In the Foreground: Conversations on Art & Writing

Latest Episodes:

“‘Others’ of Various Kinds”: J. Vanessa Lyon on Intersectionality as an Early Modern Scholar May 04, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with J. Vanessa Lyon, who is on the faculty at Bennington College, where she teaches the histories of art with an emphasis on gender, race, and post/colonial relationships in Spanish, Flemish, and Transatlantic visual representation. Vanessa speaks about the influence of her graduate studies in theology and how she views teaching as a politics of care. She also describes her experiences as a queer woman of color working on “Old Masters” like Rubens, and contemplates reverberations between early modern and contemporary art, particularly for artists of color.

“Where the Impossible is Possible”: Saundra Weddle and Lisa Pon on Collaboration and Renaissance Studies Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with two scholars of Renaissance art and architecture: Saundra Weddle, professor of architecture at Drury University and a Clark Fellow in fall 2020, and Lisa Pon, professor of art history at the University of Southern California. They discuss how they met one another by chance in a hostel while studying in Italy as graduate students, and how their thirty-year-friendship has shaped their professional work. Saundra and Lisa reflect on their experiences conducting archival research and share their perspectives on where the field of early modern art history is headed.

"One's Own Bifurcations": Lorraine O'Grady on Both/And Thinking in Art Apr 20, 2021

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In this episode, Caro Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Lorraine O’Grady, an artist and cultural critic whose work on Black female subjectivity and modernism has made significant contributions to numerous disciplines. Lorraine discusses her early research on the relationship between Charles Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval and grapples with her relationship to Black abstract art. She critiques the elision of scholars of color within art history and reflects on the move among Black feminist scholars to acknowledge the specificities of difference. Throughout the conversation, Lorraine offers a perspective that integrates personal histories with broader, cultural ones

“Moving Across the Threshold“: Alisa LaGamma on Curating the Arts of Africa Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Alisa LaGamma, a specialist of African art and Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she has been a curator for twenty-five years. Alisa discusses the formative influence of her childhood spent in the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, South Africa, and Italy, her abiding interest in Renaissance art, and how she landed in curatorial work. She reflects on several of her exhibition projects that have sought to anchor African art historically and conceptually and shares her thinking behind the Rockefeller Wing reinstallation that is currently underway at the Met.

“Sound is a Dimension of Reality”: Robin James on Theorizing Sound, Race, and Gender Mar 30, 2021

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In this episode in the mini-series focused on sound, art, and media, Caitlin Woolsey (Manton Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Robin James, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. Robin explores the intersections of pop music, sound studies, feminism, race, and contemporary continental philosophy, and discusses how her work often sits uneasily within institutional disciplines. She shares how she sees popular music as a kind of archive and critiques theoretical approaches that idealize sound as neutral or reparative.

“Perception is a Form of Sampling": Christoph Cox on Materialities of Sound Mar 23, 2021

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In this episode from the mini-series focused on sound and art, Caitlin Woolsey (Manton Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Christoph Cox, professor of philosophy and dean of the faculty at Hampshire College. Christoph writes on aesthetics, theories of sound, and cultural theory. In this conversation he describes his transdisciplinary academic path, how he views music writing as a kind of fieldwork, and a current collaborative project on sampling. Finally, Christoph reflects on the ethical implications of how we think about the nature of sound as object, as materiality, and as a perennial flow.

“The Sound Can Touch You Directly”: Christina Kubisch on Electronic Sound Art Mar 16, 2021

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In this episode from the mini-series focused on sound, media, and art, Caitlin Woolsey (Manton Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Christina Kubisch, a pioneer of sound art. Trained as a composer and flautist, since the 1970s Christina has worked with techniques like electromagnetic induction to realize her experiential installations. In this conversation, Christina describes growing up in postwar Germany, her formative training in music and painting, and her re-invention of technology within her artistic practice. She also reflects on how her experiences in the world of experimental music (among the likes of John Cage and Pauline Oliveros) have informed the sound works and “Electrical Walks” in cities around the world for which she is known today.

“When is This?”: Brian Michael Murphy on Media Archaeology and Preservation Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

This is the first of a series of four episodes focused on sound, media, and art, in which Caitlin Woolsey (Manton Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Brian Michael Murphy, a writer and media archaeologist who is a faculty member in media studies at Bennington College. Brian explores intersections between race and the materiality of media, and examines how media technologies—from taxidermy to photography archives and the preservation of big data infrastructure—represent and reshape human experience.

“A Database is an Argument”: Anne Helmreich on Digital Humanities and Art History Mar 02, 2021

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In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Anne Helmreich, an art historian and digital humanist. Formerly the Associate Director of Digital Initiatives at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, since April 2020 Anne has been the Associate Director of the Getty Foundation. A specialist of nineteenth-century art, Anne recounts how she veered away from law school to pursue art history. She reflects on how she first encountered digital humanities, and why for nearly fifteen years she has explored the possibilities of what this burgeoning field might open up for art history, and how art history in turn might productively challenge the digital humanities.

“A Gesture of Reciprocity”: Souleymane Bachir Diagne on Translation and Restitution Feb 23, 2021

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In this episode Caroline Fowler (Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute) speaks with Souleymane Bachir Diagne, professor in the departments of French and philosophy and director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. Bachir reflects on his early studies in Senegal as well as formative experiences studying with Louis Althusser and Jacques Derrida in Paris. He revisits his role in creating the Dakar Biennale and shares his thoughts on restitution and the arts of Africa. Finally, he describes how he understands translation as an ethical act of hospitality.