Barbara London Calling

Welcome to Barbara London Calling! In the series introduction, host Barbara London explains why she created the series and how she sees media art as the furthest reaching, most innovative art of our time. Stay tuned for 12 episodes featuring new conversations with artists from all over the world.

For the first episode of Barbara London Calling, host Barbara London speaks with Anri Sala, an internationally acclaimed artist from Tirana, Albania. Born in 1974, Sala eloquently orchestrates sound in space, with a keen focus on the underlying politics of contemporary life. Incorporating what he calls “a distrust of language,” his multimedia installations investigate the role of language and memory in our social and political histories.

In the second episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Zina Saro-Wiwa, an interdisciplinary artist who works with video, photography, sculpture, sound and, sometimes, food. As an artist, Zina has said she wants to expand the meanings of African-ness and, ultimately, to decolonize the idea of self. Born in Nigeria, Zina grew up in the UK and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she brought with her a love for Nollywood movies from Nigeria's fertile film industry.

For the third episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Hong Kong–based artist Samson Young, one of the most talented artists investigating sound as art. Samson works in a broad range of disciplines: music composition, performance, installation,sound, video, drawing, and design. His artwork is elegant yet razor-sharp, and sometimespolitical in nature, as he addresses the vicissitudes of language and history.

In the fourth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Paul Pfeiffer, the American artist well known for utilizing sophisticated digital technologies to scrutinize the role mass media plays in shaping contemporary consciousness. Born in Honolulu, Paul now lives and works in New York, where he investigates the relationship between sporting events, racial politics, and what he calls "spectacle and spectatorship."

In the fifth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Cao Fei, a Beijing-based artist interested in how the virtual world contradicts and coincides with reality. Working across film, digital media, photography, sculpture, installation and performance, her starting point is China and how people—especially young people—navigate the rapidly changing social and technological landscape.

In the sixth episode of "Barbara London Calling," host Barbara London speaks with Rachel Rossin, a Brooklyn-based artist investigating the boundaries between reality, hyper-reality and the imaginary. Born in 1987, Rachel grew up in South Florida, where she lived in the shadow of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. This sense of anxiety—a kind of dread for nature’s ferocious side—still colors Rachel’s work. By age 8, Rachel was already painting and writing computer code, and she eventually began experimenting with virtual reality and digital art. For research, she hacks action-adventure video games, like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, so she can better understand the kinds of big-budget special effects she often incorporates in her work.

In the seventh episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, two London-based artists and collaborators with a background in installation art and the moving image. Music has always played an important role in their work, culminating in their 2014 feature film, "20,000 Days on Earth," a musical docudrama starring the iconic singer/songwriter Nick Cave. Iain and Jane began their fruitful collaboration as students at Goldsmiths in London, where they saw firsthand the good and the bad of the so-called YBA movement of young British artists.

In the eighth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Jana Winderen, a Norwegian artist who straddles the fields of art, music and science. Her work encourages us not just to hear, but to listen, as she explores the aural dimensions of faraway landscapes. Winderen travels to the ends of the Earth, often alone, where she records nearly imperceptible sounds using an arsenal of sophisticated recording gear. She might drop a microphone inside the crevice of a gigantic glacier or hundreds of feet deep into the frigid Arctic Ocean, or even into Manhattan's East River, where she listens to the sounds of fish communicating.

In the ninth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade. Living in Recife on the eastern coast of Brazil, Jonathas works across video and photography, with an interest in how language can render truths as well as untruths, and how that same language can liberate or marginalize its subjects.

In the tenth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with artist Bani Haykal. Born in 1985 and based in Singapore, Bani straddles the world of language, art and music, as he picks apart the nuances of our technology-filled lives. His work explores the power of commonalities across different languages—but also the deeper power of incongruencies across those same languages.

In the eleventh episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Brooklyn-based artist Marina Rosenfeld. As a composer, Marina orchestrated a performance art piece called "Shear Frost Orchestra," which featured 17 women each playing an electric guitar using nothing but bottles of nail polish. Sitting in a line, the women were directed to play their guitars in a series of choreographed actions: drop, hop, drone, scratch, and "A" for anything. Marina is currently artist in residence at Nokia Bell Labs, where she found inspiration in an experimental prototype for a multi-microphone nicknamed the Death Star.

For the twelfth episode of "Barbara London Calling," Barbara speaks with Didem Pekün, a Turkish–British artist now based in Berlin. Didem's lyrical video installations interrogate ideas of identity, displacement and statelessness, as she "changes languages, changes SIM cards, changes cities" in what she calls a "perpetual effort to reach and keep my people close to me."

Season finale! For the thirteenth episode of "Barbara London Calling"—the final episode of Season 1—Barbara changes things up. After 12 conversations with artists, for this special episode she speaks with a curator: namely, Chrissie Iles, a leading authority on contemporary art and the moving image. As the Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Chrissie is helping to build new spaces and platforms for artists to continue their exploration of technology and creativity.

It's Barbara London Calling 2.0! In the trailer Season 2, curator and author Barbara London lays out her vision for another 12 conversations with artists from all over the world, each working at the forefront of technology and creativity.

In the season premiere of Barbara London Calling 2.0, Barbara speaks with boundary-breaking artist Auriea Harvey. An internet art pioneer, Auriea was a member of the legendary collective hell.com. She speaks with Barbara about the early days of internet art, the role of video games and augmented reality, and how NFTs combine her twin passions for digital art and sculpture.

In the second episode of Season 2.0, Barbara speaks with software-savvy artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, whose immersive installations have been seen in the Venice Biennale and in the Berlin megaclub Berghain. Jakob tells Barbara about his first forays into Unreal Engine, plus the sights and sounds—and smells—he discovered in his adventurous field recordings.

The third episode of Season 2.0 features a conversation with artist Lorraine O'Grady, whose monumental career was recently showcased at the Brooklyn Museum in her first-ever retrospective, “Lorraine O'Grady: Both/And.” Revisiting her trenchant performances and artwork from the past 60 years, Lorraine speaks with Barbara about changing dynamics in the art world and the struggles she faced trying to reveal the art world to itself.

In the fourth episode of Season 2.0,  Barbara London speaks with Australian artist Tracey Moffat. A true innovator, Tracey began her career as an experimental filmmaker; she has since shown all over the world, including at the Venice Biennale. Her unflinching artwork is a mix of childhood memories, popular culture, history, film, television, literature and dreams, as she uses fiction to comment on her own personal history and on serious issues of social history and the volatile political landscape.

In the fifth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Amar Kanwar, an Indian artist whose masterful films and multimedia work explore the politics of power, violence and justice. Born in 1964 in New Delhi, where he is still based, Amar was a researcher for occupational health and safety in the coal mining belt of central India. He turned to art making in 1990, with work that weaves together critical issues of indigenous rights, gender, religious fundamentalism and ecology.

The sixth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0 features one of today's bright, young stars: interdisciplinary artist Sondra Perry. Born in 1986 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Sondra creates insightful artwork using video, computer-based media, installation and performance. Highly respected as an innovator, Sondra uses wit and grace to investigate such timely topics as desire, race, power and gender. 

In the seventh episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Nalini Malani, the versatile Indian artist easily moving between the mediums of painting and video, and between the worlds of Bombay (as she still prefers to call it) and Amsterdam. Probing the past and the present, Nalini explains how theater reaches an audience rarely found in elitist gallery spaces, and why "The compendium of all culture is a lexicon for all artists."

In the eighth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with visual artist and composer Ryoji Ikeda. Based in Paris and Kyoto, Ryoji works with sound in its raw state—in sine tones and noise, often in frequencies at the edge of human perception

In the ninth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Ed Atkins, an English artist whose lively practice revolves around writing, the moving image and installation. Death, loss, distemper and debility have been preoccupations in Ed's work, which shows a keen interest in the emotions our digital technologies are unable to contain. 

In the tenth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Ken Okiishi, an Iowa-born artist who comes from linguistically expressive family with roots in Hawaii and Japan. The simultaneity of those different cultures and identities help motivate Ken's interest in language as he explores image networks and media systems through art.

In the eleventh episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Aura Satz, an inspired artist who dives deep into the history of electronic sound. Born in Spain in 1974 and now based in London, Aura works with the moving image and sonic sculptural objects as she explores the complex marriage of human and machine, and the uncertainty it engenders in bodily awareness and human agency.

In the twelfth episode of "Barbara London Calling" 2.0, Barbara speaks with Lucy Raven, an American artist who works with the moving image, light and sound to create majestic, immersive art. At Dia Chelsea in New York, Lucy's recent solo exhibition of kinetic sculptures and a short film occupied the entirety of a former marble-cutting factory.

Season Finale! Join Barbara and special guest Valerie Cassel Oliver,  the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, for a look back at Season 2 of "Barbara London Calling."

Welcome to Barbara London Calling 3.0! In the trailer Season 3, curator and author Barbara London charts the course for the third—and final—season of her celebrated podcast series, featuring 11 new conversations with artists from around the world, each working at the forefront of technology and creativity.

In the first episode of Season 3, host Barbara London speaks with CFGNY, an artist collective working at the intersection of art, fashion and identity. Based mostly in New York, the members of CFGNY collectively work across video performance, installation, sculpture and garment making.

The second episode of Season 3 features Barbara London in conversation with Stan Douglas, the acclaimed Canadian artist who reimagines the mediums of photography, film and video while looking at technology's role in image making and collective memory. Stan's work often pulls from his interests in music, movies, television and theater, aiming at what he sees as the small moments that are a local symptom of a global condition.

In the third episode of Season 3, Barbara London speaks with Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, two sound and installation artists who began collaborating in 1995. Their work explores the idea of narration and the plasticity of noise, sound, music and poetry. Based in rural British Columbia, Janet and George often travel internationally to develop and install their work, which has been shown in major museums around the world.

In the fourth episode of Season 3, Barbara speaks with Brooklyn-based artist Matthew Ritchie. Working in installation, painting and public art, Matthew draws from ideas as varied as creation myths, particle physics, thermodynamics and art history. His work has been shown around the world, including in the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

In Episode 5, Barbara speaks with Kameelah Janan Rasheed, an artist, author and educator who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021. A self-described learner, Kameelah currently teaches in the sculpture department at Yale University.

In Episode 6, Barbara speaks with New York-based artist Josh Kline. Using video, sculpture, photography and design, Josh creates immersive installations to question how emerging technologies are changing human life in the 21st century. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art; and at many other museums and galleries around the world.

In Episode 7, Barbara speaks with artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Born in Mexico City, Rafael emigrated to Canada, where he is now based. His interactive digital work examines social and political issues using technologies such as surveillance cameras, artificial intelligence, projection mapping and robotics. His work has been shown around the world, including at the 2007 Venice Biennale, where he was the first artist to represent Mexico. 

In Episode 8, Barbara speaks with Marco Fusinato, the Australian musician and artist whose work explores noise and duration. Born in 1964 in Melbourne, Marco released his first solo record in the 1990s. He has said he uses the guitar as a signal generator and amplifiers as an instrument to create improvised noise-guitar performances that can run for hours, days — even months. His work has been shown across the world, including in the 2022 Venice Biennale. 

In Episode 9, Barbara talks with Raheleh Filsoofi, an Iranian artist and teacher who works with ceramics and sound as she explores a shared sense of community heritage. Born in 1975 in Tehran, Raheleh now lives in Nashville, where, at Vanderbilt University, she is an assistant professor of art and an assistant professor at the Blair School of Music.

In Episode 10, Barbara talks with interdisciplinary artist Nyugen Smith. Born in Jersey City in 1976, Nyugen maintains a dynamic, multifaceted practice that includes sculpture, writing, sound, music and performance.