Subject, Object, Verb

Subject, Object, Verb is the sonic counterpart to ArtReview magazine, one of the world’s leading publications on contemporary art. The show explores the connections between artist, art and life – or, in the show’s own lexicon: subject, object and verb. Musician, artist and writer Ross Simonini engages with artists and thinkers of all varieties, including but not limited to painters, fashion designers, filmmakers, novelists, sculptors, poets, composers, sound artists, curators, and philosophers. The show features a collage of formats, from interviews to field recordings to mixtapes to sound commissions, while always encouraging an attention to the many ways in which art can arrive at the ears.

  • 33 minutes 52 seconds
    S2 Ep17: Paul McCarthy’s Life in Music
    Paul McCarthy is a legendary performance artist, painter and filmmaker. He is less known for his work as a musician, though he has been active as an improvising sound artist since his days in music school. Today, he continues to play with his band, Extended Organ (formed with Mike Kelley) and to edit the sound in his films with the sensibility of noise and collage. In this episode, McCarthy describes his life in music, his early influences, and his mysterious interactions with a man who may have been the chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer.

    Featured image
    Paul McCarthy, Whipping a Wall and a Window with Paint, 1974, performance, video, b/w photographs. © Paul McCarthy. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth; photo: Al Payne

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini

    16 December 2022, 11:54 am
  • 35 minutes 15 seconds
    S2 Ep16: Matt Marble on Arthur Russell’s Pop Music of the Future
    This episode is a conversation with the writer, Matt Marble on the composer Arthur Russell, who was active in the ‘70s and ‘80s music scene in New York. Marble’s book Buddhist Bubblegum is a study of Russell’s life and music, which spanned many styles and invoked esoteric practices such as Tantra and Shingon Buddhism. On the podcast, Marble discusses Russell’s philosophical perspectives on such divergent topics as non-dualism and disco music, and how Russell worked with his Buddhist teacher to create what he believed would be the pop music of the future.

    Featured image
    Photo: Tom Lee; courtesy Audika Records

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    9 November 2022, 12:11 pm
  • 23 minutes 4 seconds
    S2 Ep15: Podcast: Joanne Robertson on Improvisation
    This episode features the musician and painter, Joanne Robertson whose work is born from improvisation. She regularly collaborates with other artists, such as Dean Blunt and Sidsel Meineche Hansen, who plays a vacuum on Joanne’s most recent release. We discuss her ideas on music, art and life, all while she nurses her newborn baby.

    Featured image
    Photo courtesy Bruna Amaral

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    30 September 2022, 10:55 am
  • 45 minutes 42 seconds
    S2 Ep14: Deniz Gul and Nour Mobarak: the Sound of Language
    This episode features two multimedia artists, Deniz Gul and Nour Mobarak, who both work with sculpture, music, language and ideas. Mobarak discusses her new work, Dafne Phono, an audio-based adaptation of the first known opera, translated into the most morphophonologically complex languages in the world. Gul presents an essay from her most recent book, an excerpt on the subject of somatic philosopher Moshé Feldenkrais, along with an exercise for listeners to try at home. 

    Featured image
    Theodoor van Thulden, Apollo and Daphne, 1636-38. Public domain.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    5 August 2022, 11:42 am
  • 36 minutes 11 seconds
    S2 Ep13: Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s Transcendental Metal Opera
    Hunter Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix is the leading creative force in the highly eclectic band, Liturgy. She also makes sculpture and has created her own philosophical system called Transcendental Qabala, which informs much of her work. In this episode, we discuss her opera, Origin of the Alimonies, which she considers a total work of art, involving film, spiritual gnosis, and a gender-affirming transition.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    Image courtesy: Hunter Hunt-Hendrix

    1 July 2022, 10:39 am
  • 29 minutes 16 seconds
    S2 Ep12: Mochu – Narrating Art, Deep Time and Freeports
    Mochu is an artist who creates narrative technofictions in his films, writings and lectures. In this episode, he presents an audio adaptation of his new book, Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether, which discusses fossils, synthetic colour production, and time-traveling syndromes. The episode takes place in an art freeport and drifts between essay, fiction and mythology. It's a wild philosophical ride into deep time.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    Image courtesy: Adityan Melekalam + Mochu
    Audioscape: Suvani Suri
    Sound Recording: Abhishek Mathur @ Quarter Note Studios
    31 May 2022, 2:47 pm
  • 58 minutes 56 seconds
    S2 Ep11: Natasha Ginwala on the Sound of Riots
    For the last five years, curator Natasha Ginwala has been investigating riots, uprisings, and pogroms. As a part of this research, she’s curated an exhibition and edited the book ​​Nights of the Dispossessed: Riots Unbound, edited with Gal Kirn and Niloufar Tajeri. For this podcast, Ginwala considers the sonic expression of riots through a collection of mixtapes and sound collages on social unrest. The episode features contributions by Arshia Haq (writer, filmmaker, DJ), Louis Henderson (artist, filmmaker), Josh Kun (author, music critic), and Atiyyah Khan (arts journalist, music writer, artist).

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini

    Featured image
    Jitish Kallat, Anger at the Speed of Fright, 2010, Riots: Slow Cancellation of the Future, 2018, ifa Gallery Berlin, courtesy: Victoria Tomaschko
    5 May 2022, 2:59 pm
  • 27 minutes 36 seconds
    S2 Ep10: Jared Madere’s Guide to Making Music with AI
    For the last few years, the artist Jared Madere has invented images and music using artificial intelligence. He jams AI systems with irrationality to arrive at pictures and songs that are both familiar and alien. In this episode, Madere discusses the ‘frozen operas’ he has been performing around the world and the idiosyncratic process he uses to collaborate with the non-human.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    7 April 2022, 11:12 am
  • 27 minutes 36 seconds
    S2 Ep9: Ei Arakawa on Melody as Memory
    Ei Arakawa is an artist working in sculpture, performance and more recently, musicals. In this episode Arakawa is interviewed for the first time about his songs, which have been largely overshadowed by his largescale performances, at venues such as Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Arakawa goes on to discuss the process of writing music and some of the artists, both amateurs and stars, who have been an influence on his work since childhood.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini

    24 February 2022, 1:53 pm
  • 21 minutes 50 seconds
    S2 Ep8: Klein on the Sound of Childhood
    Klein is multi-disciplinary artist. She’s made a feature length film, a hypertext storytelling game and theatrical works, but is primarily known for her music, a beguiling collage of sound. This episode features an interview in which Klein manipulates her vocals and provides a playlist of TV sitcom theme songs, commercial jingles, and Nigerian Nollywood soundtracks that influenced her as a child.
    Host  Ross Simonini
    Credits  Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    21 January 2022, 12:30 pm
  • 33 minutes 32 seconds
    S2 Ep7: Sheila Heti on Thinking about Thinking
    Sheila Heti is a writer who interrogates the role of the writer, questions the limits of the book and explores the spectrum of literature. She has written novels, fables, a fashion book, a play, and philosophical investigations into everyday life. On this episode, she discusses working with systems as an artist, her love of thinking about thinking, and two of her upcoming works: ‘Alphabetical Diary’ and ‘Pure Colour’.

    Host
    Ross Simonini

    Credits
    Produced by ArtReview and Ross Simonini
    15 December 2021, 4:04 pm
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