The Great White Way
William Pope L is a performance artist and critically acclaimed painter. In one performance, he ate the entire Wall Street Journal. We join him for part of his ongoing work, "The Great White Way."
View ArticleJunk Sculptor
The sculptor and performance artist Ned Schaper has been working with found objects for the last twenty years. He says his kinetic junk-sculptures come together by accident. Produced by Julia Barton.
View ArticlePanhandling for Reparations
Conceptual artist damali ayo has an ongoing performance called "living flag" that she’s taking to busy street corners all over the country. For the performance, she collects reparations for the...
View ArticleDream Bed
If you go into the Rose Museum outside Boston, not only can you touch the newest art installation, you can lie right down inside it. Marina Abramovich, the artist behind “Dream Bed,” encourages you to...
View ArticleOur So-Called JT LeRoy
LeRoy's novels drew heavily on his own grim past as a drug abuser and teenage truckstop prostitute. He achieved critical success and rare literary stardom -- until it turned out he didn't exist. Kurt...
View ArticleDream Bed
Artist Marina Abramovic encourages you not only to touch her art installation piece, "Dream Bed," she wants you to lie right down inside it and record what happens next. WBUR's Sean Cole stopped by for...
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Seeing Double
This week New York welcomes 'Performa '09', the third biennial of performance art to hit the city. The event features more than 150 artists over three weeks, and one of whom has me very excited.I was...
View ArticleMarina Abramovic
The self-described "grandmother of performance art" is at the center of the retrospective show "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Her new project? Sitting...
View ArticleLaurie Anderson
From a car horn symphony, to an artist residency with NASA, to Tuvan throat-singing, the performance artist Laurie Anderson has no boundaries when it comes to making music. Now, with four decades of...
View ArticleJason Moran
Pianist Jason Moran tells Kurt how he's always drawn inspiration from unlikely sources, from avant-garde and hip-hop to modern painting and rural quilts. Moran also performs songs from his new album,...
View ArticleThe New Stars of Performance Art
It used to be that if a famous actor wanted to extend their artistic brand, they'd form a rock group. These days, the cool kids who want to be even cooler are taking up performance art. At this year’s...
View ArticleAndrew Bird & The New Breed of Motorcycles
Are young people getting less creative? New research suggests teens’ fiction is a lot less interesting than it was in the 1990s. Performance artists tell what they really think of Shia LaBeouf and...
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Posing with Strangers: Jeanne Tullen's Photographs
Photographer Jeanne Tullen stages portraits in a combination of casual snapshots and performance art, finding strangers to pose with her as if the pictures were part of a family photo album. In her...
View ArticleDate With Death Bear
This bear doesn't do hugs. He's not even cuddly. But, Death Bear does promise to take your pain away, which is way more than any Care Bear can say.Nate Hill, the man who brought us Free Bouncy Rides...
View ArticleJudith Thurman on the work of Marina Abramovic
Judith Thurman on the work of Marina Abramovic. Judith Thurman on the work of Marina Abramovic.
View ArticleSpilLover: Balancing Oil in Times Square
When oil started gushing in the Gulf, Brooklynite Josephine Decker felt overwhelmed. She wanted to do something to call attention to the spill and start conversations about conserving oil. So she got a...
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A Panda Bear Punching Bag Comes to Brooklyn
Have a rough week at work? Did your significant other do you wrong? Has your cat run away or head to that big farmhouse in the sky? Well, for the next 24 hours you can call someone in Brooklyn who...
View ArticleColin Quinn on "Long Story Short"
Colin Quinn discusses his new one-man show, “Long Story Short,” directed by Jerry Seinfeld. He takes audiences through an uproarious history of the world in 75 minutes—from Ancient Greece and Antigone...
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Roll Over Beethoven: 'Ode to Joy' Remixes Come to MoMA
On Wednesday, artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla unveil a rather unusual piece at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): "Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on 'Ode to Joy'for a Prepared Piano."...
View ArticleSITE Festival: Performance Art Fills the Streets of Bushwick
Bushwick's burgeoning arts scene takes it to the streets this weekend. For two days, the neighborhood's loft-dwelling artists will present music, performance art and dance on streetcorners and stages...
View ArticleThe Art of Moving Boxes
For a little over two hours Thursday in Union Square, multicolored boxes joined the tourists, skateboarders and local business people milling about in the sunshine. Brooklyn-based artist Arielle Falk...
View ArticleTribeca Film Festival: 'The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye'
When filmmaker Marie Losier ran into performance artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in the early aughts, she had no idea that the chance encounter would become the film "The Ballad of Genesis and Lady...
View ArticleArt In Odd Places Festival Invades 14th Street
If you see anything strange along 14th Street this week, don't worry: it's probably just art.All week long, the Art in Odd Places festival turns Manhattan's busy thoroughfare into a museum with 70...
View Article"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present"
Performance artists Marina Abramovic speaks about her career and the documentary “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present,” along with director Matthew Akers and producer/co-director Jeff Dupre. The...
View ArticleWatch: Marina Abramovic Experiments with Neuroscience + Art
It's Brain Awareness Week in New York City. Renowned performance artist Marina Abramović talks about her new performance art project, "Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze," which blends neuroscience and...
View ArticleMarina Abramović; Kimani Gray Fallout; Valle Verdict
Performance artist Marina Abramović discusses her new project blending art and neuroscience called "Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze." During the interview, both her and Brian's brain waves will be...
View ArticleHorsing Around Grand Central Terminal
To help celebrate Grand Central Terminal's 100th anniversary, some horses will be grazing and walking around the Beaux-Arts station. It's part of an installation and performance piece by artist Nick...
View ArticleCarl Hancock Rux, In The Studio
The poet and novelist, Carl Hancock Rux, considers the written word to be a kind of performance art. His poems are often not recited, they are in fact performed — with a band. It’s a tradition that...
View ArticleGrammy Nominees; Bands To Watch In 2014; Joseph Keckler
In this episode: We talk about who got some love -- and who got snubbed -- in this year's Grammy nominee pool. Chris Richards of the Washington Post joins us with his take. Plus, we run down a list of...
View ArticleJoseph Keckler: An Operatic Performance Artist
Joseph Keckler has been variously described as a storyteller, balladeer, opera singer, and multimedia artist. Keckler describes himself as an "interdisciplinary artist." And The Village Voice named him...
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So You Want To Do Drag?
Drag queens and kings have had a long, important, and hilarious history in New York City. On this week’s Please Explain we’ll look at drag performance as an art form, political statement, and popular...
View ArticleVideo: Here's How to Make a Violin from Human Hair
To show that anyone can make music, with an instrument or an unusual coiffure, the London-based artist Tadas Maksimovas has used his hip-length hair as the medium in a violin performance project.Called...
View ArticlePeople Get Ready: Equal Parts Pop And Performance Art
People Get Ready is sometimes a band, sometimes a performance-art group that makes energetic pop songs full of punchy rhythms and an ear for experimentation. People Get Ready's kinetic stage...
View ArticleThe Soundcheck Guide To Brazilian Indie Music; Loudon Wainwright III On...
In this episode: We bring you the music you probably won't hear during the World Cup, in the latest installment of our Soundcheck Guide to Brazil. Julia Furlan, Buzzfeed audio editor and WNYC...
View ArticleBehind the Scenes with the Troupe Defying Europe's Last Dictatorship
Filmmaker Madeleine Sackler goes behind the scenes with the Belarus Free Theatre, the acclaimed performance troupe who defy Europe’s last remaining dictatorship by examining forbidden topics, such as...
View ArticleChinese Artists Want Your Help Mopping Times Square
Times Square has no shortage of attractions. But Chinese art collective Polit-Sheer-Form-Office hopes their upcoming art performance will get people to stop... and help mop?The performance is called...
View ArticleMarina Abramovic’s “Dream Bed”
In her installation “Dream Bed,” artist Marina Abramovic not only encourages audiences to touch her art, she asks them to lie right down inside it. The bed in question is more like a no-frills coffin....
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The Return of Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono’s late husband, John Lennon, called her “the world’s most famous unknown artist.” Ono appeared on most Americans’ radar in 1968 as Lennon’s girlfriend. As a young teen, Kurt Andersen knew Ono...
View ArticleLaurie Anderson Collaborates with a Former Guantanamo Detainee
Iconic performance artist Laurie Anderson discusses the world premiere of her new commission at Park Avenue Armory, "Habeas Corpus." Part installation and part performance, Anderson collaborated with a...
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Marina Abramović’s Method Blew Our Minds
Artist Marina Abramović – the woman famous for staring into a record-breaking number of people's eyes at the MOMA, letting an audience point a gun at her head, and convincing the public to take...
View ArticleThe Boundary-Pushing COIL Festival
Vallejo Gantner, curator and artistic director of PS 122’s annual festival, “COIL,” talks about the upcoming performances along with featured playwrights Rachel Chavkin and Kaneza Schaal. Runs January...
View ArticleWhy Racial Diversity Eludes Corporate America, NPR's Diane Rehm on her Life...
Ellen McGirt and Richard Gray discuss the lack of racial diversity in corporate America and what can be done to change it. The New York Live Ideas 2016 Festival showcases artists and performers from...
View ArticleZardulu, Viral Hoaxes, and Pizza Rats
Hey, we just stumbled upon this amazing video of a rat carrying a slice of pizza! Okay, clearly we're kidding. The infamous "pizza rat" video was uploaded to YouTube in September of 2015 and has since...
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A Play Where You’re the Star, But There’s No Script
When you go to see a play, you’re almost never the only person in the audience. And if you are, it’s usually not a very good sign. But what if you found yourself inside an immersive, interactive...
View ArticleImmigration, Arts and Activism: Brian Lehrer Hosts a Performance and Talkback...
Join WNYC's Brian Lehrer for a performance of and conversation about award-winning actor Judith Sloan's sometimes funny, sometimes sad, always truth-telling show about immigrant, refugee and...
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Bonus: Marina Abramović’s Method Blew Our Minds
Artist Marina Abramović – the woman famous for staring into a record-breaking number of people's eyes at MoMA, letting an audience point a gun at her head, and convincing the public to take performance...
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Come and Sit with Marina Abramović
Legendary performance artist, Marina Abramović, got more than 750,000 people to slow down and wait in line at MoMA just to sit at a table across from her. She also convinced Manoush and N2S Executive...
View ArticleMarina Abramović Is Present
Renowned performance artist Marina Abramović and author of Walk Through Walls: A Memoir (Crown Archetype, 2016), talks about her life and work, from her childhood in the Balkans through her personal...
View ArticleA Weary Clockmaker Remembers His Life on Coney Island
Composer Paola Prestini, the creative and executive director of National Sawdust, an artist-led performance space in Williamsburg, joins us to discuss her new theater piece, “Aging Magician.” The...
View ArticleDonna Kaz on Her Life as a Controversial Guerrilla Girl
Writer and activist Donna Kaz joins us to discuss her book Un/Masked: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl on Tour. She chronicles her 25-year artistic journey, beginning as a young actress in New York City and...
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