Janine Antoni on Tehching Hsieh, Anna Halprin, Steve Paxton and More | UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Janine Antoni sits down for "Under the Influence" to trace the eclectic lineage of her practice, from a childhood spent collecting shells on a Bahamian beach to her collaborations with avant‑garde figures such as Anna Halprin, Steve Paxton and Bruce Nauman. She describes how the phenomenon of "mirror cells" makes an audience’s body echo a dancer’s motion, a sensation she first felt watching Paxton perform, and how Halprin’s mentorship in the 1960s taught her to trust an innate, personal movement vocabulary. Antoni highlights several artworks that embody her fascination with material and perception: a bronze bell cast from a veiled bust in "Unveiling," a precarious steel box by Charles Ray that tricks balance, and Gabriel Orozco’s mutable "Yielding Stone." She also praises Tehching Hsieh’s Dia retrospective, noting that the installation collapses space into a chronological walk through a life‑as‑art, prompting existential reflection. Memorable moments include her admission that Paxton’s performance made her cling to her seat, Halprin’s belief that “all of us have a unique way of moving,” and her own description of life as an artwork that demands total commitment. She cites the concept of the "active imagination" as a bridge between conscious and unconscious, urging artists to honor their fantasies and let their "freak flag" fly. Antoni’s narrative underscores a broader shift in contemporary art toward embodied experience, interdisciplinary dialogue, and the use of everyday objects as portals to deeper psychological terrain. Her emphasis on mentorship, materiality and time‑based installations offers a template for artists seeking to fuse performance, sculpture and personal mythology into resonant, participatory works.
Maren Hassinger on Seng Nengudi, Becoming an Artist, and More | INTERVIEWS
The interview centers on artist Maren Hassinger’s evolving practice, from early personal sculpture to collaborative performance work that leverages everyday materials. She recounts a recent London show at White Cube where she performed alongside Seng Nengudi, highlighting how newspapers became a...
Massimiliano Gioni on Robots and Myths at the New Museum | INTERPRETATIONS
Massimiliano Gioni, artistic director of the New Museum, opens “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” a show that situates robots, AI and the myth of the “new man” within a historic dialogue between the 1920s and today. The exhibition argues that...
Pat Steir (1938-2026) on Painting
The video features Pat Steir reflecting on her artistic practice, recalling a formative color theory course taught by Steven Mueller at Harvard, and describing how that education reshaped her approach to painting. Steir explains her “hands‑off” method: she pours or drips...
John Akomfrah on Bob Dylan, Chris Ofili, J. M. W. Turner, and More | UNDER THE INFLUENCE
In this candid "Under the Influence" conversation, filmmaker and artist John Akomfrah reflects on the eclectic cultural forces that have shaped his practice—from early visits to London’s Tate Gallery to the music of Bob Dylan and Ornette Coleman, and the...
Mierle Laderman Ukeles on Freedom, Feminism, Crisis, and Care | INTERVIEWS
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a pioneering artist born in 1939, uses this interview to trace how she transformed personal crisis into a radical artistic practice that foregrounds care work. Growing up in a restrictive 1950s environment, she left Pratt Institute for...
Lisa Yuskavage on David Lynch, Giovanni Bellini, Becoming an Artist, and More | UNDER THE INFLUENCE
In this episode of “Under the Influence,” painter Lisa Yuskavage reflects on what it means to be an artist, tracing her journey from a restless undergraduate in Rome to a mature painter whose work fuses myth, psychology, and cinematic language. Yuskavage...
Eleanor Antin on Feminism and American Empire | INTERVIEWS
The interview centers on artist Eleanor Antin’s evolution from a New York‑based figure to a pivotal presence in Southern California’s academic and feminist performance circles. After teaching at UC Irvine and UC San Diego, she embedded herself in a vibrant...
On Photography with Florian Ebner, Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Jeff Wall, and Pablo Larios
The panel at Paris Photo explored the "material future" of photography, questioning how analog practices, institutional stewardship, and emerging technologies will shape the medium. Host Pablo Larios framed the conversation around materiality rather than AI or digitisation, highlighting lab closures,...
The Materiality of Photography with Pablo Larios, Dionne Lee, Michelle Henning, and Aspen Mays
The panel titled “The Materiality of Photography” convened at Paroto, featuring Art Forum editor Pablo Larios and artists Dion Lee, Michelle Henning, and Aspen Mays. Their discussion framed photography not as a purely visual medium but as a chemical...