Subject, Object, Verb is the sonic counterpart to ArtReview magazine, one of the world’s leading publications on contemporary art. The show explores the connections between artist, art and life – or, in the show’s own lexicon: subject, object and verb. Musician, artist and writer Ross Simonini engages with artists and thinkers of all varieties, including but not limited to painters, fashion designers, filmmakers, novelists, sculptors, poets, composers, sound artists, curators, and philosophers. The format of the show will feature a collage of formats, from interviews to field recordings to mixtapes to sound commissions, while always encouraging an attention to the many ways in which art can arrive at the ears.
Season 2, Episode 17: Paul McCarthy’s Life in Music
Paul McCarthy is a legendary performance artist, painter and filmmaker. He is less known for his work as a musician, though he has been active as an improvising sound artist since his days in music school. Today, he continues to play with his band, Extended Organ (formed with Mike Kelley) and to edit the sound in his films with the sensibility of noise and collage. In this episode, McCarthy describes his life in music, his early influences, and his mysterious interactions with a man who may have been the chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer.
Season 2, Episode 16: Arthur Russell’s Pop Music of the Future
This episode is a conversation with the writer, Matt Marble on the composer Arthur Russell, who was active in the ‘70s and ‘80s music scene in New York. Marble’s book Buddhist Bubblegum is a study of Russell’s life and music, which spanned many styles and invoked esoteric practices such as Tantra and Shingon Buddhism. On the podcast, Marble discusses Russell’s philosophical perspectives on such divergent topics as non-dualism and disco music, and how Russell worked with his Buddhist teacher to create what he believed would be the pop music of the future.
Season 2, Episode 15: Joanne Robertson on Improvisation
This episode features the musician and painter, Joanne Robertson whose work is born from improvisation. She regularly collaborates with other artists, such as Dean Blunt and Sidsel Meineche Hansen, who plays a vacuum on Joanne’s most recent release. She discusses her ideas on music, art and life, all while she nurses her newborn baby.
Season 2, Episode 14: Deniz Gul and Nour Mobarak – the Sound of Language
This episode features two multimedia artists, Deniz Gul and Nour Mobarak, who both work with sculpture, music, language and ideas. Mobarak discusses her new work, Dafne Phono, an audio-based adaptation of the first known opera, translated into the most morphophonologically complex languages in the world. Gul presents an essay from her most recent book, an excerpt on the subject of somatic philosopher Moshé Feldenkrais, along with an exercise for listeners to try at home.
Season 2, Episode 13: Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s Transcendental Metal Opera
Hunter Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix is the leading creative force in the highly eclectic band, Liturgy. She also makes sculpture and has created her own philosophical system called Transcendental Qabala, which informs much of her work. In this episode, we discuss her opera, Origin of the Alimonies, which she considers a total work of art, involving film, spiritual gnosis, and a gender-affirming transition.
Season 2, Episode 12: Mochu – Narrating Art, Deep Time and Freeports
Mochu is an artist who creates narrative technofictions in his films, writings and lectures. In this episode, he presents an audio adaptation of his new book, Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether, which discusses fossils, synthetic colour production, and time-traveling syndromes. The episode takes place in an art freeport and drifts between essay, fiction and mythology. It’s a wild philosophical ride into deep time.
Season 2, Episode 11: Natasha Ginwala on the Sound of Riots
For the last five years, curator Natasha Ginwala has been investigating riots, uprisings, and pogroms. As a part of this research, she’s curated an exhibition and edited the book Nights of the Dispossessed: Riots Unbound, edited with Gal Kirn and Niloufar Tajeri. For this podcast, Ginwala considers the sonic expression of riots through a collection of mixtapes and sound collages on social unrest. The episode features contributions by Arshia Haq (writer, filmmaker, DJ), Louis Henderson (artist, filmmaker), Josh Kun (author, music critic), and Atiyyah Khan (arts journalist, music writer, artist).
Season 2, Episode 10: Jared Madere’s Guide to Making Music with AI
For the last few years, the artist Jared Madere has invented images and music using artificial intelligence. He jams AI systems with irrationality to arrive at pictures and songs that are both familiar and alien. In this episode, Madere discusses the ‘frozen operas’ he has been performing around the world and the idiosyncratic process he uses to collaborate with the non-human.
Season 2, Episode 9: Ei Arakawa on Melody as Memory
Ei Arakawa is an artist working in sculpture, performance and more recently, musicals. In this episode Arakawa is interviewed for the first time about his songs, which have been largely overshadowed by his largescale performances, at venues such as Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Arakawa goes on to discuss the process of writing music and some of the artists, both amateurs and stars, who have been an influence on his work since childhood.
Season 2, Episode 8: Klein on the Sound of Childhood
Klein is multi-disciplinary artist. She’s made a feature length film, a hypertext storytelling game and theatrical works, but is primarily known for her music, a beguiling collage of sound. This episode features an interview in which Klein manipulates her vocals and provides a playlist of TV sitcom theme songs, commercial jingles, and Nigerian Nollywood soundtracks that influenced her as a child.
Season 2, Episode 7: Sheila Heti on Thinking about Thinking
Sheila Heti is a writer who interrogates the role of the writer, questions the limits of the book and explores the spectrum of literature. She has written novels, fables, a fashion book, a play, and philosophical investigations into everyday life. On this episode, she discusses working with systems as an artist, her love of thinking about thinking, and two of her upcoming works: Alphabetical Diary and Pure Colour.
Season 2, Episode 6: Tao Lin on the Art of Unknowing
Tao Lin has a relentlessly curious mind. In his fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, he toes the line between reality and the imagined. His newest novel, Leave Society (2021), uses a great depth of nonfictional research to push against the ideas of accepted science as they related to his life. In an era of proliferating controversial theories, Tao’s book celebrates the ability of science to refuse certainty and open up a space of unknowing. On this episode, Lin discusses a variety of ideas, including flat earth, hollow earth and free energy – alternative theories that, for Lin, serve as fertile material for his art.
Season 2, Episode 5: Simon Critchley on Pandemic Mysticism
Philosopher Simon Critchley writes about the history of human thought with generosity and open-minded curiosity. His newest book, Bald, is a collection of writings from his New York Times column, ‘The Stone’, which covers a vast cultural spectrum, from Socrates to David Bowie to Mormonism. On this episode, he presents his lecture on ‘Pandemic Mysticism’ alongside a few recordings by the monks of Simonpetra monastery.
Season 2, Episode 4: Flying Lotus
The musician and filmmaker, Flying Lotus has created a body of psychedelic, horrific and musically sophisticated work. On this episode, he discusses his thoughts on film school, spirituality, cannabis, and the piano, alongside a few excerpts from his new album, a soundtrack to the Samurai anime series, Yasuke.
Season 2, Episode 3: Pat Metheny
Guitarist and composer Pat Metheny has spent the last five decades investigating music from a vast array of musical approaches. On this episode, he discusses music from a philosophical perspective, alongside a few excerpts from his album of guitar quartet music Road to The Sun.
Season 2, Episode 2: Tschabalala Self
Painter Tschabalala Self plays and discusses her new audio work, Cotton Mouth, which uses sound collage and oral history to tell the story of contemporary black pop culture.
Season 2, Episode 1: Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan opens up his personal inventory of recorded sounds, which he has featured in his many investigative sound works. For this episode, Abu Hamdan simultaneously performs these sounds and discusses their slippery nature in his Dubai studio with curator Sabih Ahmed.
Season 1, Episode 4: Ariel Pink, Johanna Hedva and Jacolby Satterwhite
Musician Ariel Pink opens up his unreleased private archive of voice memos and talks about his love of unproduced bootlegs. Artist Jacolby Satterwhite plays a track from his band, PAT, which samples amateur song recordings made by his mother. Musician and writer Johanna Hedva discusses the many extended vocal techniques and experimental vocalists they studied on the path to writing their new album.
Season 1, Episode 3: Routine, Ritual, Eulogy
Writer Mason Currey discusses the daily rituals of Maya Angelou, Truman Capote, Beethoven, Patricia Highsmith, David Lynch, W.H. Auden and Lillian Hellman. Artist Natalie Labriola speaks about the history of female mystic artists, including Hildegard von Bingen, Betye Saar, Georgiana Houghton, CA Conrad, and Ana Mendieta. Candice Lin offers a surreal eulogy for her feral cat friend. New music by Astral Oracles and Sam Gendel.
Season 1, Episode 2: Josh Smith, Farah Al Qasimi, Patrick Langley and Angharad Williams
Painter Josh Smith speaks about his reclusive lifestyle and his conflicted relationship with exhibiting his work. Photographer, Farah Al Qasimi discusses her secret life as a soundcloud musician and plays some new music. Writer, Patrick Langley discusses the history of telephone art, and artist, Angharad Williams performs an act of channeling.
Season 1, Episode 1: Dawn Kasper, Samson Young, Susan Cianciolo
Performance artist Dawn Kasper unpacks the process of making a collaborative sound work in Frankfurt, Germany. Artist Susan Ciancolo recalls her dreams, tells a joke and reads aloud her favourite book from her apartment in New York. Sound artist Samson Young discusses a magic bell, tobacco auctioneers, and protest chanting in Hong Kong.
Host
Ross Simonini
Credits
Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini