This week, interdisciplinary earthworks artist Jemila MacEwan joins Asia to talk about their grounded, meditative practice.

Jemila and Asia begin their conversation by reflecting on the changing of the seasons, and the powerful emotional, psychological, and social shifts that occur when spring begins (1:57).

Jemila contemplates the fear and dread that many people in the Western world experience in relation to spring, with the knowledge that what comes into being in spring will soon die in autumn (3:39).

They discuss how many of these anxieties and transformations are the foundation of their upcoming durational performance, “Seed Meditation,” which takes place over the course of 10 days and involves the artist holding a germinating seed in their hands-- a public invitation to contemplate birth, growth, life and death (6:21).

Jemila and Asia discuss the choice of Washington Square Park as the site for the performance (10:10) and consider the long history of protest and community building that has occurred in the park (11:36).

They reflect on the risks of the performance-- including whether or not the seed successfully germinates-- and from there, they discuss the general challenges that durational artists experience when committing to long-form work (16:05).

Jemila acknowledges the crucial role that community support plays in their practice (21:27). They plan to establish a reciprocal relationship between them and their audience and participants by offering passersby a book containing information on how to grow and care for a seed, and how to embark upon their own personal seed meditation (28:02).

“Seed Meditation” is one in a long line of performance art earthworks, and Jemila emphasizes the myriad lessons that we can learn from studying and sitting with nature (30:52). They contemplate the cycle of life and death and how human bodies return to the earth and nourish new life (34:07).

The episode concludes with Jemila and Asia recalling the scientific principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only altered-- and both artists discuss the existential comfort and peace that realization can bring to our increasingly turbulent and anxiety-ridden culture (36:17).

Follow Jemila on Instagram @jemila_macewan and online at www.jemilamacewan.com

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

In this episode of Open Studios, Asia is joined by Lynn Lu. Lynn is an artist who embraces participation and collaboration in her performances, making space for the development of intimacy and connections with others that the constraints and isolating nature of our world don’t typically allow for.

Building upon strategies introduced by artists like Marina Abramović and Valie Export, Lynn devises performances that enable audiences to determine the content and outcome of her work (2:16).

Asia and Lynn discuss how trust and consent operate in her interactive performances (3:06) and Lynn mentions a time an audience member withdrew consent (5:42).

The two later discuss strawberrymilkbath, one of Lynn's earliest performances (09:21). In this piece, Lynn bathed in a tub filled with strawberry milk and invited audiences to drink her bathwater.

Asia and Lynn then reflect on the ways that Lynn's work promotes empathy and understanding, and Lynn shares her hope of building resonant relationships through her art (14:13).

In many performances, Lynn has encouraged participants to share extremely private memories or secrets anonymously. In one such performance at the Tate Modern in 2010, Lynn held up a sign that read "Free Secrets. Take one and/or leave one" (19:38). After collecting secrets and confessions across a number of years, Lynn thinks about what it has meant for her to hold onto so many strangers' stories (21:20). 

Towards the end of the conversation, Lynn shares what she has learned about herself from her audiences over the years (24:12). After realizing that many view her as non-threatening, Lynn decided to use the assumptions that people make about her to her advantage in performances (27:04). 

Finally, Lynn reveals details about one of her latest projects, which will focus on perimenopause and menopause (31:12). 

Follow Lynn Lu on Instagram @lululotte and online at lynnlu.info

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

Sarah Cameron Sunde, an interdisciplinary artist who works at the intersection of performance, video, and socially-engaged public art joins Asia on this episode of the podcast.

Asia and Sarah discuss Sarah's incredible project 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea, a series of nine site-specific performances and video art works made in collaboration with communities around the world. In each performance, Sarah, joined by community members, stands silently in a body of water for a full tide cycle that lasts from 12 - 13 hours. Over this period of time, the water rises to almost engulf participants and later recedes back to low tide.

As the conversation begins, Sarah shares how she feels about the approach of the one-year anniversary of the final performance of 36.5, which took place in the New York Estuary on September 14, 2022 (2:10). Although the 36.5 series is complete, Sarah and Asia consider how 36.5 can continue to live on in other people's bodies (6:03).

Asia then asks Sarah to think back to the moment when Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in 2012 (8:58). In the wake of the deadly storm, Sarah realized how vulnerable the city was to sea-level rise and extreme weather, and she felt motivated to use art to communicate the struggle for survival amidst the climate crisis.

In the second-half of the episode, Sarah shares how she formed connections with people around the world to generate different iterations of 36.5 on almost every continent. Sarah also offers the example of how 36.5 was developed in Brazil with her collaborators (18:47). 

Recognizing how important it will be to record and document all of the stories of 36.5, Sarah is working with Una Chaudhuri to write a book about the project (24:41). In closing, Sarah shares what gives her hope to continue her work (29:07) and provides a new way of framing what qualifies as a performance (30:53). 

Follow Sarah Cameron Sunde and 36.5 on Instagram @scsunde and @36.5durational and online at https://www.sarahcameronsunde.com/
and https://www.36pt5.org/

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

Sara Kostic, an interdisciplinary artist who works across performance, dance, visual art, and architecture joins Asia on this episode of the podcast.

Born in Belgrade, Serbia and now based in New York City, Sara has performed internationally at the Mardin Biennale in Turkey, Venice International Performance Art Week in Italy, and Grace Exhibition Space in New York, among many others.

Sara explains how her background in dance and studies of architecture led her to performance art (1:41). She shares how she was first introduced to performance art practices through a workshop with Marta Jovanović back in 2015 (05:56). It was then that Sara discovered the challenge of performing durational works and became interested in using time as a material.

In the second half of the episode, Sara discusses why she has used sugar in past performances and explains why she views sugar as an object that is symbolic of capitalistic desires (08:41). Asia notes that Sara's use of sugar evolves in later performances into a metaphor for the desirability and consumption of women's bodies (09:24). In closing, Sara shares some of her upcoming projects including a collaborative work with Arantxa Araujo titled Ebb and Flow (14:23).

Follow Sara Kostic on Instagram @arbor_sara and on her website sarakostic.com

You can watch Sara's work on PerformVu! Head to https://www.performvu.com/

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

Argentine activist and hard-core political performance artist Natacha Voliakovsky joins Asia on the podcast this week.

Natacha begins by sharing why activism and socially-engaged work is central to their artistic practice (1:21). While discussing the importance of the Latin American feminist movement Ni Una Menos, Natacha reflects on the way their personal involvement in protests has shaped their work (04:28). The "fútbol performativity" (6:06) and energy of flag-waving and rallying at protests and marches is absolutely present in Natacha's public performances. 

In the second-half of the conversation, Natacha considers the significance of blood in their work (9:07) and describes how they go about preparing for and recovering from intense, high-risk performances (13:02). Walking through the example of their 2022 performance "Abortion is a Life Need," Natacha explains how they assessed the physical and emotional risks of the performance and communicated those risks to audiences and community members (15:40). Finally, Natacha and Asia discuss Natacha's new video installation "the denied body: a refuge of trauma," which opens on Governors Island this September (17:46). In closing, Asia asks Natacha to share what they feel they have been denied (20:12).

Follow Natacha Voliakovsky on Instagram @natachavoliakovsky and on their website natachavoliakovsky.com

You can watch Natacha's work on PerformVu! Head to ⁠https://www.performvu.com/⁠

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart. 

Find Asia online @asiastewart and ⁠@performvu 

In this episode, Katya Grokhovsky joins Asia to discuss The Immigrant Artist Biennial, which Katya founded back in 2019. 

The Immigrant Artist Biennial (TIAB) facilitates a platform of support for marginalized and underrecognized artists. Contact Zone, the second edition of TIAB, will take place this fall and winter from September 8, 2023 to January 14, 2024. Co-curated by Bianca Abdi-Boragi, Katherine Adams, and Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, the biennial will present 48 artists from over 35 countries across seven venues.

Katya begins the conversation by sharing what the biennial's theme means to her (02:55). She also discusses how the founding of TIAB runs counter to the exclusive nature and structure of traditional biennials (05:58). 

Then Katya discusses the necessity of offering free and accessible events through TIAB (09:58) and also comments on the way that TIAB resists the production of nationhood or reinforcement of nationalism (11:23). 

Katya notes that many artist grants, fellowships, and residencies in the U.S. require applicants to be citizens or have access to a green card, which consequently excludes many immigrant artists with various statuses from ever applying for those opportunities (13:29). TIAB responds to this and many of the other institutional and economic barriers that exist in the art world to introduce a platform where immigrant experiences are centered and valued. Alongside other volunteers and organizers, Katya wanted to ensure that TIAB could distribute resources and care throughout the community (23:56). 

In the second half of the episode, Katya both looks ahead to the future of TIAB (16:40) and reflects on earlier visions or goals of the biennial (26:43). Ultimately, Katya hopes to prioritize making TIAB sustainable in the years ahead with more institutional support and partnerships (31:17).

Follow The Immigrant Artist Biennial on Instagram @theimmigrantartistbiennial and online at www.theimmigrantartistbiennial.com/

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart. 

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu 

Performance artist Verónica Peña sits down for a chat with Asia this week. 

Verónica Peña is an interdisciplinary artist and independent curator from Spain based in the United States. Her performances explore the impact that absence, separation, and loss has on the human condition. Resisting limiting forces, from the enforcement of restrictive immigration policies to the operation of machismo, Verónica aspires to foster unity and connection in a world that sows division. For Verónica, the materiality of the items she uses in performances is key. She often fully envelops her body in these items and props, participating in a physical metamorphosis that momentarily alters the appearance of her body. Many of her performances incorporate audience participation and reflect her interest in promoting empathy.

Asia and Verónica mainly discuss Verónica's notable performance "The Body in the Substance," which Asia saw in-person back in 2021 at the NARS Foundation in New York.

In that performance, Verónica submerges herself in a large tank and breathes through a tube that allows her to stay underwater for hours at a time. Verónica explains how this performance can be freeing (02:32). She also shares how her artistic practice evolved from painting canvases to covering her own skin and body in paint and other materials.

Verónica describes what it is like to be submerged in her tank (05:20) and shares how she experimented with the liquids that would become the substance in her tank (06:14).

Audience engagement and feedback is important to Verónica, and she talks about the way viewers intensely responded to the sound of her breathing during the performance (11:46). Over time, Verónica has given members of the public the opportunity to submerge themselves in the tank, and many have deeply valued finding a sense of peace while underwater (14:52).

Asia also highlights Verónica's performance "Carried Bodies: La Máquina Dormida" to point out how Verónica uses sets of constraints to build performances (20:53). This conversation about Carried Bodies winds into a brief discussion of nudity in performance (25:15) and efforts to push audiences to sit with discomfort.

Verónica shares how she has stepped outside her own comfort zone through a studio program with Rockella (27:15). The program has pushed Verónica to fabricate objects related to her live performance work. Asia and Verónica end their conversation by reflecting on what remains once a performance is complete.

Follow Verónica on Instagram @veronica.pena.live.art and on her website www.veronicapena.com

You can watch Verónica's work on PerformVu! Head to https://www.performvu.com/

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart. 

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu 

Performance artist, poet, and writer GOODW.Y.N. joins Asia this week on the podcast. 

Asia and GOODW.Y.N. begin by discussing GOODW.Y.N.'s journey to becoming a performance artist and how their practice is informed by their work as a poet and writer (01:40). The two focus the majority of their conversation on GOODW.Y.N.'s performance series Ain't I a Woman (?/!), which GOODW.Y.N. has presented in various iterations since 2017. The series shares its title with Sojourner Truth's infamous 1851 speech. However, as GOODW.Y.N. points out, the title and diction of Sojourner's speech was altered when it was recounted by the white abolitionist Frances Gage in 1863 (03:45). While participating in workshops through EMERGENYC, GOODW.Y.N. developed the performance Ain't I a Woman (?/!) to reclaim Sojourner's speech (05:48). 

GOODW.Y.N. considers what their performances of Ain't I a Woman (?/!) have taught them (07:33) and processes why some viewers respond violently to their performances (08:42). Although GOODW.Y.N. acknowledges that some people are afraid of their work because it forces them to confront the mythos of white supremacy (10:28), GOODW.Y.N. chooses to focus on those who celebrate their work and support their rebellion against the system. 

GOODW.Y.N. reveals that their upcoming performance of Ain't I a Woman (?/!) The Dinner Party II at Judson Memorial Church will conclude the series (14:05), and they share some new projects that they are developing (16:31). 

At the end of their conversation, Asia and GOODW.Y.N. reflect on the "mammification" of Black performers and review GOODW.Y.N.'s efforts to upend the traditional contract that exists between performers and audiences (18:50).

Follow GOODW.Y.N. on Instagram @goodw.y.n9

You can watch GOODW.Y.N.'s work on PerformVu! Head to https://www.performvu.com/

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

This week, Asia is joined by Lisette Ros, a Dutch performance artist who investigates daily conventions and breaks down everyday behaviors. Lisette approaches her performances as experiments or opportunities to research and collect data about her body, all in the attempt to better understand her fluid, queer identity and consider the question, “Who is she, in the midst of it all?”

Lisette first explains how she familiarizes herself with any performance location and begins the process of research (1:22). She then reviews how her work "Reframing Conventions" shifted when performed in various locations including the Red Light District (03:56). Asia questions if and how the question of safety comes up in Lisette's work (13:15) and Lisette admits that her work does not embrace comfort, in favor of searching for moments of vulnerability and exposure.

Lisette later describes her My Self series, which currently includes five performances: The Fetus, The Other, The Body, The Bladder, and The First Breath (14:56). All five contribute to Lisette's efforts to deconstruct her slippery sense of identity and question when and how we come to recognize and make sense of our bodies and the worlds that live within them.

In an effort to better understand her "blood" and family line, Lisette will begin to develop the sixth performance of the My Self series: The Unfamiliar Roots (26:54). This project will take her to Indonesia (where her grandfather was born) to participate in a program at Melati Suryodarmo's Studio Plesungan.

Before they close, Asia and Lisette discuss the axolotl, a fascinating creature that Lisette was recently researching in Mexico City. The two reflect on the ways that the axolotl's resistance to evolution both challenges and inspires Lisette's practice and investment in "being in flux."

Follow Lisette Ros online at www.lisetteros.com and on Instagram @lisetteros.

You can also watch many of Lisette's performances on PerformVu! Head to www.performvu.com

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia online @asiastewart and @performvu

Asia Stewart chats with Yali Romagoza, a Cuban-born interdisciplinary artist currently based in Queens, NY.

The two begin by discussing how Yali is settling into her new studio at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (01:43). Then they walk through the birth of her alter ego, Cuquita The Cuban Doll (06:17), and Yali describes how she drew inspiration for Cuquita from the Cuquitas she had cut out from the pages of Mujeres magazine as a child in Cuba.

In the second half of their conversation, Asia and Yali revisit Yali's performance "No me pongan en lo oscuro" (17:25). Then they reflect on being regarded as sculptures or objects when performing in gallery spaces or on the street (24:33). Finally, Yali shares her emotional experience of presenting her recent work "Pain of Cuba, Body I Am" and recounts her dreams of Ana Mendieta (31:58).

You can next see Yali perform on August 3, 2023 in Asbury Park through a series with Siren Arts. She will also have an Open Studio at EFA in Fall 2023. Follow Yali online at www.yaliromagoza.org and on Instagram @cuquitathecubandoll.

You can also watch many of Yali's performances on PerformVu! Head to www.performvu.com

This podcast is produced and edited by Asia Stewart.

Find Asia Stewart online @asiastewart and @performvu