diet of celebrity gossip, TV show recaps and office dance-offs. For this program, DNTO interviewed me about a piece I had done almost two years ago about an exhibition at POND gallery called Shopdropping. They focused particularly on a project by Marc Horowitz called "Dinner with Marc". Listen to the INTERVIEW WITH DNTO AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION | THE NIGHT AIR
The Night Air is broadcast each Sunday from 8.30pm. Part one is repeated on Fridays at 9.35pm, Part Two is repeated on Saturdays at midnight. The Night Air is a new kind of venture for Radio National - an ever-changing, 90-minute radio composition of music, sounds, ideas and stories. The program is a seductive mix of forms ranging through short monologues, songs, dialogues, essays, poems, short stories, cut-ups, columns, speeches, recipes, sound art, rants, environmental recordings, weather reports and instrumental music. For more i | |||||
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