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
Monday Jul 01, 2013
Monday Jul 01, 2013
At South By South West, in Austin, Texas, Cathy Byrd meets Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter, the team that directed and produced the documentary Spark: A Burning Man Story. Steve and Jessie explain what they learned about the individuals and ideas behind the legendary desert rituals of Burning Man. Sound Editor: Eric Schwartz | Episode Sound, from Spark: A Burning Man Story
Monday Apr 29, 2013
Monday Apr 29, 2013
The renowned Walker Art Center in Minneapolis staged a one-night Internet Cat Video Festival in August 2012 that drew an astounding 10,000 people to the Center’s Open Field. During South By South West 2013, Cathy Byrd meets curators Scott Stulen and Katie Hill in the KUT/NPR studios to talk about the legendary project. Sound Editor: Eric Schwartz | Episode Sound courtesy Walker Art Center
Monday Mar 18, 2013
Monday Mar 18, 2013
The 2013 South By South West Film Festival, in Austin, Texas, is the setting for this Fresh Talk feature. Cathy Byrd meets filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin to learn more about Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, the documentary they recently completed.The film tells the story of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (Nadia), Maria Alyokhina (Masha), and Yekaterina Samutsevich (Katia), members of the radical feminist art collective Pussy Riot. In early 2012, the three were arrested and put on trial for performing a 40 second "punk prayer" inside Moscow’s main orthodox cathedral. The world has been calling for the young women's release ever since Nadia, Masha and Katia were detained, charged and imprisoned for the crime of religious hatred.
Monday Nov 26, 2012
Monday Nov 26, 2012
In Berlin, Cathy Byrd meets Luci Westphal, a German filmmaker based in New York and Berlin, to talk about Luci's love for street art, music, film and the D.I.Y. style. Luci shares the inside story on her moving postcard series In A Berlin Minute and her latest documentary All's Well and Fair. Sound Editor: Leonardo Madriz Photographs courtesy the artist Music: "Frogfly Buzzing," by Dioxin Dolly (Rachel Iannelli, Margaret Briggs, Tina Bushnell), 1996, from Luci Westphal, All's Well and Fair, 2012.
Tuesday May 08, 2012
Tuesday May 08, 2012
In Marfa, Texas, we sit down in their living room with Jennifer Lane and David Hollander to learn more about a film festival they designed for this cultural outpost. Professional filmmakers, Jennifer and David lived in Los Angeles for a dozen years before they fell in love with Marfa and made West Texas their home. The two talk about why they created CineMarfa and introduce some of the films featured in the second annual event. This is the first in our special series about contemporary creativity in the American Southwest.
Sunday Jan 01, 2012
Sunday Jan 01, 2012
Frédéric Nauczyciel, a Paris-based artist, describes an elusive subculture that he explored in Baltimore, Washington DC and New York City, and introduces his new photo series: Men In Heels.
Sound Editor: Ira Kip | Special Audio: DDM! “Legendary"
Saturday Dec 03, 2011
Saturday Dec 03, 2011
In his Chicago studio, we sit down with Jefferson Pinder to talk about the physical exertion in his work. The video and performance artist explains how Black history, Houdini, street theater, and symbols of power and struggle inform his practice.
At the time of this recording, Pinder was preparing for his 2011 appearance as The Escape Artist in Salisbury, Maryland. The performance commemorated the death of Matthew Williams, who was confined to a straightjacket when he was lynched in front of the Wicomico courthouse on December 4, 1931.
Sound Editor: Ira Kip | Special Audio and Photography, courtesy Jefferson Pinder
Related Fresh VUE: Jefferson Pinder, Ben Hur
Related Link: Jefferson Pinder
Sunday Nov 20, 2011
Sunday Nov 20, 2011
New York-based video artist Janet Biggs makes an extreme sport of her creative expression. In this conversation, Janet considers the power of desire and the physical challenges she met while producing the complex video projects we experience in No Limits, her current mid-career survey. Organized by the Tampa Museum of Art, the exhibition runs from October 8, 2011 through January 8, 2012.
Sound Editor: Jeff T. Byrd | Special Audio courtesy Janet Biggs
Related Episodes: Janet Biggs on Artmaking at the Edge of the World
Related Links: Janet Biggs, Tampa Museum of Art
Monday Nov 07, 2011
Monday Nov 07, 2011
When we record with Kate Hers, a Korean-born artist based in Berlin, in 2011, she describes the German art scene and explains how she raised funds through Kickstarter for her project Dr. Rhee's Kimtschi Shop. The artist and her partner, physicist Hanjo Rhee, will trade their special version of Korea’s national treasure for cultural artifacts from local customers from November 19 to 25, 2011, in the space known as Das Gift, in Berlin.