This week’s staff recommendations range from painting and photography to poetry and nonfiction. Enjoy.
Caitlin’s Pick:
Tom Russell is a musician & lyricist like very few I’ve encountered before. In the poetry realm, his songs remind me of Tony Hoagland’s work because both artists are able to offer a distinctive voice that embodies much of what America is, was & has become; in my mind, these voices capture a romantic throwback to Whitman’s perception of America. Regardless of the utopic nuances and social pc no no’s that such a voice, from Whitman to Russell, may touch, this voice is one that functions as the perfect image of America: instigating and then trying to find a way to deal with the fallout.
Tom Russell’s songs also bring a listener to question what the role of story telling is & who has a right (or the privilege) to tell another’s story, something Tony Hoagland & Walt Whitman are familiar with. In any case, Tom Russell is an artist worth hearing, even if he stirs up the pot a bit.
Andi’s Pick:
The photography of Jan Saudek approaches the human form by walking the line between worship and complete irreverence. Done in the style of ‘pose plastique,’ Saudek’s work illuminates the human body as the center of experience, reminding viewers that despite what may cover our bodies as we sleep, wash clothes, or even take family photos, we are all coming into contact with forces outside of ourselves through some form of nakedness.
The photographs touch upon many human experiences and emotions, though each maintains a comedic or dark humor. Though the models are placed in varying styles and sets, the consistent thread between them lies in how they express an overwhelming confidence in their own nudity, an expression that is vital to Saudek’s work as it allows a vision of humanity that is confidently and exactly itself.
Gwynne’s Pick:
Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals” (Little, Brown, and Company 2009). If you read one book about factory farming and its role in undermining human health and small-scale animal husbandry, I highly recommend this one. Even with my prior research into agribusiness and industrialized food systems, JSF’s personalized storytelling angle only serves to remind me that understanding what you eat (particularly for Americans) makes an incredible impact on the planet, that accepting the factory farming system not only supports incredible cruelty to animals but also encourages a dehumanizing ethical system intricately connected to the violence humans enact on our own species.
Daniel’s Pick:
Trudy Benson investigates theoretical or virtual spaces in her latest work, represented by the Mike Weiss Gallery, New York. Her work just recently made the Village Voice’s Must See Exhibitions for this fall.