Interview

Sarah Lawson and Lee Norton

October 23, 2020 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Sarah Lawson is a writ

er and editor based in Brooklyn. They are a member of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective, and act as UDP’s Publicity Director.

Lee Norton is a member of the Ugly Duckling Presse Editorial Collective, where he also serves as the Development Director. He teaches composition and literature at Queens College CUNY, usually with a focus on the history and rhetoric of the life sciences, theories of genre, 20th-century fiction, and contemporary poetry, in some combination. He earned a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill; his critical work has appeared in Occasions; his poetry, in Ohio Edit, Drunken Boat, Supermachine, and several other magazines.

Ugly Duckling Presse is a nonprofit publisher for poetry, translation, experimental nonfiction, performance texts, and books by artists. Through the efforts of a volunteer editorial collective, UDP was transformed from a 1990s zine into a mission-driven small press that has published more than 300 titles to date, and produced countless prints and ephemera.

UDP favors emerging, international, and “forgotten” writers, and its books, chapbooks, artist’s books, broadsides, and periodicals often contain handmade elements, calling attention to the labor and history of bookmaking.

UDP is committed to keeping its publications in circulation with our online archive of out-of-print chapbooks and our digital proofs program. In all of its activities, UDP endeavors to create an experience of art free of expectation, coercion, and utility.

Here is a link to the pamphlet subscription mentioned in the interview and the regular subscription is here.

And here is some more writing on the reasoning / history that went into doing the pamphlet series, in the words of editor Daniel Owen.

Soviet Texts, the first representative selected volume of poetry by Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov, a leading writer of the late Soviet and early post-Soviet era and one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism.

The first batch of the 2020 Pamphlet Series, with work from Simon Cutts, Sergio Chejfec, Don Mee Choi, Steven Zultanski, and Aleksandr Skidan.

Bobbie Louise Hawkins’ autobiographical novel One Small Saga; and Laura Riding’s first book of poetry, The Close Chaplet.

Natalija Vujošević

October 21, 2020 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Natalija Vujošević is an artist and curator based in Montenegro, Yugoslavia.

The focus of her research and practice is the presentation of archives through exhibition-making, seeking renewed modes of communication, engagement, and understanding through new interpretations and expanded forms. She has lead and curated this kind of work on a number of research projects and public presentations, such as:

Comrades / Women’s Movement in Montenegro 1943 – 1953 / with Nataša Nelević

A research project and exhibition dedicated to the AFZ archive (the anti-fascist front of women in socialist Yugoslavia. Archive + contemporary art interventions and interviews.

“Why Have There Been No Great Men Artists?” Collections of the British Council in cooperation with the National Museum of Montenegro, (with a focus on women artists and their position in collections and in the art scene.

Missing Stories / Forced labor in Nazi Germany, organized by the Goethe Institute Belgrade / Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade).

She is the founder and director of the non-governmental organization, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Montenegro, which has been active since 2015, which is dedicated to contemporary art theory, education, research, and archives. The Institute established the first award for the young artists in Montenegro (in cooperation with Trust For Mutual Understanding New York). In the National Library of Montenegro, they are developing an alternative book collection that consists of art theory, philosophy, and humanistic science written in the last 3 decades (after Yugoslavia).

Her recent artist research is focused around Issues of life on the sidelines of global capitalism: the fatal transition of the Western Balkans and the neo-colonial politics and the occupation of natural resources on the Adriatic coast.

The book mentioned in the interview was; Breathing / Chaos and Poetry / Franco “Bifo” Berardi.

The study of Nature, Installation in public vitrine, 2020, mirror, textile, curtains, South south lets go south Biennale Serbia.

Body Installation, 2017, ceramic tiles, textile, wood. Nida Art Colony

Ellen Winkler

October 21, 2020 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Ellen Winkler is a print maker, painter and graphic designer who lives in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. She studied art during her undergraduate years at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. That educational experience afforded her the opportunity to live and work in New York City as a participant in the Great Lakes Colleges Association “Semester in New York”. She worked as an apprentice to the artist, Willard Midgette.

She came to the Washington area in 1977 to pursue a graduate degree at George Washington University, where she focused on Graphic Design. She was Art Director of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Opinion and Arts weekly magazine, The Chronicle Review and is retired. She is a member of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

Deeply influenced by the artist Jack Boul, she has spent much time exploring monotypes as a means of responding to the landscape. She has recently been working with drypoint, copper engraving and etching. Her etchings particularly reflect recent drawings which are explorations of seen and unseen places. Additionally, she has been rendering landscapes using oil paint on prepared board.

“Getting to There”; 2020; 6 5/8″ x 7 1/2”; Oil on prepared board

“Tired Going Home”; 2020; 6″ x 5; Drypoint and Engraving printed with Chine Collé

Thea Matthews

October 2, 2020 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Thea Matthews is a Brooklyn-based poet, activist, and educator of Afro-Indigenous Mexican heritage.

Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Thea is the author of Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit, 2020).

Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Atlanta Review, The New Republic, and others. Currently, she is an MFA Poetry candidate at New York University and editor of For Women Who Roar magazine.

Links to purchase the book and have more info, click here and also here.

The following printed poem was read during this interview.

Milena Dragićević Šešić

October 2, 2020 By Brainard Carey Leave a Comment

Dr. Milena Dragićević Šešić, prof. emerita, former President of University of Arts, Belgrade, founder of UNESCO Chair in Interculturalism, Art Management and Mediation, professor of Cultural Policy & Management, Cultural studies, Media studies. Diplomas: D.E.A. Paris-VIII 1977, Mag. University of Arts Belgrade (1981), and Ph.D. in literature and communication University of Belgrade (1990).
Commandeur dans l`Ordre des Palmes Academiques (French Ministry of Education) 2002. ENCATC Fellowship Laureate 2019. University of Arts Laureate in 2004 & 2019.

Guest Lecturer at numerous world universities. Published 20 books and more than 200 essays: Vers les nouvelles politiques culturelles; Art management in turbulent times: adaptable quality management; Intercultural mediation in the Balkans (both with S. Dragojevic); Culture: management, animation, marketing; Neofolk culture; Art and alternative… Translated in 17 languages.
Expert for UNESCO, European Cultural Foundation, Council of Europe. Realized 50 projects in cultural policy and management (Europe, India, Cambodia, Arab countries, Central Asia).