105: Beth Campbell

105: Beth Campbell

Author: Sean J Patrick Carney April 14, 2019 Duration: 58:37
It’s my big birthday week, babies. To celebrate, I caught up with an old friend, artist Beth Campbell from New York. She was visiting Austin this past week to unveil a new public art project as part of the Landmarks collection at the University of Texas. I got to see Beth do a great conversation with philosopher Timothy Morton, who also wrote a nice essay about her work available via the link below. During our own conversation, Beth and I discussed the arc of her practice over the last 20 years, which has won her a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Pollack-Krasner Grant, and has seen her work presented in venues including the Whitney, the Drawing Room in London, MoMA PS1, and tons of other places. We talk mirrors, audience expectations, the difference between installation and sculpture, emotional time travel, and a whole lot more. The outro music is “Mythmaster” by Lightning Bolt. Read Timothy Morton’s essay, and learn more about Beth’s Landmarks project, here: https://landmarks.utexas.edu/artwork/spontaneous-futures-possible-past

Sean J Patrick Carney hosts Humor and the Abject Podcast, a series that finds the funny in the often challenging and unsettling world of contemporary art. This isn't a dry lecture or a fawning interview show; instead, Carney digs into the messy, the awkward, and the deliberately provocative corners of the art scene to see what makes us laugh, even when we might feel we shouldn't. Each episode feels like a conversation that could only happen here, one that acknowledges how discomfort and comedy are frequently intertwined in the work being made today. You'll hear discussions that grapple with ideas that are both intellectually rigorous and genuinely amusing, exploring why artists so often use humor to tackle difficult subjects. The podcast provides a unique, accessible entry point into contemporary practices, suggesting that laughter can be a powerful tool for understanding. Tuning in, you get the sense of being let in on a series of inside jokes that, once explained, reveal something much deeper about culture and creativity. It’s for anyone curious about art but tired of overly serious commentary, offering a fresh and engaging perspective that only this particular blend of host and subject matter can deliver.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Humor and the Abject Podcast
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