Writer/curator Cathy Byrd sparks conversations about today’s art, design, and film on the Fresh Art International podcast. Synthesizing interviews and field recordings with critical commentary since 2011, the podcast archives the voices, sounds, and stories of contemporary culture makers from around the world.
Episodes
Thursday Mar 19, 2015
Thursday Mar 19, 2015
Tameka Norris just produced her first feature-length film. She plays herself in Meka Jean: How She Got Good. The narrative has a lot in common with The Moviegover, a novel by Walker Percy. Like Walker Percy, Norris grew up in the Deep South, and went away to seek her fortune. Like Binx Bolling, the book’s protagonist, Meka Jean reveals what it means when New Orleans is the city you call home.
We recorded this conversation with Norris when her film debuted during the international exhibition Prospect.3 New Orleans, in 2014. She presented the project as a multi-chambered installation at May Gallery, a nonprofit art space in the district known as the Upper 9th Ward.
Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie | Soundtrack excerpts courtesy the artist
Thursday Nov 20, 2014
Thursday Nov 20, 2014
Prospect New Orleans, a city-wide international art exhibition in its third iteration, is starting to feel at home. This episode features two project sites where we found a deep connection between art and community. In the order of their appearance, Timothy Levitch, Tavares Strachan, Margaret Thomas, and Gary Simmons reveal why Prospect makes perfect sense for the Crescent City.
Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie
Episode sound: The Roots of Music Brass Band's performance of “Go to the Mardi Gras” by Professor Longhair during the live WWOZ broadcast from Jazz Fest on May 1, 2014; and Beans performing for Gary Simmons “Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark,” 2014, at Tremé Market Branch on the occasion of the opening of Prospect.3: Notes for Now, New Orleans, October 25, 2014.
Thursday Oct 23, 2014
Thursday Oct 23, 2014
Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer introduces 400 Nudes, a revealing found photo project to debut at the Montreal Biennial. Mayer's work examines the nude selfie phenom on the Internet to comment on information sharing, privacy, the manipulation of identity, and the body politics of revenge porn.
Thursday Oct 02, 2014
Thursday Oct 02, 2014
We meet Andrea Bowers, an artist from Ohio who's based in Los Angeles, to talk about her passion for addressing social and political issues. Curators of two international biennials in North America selected her work for their 2014 exhibitions. Her Courtroom Drawings appear in l'Avenir, the inaugural Montreal Biennial. Two of Bowers's projects concerning environmental activism are on view in Unsettled Landscapes at SITE Santa Fe.
Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie | Episode Sound courtesy Andrea Bowers: I Plan to Stay a Believer, #sweetjane, & The Weapon of a Princess
Special feature performance by Malian singer and women's rights activist, Fantani Touré: L'arme d'une princesse / The Weapon of a Princess, 2014 Video, 24min53, With the support of the Espace culturel Louis Vuitton
Thursday Sep 18, 2014
Thursday Sep 18, 2014
Surinamese-Dutch artist Remy Jungerman talks about how European modernism and Afro-religious aesthetics influence his art, and describes the recent public art project he created back in Morengo, his home town in Suriname. Selected for inclusion in Prospect.3, the 2014 contemporary art biennial in New Orleans, Remy's work will be on view in an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center from late October 2014, to January 2015.
Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie | Episode sound effects: Chris Quinlan, drum set and Evan Dyson, toad mating call
Related podcast: Fresh Talk: Franklin Sirmans