Joseph Smolinski

Joseph Smolinski, Open Water 9, 2018,

Joe is a multimedia artist working in drawing, photography, video, digital 3D modelling, and animation. His practice engages with technology, environmental science, landscape painting, science fiction, and the eroding boarders between the natural and human-made world. He is currently in the midst of creating a new series of ominous and beautifully detailed graphite drawings depicting open water, which we’ll discuss towards the end of this podcast.

Joe Smolinski is a multimedia artist working in drawing, photography, video, digital 3D modelling, and animation. His practice engages with technology, environmental science, landscape painting, science fiction, and the eroding boarders between the natural and human-made world. He is currently in the midst of creating a new series of ominous and beautifully detailed graphite drawings depicting open water, which we’ll discuss towards the end of this podcast.

Downstream is a two channel video that follows two tributaries that flow into the Connecticut River. The Connecticut River begins at the border of Canada and the United States, cuts through New England and empties into the Long Island Sound linking to the Atlantic Ocean. The right side of the video is filmed upstream while the left is filmed downstream. The installation is projected on opposing walls so the viewer can pass through a virtual flow of water. Through out the video sculptural compositions appear that were made by collecting debris, 3D scanning the objects and then compositing them into the footage. This project was made possible by a grant from Wesleyan University Center for Fine Art.

Joseph Smolinski, Ghost Bee 1, 3D printed PLA plastic with resin coating, 9.5 x 10.75 x 8 inches.

Joseph Smolinski, a drawing from the After the Fall Series, 2008

Nina Yuen

Nina is an artist and filmmaker whose work deals with gender, narcissism, migration, psychology, philosophy, and so much more. In her visually stunning films, she transforms fragments of appropriated writings and imagery into cogent and introspective narratives in which she plays the starring role. Her protagonists are often vulnerable outsiders in the midst of experiencing and processing trauma.

See more of Nina’s work on her website linked here, or on her gallery’s website: janelombardgallery.com

Nina is an artist and filmmaker whose work deals with gender, narcissism, migration, psychology, philosophy, and so much more. In her visually stunning films, she transforms fragments of appropriated writings and imagery into cogent and introspective narratives in which she plays the starring role. Her protagonists are often vulnerable outsiders in the midst of experiencing and processing trauma. See more of Nina’s work on her website linked here, or on her gallery’s website: janelombardgallery.com

Nina Yuen, Narcissus (excerpt), 2016.

Sources: 1. Mother Nature, Conservation International, 2. Indecent Proposal, Jack Englehard, 3. MarinaAbromvichMadeMeCry.tumblr.com, 4. After Love, Maxine Kumin, 5. Twiniwt.tumblr.com, 6. Keeping Things Whole, Mark Strand.

Nina Yuen, Raymond (excerpt), 2015.

Sources: 1. Interview with Chris Yuen, 2. A History of Everything Including You by Jenny Hallowell, 3. Birches by Robert Frost, Puffy the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary, 4. The Unicorn, by Shel Silverstein, 6. This Old Man by Roger Angell, 7. Days of My Youth by Kuiokalani Lee, 8. The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell, 9. In My Life by the Beatles.

Nina Yuen, Juanita (excerpt), 2010.

Sources: 1. Mother, Maurizio Cattelan, 2. Counting at Dusk (Why Poetry Matters when the Century Ends), Elaine Scarry, 3. Performance Instructions, Vito Acconci, 4. Interview with Noelie Rodriguez.

Nina Yuen, Switch, 2016.

Sources: 1. Switch, 2. Carnosaur, Adam Simon, 3. Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, 4. The Rad Death, Edgar Allen Poe, 5. Command & Conquer, Nintendo, 6. Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop, 7. Advance War: Days of Ruin, Nintendo.

Monique Atherton

Monique’s uncompromising photographs of people and places explore past and present traumas of dislocation and abandonment. Many of them communicate an alienated sense of intimacy. They become explorations of an internal psychological landscape, rather than just depictions of external life. In her recent work, Monique has experimented with digital manipulation, creating surreal and haunting images that express the disorienting experience of processing loss.

View more of Monique's work at http://moniqueatherton.com

Monique’s uncompromising photographs of people and places explore past and present traumas of dislocation and abandonment. Many of them communicate an alienated sense of intimacy. They become explorations of an internal psychological landscape, rather than just depictions of external life. In her recent work, Monique has experimented with digital manipulation, creating surreal and haunting images that express the disorienting experience of processing loss. View more of Monique's work at http://moniqueatherton.com

Photos from the First Avenue Series...

Photographs from the series Bad Faith...

Photo documentation of Untitled (Peep Booth)...

Julie Pereira

Julie’s work deals with the cyclical nature of growth, decay, and erosion, and the way in which time seems to mysteriously contract and expand. Much of her work transcends its material properties taking on a life of its own. In one body of work, she suspends massive walls of layered paper from the ceiling and then burns intricate organic shapes into the paper creating deep fissures. We’ll discuss this and other works during this podcast.

Julie Pereira's work deals with the cyclical nature of growth, decay, and erosion, and the way in which time seems to mysteriously contract and expand. Much of her art transcends its material properties taking on a life of its own. In one body of work, she suspends massive walls of layered paper from the ceiling and then burns intricate organic shapes into the paper creating deep fissures. We’ll discuss this and other works during this podcast.

We spend a good deal of time towards the end of the podcast discussing Jorge Luis Borges' story “The Garden of Forking Paths” as it pertains to Julie's series, From a Pool in the Floating Garden of Yamata-no-orochi. This series can be found here: http://www.juliepereira.com

You can find the full text for "The Garden of Forking Paths," here.

Julie Pereira, Floating Wall 1.

Julie Pereira, Floating Wall Oxidizing Copper.

Julie Pereira, Floating Wall, Oxidizing Copper (detail shot).

Julie Pereira, Buri Buri Dance.

Buri Buri Dance (detail)

Julie Pereira, Palimpsests.

Howard el-Yasin

Howard is fascinated by materials (shards, fragments, dead skin cells) Americans produce and discard. He’s captivated by the way in which these objects reflect our current moment of mass-production and consumption—a condition that allows us to throw away and forget objects of personal significance. In his artistic practice, he seeks to penetrate the material surface of these forgotten human bi-products, revealing the layers of cultural meaning and forensic data contained within them. Howard collects human hair, dryer lint, thrown out banana peels, among other things.

We spend the bulk of this interview discussing Howard’s sculptural installations of dryer lint, objects that are at once visceral and ephemeral, enigmatic and abject.

You can see even more of Howard's work at http://howard-elyasin.squarespace.com/

Howard is fascinated by the materials (shards, fragments, dead skin cells) Americans produce and discard. He’s captivated by the way in which these objects reflect our current moment of mass-production and consumption—a condition that allows us to throw away and forget objects of personal significance. In his artistic practice, he seeks to penetrate the material surface of these forgotten human bi-products, revealing the layers of cultural meaning and forensic data contained within them. Howard collects human hair, dryer lint, thrown out banana peels, among other things. We spend the bulk of this interview discussing Howard’s sculptural installations of dryer lint, objects that are at once visceral and ephemeral, enigmatic and abject.

Howard el-Yasin, commercial dryer lint installation in Baltimore, 2016.

Howard el-Yasin, commercial dryer lint installation in Baltimore, 2016.

Howard el-Yasin, Mound, 2018, commercial dryer lint. (Installed at the Washington Art Association.)

Howard el-Yasin, 2017, Domestic lint installation.

Howard el-Yasin, Banana Skins installation, 2017.