Shows
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything16. Running Naked through the Market: Bill Deresiewicz on Artists in the Digital EconomyHow do you make a living as an artist when the big platforms price your work at zero? How do you get your big break when all the institutions that used to discover young artists have been decimated by the tech monopolies? In this episode, I talk to essayist and critic William Deresiewicz about his book, The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech.
BILL'S WEBSITE
billderesiewicz.com
WORKS CITED
-Deresiewicz, William. The Death...2022-07-021h 13Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything15. Optimism and Taking Risks: Thomas Agrinier on His PaintingsIn this conversation with Paris-based painter Thomas Agrinier, we discuss his dynamic figurative paintings—which mix a powerful classicism with contemporary textural and cartoon-like effects—as well as the experience of splitting your time between the computer and your body, and the need for optimism in life and politics.
WHERE TO SEE THOMAS’ WORK
-Instagram: @thomas.agrinier
-Website: www.thomasagrinier.com
MUSIC
-Theme music and consultation: Georgina Rossi, www.georginarossi.com
-Interlude: Ludwig van Beethoven, Sympho...2022-02-1926 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything14. Who Does Art Speak To?On a recent walk to the Museo de Bellas Artes in protest-ravaged Santiago de Chile, I try to respond to all the work I see through the lens of this question: who does art speak to?
WORKS CITED
-Berger, John. “Revolutionary Undoing: On Max Raphael’s The Demands of Art.” In Landscapes: John Berger on Art, edited by Tom Overton, Reprint edition. London ; New York: Verso, 2018.
-Lescaze, Zoë. “An Artist Who Disavows the Possibility of Individual Agency.” The New York Times, November 12, 2021, sec. T Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/t-magazine/agnieszka-kur...2021-12-0533 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything13. You Don't Have to Square That Circle: Ben Davis on Art & PoliticsCan art really create political change? What are the conditions that make this possible if and when it happens? What are the social ingredients that make for good art scenes? ...and what the hell was up with the DNC last year? In a sobering interview, Ben Davis, National Art Critic for ArtNet News and self-avowed Marxist, reminds us to be realistic about art's ability to change a world it is only one small part of—but also to rid ourselves of the expectation that in order to be good, art must change the world.
WH...2021-05-011h 21
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything12. What Do Musicians Do All Day? Georgina Rossi on the Microeconomics of Classical MusicThey receive about as much training as olympic athletes, and yet very few people have a sense of what life looks like for classical musicians today. This interview with Chilean-American violist Georgina Rossi covers a lot of ground: the nuts and bolts of a career in classical music, how society defines and compensates artistic labor, and simple things we as listeners can do to support the musicians that we love. Interwoven throughout the interview are excerpts from Georgina’s new album Mobili: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile. Enjoy!
WORKS CITED
Sto...2021-01-041h 03Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything11. Burst the BubbleAs artists, we often despair about the efficacy of our work and its ability to advocate for change. Part of this has to do with the fact that the art gallery/museum circuit can feel like a bubble, where everyone largely agrees on the issues and advocacy of any kind feels like preaching to the choir. But the more I think about this problem, the more I've come to feel that this agreement is an illusion. This episode argues that taken as a whole, the audiences of art galleries and museums are some of the most powerful people in...2020-10-1942 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything10. Post-scarcity & Degrowth: A Tale of Two TomorrowsAs we become more aware of the existential threat of climate change, it can feel like the economy is a runaway engine driving us toward extinction. We know that something is wrong, but we don’t know how to stop the momentum of this extractive economy that seems to have a will of its own. Episode 10 explores two alternatives to this vision of extinction—Post-scarcity and Degrowth—two optimistic attempts to unthink the economic orthodoxy that threatens our world. This is part 3 of a three-part episode exploring our society's tacit belief in the "the end of history," and what we can...2020-08-2643 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything9. ReparationsAfter the horrific killing of George Floyd by the police that were meant to protect and to serve him, mass demonstrations have pushed the conversation around police brutality to what is hopefully a new turning point in the United States. But the conversation around making reparations to black Americans for centuries of unpaid labor, stolen property, loss of life and emotional trauma remains as elusive as ever. In this episode, I step out of my depth to offer a personal opinion as a citizen and as a human being: if #BlackLivesMatter, then we need to demand reparations for black...2020-06-1440 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything8. You See A Lot of Zombie Movies: Charles Davis on Being an Independent Filmmaker TodayWhy is it that, despite the fact that technology has made it easier and cheaper to make and distribute your own films than ever before, being an independent filmmaker has become no easier than it ever was? In this episode, I talk to my friend, the filmmaker Charles Davis, about the life and times of today's independent filmmakers.
ABOUT CHARLES
Charles Davis is an independent filmmaker and head of Chunkle Freaky's Movies, an independent film company that makes low budget weirdo films for your viewing pleasure. Check out his s...2020-05-2042 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything7. The State of the World Tomorrow: Žižek's HegelIt is clear that Covid-19 is an event of historic proportions, but what does that really mean? What do we mean when we say that an event "shaped the course of history," and how much history is there really left to shape? Episode 7 dives into one of my favorite books of all time, Less Than Nothing, Slavoj Žižek's gutsy attempt to rehabilitate Hegel for the contemporary age. Recorded on lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak in New York, this is part 2 of a three-part episode exploring our society's tacit belief in the "the end of history," and what we ca...2020-05-0639 minCapital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything6. The State of the World TodayWith climate change, inequality, and Covid-19 raging just outside our windows, it can sometimes feel like we live in a world without a future. How did we get here? And how do we get back out? How do we reinstate the future if we no longer believe in progress? Recorded on lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak in New York, this is part 1 of a three-part episode exploring our society's tacit belief in the "the end of history," and what we can do to shed this politically-charged and dangerous illusion.
WORKS CITED
2020-04-1441 min
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything5. The State of Art TodayIt’s common knowledge that today, there is no unifying theme or essence to contemporary art. Having finally broken all of its own rules, the story goes that art is now free to be anything it wants to be. But while this idea is generally accepted, is it really true? Episode 5 argues that there is a common element to contemporary art today—a certain mode of production or attitude which it borrows from the worldview of marketing and branding.
WORKS CITED
-Danto, Arthur C. After the End of Art. New...2020-04-0527 min
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything4. Art Collector? Me? A Primer for the 99%Why is it that most of the galleries out there are chasing the same small group of elite collectors? In this interview with Maddie Boucher, the former head of Artsy's Art Genome Project, Episode 4 asks why life is tough for small galleries—and what we the 99% can do to start thinking of ourselves as people who can collect art and support the artists that we love.
Learn more about Maddie and her work at: madeleineboucher.com
MUSIC
-Theme music and consultation: Georgina Rossi, www.ge...2020-04-0523 min
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything3. Art and the Wealth Gap: MicrodynamicsHow does the wealth gap impact artists' ability to relate to one another? Episode 2, Part I explores how concentrations of capital at the top of the market affect inter-relationships between working artists.
WORKS CITED
-Levin, Yuval. The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left. New York: Basic Books, 2014.
-Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. 1 edition. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2007.
MUSIC
2020-04-0519 min
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything2. Art and the Wealth Gap: MacrodynamicsWhy does being an artist increasingly feel like sending your blood, sweat and tears into the void? Episode 2, Part I explores how concentrations of capital at the top of the market make life hard for working artists on a macro, systemic level.
WORKS CITED
-Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Edited by Frederick Engels. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Revised edition. Modern Library, 1906, p. 686.
-Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Revised edition. New York: Zone Books, 1995, §4, §29.
...2020-04-0528 min
Capital A: Unauthorized Opinions on Money, Art & Everything1. Art and SpaceWhat is the difference between a space and a venue? Episode 1 explores what space is, and why it is crucial to working artists.
WORKS CITED
-Fusco, Coco. SVA Art Practice Lunchtime Lecture Series. New York, n.d. https://vimeo.com/292362674.
-Bishop, Claire. “Palace in Plunderland.” Artforum, Slant, September 2018.
-Richter, Hans. Dada: Art and Anti-Art. Reprint edition. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997.
-Thornton, Sarah. Seven Days in the Art World. W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
-Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of T...2020-04-0526 min