“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” -Marcus Aurelius
Worry. It drives many of us, keeps us awake at night, interferes with our ability to live our lives fully. The unknown is perhaps our greatest enemy, something that we can in no way understand or predict, and yet something we must go through. It can be difficult, almost impossible seeming, to let go of our worries and relax. And yet we soldier through time, meeting the unknown every second of every day, whether we are sitting on our sofa or adventuring to places we have never been.
Allison Jae Evans joined us to discuss her recent show, Hung Up, at Peninsula Gallery. The title is layered, referring to the collage-like way the show itself was hung as well as the motif of the show, the image of a phone cord running around the walls on which the works are hung. The cord is painted on the wall along with two hands playing a sort of cat’s cradle game with it. While there is an element of romantic obsession, the intention was to create a space that was part brothel, part phone sex booth (a construct created by Evans), part disco and part noir horror. To hear more, listen to the complete interview.
Rachel Mica Weiss discussed her show, Slippery Yolk, at Carvahlo Park. The show incorporates quite large-scale sculptural works, including one piece, Collar, made from pigmented plastic resin poured into a mold to create a chain that is then shaped into a circle. The work is held taught in a perfect circle, interacting with gravity in a novel way with every tendril pulled in just the right way to make it hold this shape. The intended effect is to block viewers’ movement while creating a portal to gaze through that denies any sort of reflection. To hear more about the pieces in this show, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket
It is up to each of us how we meet the unknown.
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 is here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Allison Jae Evans found herself reading Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018 by Peter Shjeldahl.
Deadlines:
The Leica Street Photo competition invites photographers to submit their work to the twelfth edition of one of the largest and most important competitions dedicated to street photography. This year the winner receives a Leica SL2-S camera and a voucher worth 1,000 to purchase a lens. To learn more and to submit your entry, visit the website. Deadline is January 30.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists, most recently Making it in the Art World.