“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”
-James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small
Too often, perhaps, we humans fail to consider the true order of the
world. With our buildings and big ideas, sprawling cities and frenetic highways, we can be guilty of believing ours is the pinnacle way of life. In the worst instances, this can lead to the idea that animals are somehow less, somehow not as worthy of the kind of dignity and care given to our fellow human beings. Anyone who has seen the protective love of a mother of any species or witnessed animal communication without a single human word knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that animals share
more of our complexity than we sometimes admit.
Khalilah Birdsong joined us to talk about her recent show, Litany, which ran until April 3 at Voltz Clarke Gallery. For the show, she drew on Audre Lorde’s poem, A Litany for Survival. Birdsong found a lot of influences between Lorde’s words and her own daily life. Some of the markings
on her paintings are drawn directly from that daily life, walking through the world as a Black woman. This exhibition represents the first time Birdsong has shown the underlayers in her work. To learn more, listen to the complete interview.
Sara Stern discussed her recent installation, Study for a Scene, which was on view at Ortega y Gasset Projects through February 11. Stern tells us she is interested in setting up
scenarios for herself in which she can trick herself into thinking she is preparing as one might in a rehearsal, allowing her to play a little longer. In the case of this show, she considered the study for a scene in which the glass of a window is dealing with the repercussions of mirroring the sky as a material in a built environment. To learn more, listen
to the complete interview.
Read the summary of this week's interviews and resources.
