“We are all burnt by ultraviolet rays. We all contain water in about the same ratio as Earth does, and salt water in the same ratio that the oceans do. We are poems about the hyperobject Earth.” -Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects
We are on borrowed time. The earth that sustains us suffers at our hands and yet we do little to change the course of the destruction we know lies ahead. Our leaders talk but do not act. And we continue living lives of constant consumption, all the while with a voice somewhere inside us imploring us to change our ways. But the world in which we live does not allow us to easily step out of the stream of consumerism. The world in which we live forces us to rely on consumption for our very existence. Long forgotten are the ways of self-sustenance once practiced by our ancestors. Long gone are the days when we lived in symbiosis with our mother earth. And yet there is still hope. It is up to each of us to create the change that our children and our children’s children so desperately need.
Greg Slick joined us from Beacon, New York in early September. He said during the middle of the pandemic Beacon began booming with people coming in as they fled the city and opening businesses and new art spaces. This is not the first time that Beacon has benefitted from artists moving in from the city, and over time, Slick says, the art community has been enriched and the food scene in town is far better than it once was. During the pandemic, Slick had eye surgery and was forced to learn how to work with monocular vision. Though he still has very limited vision in one eye, he has adapted to the shift in depth perception that comes from monocularism. His work before the surgery was somewhat monochromatic, but now perhaps because of his limitation in vision, Slick has begun including tremendous amounts of color in his work. To hear more about his own work, including an in-depth discussion about the work included in this newsletter, listen to the complete interview.
Kristan Kennedy spoke to us in September from Portland where she works as Artistic Director, Curator for Visual Art at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). She told us that throughout the pandemic, PICA continued honoring artist contracts despite not knowing whether anyone would be able to attend shows. Ultimately, they were able to hold exhibitions and invite small crowds enabling them to keep artists paid and engaged. One major change that had to take place was the way in which PICA held its annual Time-Based Art Festival, which typically relies on collective gathering. The pandemic as well as wildfires made it impossible to create this live festival so PICA moved it online. Although in a different format, it is still a very large undertaking with artists coming and going, creating various installations for the virtual audiences. To hear more about this and other aspects of Kristan Kennedy’s role as well as her own artistic practice as a painter, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:
Small gestures can create big change – what can you do differently today?
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Kristan Kennedy recently read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Greg Slick drew inspiration for his work Old Materiality from Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World by Timothy Morton.
Deadlines:
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council invites artists to apply for an Arts Center Residency. In their own words:
The 2022 Arts Center Residency will offer short-term, project-based residencies to artists and creative practitioners whose work is concerned with the broader themes of equity and sustainability. Concurrent to Governors Island’s ambitious plans for addressing climate change and environmental issues in the long-term, the Arts Center Residency encourages creative practices that engage with social and climate justice, NYC harbor history, urban ecology, and water. Artists are invited to explore these thematic anchors with Governors Island serving as a site for research and experimentation. Applicants may choose to address these themes explicitly or elaborate on how their practice and/or projects are relevant.
For more information, visit the website. Application deadline is November 12.
From 24 June to 20 August 2021, Marian Goodman Gallery and Holt/Smithson Foundation will present the first exhibition of Robert Smithson’s work in the gallery’s New York space. The exhibition, Abstract Cartography, will focus on a crucial five-year period in Smithson’s development: 1966 to 1971, a time when his “inklings of earthworks” began. This careful selection of artworks will trace Smithson’s radical rethinking of what art could be and where it could be found.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius, and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius. His book, Making it in the Art World, is available now with bonus content here.