“I make my share of mistakes, but one I never make is to underestimate the power of things. People imbued from childhood with the myth of the primacy of feeling seldom
like to admit they really want things as much as they might want love, but my career has convinced me that plenty of them do. And some want things a lot worse than they want love.” -Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack
No
matter what angle you look from, we live in a materialist society. Things are not just things; they connote status, power, circumstance, and a million interpretations of who someone is based solely on the objects they possess. History tells us that this is not a modern twist; rather, this has been part of human standing for perhaps as long as the record shows and beyond. What is it about possessions that we connect with so deeply? Does it speak to a primitive need to control vital resources? Or
is there something more going on here?
Oda Jaune spoke with us about her show, Miss Understand, at Templon Gallery in New York. The entire show began with the name and the idea of no particular woman who is at the same time every woman. This woman is someone who can be understood or who can never be understood. At the same time, she may or may not be able to understand the world around her. To learn more, listen to the
complete interview.
Sandi Haber Fifield joined us to talk about her show, The Thing in Front of You, at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. The title speaks to all the things we are bombarded
with every single day and how we make sense of it all. Haber Fifiled drew from a quote by John Cage, “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.” To learn more, listen to the complete interview.
Read the summary of this week's interviews and resources.
