MaJor Musings

In this episode, Maria speaks to Jordan and the listeners about Palestinian artist, Emily Jacir, whose complex work is as highly political as it is deeply personal. Through the use of multimedia, with a focus on photography, film, and performance, Jacir investigates questions of displacement and identity, offering a platform to those whose voices have been historically silenced.

This week, Jordan talks about Agnes Denes with Maria and the listeners. Through a number of mediums, especially large-scale, site-specific works, Denes works with the land and other disciplines like math and philosophy to ponder the future of the Earth and of humanity.

In this episode, Maria talks to Jordan about the whirlwind career of Huguette Caland, a Lebanese artist who spent her entire life breaking away from certain expectations placed on her as a result of being born into an infamous family. Her work explores themes of eroticism, sexuality, and women's liberation, all of which blossomed upon her move to and eventual residency in Paris.

In this episode, Jordan presents the work of Peruvian artist Elena Damiani to Maria and the listeners. Working at the intersection of fine arts and scientific disciplines such as geology and cartography, Damiani tackles questions of how we acquire knowledge, understand time and history, and how materials may shine a light on previously hidden or concealed perceptions of our world. Maria and Jordan also give an update about their graduate school decisions!

This week, Maria talks to Jordan and the listeners about the life and work of Ghada Amer, an Egyptian-born contemporary artist who now resides in New York. Through an in-depth conversation about the complexities of her identity as an artist of the diaspora, in addition to the toxic patriarchal environment she faced in graduate school, find out more about what makes Amer who she is today, and why she so passionately stands by referring to her embroidery as painting.

In this episode, Jordan introduces Maria and the listeners to the pioneering experimental filmmaker Maya Deren. Working primarily in the 1940s and 50s, Deren's short films have been classified as "surrealist" and "feminist" by critics and scholars throughout the 20th century. But as Jordan and Maria discover, there's more to Deren and her films than just labels.

This week, Maria talks to Jordan and the listeners about the art and activism of Bahia Shehab, an Egyptian-based artist, educator, historian, and creative director. The conversation focuses primarily on Shehab’s well-known “A thousand times no” series in relation to the Egyptian revolution of 2011, in addition to a more broad dialogue surrounding the significance of public art in political movements.

In this episode, Jordan presents the artist-filmmaker Malena Szlam to Maria and the listeners. The film from 2018 "Altiplano" is the main focus of the conversation along with the themes explored and techniques employed by Szlam.

This week, Maria introduces Jordan and the listeners to the Lebanese-American photographer, Rania Matar, who graciously joined them in the episode to share more about her life and career. The conversation highlights Matar’s unique approach across several bodies of work (including her most recent project of photographing people in isolation during COVID), all of which showcase the commitment to the duality of her cultural identity, the stages of life in young girls and women, and the intimate relationship between artist and subject.

In this episode, Jordan gives an overview of the works of Land Artist Robert Smithson to Maria and the listeners. Smithson was one of the pioneering figures of the Land Art movement of the late 1960s, and he is well-known for his theory of Nonsites and his earthwork Spiral Jetty.