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ART FICTIONS is fortnightly programme, created by artist Jillian Knipe. Each guest artist selects a piece of fiction, which we both explore, then use as a lens through which to view their artwork. We delve into the book‘s themes, context and characters, which opens up and steers a rich conversation about the artist‘s practice. The podcast bounces back and forth between art and text, all the while focussing on the ideas which govern both. It is a way of talking alongside art, rather than directly at it, getting close and personal with the origins of artistic ideas. Follow @artfictionspodcast Instagram for images of works and links, and see the podcast notes for all the references mentioned. Support via patreon.com/ARTFICTIONSPODCAST.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 14, 2020
Wednesday Oct 14, 2020
Grace Woodcock selects 'Mind of my Mind' by Octavia Butler. Published in 1977, it details the development of a new species of telepaths led by Mary, a mixed-race young woman raised in poverty. In our conversation, we discuss what distinguishes Octavia Butler as a unique sci-fi voice as we focus on Grace's debut London solo exhibition GUT-BRAIN at Castor, exploring the ideas behind her research-led practice around the body, mind, tech, science and alternative medicine.
0:00-0:20 Summary of the book 'Mind of my Mind', wondering how to make the book into a movie, afro-futurism, what it might be like to be in someone else's mind, hybridity, blue-blackness, meaning through action, transcending racial delineation, transracial, breeding programme elitism, shapeshifting gender and race, jealousy of the next generation.
20:00-45:00 Grace's art practice, retro futurism, the current dystopian edge, pills for sex, pushing the limits of what it is to be human, NASA spaceship design, how sliding doors came about, shaping of sculptures around the body, memories in objects wrt Japanese Shinto, hidden materials, potential medicinal elements, gut as the original brain, the fate of the sea urchin brain, multiples, subconscious, conversation pits, the gut as a surveillance system for the body
45:00-55:00 other stuff about Grace, from her influences to the books she's reading now!
GRACE WOODCOCK
gracewoodcock.com
castor.gallery
BOOKS
Aldous Huxley 'Brave New World' by 1932
Jonathan Crary '24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep' 2013
Mark Fisher 'Capitalist Realism' 2009
Octavia E Butler 'The Patternist Series' 1976-1980, 'The Parable Series' 1993-1998, 'Bloodchild & Other Stories' 1995
Phillip K Dick 'The Man in the High Castle' 1962
Svetlanda Boym 'The Future of Nostalgia' 2001
Tibor Fischer 'The Collector Collector' 1997
FILMS & SERIES
'Barbarella' 1968
'Forbidden Planet' 1956
'Gattaca' 1997
'Star Treck' 1966-1969
'The Devil Girl from Mars' 1954
'The Jetsons' 1962-63
'The Man in the High Castle' 2015-2019
'The Truman Show' 1998
ARTISTS & THINKERS
Alison Wilding
Anicka Yi
Diane Simpson
Ernesto Neto
Glenn Ligon
Hannah Levy
Ittah Yoda
Keith Piper - BLK Art Group
Pakui Hardware
Paloma Proudfoot
Rafal Zajko
Saelia Aparicio
Wilhelm Reich - Orgone Theory
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Emma Cousin selects the seminal novel 'Nausea' by Jean-Paul Sartre. Published in 1938, it describes Antoine Roquentin's existential crisis which plays out in the library, streets and cafes of Bouville, which literally means 'mud town'. In a world devoid of God, lacking in meaning, Antoine shrinks further and further inside himself as he struggles in his search for purpose, finally deciding the best use of his life is to write a really critical book. Like 'Nausea' I guess ! In our conversation, we focus on Emma's post-lockdown solo show at Goldsmith's CCA, though her ideas - from biology to geometry - and her approach to working across drawing, painting, curating and podcasting, encompass her whole studio practice.
0:00-0:30 Summary of 'Nausea', fluid consciousness, isolation, observation, madness, body, dangling arms, a mouth as thin of a dead snake, spreading cheeks, vomit, nausea, seat as a dead donkey, natural states, the shortcomings of the autodidact, humanism, experiences, projectile vomiting, experimentation in colour, shift, change, the future, elitism, Rembrandt
0:30-1:10 Emma's art practice - contemporary dance, verbing reaching, showing an idea, actively working something out, bodily boundaries, breasts, skin, grounding of figures, 'New Dirt', colour, background as a surround, 'Wash your Hands' for Ambit magazine, wall drawing, social classes, 2D & 3D composition, drawing, drawing, drawing, 'Trigonometry', 'Flower Moon' animation for exhibition, failing meditation, the physical highs and memories thru gardening
1:10-1:20 other Emma stuff - Morandi, folk music, 'Bread and Jam', 'Chats in Lockdown' podcast, activism, what Emma's reading now!
EMMA COUSIN
emmacousin.info
BOOKS & WRITERS & THINKERS (get ready for a long list!)
Albert Camus 'The Myth of Sisyphus' 1942
Anne Carson
Derek Jarman 'Modern Nature : Journals 1989-1990' 2018
Eula Biss 'On Immunity : An Inoculation' 2014
Elias Canetti 'Earwitness : Fifty Characters' 1974 & 'Crowds and Power' 1960
Edwin A Abbott 'Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions' 1884
Friedrich Nietzsche
Gregory Bateson 'Steps to an Ecology of Mind' 1972
Honoré de Balzac
JG Ballard 'High Rise' 1975
Joanna Pocock 'Surrender : The Call of the American West' 2019
John Berger 'A Painter of our Time' 1958
Maurice Merleau-Ponty 'The Phenomenology of Perception' 1945
René Descartes
Richard Power 'The Overstory' 2018
Samuel Beckett
Sergei Eisenstein 'On Disney' 1986
Simone de Beauvoir
Thomas Mann 'Death in Venice' 1912
William Petter Blatty 'The Exorcist' 1971
OTHER ARTISTS
Amy Sillman
Andrea V Wright
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom
Georgio Morandi
Hardeep Pandhal
John Cage, composer, artist, music theorist
Lindsey Mendick
Mark Morris, dancer and choreographer
Michael Tippett, composer
Paul Carey-Kent, art critic, curator
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
William Blake
PODCAST
'Chats in Lockdown' hosted by Emma Cousin
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Dr Charley Peters selects ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Published in 1892, it was inspired by the author’s own experience of post natal depression and the resulting inappropriate treatment she battled against. The short story describes one woman’s descent into madness as she is overtaken by the yellow wallpaper she loathes. Her supposedly devoted husband keeps her isolated in a room, based on the authority of a nasty little cluster of so called expert mental health physicians including his learned self. This only worsens her condition. Charley identifies with the main character’s need for stimulation, for creativity and for a way of being that doesn’t fall subject to a cold logic. She describes the the book as a testament to creativity as a type of freedom, of intellectual freedom, of social freedom. It's also a timely selection as we emerge from lockdown which has been, amongst other things, a challenging time of coping with isolation.
0:00 - 0:22 the book, post natal depression, social repression, marriage, isolation, feminism, inspiration, pattern, gothic horror, human rights, social reform, independence
0:22 - 0:28 project for Hospital Rooms at Bluebird House, a mental health unit in Southampton
0:28 - 0:30 the decorative, design, contrasting unplanned
0:30 - 0:37 Charley's process, creating a ground, building up a painting, blending, tone, 'sb|2m2h (smiling back, too much to handle)' 2020, 'eod/\qtpi (end of discussion, cutie pie)' 2020
0:37 - 0:43 collaboration with Tobias Revell and Wesley Goatley at 'Emergence', London College of Communication as part of London Design Festival 2019, 'charismatic megapigment' 2019, webcam, abstraction, symbol, machine intelligence
0:43 - 0:55 Charley's wider practice, colour, intuition, shape, abstract painting, finishing the painting, physical reaction, phd, drawing, unlearning, boredom
0:55 - 1:03 Charley's writing and influences, Agnes Martin, sensitivity, emptying out, minimalism, Instantloveland, Lee Krasner, female trailblazers, resilience, creative spirit, energy, robots, Judas Priest, cartoons, growing up in Birmingham, staying indoors, painting leather jackets
1:03 - 1:08 Upcoming exhibitions, virtual exhibitions, skateboard auction and what Charley's reading RIGHT NOW!
CHARLEY PETERS
charleypeters.com
BOOKS & WRITERS
‘Women and Economics’ 1898 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
‘The Home, it’s Work and Influence’ 1903 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
‘What Diantha Did’ 1909 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
‘Herland’ 1915 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe
‘A Room of One’s Own’ 1929 by Virginia Wolf
‘Do You Compute’ 2019 by Ryan Mungia and Steven Heller
COMMISSIONS
Bluebird House for Hospital Rooms
Centrepoint for House of Vans
ARTISTS
Eva Hesse 1936-1970
Agnes Martin 1912-2004
Lee Krasner ‘Living Colour’ exhibition
Clare Price, Alison Goodyear, EC as collaborators for Instantloveland article
GALLERIES
The Barbican
405 Gallery
Hauser & Wirth
Frog tape !!!
Wednesday Sep 02, 2020
Wednesday Sep 02, 2020
Welcome back to Art Fictions ! Jordan Baseman selects ‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith. Published in 1950, the book tells of Bruno and Guy who happen meet on a train and, between whiskies and cigarettes, Bruno suggests they swap murders. I’ll kill your pesky wife if you kill my horrid father. Seems fair though somewhat macabre, not at all the sort of thing a nice young woman from Texas ought to be writing about and very much against the law. What starts badly ends even worse as the double murders lead to Bruno drowning in the sea and Guy drowning in guilt. Jordan is very much taken by the book’s single focussed account of the two men as we contrast the multitude of aspects found in any one person, which he depicts as simply as possible in his short films. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaption of the book into film makes for further pondering about social status and the American post war context.
0:00 - 0:28 the book, the film, post war America, context, no happy endings, celebrity, image, good and evil, Trump, complexity of the self, psychoanalysis, expectations of wealth and material goods
0:28 - 0:55 Jordan's films, portraiture, self portraiture, construction, artifice, film production techniques, interplay of visuals and audio
0:55 - 1:06 influences, artists, books, where to see Jordan's work
JORDAN BASEMAN
Jordanbaseman.co.uk
mattsgallery.org
‘Blackout’
‘Gendersick’
‘Veil’
‘The Sun Always Shines on the Righteous’
‘The Dandy Doctrine’
‘The Last Walk’
BOOKS & WRITERS
‘Difficult Women’ 2017 by Roxane Gay
‘Critical Path’ 1981 by Buckminster Fuller
Czenzi Ormonde, author and screenwriter
Phyllis Nagy, screenwriter
Raymond Chandler, author and screenwriter
Roxane Gay, author, professor, editor, social commentator
Stephen King
Jonathan Franzen
SCREEN
‘Strangers on a Train’ 1951 directed by Alfred Hitchcock
‘The Wizard of Oz’ 1939 directed by Victor Fleming
‘The Hitch Hiker’ 1953 directed by Ida Lupino
‘Match Point’ 2005 directed by Woody Allen
‘The Midnight Gospel’ 2020 animation series on Netflix
ARTISTS
Robert Mapplethorpe 1946-1989
Jennifer West – film, installation, performance, zines
‘Christ’s Entry into Journalism’ by Kara Walker at MoMA
MUSIC
‘Extreme Love’ by Holly Hendron
‘Horses’ by Patti Smith
Michael Stipe
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
In this final episode of Series 1, Alice Browne selects 'Seawater and the Dragon' by Luciana Chetwynd and the Chetwynd Children. Published in 1973, the children's book tells of a feared dragon and his monster buddies who find an ally in naughty boy Seawater, and together, they all go on to become darlings of the village. As a painter of measured inaccuracies, Alice identifies with the book's wobbly illustrations, their over the top colours and contradictory perspectives. Along with the narrative, she too brings fantasy and reality onto the same surface, as well as a range of devices which explore how a painting might be put together. Together, we make some unexpected connections such as the way human presence brings about colour changes on cave walls, like a peculiar form of cave painting. And how Socrates might align with Seawater and the practice of an artist. Alice's use of symbols present a rich dossier of playfulness, for our eyes and our imaginations to wander around the canvas and compose our own personal stories. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality, however, this episode is the only exception, being recorded before lockdown.)
ALICE BROWNE
alicebrowne.com
@alicerbrowne (instagram)
'DPM' 2019
'Mighty-Connect-Discovery (Spaghetti Factory)' 2018
'After The Last Word/ Vindolanda' 2018
BOOKS
'Earthsea' by Ursula K Le Guin
'New Dark Age : Technology and the End of the Future' by James Bridle
'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
GALLERIES / EXHIBITIONS
flatlandgallery.com (solo exhibition 'Camouflage')
tintypegallery.com (solo exhibition 'Found')
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Tom Wilmott selects 'The Exorcist' by William Peter Blatty. Published in 1971, the novel portrays the wildly disturbing behaviour of 12 year old Regan, whose mother seeks help from a plethora of medical specialists until, in desperation, she arranges a priest to perform an exorcism of her daughter to cast out the devil. In a fascinating and deeply personal reading of the book, Tom sees the devil as a stand in for depression. We discuss the lengths to which he has shaped his practice in a dedicated effort to keeping his own destructive side at bay and maintain mental wellness. Resulting in a non-commercial art practice, his unique approach has also given rise to charitable initiatives including Painting Pro Bono and Painting Per Diem. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)
TOM WILMOTT
- tomwilmott.co.uk
- instagram tomrtwilmott
BOOKS
- 'Tell Them I Said No' by Martin Herbert
- 'On Being an Artist' by Michael Craig-Martin
- 'On Truth' by George Orwell
ARTISTS / GALLERIES
- Agnes Martin 1912-2004
- After Nyne Gallery
- Bedwyr Williams (featured on 'Chats in Lockdown' with Emma Cousin podcast Episode 11 May 2020)
- Douglas Gordon b.1966 (represented by Gagosian Gallery, '24 Hour Psycho' 1993, 'What Have I Done' solo exhibition at Hayward Gallery, Between Darkness and Light (After William Blake) 1997 featured double sided film showing 'The Exorcist', 1973 directed by William Friedkin and 'The Song of Bernadette', 1943 directed by Henry King)
- Ed Harris (directed and starred in 'Pollock' 2002)
- Robert Motherwell 1915-1991
- Helen Frankenthaler 1928-2011
- Robert Ryman 1930-2019
- Rosalind Davis (featured on 'Art Fictions' podcast Episode 2)
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Andrea Wright selects 'Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions' by theologian, schoolmaster and Anglican priest Edwin A Abbott. Published in 1884, the novella tells a story of geometry and the pettiness of the class system in equal tones of giggly satire and eye rolling dismay. We venture into Andrea's Irish ancestry and the shifts throughout her family's history, as well as her own vast experience from jazz singer to fashion stylist. She is an artist dedicated to the act of doing. Her reading of philosophy wouldn't make sense without the physical making and experimentation that is essential to her practice. We discuss her art as creating a voice for lost industries and the memory embedded in spaces as well as her exhibitions with Thorpe Stavri, The Koppel Project and Dateagle. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)
ANDREA V WRIGHT
andreavwright.com
instagram andreavwright
BOOKS
- 'A Little History of Philosophy' by Nigel Warburton
- Carlos Castaneda
- ‘Narcissis and Goldmunn’ by Herman Hess
- ‘Notes on the Index’ by Rosalind Krauss
- ‘On the Road’ by Jack Karoac
- ‘Species of Spaces and Other Pieces’ by Georges Perec
- ‘The Eyes of the Skin’ by Juhani Pallasmaa
GALLERIES/CURATORS
- Alexander Stavrou (‘Substance Bundle’ at The Koppel Project)
- Dateagle (‘Prevent this Tragedy’)
- David Cass (‘Surface’ at Projection Room)
- PLOP Residency (Oli Epp)
- Thorpe Stavri (‘Index’ at World Unit Whitechapel)
ARTISTS
- Matthew Burrows (Artist Support Pledge 2020), Jordan Baseman (‘Radio Influenza’ 2019 with The Wellcome Collection), Professor Maria Lalic (Bath School of Art & Design), Donald Judd (1928-1994)
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Hannah Luxton selects 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit, published by Canongate Books in 2005. We join the author’s drunken debut and travel with her to extremes at the western edges of America as she explores a myriad of geographical, ancestral and metaphysical ways of getting lost. Picking up on Rebecca’s fascination with the elusiveness of blue - the colour of where you are not and where you can never go - Hannah’s work is particularly spurred on by the sublime; that which is beyond knowledge. She describes her American road trip, her obsession with Iceland and we discuss in detail, her paintings and installations including those seen at Glass Cloud, Lily Brooke and Arthouse1. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)
Notes and Links:
HANNAH LUXTON
- hannahluxton.com
- instagram hannahluxton_
- BOOKS / TEXT / WRITERS
- ‘Of Stars and Chasms’ exhibition catalogue text by Sara Jaspan
- ‘The Faraway Nearby’ by Rebecca Solnit
- ‘The Magic Mountain’ by Thomas Mann
- Albert Camus (Nobel Prize winning French philosopher, author, journalist who attended Yves Klein exhibition ‘The Void’ 1958)
- Slavoj Zizek (Slovenian philosopher who introduced the concept of unknown knowns)
GALLERIES
- Arthouse1
- Barbican Arts Group Trust
- Glass Cloud Gallery
- Lily Brooke Gallery
- The Hayward Gallery
ARTISTS
- Julie F Hill juliehill.co.uk, Grant Foster grantfoster.com, Yves Klein 1928-1962, Mark Rothko 1903-1970, Ansel Adams 1902-1984, John Martin 1789-1854, J M W Turner 1775-1851, Caspar David Friedrich 1774-1840, Raphael 1483-1520, Joachim Patinir 1480-1524, Hans Memling 1430-1494
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Simon Linington, visual artist and story writer, has selected his own fiction for this episode. ‘Evangaline Too’ was originally published in New York’s ‘Sunday Salon’ zine and creates an intriguing viewing platform for our conversation. We probe the meticulous details of smoking, worms, dirty water and so on, as Simon grasps at that which is readily available. Dreams, travel and memories feed his writing. Dust and detritus, his installations. He shares some of the backstories to the development of his work at London sites including William Benington Gallery, Castor Projects, Lily Brooke, Division of Labour and Brooke Benington in Mexico City. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)
Notes and Links:
SIMON LININGTON
simonlinington.com
instagram simonlinington
BOOKS / TEXT
- ‘Evangeline Too’ 2019 sundaysalon.com/2020/01/evangeline-too
- ‘Ghosts’ 2020 soanywaymagazine.org
- ‘Palinure de Mexico’ by Fernando del Paso
- ‘Shoplifting’ from American Apparel by Tao Lin
- ‘Tristessa’ by Jack Kerouac
- ‘Under the Volcano’ by Malcolm Lowry
- ‘Not I’ by Samuel Barclay Beckett, performed by Billie Whitelaw
- ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Barclay Beckett
GALLERIES/CURATORIAL
- Brooke Benington (residency, Mexico City)
- Castor Projects (‘In from the Light’)
- Dateagle (‘Not to be Trusted’, ‘Prevent this Tragedy’)
- Division of Labour (‘Everything can be Broken’)
- Hayward Gallery (‘Out of the Dark Concrete’)
- Lily Brooke (‘Everything is Medicine’)
- Tate Gallery (‘From the Freud Museum’ 1991-1996 Susan Hiller)
- William Benington (‘La La Land’)
MUSIC
- song ‘Evangeline’ by Angels of Light
- song ‘Volcano’ by Beck
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Grant Foster and I pick up where we left off, discussing connections between his work and J G Ballard's 1970 novel 'The Atrocity Exhibition'. Considering Ballard often referred to parallels with painters, it seems natural that an artist might return the gesture, drawing on this author to feed his own practice. In this episode, Grant talks about eternal life, use of the motif and painting as a sequence of gestures where reality is founded in the ideas which follow the forms.(Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)
Notes and Links:
GRANT FOSTER
- grantfoster.org (website)
- foster_grant (instagram)
- tintypegallery.com/artists/grant-foster (gallery)
BOOKS / TEXT
- 'Ambit' magazine
- 'The Cradle of Humanity: How the Changing Landscape of Africa Made us so Smart' by Daniel Lieberman
- 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde
- 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- 'Apollo' magazine, article by Simon Grant
- 'Thoughts on Doom' by Eleanor Hartney of AICA (aicainternational.com)
- 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- 'Pattern Recognition' by William Gibson
GALLERIES
- Lychee One ('I'm not being Funny' solo exhibition, 2019)
- Transition Gallery ('A Stone in the Mountain' with Georgia Hayes, 2018)
- Tintype Gallery ('Ground Figure Sky' solo exhibition, 2017)
PODCASTS
- 'Weird Studies' with Phil Ford and J F Martel
- 'Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World' hosted by Rana Mitter on 'BBC Arts & Ideas'
ARTISTS
- Georgia Hayes b. 1946, Sigmar Polke 1941-2010, Andy Warhol 1928-1987, Max Ernst 1891-1976, Marcelle Duchamp 1887-1968, Francis Picabia 1879-1953, George Grosz 1893-1959, J W Turner 1775-1851, Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528