Institutional failure, Trump's Agenda, and Meme-Driven Conservative Movements: A Talk with Nayland Blake

Explain Me

Artist Nayland Blake joins the podcast to discuss the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, mass protests, and the resurgence of COVID as the backdrop for public art and how museums are addressing diversity. Spearheaded in large part by Blake, we discuss all of these issues through the lens of what people need and how art makers, art workers and arts institutions answer that need.

We started the conversation with Blake's recent twitter thread on art criticism.

"Art criticism is the activity of thinking with and through art objects," they wrote. "If you constantly reach for the same few objects to think with, you stagnate as a critic and simply reinforce your own bias."

Other relevant links mentioned in the show:

• Nayland Blake's website
• Julie Mehretu's Goldman Saks mural
• Mark Bradford
• Social Abstraction
• What is the Boogaloo movement?
• Dread Scott's Rebel Reenactment
• Marblecake Also the Game
• Gamergate Explainer

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