Seeing Color

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is staying safe. My school in China has currently moved to online teaching for the foreseeable future as no one knows how long the virus will affect China. As I mentioned in my previous episode, I rerouted my flight to Thailand to wait out the virus. I stayed in Chiang Mai and enjoyed living in  warm weather and eating a lot of amazing northern Thai food, also called Lanna cuisine. I was also able to check out the Land Foundation, an art project started by Rirkrit Tiravanija. The foundation was hosting a solar panel cookout with local Lanna recipes and it interesting to see the whole event play out. I also met two other professors from Shanghai and Beijing who also left their cities and are teaching remotely. The longer I stayed in Asia, the more the news seemed to get worse and worse, so my original plan to teach remotely while traveling across Asia didn't seem too good. I left for Seoul for a week, but by the time this episode will be released, I'll be flying back to the US.For

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. My life has been a bit hectic the past few weeks. I was living in Vermont finishing up my time at a residency when the whole Coronavirus became a major issue. For those not keeping up with the news in Asia, China has an outbreak with this flu-like virus. As I was mentally preparing to leave the US, I got news that the entire city of Wuhan was quarantine and flights were being cancelled left and right. My school, which originally was suppose to start on February 5th first got delayed a week, then two weeks, and now the first week of classes will be held online. My boss also told me to stay away as long as possible. I rerouted my flight from Zhuhai to Thailand to be on standby as I didn't think the situation would continue to get worse, but it might be that the entire semester will be taught online. I don't know what an online art class looks like and I am currently rewriting my syllabus to try and make it work. I am trying to figure out where to go from Thailand at

Hello everyone. It has been a while and I hope everyone is taking care of themselves properly this winter season. I feel bad having taken such a long break but I had been traveling quite a bit and then my computer needed some fixing. Everything is now up and running. I’ve been in Vermont the past month for a residency and it has quite productive. In spite of Vermont being overwhelmingly filled with Sallys and Beckys, I did meet a wonderful group of POC artists and writers. We bounded over not anything in particular, but as one writers described our group, we were drawn to each other kind of like a collective unconscious that was already there. Shout out to Cindy for that beautiful sentence.Anyway, I’ve been spending my time here reading, meditating, shooting a new video, and interviewing people here. I also got to give a talk in Portland, Maine about my work and the podcast. Shout out to everyone who came to see me talk and I was glad I could share my work there. I did some studio visits and met with a docume

Hey everyone. I hope you are doing well. The weather has changed slightly here in Zhuahi...it feels like LA at the moment, although not a dry. I've been recently falling in love with the tropical breeze here. I am still coming to terms with living in a tropical place as opposed to visiting it temporarily. The past weekend I traveled to Xi'an and learned a great deal of Chinese history given the city's long geographic and historic importance. The silk road starts there and many of China's leader came from or went through Xi'an in their beginnings. I got to see the Terracota Army, which is an 8,000 life-sized army recreated to guard the Qin Dynasty's first Emperor in the afterlife. It was massive and I temporarily made me rethink my own art.Anyway. Today, I am speaking with Sarnt Utamachote. Born in Thailand, Sarnt moved to Berlin in 2014 where he has been rediscovered himself and his ‘essence’ of Asianness within a European culture ever since. He describes himself as a filmmaker-photographer-artist-poet-writer

Hey everyone. Another two weeks has gone by and a new episode is here for you. I don't have too much new going on at the moment. Next week I'll be going on a trip to Xi'an with my Chinese class. I'm excited to see the Terracotta Army there and try northern Chinese food. I applied to a few residencies around China for the summer and I'm hoping to be able to continue to travel while making art. I'll keep you updated.For today, I am interviewing Sophia Zarders, an illustrator, comic artist, and educator from Long Beach, California. Their illustrations have been published in The Nation, Socialist Review, Shameless Magazine, and other independent publications. They graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration and they currently work as a freelance artist and an art instructor for adults with disabilities.Sophia was one of the first artists I met and hung out with when I arrived in Berlin in 2018. I recorded this a year ago, so a few things we talk are clearl

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is well. Classes are past the halfway point and I am starting to think about my winter plans. There are a few places I want to visit in China. This past weekend, I was happy to see my parents as they were visited Hong Kong. They came over to Zhuhai along with some relatives from Hong Kong and Shanghai. We rented a car and drove a few hours north to the Shunde District. I got to practice my terrible Mandarin and eat some amazing food. Since there were 10 of us, we got to order quite a bit and try a lot of different dishes. Some food highlights include sweet and sour shrimp and double layered milk dessert. Overall, it was a good weekend.Anyway, for this episode, I am speaking with Femi Oyewole, a multi disciplinary artist who uses any medium to create unique experiences and bring people together. Originally born in Nigeria, Femi moved to London where eventually lived and he grew up in. Femi studied at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology before continuing his traini

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying fall. The weather in Zhuhai is finally not unbearably hot and sticky. I have been trying my best to learn Chinese and it is kicking my ass, although I notice I am easing in it a bit better than others as I was lucky to grow up listening to Cantonese and being forced by my parents to take Saturday morning Mandarin classes as a child. Thanks mom and dad. I have also been traveling quite a bit on weekends. So far, I've been to Shenzhen, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. I hope to eventually make it more north to Shanghai and Beijing.Anyway, today I have a fun episode to share as I am speaking with Natalia Gomez. Natalia was born in Columbia before her parents moved to Virginia. Natalia completed her BFA at Carnegie Mellon University right before I began my graduate program, but Natalia stuck around and continued working with and within the Pittsburgh arts community. Natalia is a visual artist working primarily in sculpture and photography. Much of her work uses the visua

Hey everyone. Time is flying by and at the same time, I no longer have a good grasp of how long I've been in China. Last week was a haze as I flew out to Chicago to see my brother get married. I got to see my family which is always a good thing. I didn't think so when I was younger but I feel I'm getting more sentimental as I get older. My internal clock got all wonky as I had to switch 13 hours backwards for a few days and then immediately switch again. The flight was 15 hours there and 17 hours back. On the way out to Chicago, I made a quick trip to Hong Kong and saw my cousin. I ate some amazing food and saw a funny exhibition about Studio Ghibli, although the entire time I was there, the city felt very tense there with smaller protests happening on the streets and flyers posted all over.Anyway, for today, I'm interviewing my very good friend, Yvette Robertson. I met Yvette through some combination of Nine Yamamoto-Masson, who I previously interviewed, and Lavender Wolf, an American artist currently living

Hello everyone. Wow...so it's been a year since I launched this podcast. I am a bit shocked the podcast lasted this long. I still remember releasing my first episode with Justin Favela. I had just moved to Berlin and didn't quite know the identity of my show. I worried endlessly about how I sounded, whether I made any sense, and what the intro music will be. A year later, I'm now in China. A few things that I've noticed is my intros have gotten longer and better. I think I have a clearer idea of what it means to be a podcaster, along with the sheer amount of work that goes into it. I still wonder about the reach of this project based on the analytics of the site, although here and there I find that a few people are indeed listening and contributing to my Patreon. So again, thank you to all the listeners who have supported this podcast and everyone who has been interviewed. If you want to show your support, you can subscribe, tweet about the show using hashtag #podin, or donate to my Patreon for $2 a month. I

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer. Things are going well in China. There is a lot to learn about the Chinese bureaucratic system as I try to get things done. There's always a sense of community over individuality, which is interesting in the context of art and creativity and trying to be an individual. I am still trying to find my routine after the first two weeks of classes, but it is becoming more clear how to schedule my time. I have two videos I am currently editing from my time in Berlin. I hope to finish both by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!For today's episode, I get to talk and laugh with Shannon Tamara Lewis. I first met Shannon through the The Berlin Diaspora Society, a group founded by Indrani Ashe. The purpose of the group is to set up studio visits with artists working from a non-European perspective. At the time, Shannon and I were visiting another artist's studio and we hit it off. We exchanged visits and I got to go to Shannon's studio, which happens to be in t

Hey everyone. It feels like it's been a while, but I finally made it into China. It was a very long and stressful flight until I was able to settle down my bags. To give you a rundown of what happened that day, basically I didn't have an entry visa until the last minute. The paperwork for my visa took longer than expected and I missed the first part of staff orientation. The visa center in Berlin said they would give me my passport on last Tuesday at 2pm, although I wouldn't know if my visa would be approved until I got my passport back that day. I was all packed because I wanted to catch a 6pm flight out that same day. So I arrived early at the visa center and I got my visa approved at 2pm. Immediately after, I quickly went home, bought my ticket, and headed to the airport for a 17 hour flight, with a connection at Qatar. After traveling another two hours to reach Zhuhai, I finally got to my hotel. I spent the next few days looking for apartments and settling down. The second night was somewhat stressful as

Hello everyone. Today I have some news to share with you followed by a very special episode. So I recently got a teaching/professorship opportunity in Zhuhai, a small city in China, to teach art. Most people don't seem to know where Zhuhai is, which is understandable as I didn't either when I first saw the job posting. But if you're curious, Zhuhai is in the middle of Macau, Hong Kong, and Shenzen, about an hour away from each city. By the time this episode is released, I will be flying over. I have about two weeks to find a place to live and figure out my syllabi once I arrive, so it will be a hectic arrival. Regarding the podcast, don't worry as I will still be releasing episodes as I have a backlog of conversations. I will be releasing these dialogues throughout the coming year as I figure out how I would like the podcast to exist within the context of China. I will keep you updated. Anyway, for today's show, I have the pleasure of interviewing Vanessa Vu, a journalist from Zeit Online. I first heard of Va

Hey y'all. Today I have a relatively short but special episode for you. I met up with Darrell Kinsel, also professionally known as D.S. Kinsel, at his project space, Boom Concepts. I first met Darrell just at the inception of Boom Concepts while they moved into their current space on Penn Ave, back in 2013. I approached Boom with this silly idea I had to curate a painting show with a group of conceptual and installation-based artists. Darrell was excited by my strange curatorial project and thats where our friendship began. Over the years, we saw each other's artistic career grow and I was happy to interview Darrell after all our shared experiences. Darrell describes himself as a “black creative entrepreneur and cultural agitator" and his work focuses on themes of escapism, space keeping, urban tradition, pop culture, hip-hop, informalism and cultural appropriation. Darrell is also the co-founder of Boom Concepts, a combination work space and creative hub that offers artist studios in auxiliary locations

Hey all. In today's episode, I have a really intense conversation with the wonderful artist, Christa Joo Hyun D'Angelo. I first met Christa through Nine, who I interviewed on Episode 16. A few months after, we ran into each other as we both installed our work at an exhibition curated by a mutual friend and we remained in touch. Christa started her studies at The Maryland Institute College of Art and finished up at The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow Poland. She moved to Berlin shortly after and has lived here ever since. Christa works in installation, sculpture, video, neon, and collage. This interview coincides with Christa's recent solo exhibition at Galerie im Turm, titled GHOSTS, and her show runs until August 18th. As a multi-media immersive installation, Christa's show looks at the extent to which shame, stigma and isolation can be transformed into strength and self-empowerment, and expanding the complex and diverse narratives relating to HIV and AIDS activism. Christa writes that her exhibition is inten

Hey y'all. I hope everyone is doing well. I don't have too much new news these days, although I have a whole bunch of interesting people I have lined up to interview in the coming months. Although you may not hear them until a few months later given my slow bi-weekly releases. I sometimes wonder if I should release my podcast weekly instead of bi-weekly, but I'm not sure if I can do that much work, as I'm even finding bi-weekly somewhat difficult. Sometimes I wished I had a co-host to help spread the work. Anyway, for today, I am speaking with Christiane Dolores, a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and musician. Her practice is driven by pursuing questions about our shared humanity as well as her personal histories as a first generation mixed-race American. Christiane also helps local Pittsburgh artists out through her work as an artist relations coordinator at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Lastly, Christiane is a member of the notwhite collective, a group of bi/multi-racial women artists who investig

Hi everyone. I hope your week is going well. I spent the past week at Art Basel in Switzerland. I got free housing with an art friend, so shout out to Felipe Castelblanco, and I got some VIP tickets from a special curator friend. Basel was stupid expensive. It simple espresso started at around 5 dollars and everything scaled up from there. Through an artist I know in Berlin, I met up with a few Singaporean collectors and hung out with them most of the time and cooked Chinese food in their apartment to avoid the overpriced Swiss food. The whole art fair was fascinating to watch as a spectacle. Felipe commented to me that the reason we artists all gone into art as kids or semi-adults no longer exists at that art fair, which was a depressing thought. I had to take a break from all the art and took a day trip to Lucerne. I took a gondola to the top of Mount Pilatus and got some really fresh air. I came back to Berlin and am soon heading off to Venice. I'm meeting up with Jose Diaz and we will be checking out the

Hey everyone. I hope you are enjoying the coming of summer. Everyone here in Berlin seems so much more happy biking around and drinking beers along the canal, as opposed to their usual grumpy German self. The sun has been rising earlier each day, and I keep waking up at 6am with the sun. But besides that, everything is fine and dandy. Before we move on to the show, I want give a quick shoutout to Frances Cathryn for donating to this podcast through Paypal. She's the very first one! I can't stress how much that meant. So again, thank you Frances. You can follow her on instagram @wip_projects For today, I got to interview Tsohil Bhatia, an artist from India who is currently in his final year at Carnegie Mellon's MFA program. Tsohil and I did not fully overlap while there, but the art community is small and our circles intersected quite a bit. Through some fortuitous chance this past month, I ran into Tsohil at an opening in Berlin. We hung out a bit after and he excitedly agreed to be part of this non-white spa

Hey everyone. On this episode, I have a special interview with Tara Fay. I think Tara’s instagram profile describes her best as an independent curator, performance artist, and streetwear enthusiast. Tara is also on the board of directors at Bunker Projects, an art and residency space in Pittsburgh. I first met Tara through Jose Diaz, who I also interviewed. Throughout my time in Pittsburgh, Tara has been always supportive of my work and I was happy to talk with Tara about her perspective of the art scene. Around the time of the interview, Tara moderated a public discussion with Dan Leer, the curator of photography at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Tara specifically wanted to talk about a controversy that happened with Deana Lawson, a photographer. Deana’s photographs at the Carnegie alienated a number of viewers and brought up difficult questions about who the museum’s perceived audience is. It began with a black woman filming a video of Deana’s work in the museum and expressing her thoughts, which spilled over

On this episode, I visited Shohei Katayama’s studio in Pittsburgh. Shohei received his B.A. in Studio Art from Bellarmine University in 2010 and is currently working towards his Master of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. His work includes line drawings, sculpture, and conceptual installation art. Shohei writes that the Great East Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant leak and meltdown led to a major turning point in his artistic practice. His work began to examine anthropogenic impacts on the environment, including issues related to sustainability, pollution, and natural disasters. Shohei wants his work to point us towards and insert us in a world where there is still hope—and activate a future where there are still dreams. Although I graduated before Shohei began his MFA, our times did overlap as I stayed a year to teach in Pittsburgh. It has been wonderful to follow how Shohei has developed as an artist and I was excited to chat with him as he neared the end of his program. At th

On this episode, I biked over to The Flower House, located in Wilkinsburg, a borough right next to Pittsburgh. The Flower House is a creative space cultivated by group-centered artists who practice cooperative economics to empower women and families. Naomi Chambers, a Pittsburgh-based painter and assemblage artist, also helps run the Flower House. I first met Naomi at a dinner for an event, but I also ran into her work at her solo show at the August Wilson Center. Kilolo Luckett, the curator of that show and someone I interviewed in episode 6, also highly recommended I talk with Naomi. I’m glad I did, since Naomi was extremely generous with her time and I also got to meet her beautiful daughter, Dodi. Naomi and I discussed how she found her way to the arts, the complexity of community engaged art projects, and the development of The Flower House. Yes, I know, there are birds chirping throughout the conversation, but I didn’t notice until after and during the editing process. Hopefully, they aren’t too distrac