Tom Wilmott selects 'The Exorcist' by William Peter Blatty. Published in 1971, the novel portrays the wildly disturbing behaviour of 12 year old Regan, whose mother seeks help from a plethora of medical specialists until, in desperation, she arranges a priest to perform an exorcism of her daughter to cast out the devil. In a fascinating and deeply personal reading of the book, Tom sees the devil as a stand in for depression. We discuss the lengths to which he has shaped his practice in a dedicated effort to keeping his own destructive side at bay and maintain mental wellness. Resulting in a non-commercial art practice, his unique approach has also given rise to charitable initiatives including Painting Pro Bono and Painting Per Diem. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

TOM WILMOTT

- tomwilmott.co.uk

- instagram tomrtwilmott

BOOKS

- 'Tell Them I Said No' by Martin Herbert

- 'On Being an Artist' by Michael Craig-Martin

- 'On Truth' by George Orwell

ARTISTS / GALLERIES

- Agnes Martin 1912-2004

- After Nyne Gallery

- Bedwyr Williams (featured on 'Chats in Lockdown' with Emma Cousin podcast Episode 11 May 2020)

- Douglas Gordon b.1966 (represented by Gagosian Gallery, '24 Hour Psycho' 1993, 'What Have I Done' solo exhibition at Hayward Gallery, Between Darkness and Light (After William Blake) 1997 featured double sided film showing 'The Exorcist', 1973 directed by William Friedkin and 'The Song of Bernadette', 1943 directed by Henry King)

- Ed Harris (directed and starred in 'Pollock' 2002)

- Robert Motherwell 1915-1991

- Helen Frankenthaler 1928-2011

- Robert Ryman 1930-2019

- Rosalind Davis (featured on 'Art Fictions' podcast Episode 2)

Andrea Wright selects 'Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions' by theologian, schoolmaster and Anglican priest Edwin A Abbott. Published in 1884, the novella tells a story of geometry and the pettiness of the class system in equal tones of giggly satire and eye rolling dismay. We venture into Andrea's Irish ancestry and the shifts throughout her family's history, as well as her own vast experience from jazz singer to fashion stylist. She is an artist dedicated to the act of doing. Her reading of philosophy wouldn't make sense without the physical making and experimentation that is essential to her practice. We discuss her art as creating a voice for lost industries and the memory embedded in spaces as well as her exhibitions with Thorpe Stavri, The Koppel Project and Dateagle. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

ANDREA V WRIGHT

andreavwright.com

instagram andreavwright

BOOKS

- 'A Little History of Philosophy' by Nigel Warburton

- Carlos Castaneda

- ‘Narcissis and Goldmunn’ by Herman Hess

- ‘Notes on the Index’ by Rosalind Krauss

- ‘On the Road’ by Jack Karoac

- ‘Species of Spaces and Other Pieces’ by Georges Perec

- ‘The Eyes of the Skin’ by Juhani Pallasmaa

GALLERIES/CURATORS

- Alexander Stavrou (‘Substance Bundle’ at The Koppel Project)

- Dateagle (‘Prevent this Tragedy’)

- David Cass (‘Surface’ at Projection Room)

- PLOP Residency (Oli Epp)

- Thorpe Stavri (‘Index’ at World Unit Whitechapel)

ARTISTS

- Matthew Burrows (Artist Support Pledge 2020), Jordan Baseman (‘Radio Influenza’ 2019 with The Wellcome Collection), Professor Maria Lalic (Bath School of Art & Design), Donald Judd (1928-1994)

Hannah Luxton selects 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit, published by Canongate Books in 2005. We join the author’s drunken debut and travel with her to extremes at the western edges of America as she explores a myriad of geographical, ancestral and metaphysical ways of getting lost. Picking up on Rebecca’s fascination with the elusiveness of blue - the colour of where you are not and where you can never go - Hannah’s work is particularly spurred on by the sublime; that which is beyond knowledge. She describes her American road trip, her obsession with Iceland and we discuss in detail, her paintings and installations including those seen at Glass Cloud, Lily Brooke and Arthouse1. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

Notes and Links:

HANNAH LUXTON

- hannahluxton.com

- instagram hannahluxton_

- BOOKS / TEXT / WRITERS

- ‘Of Stars and Chasms’ exhibition catalogue text by Sara Jaspan

- ‘The Faraway Nearby’ by Rebecca Solnit

- ‘The Magic Mountain’ by Thomas Mann

- Albert Camus (Nobel Prize winning French philosopher, author, journalist who attended Yves Klein exhibition ‘The Void’ 1958)

- Slavoj Zizek (Slovenian philosopher who introduced the concept of unknown knowns)

GALLERIES

- Arthouse1

- Barbican Arts Group Trust

- Glass Cloud Gallery

- Lily Brooke Gallery 

- The Hayward Gallery

ARTISTS

- Julie F Hill juliehill.co.uk, Grant Foster grantfoster.com, Yves Klein 1928-1962, Mark Rothko 1903-1970, Ansel Adams 1902-1984, John Martin 1789-1854, J M W Turner 1775-1851, Caspar David Friedrich 1774-1840, Raphael 1483-1520, Joachim Patinir 1480-1524, Hans Memling 1430-1494

Simon Linington, visual artist and story writer, has selected his own fiction for this episode. ‘Evangaline Too’ was originally published in New York’s ‘Sunday Salon’ zine and creates an intriguing viewing platform for our conversation. We probe the meticulous details of smoking, worms, dirty water and so on, as Simon grasps at that which is readily available. Dreams, travel and memories feed his writing. Dust and detritus, his installations. He shares some of the backstories to the development of his work at London sites including William Benington Gallery, Castor Projects, Lily Brooke, Division of Labour and Brooke Benington in Mexico City. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

Notes and Links:

SIMON LININGTON

simonlinington.com

instagram simonlinington

BOOKS / TEXT

- ‘Evangeline Too’ 2019 sundaysalon.com/2020/01/evangeline-too

- ‘Ghosts’ 2020 soanywaymagazine.org

- ‘Palinure de Mexico’ by Fernando del Paso

- ‘Shoplifting’ from American Apparel by Tao Lin

- ‘Tristessa’ by Jack Kerouac

- ‘Under the Volcano’ by Malcolm Lowry

- ‘Not I’ by Samuel Barclay Beckett, performed by Billie Whitelaw

- ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Barclay Beckett

GALLERIES/CURATORIAL 

- Brooke Benington (residency, Mexico City)

- Castor Projects (‘In from the Light’)

- Dateagle (‘Not to be Trusted’, ‘Prevent this Tragedy’)

- Division of Labour (‘Everything can be Broken’)

- Hayward Gallery (‘Out of the Dark Concrete’)

- Lily Brooke (‘Everything is Medicine’)

- Tate Gallery (‘From the Freud Museum’ 1991-1996 Susan Hiller)

- William Benington (‘La La Land’)

MUSIC

- song ‘Evangeline’ by Angels of Light

- song ‘Volcano’ by Beck

Grant Foster and I pick up where we left off, discussing connections between his work and J G Ballard's 1970 novel 'The Atrocity Exhibition'. Considering Ballard often referred to parallels with painters, it seems natural that an artist might return the gesture, drawing on this author to feed his own practice. In this episode, Grant talks about eternal life, use of the motif and painting as a sequence of gestures where reality is founded in the ideas which follow the forms.(Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

Notes and Links:

GRANT FOSTER

- grantfoster.org (website)

- foster_grant (instagram)

- tintypegallery.com/artists/grant-foster (gallery)

BOOKS / TEXT

- 'Ambit' magazine

- 'The Cradle of Humanity: How the Changing Landscape of Africa Made us so Smart' by Daniel Lieberman

- 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde

- 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

- 'Apollo' magazine, article by Simon Grant

- 'Thoughts on Doom' by Eleanor Hartney of AICA (aicainternational.com)

- 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky

- 'Pattern Recognition' by William Gibson

GALLERIES

- Lychee One ('I'm not being Funny' solo exhibition, 2019)

- Transition Gallery ('A Stone in the Mountain' with Georgia Hayes, 2018)

- Tintype Gallery ('Ground Figure Sky' solo exhibition, 2017)

PODCASTS

- 'Weird Studies' with Phil Ford and J F Martel

- 'Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World' hosted by Rana Mitter on 'BBC Arts & Ideas'

ARTISTS

- Georgia Hayes b. 1946, Sigmar Polke 1941-2010, Andy Warhol 1928-1987, Max Ernst 1891-1976, Marcelle Duchamp 1887-1968, Francis Picabia 1879-1953, George Grosz 1893-1959, J W Turner 1775-1851, Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528 

Grant Foster selects 'The Atrocity Exhibition' by J G Ballard, first published by Jonathan Cape UK, 1970. Both artist and writer embrace in equal measure the freedom, fear and disappointment that results from the individual being a fragmented composition, vulnerable to manipulation and capable of dynamic reconfiguration. In hope and despair, Grant points out that there is the possibility that 'true form' can be found 'beneath the lie; beneath the sludge'. We discuss in detail, works from his exhibitions at Tintype, Lychee One and Transition Galleries, as well as the ideas, concerns and formal observations which shape his paintings.(Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

Notes and Links:

GRANT FOSTER

- grantfoster.org (website)

- foster_grant (instagram)

- tintypegallery.com/artists/grant-foster (gallery)

BOOKS / TEXT

- 'Ambit' magazine

- 'The Cradle of Humanity: How the Changing Landscape of Africa Made us so Smart' by Daniel Lieberman

- 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde

- 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

- 'Apollo' magazine, article by Simon Grant

- 'Thoughts on Doom' by Eleanor Hartney of AICA (aicainternational.com)

- 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky

- 'Pattern Recognition' by William Gibson

GALLERIES

- Lychee One ('I'm not being Funny' solo exhibition, 2019)

- Transition Gallery ('A Stone in the Mountain' with Georgia Hayes, 2018)

- Tintype Gallery ('Ground Figure Sky' solo exhibition, 2017)

PODCASTS

- 'Weird Studies' with Phil Ford and J F Martel

- 'Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World' hosted by Rana Mitter on 'BBC Arts & Ideas'

ARTISTS

- Georgia Hayes b. 1946, Sigmar Polke 1941-2010, Andy Warhol 1928-1987, Max Ernst 1891-1976, Marcelle Duchamp 1887-1968, Francis Picabia 1879-1953, George Grosz 1893-1959, J W Turner 1775-1851, Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528 

Rosalind Davis - artist, curator, author, educator - and I weave in, out and around her paintings, installations and the mysterious diaries of Hungarian painter Janos Lavin from 'A Painter of Our Time' 1958 by John Berger. Rosalind details the decision to build her own art community and the many branches of her practice which have developed as a result. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recorded in lockdown with variations in audio quality.)

ROSALIND DAVIS

rosalinddavis.co.uk (website)

rosalindnldavis (instagram)

rosalinddavis (twitter)

'Irreversible Entanglements' 2020

'Vanishing Points' 2019

'Haus Konstruktive' 2018

'Strangelands' 2017

'No one Lives in the Real World' 2015

'Echo Chamber' 2014

Artistic Collaborator : Justin Hibbs justinhibbs.com carolfletcher.com

BOOKS

'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel

'What They Didn't Teach You in Art School' by Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilley

'Whatever Happened to Interracial Love' by Kathleen Collins

'Autumn' by Ali Smith

'Art Monthly' magazine

'Bringing Up the Bodies' by Hilary Mantel

'G.' by John Berger

'Tell Them I Said No' by Martin Herbert

GALLERIES

Koppel Project thekoppelproject.com

JGM Gallery jgmgallery.com

The Foundry Gallery thefoundrygallery.org

No Format Gallery secondfloor.co.uk

Collyer Bristow collyerbristow.com/gallery

Coffee is My Cup of Tea Instagram/richard_ducker

ARTISTS

Tomma Abts davidzwirner.com

Jordan Baseman jordanbaseman.co.uk rca.ac.uk/more/staff/jordan-baseman 

Lockdown has given the unharmed among us, opportunities, doubts and challenges in equal measure. The first 'Art Fictions' series, using a mixed bag of equipment, is a buzzing start to a down-to-earth podcast exploring creative connections between fiction and fine art. Each artist shares insights and inspirations around fictional themes and teenage dreams, and this podcast would not be possible without their imagination and their work. Thanks to them. And thanks to you for listening. Episode 1 is a brief overview of how the podcast is constructed. Design and illustration are by Joanna Quinn at Beryl Studios. The music is written and performed by Griffin Knipe.

(Shout out to Matt at The Tennis Podcast and Steve at Animation Magazine for their recording tips!)