From his Los Angeles studio, artist Diedrick Brackens spoke with Art21 contributor Essence Harden about the development of his weaving practice. Describing his choice of materials and colors, Brackens reflects on how these elements come together to create narratives within his work.
“I want to elevate all of these material languages because I think, again, it folds back into thinking about the history of quilting for African Americans,” says the artist. “You take the scraps and all the things, and then it becomes precious through your labor and love of it. I feel like this is the underlying ethos that I try to keep up in the works.”
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Lonnie Holley deconstructs his creative resilience
From the site of his installation for the Prospect.3 biennial in New Orleans, Lonnie Holley discusses one of the works on view, Vox Humana II: Information and Instructions (Music Is Still Strong After Being Torn to Pieces) (2014), with Kerry James Marshall.
“You can do all the harm you want to do to the instrument,” says Holley, “but the music is in the human.”
Recommendations from Art21
Read: Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard
A very thoughtful and beautiful book, exploring a lot of different stories from the author’s life. Honestly, the title explains it all! (She was also my favorite professor and advisor during undergrad at UVM.)
Shared by Lauren Barnett, Director of Development; Available now from your retailer of choice
Listen: You’re Wrong About
I’ve been listening to the entirety of the podcast You’re Wrong About, which reexamines individuals and events that have been misaligned and miscast in the media. They approach everything—from the Enron scandal and “stranger danger,” to Anna Nicole Smith and Koko the Gorilla—with both serious research and much-needed empathy.
Shared by Meghan Garven, Development and Administrative Coordinator; Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or your podcast platform of choice
Read: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
This is an older book that I’m revisiting, but I think Brown’s research on shame and vulnerability has a lot to offer during this period when we’re all having difficult conversations about race.
Shared by Danielle Brock, Assistant Curator; Available now from your retailer of choice
Watch: Cupcake Wars
Recently, I’ve been swamped with work and assignments so Cupcake Wars is my idea of relaxation. I just need some pure mindless television to keep me sane. And I don’t know why, but it’s extremely entertaining watching someone critique a cupcake.
Shared by Anika Rahman, Bloomberg Arts intern; Now streaming on Hulu (with subscription)
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]]>“I like to think of the installation as a theatrical moment.”
]]>“Me saying thirteen essential rules is very didactic, but I wanted to reduce that by using a little bit of unexpected humor.”
]]>“The kitsch rises, the high and low mix together, and this hybridity becomes your life.”
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“Once money enters an art space it links to other social fields,” says Steyerl, “so this tries to follow these links between this battlefield—which happens to be in the southeast of Turkey—and this specific art space.”
]]>“The freedom of speech on Taksim is continually subject of debate. It’s like a monument of the secular state of Turkey,” RAAAF explains.
]]>“New Orleans is a blend of cultures, where [people] don’t have a straight line of where the tradition is from,” says Myers.
]]>Sitting in his studio, Cordova reminds Marshall of a five-minute conversation they shared at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995, where Cordova was a student at the time, that shaped his practice moving forward.
]]>“People may abandon this because they don’t think it is modern, but it is,” says Marshall, “I’m interested in how the idea of modernity can evolve in those cultures outside the West.”
]]>“It was never my interest or intention to work with blighted properties of New Orleans—there’s plenty of opportunities for that.” —Zaroughie Abdalian
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