Art Practical Audio

Jay and Elena are back and getting down to business. In this episode, our hosts catch us up on how they spent the summer: seeing shows (or not) and watching ridiculous amounts of television. And since the art world and the academic world operate on roughly the same calendar, Elena and Jay unpack the meaning of “back-to-school” by thinking about the benefit and necessity of alternative schooling models, like LeBron James’ I Promise school, Joseph Cullier and Shani Peters’ The Black School, and the Pilipinx American Library (PAL) at the Asian Art Museum.

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We kick off (un)making’s third season with an investigation into the theme of “movement,” with a conversation with artist and educator, Jesus Barraza. Through his many collaborations and community projects, particularly with his partner Melanie Cervantes and their work together under the banner Dignidad Rebelde, Jesus has helped to produce many of the political graphics and prints that continue to shape the visual identity for movements that are radical, feminist, and centered on people of color, in the San Francisco Bay Area and globally. Jesus roots this practice in struggles for social justice and in generations of creative knowledge, stories, and production. As he notes in the course of the interview, this work draws on a long and complex history of print, mural, and socially engaged practices within Indigenous and Xicanx communities—a constantly growing tradition that he now passes along to his students. We talk about Indigenous spiritualities, the community workshop as a cultural practice, and the ways Dignidad Rebelde’s political analysis has been shaped by Xicanisma and the Zapatistas.

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Subscribe to Art Practical on iTunes to catch (un)making as soon as it publishes, or look for it here every other Wednesday! Check us out on Instagram at @un_making. #APaudio

In this episode, writers and members The Black Aesthetic, Jamal Batts and Malika Ra Imhotep, sit down with LA-born filmmaker summer fucking mason, to discuss their immersive installation and short essay film Gemini. summer discloses how this work is deeply tied to familial rupture, the discovery of themselves and their brothers within the structures of black masculinity, and understanding their queerness.

Notes from the Field: MoAD’s Emerging Artists and Critic Series, in partnership with Art Practical, is a podcast dedicated to MoAD’s Emerging Artist Program. This series of interviews gives the exhibiting artists an opportunity to discuss their featured exhibition at MoAD and how their art practice is in dialogue with contemporary art as it considers themes of the African Diaspora.

Notes From MoAD: Episode 4 with Tamara Porras, Emily Kuhlmann, & Soleil Summer by Art Practical

All great things must come to an end...luckily for you, this ‘thing’ will be back in a few short months. This episode is the season finale of “what are you looking at,” and our hosts reflect on all different sorts of endings: the ending of the season, the ending of artists’ careers, and the art we would (hypothetically) end our lives over. It’s not all doom and gloom though, Elena and Jay also bask in their summer-break plans, brand new art crushes, and consider whether we’re in the beginning of a new black avant-garde.

Music: What’s Good by Son!

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episode 32: Barnali Ghosh & Anirvan Chatterjee

This episode we talk with community activists, storytellers, and researchers Barnali Ghosh & Anirvan Chatterjee, the founders and facilitators of the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. Through the tour, the two guide people across downtown Berkeley as they share stories that explore the multigenerational and intersectional work of South Asian Americans in the region: from Queer community building, feminist mobilization against human trafficking and labor exploitation, international freedom movements, and student organizing. The two have also carried this investment in bringing together storytelling and cultural history in curatorial projects--including exhibitions and programs at Kearny Street Workshop and the Asian Art Museum--and ongoing writings that continue to uncover new archival resources that connect us to the long legacies of resistance in the South Asian community.

episode 31: Erick Arguello (Calle 24), Rachel Lastimosa (SOMA Pilipinas), & Tommy Wong (Oakland Chinatown)

We’ve got a supersized discussion this episode as we talk with three Bay Area cultural organizers who are helping to build resilient local neighborhoods that are grounded in communities of color: Erick Arguello from Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, Rachel Lastimosa of SOMA Pilipinas - the Filipino Cultural Heritage District, and Tommy Wong of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Initiative. This panel, Keeping Our Space: Organizing Cultural Districts in the Bay Area, was recorded live at the Bayanihan Community Center in the heart of SOMA Pilipinas in early April as the final event in Art Practical’s Process + Practice + Progress series. In the course of our conversation, we talk about the history and context for the organizing happening in each neighborhood—what this means legislatively and culturally; the stakes of this work; and how communities are evolving and what it means to hold space to welcome in other people.

It’s MFA season and Jay and Elena reflect on their post-grad experiences and give some tricks and tips that have helped them survive it (so far). They muse on what their alternate reality majors would have been and address institutional bias in the exhibition jurying process. Elena and Jay also give a BIG shoutout to all the recent fine arts grads in the Bay.

Music: Rewind

Bello x knowsthetime https://soundcloud.com/knowsthetime/rewind

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Artist Andrew Wilson sits down with Curator and Educator Angel Rafael Concepcion Vazquez to discuss his affinity for fashion and honoring the ephemeral objects that acknowledge the histories of of Black bodies in America.

Notes from the Field: MoAD’s Emerging Artists and Critic Series is dedicated to MoAD’s Emerging Artist Program, giving the exhibiting artists an opportunity to discuss their featured exhibition at MoAD and how their art practice is in dialogue with contemporary art as it considers themes of the African Diaspora.

episode 30: Edgar Arceneaux

In this episode I talk with Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux about his recent projects Until, Until, Until and Library of Black Lies; Milli Vanilli and the Roots Christmas special; understanding black masculinity growing up as a geeky kid; and learning from moments of failure. Follow Edgar's work at studioedgararceneaux.com and on Instagram at @edgar_three.