Josiah McElheny: Possible Impossibilities
October 8, 2024

Over the last 10 years, artist and joyful polymath Josiah McElheny has brought sound and music into his visual artwork. He’s deeply interested in musicians trying to push against existing structures and expand the boundaries of both sound and imagination. Visionary German writer Paul Scheerbart spoke about how all utopias will fail, but it’s important to talk about them anyway. For Josiah, this kind of contradiction is a way forward; a way to imagine futures without glossing over all the things that are wrong with the world.

Among the artists he chose for his playlist is legendary jazz composer Sun Ra, who had a notion that everything in life was a kind of equation—balanced with the precision of the Fates—and that “the impossible attracts me, because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change.” This kind of push-pull can lead one to surprising places, and it’s something McElheny is looking for in music and art.

We talk at length about some of McElheny’s exhibitions which explore his thinking about music, including Dusty Groove (2014), Cosmic Love (2018), From Red Black to Black, From Blue Black to Black (2023) all at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago, and Observations at Night (2019) at James Cohan in New York. The latter exhibition played host to a series of performances put on by the organization Blank Forms, on whose board McElheny sits.

McElheny’s galactic exhibition “Island Universe” is up now at LACMA in Los Angeles.

There are also upcoming screenings of “The Secret World,” a feature film made as a collaboration between McElheny and Jeff Preiss, on 10/25, 26, & 27 at Anthology Film Archives in NYC.

Josiah’s catalog for “Dusty Groove” with playable flexi-disc can be found here.

1    I Don't Believe in Love,    Sun Ra
2    Stranger in Paradise,    Sun Ra
3    Love in Outer Space,    Sun Ra
4    Somebody Else's World - a.k.a. Somebody Else's Idea,    Sun Ra
5    John Cage Interview with John Corbett & Terri Kapsalis  
6    A New Note in Music Harry Partchs Kooky 1950s Instruments,    Harry Partch
7    Note on the Mess w/David Grubbs,    John Corbett & Heavy Friends
8    1 of 1 (Pt. 1),    John Corbett & Heavy Friends
9    Babi,    Milford Graves
10    Melts into surface,    Zeena Parkins, Mette Rasmussen, Ryan Sawyer
11    Cosmic Love,    Joe McPhee
12    Paris 2022,    Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang
13    You May Dream,    Phantom Orchard Ikue Mori Zeen Parkins
14    From Red Black to Black, from Blue Black to Black,    David Grubbs
15    Shakey Jake,    Joe McPhee

Josiah McElheny’s sculptures, paintings, installations, performances, and films engage with the history of ideas across wide-ranging fields of study—from literature to architecture, music theory, and astronomy—transforming this research into physical form. His works often combine glass or mirror with other materials, to emphasize the importance of the act of looking “as a subject in and of itself.” A skilled glassblower, McElheny frequently incorporates hand-blown and shaped glass within evocative assemblages, whose mode of presentation creates a sense of unsettled ideals, and a challenge to fixed definitions. For McElheny, glass—with its qualities of reflectivity, transparency, and enigmatic mutability—highlights the interactive potential between the object and viewer. The material serves as a productive agent, inciting chance encounters between forms and ideas that point toward alternative histories and futures.

Josiah McElheny (b. 1966, Boston, MA) has exhibited widely, including solo shows at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, CA (2019); Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX (2018); MAK Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2016); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2013), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2012), Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England (2011), Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2009), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2007), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2007), Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2002), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2001), The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (1999) and the Seattle Art Museum, WA (1995). His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; and Tate Modern, London, UK among others. McElheny lives and works in New York, New York.

Michael Smith
August 13, 2024

Complete playlist below; tracks in yellow were cut for time.

The legendary performance, video, and installation artist Michael Smith joins Nate Heiges with a mixtape ranging from Mr. Rogers to sales tips for closers to some of the filthiest songs you’ve ever heard in your life. We discuss his career in comedy and performance and his process of taking inspiration from life, media, and thrift store sales bins.

Smith’s work revolves around a character named “Mike,” a modern-day Candide who spends time drinking coffee, watching TV, and exploring various careers, including comedy impresario and entrepreneur. Smith organized variety shows at storied NYC venues like the Pyramid Club and Danceteria, and eventually made a pilot for Cinemax of Mike’s Talent Show. This episode of the Selection Committee itself is organized a bit like a variety show, with music, comedy clips, and Mike’s inimitable sense of humor. How many people do you know who’ve hitched a ride on a city bus molassesed and feathered from head to toe on the South Side of Chicago? Or who’ve attended Burning Man as a big baby?

Smith’s piece Mike Builds a Shelter is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the spring of 2025, he will be putting out a boxed set of DVDS with many video works and documentation of performances, along with a 120-page catalog.

https://michaelsmithartist.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Smith_(performance_artist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWpWKwSbTk

1. Hi Mike, Paul Tripp
   
2. Jackie Vernon, Jackie Vernon
   
3. In My Room, The Beach Boys
   
4. You Can't Hurry Love, The Supremes
5. Cashing Objections Sales 1960, J Douglas Edwards
   
6. 'Round Midnight, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Wilbur Ware, Shadow Wilson
   
7. The Sound Heard Round the World, Muzak Orchestra
   
8. Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, James Brown
9. You Send Me, Aretha Franklin
10. I Like To Take My Time, Mister Rogers
    
11. Doug Clark And The Hot Nuts Side 1 Intro, Doug Clark And The Hot Nuts
    
12. Roly Poly, Doug Clark And The Hot Nuts
    
13. Shitting On The Dock Of The Bay, Blowfly
    
14. Petey Wheatstraw Shit Scene, Wildman Steve
15. Knockers Up!, Rusty Warren
    
16. He's the Greatest Dancer (Live Version), CHIC
    
17. Ain't Too Proud To Beg, The Temptations
18. Fun, Fun, Fun, The Beach Boys
19. Won't You Be My Neighbor? Mister Rogers
20. (What A) Wonderful World, Sam Cooke
21. Airlines, Shelley Berman
    
22. Up, Up and Away, The 5th Dimension
    
23. Air Traffic Controller, Bob Newhart
    
24. Bob The Builder Full theme song
25. P.S. Unless One Has (Blues Connotation), Ornette Coleman
26. ABC, The Jackson 5
27. Growing Up Is Fun, Paul Tripp
28. Wimoweh - Live, The Kingston Trio
29. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, The Partridge Family
30. National Lampoon Kung Fu Christmas
31. Party And Bullshit In The USA, Notorious BIG and Miley Cyrus
32. Skybird - Instrumental, Neil Diamond
33. Forever In Blue Jeans, Neil Diamond
34. Somewhere Over the Rainbow,  Judy Garland, 1939

Michael Smith is a performance, video, and installation artist who has exhibited widely at fine art and popular venues, including museums, galleries, theaters, festivals, nightclubs, television, online, and in the street. His work has been shown internationally at the 2017 Sculpture Project, Münster; Glasgow International; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; The Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Hales Gallery, London; Dan Gunn Gallery, Berlin; Ellen De Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; Le Magasin, Grenoble; Mumok, Vienna; Jeu de Paume and Pompidou Center, Paris; Blanton Museum, Austin; ICA, Philadelphia among others.

In New York City his work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, and Greene Naftali, New York.

His works are in the collections of MoMA and Paley Center for Media, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Migros Museum, Zurich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brazil.

Smith has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim
Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T., New York Foundation for the Arts, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and Alpert Award in the Arts.

Pictured: Government Approved Home Fallout Shelter Snack Bar, 1983/2023, currently on view at MoMA, New York.

Our Day Will Come
Music-only mixtape
July 16, 2024

A dreamy selection of songs for a steamy afternoon.



1    Wilson rag,    Elizabeth Cotten,    1989
2    Our Day Will Come,   Ruby And The Romantics,    1963
3    Mouhamadou Bamba,    Orchestra Baobab,    1993
4    You Always Hurt The One You Love,    The Mills Brothers,    1958
5    Shambala,    Beastie Boys,    1996
6    Gelis    Natureboy Flako,    2015
7    Dourlé,    Skinshape, Modou Touré,    2020
8    Beam Me Up - Jacques Renault Remix,    Midnight Magic, Jacques Renault,    2014
9    Power (Remember Who You Are),    SPINALL, Äyanna, DJ Snake, Summer Walker,    2022
10    new body rhumba (from the film White Noise),    LCD Soundsystem,    2022
11    Combustion,    PREGOBLIN,    2019
12    Groove Is in the Heart / California Girls ,   Crocodiles,    2010
13    N.E.W.,    Actress, London Contemporary Orchestra,    2018
14    Nostalgic Montage,    Salami Rose Joe Louis,    2019
15    Fredag,    Dungen,    2010
16    War Sucks (2011 Sonic Boom Stereo Remaster),    Bartholme, Cunningham, Marko Perković Thompson, The Red Crayola,    2012
17    A Taste of Honey,    Lenny Welch,    1965
18    Five O'Clock World,    The Vogues,    1965
19    My Rough and Rowdy Ways,    Jimmie Rodgers,    1960
20    It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (feat. Van Morrison),    Them,     1966
21    Valleri - First Recorded Version; 2006 Remaster,    The Monkees,    1967
22    Here & Now,    BADBADNOTGOOD,    2016
23    Waltz for Koop,    Koop,    2001

Jake Brush
July 2, 2024

Complete playlist below; tracks in yellow were cut for time.

1. Wild Horses,    The Sundays,    1992
   
2. God Is a Circle,    Yves Tumor,    2023
   
3. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,    Sophie B. Hawkins,    1992
   
4. Nineteen - Nia Archives Remix,    PinkPantheress, Nia Archives,    2022
   
5. Justin,    Cindy,    2020
   
6. That Girl,    Esthero,    1998
   
7. Callin Me,    Momma ,   2022
   
8. I Think Of You,    Little annie,    1992
   
9. Here With Me,    Dido,    1999
   
10. IT TAKES A MUSCLE,    M.I.A.,    2010
    
11. Miss Me Blind,    Culture Club,    1983
    
12. I Want Your (Hands on Me),    Sinéad O'Connor,    1987
    
13. Topaz,    The B-52's,    1989
    
14. All Of The Lights,    Kanye West,    2010
    
15. Tango Shoes,    Bif Naked,    2002
    
16. Ladyfingers,    Luscious Jackson,    1999
    
17. Sunday Morning,    No Doubt,    1995

Jake Brush (b.1994) is an artist who lives in New York. He is interested in reality television, family gossip, and bitter interpersonal conflicts. He works in video, performance, sculpture and installation. Recent work has shown at Wave Hill, Duplex, The Shed, International Objects, and Electronic Arts Intermix. He has participated in residency programs Shanken: Storm King, Singal Culture, and the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred State. His work has been featured in BOMB and Cultured Magazine.