Raw Material

Art is a form of remembrance. This episode features two artists, both born in Iran, discussing the very different ways their practices have been influenced by the country’s turbulent history. They consider how this legacy, whether inherited or experienced firsthand, is impossible to ignore. Photo: Arash Fayez. Photo by Geraldine Ah-Sue.
 Artists featured in this episode: Taraneh Hemami and Arash Fayez.

Art is an exercise in perspective. This episode highlights works that invite new ways of seeing. Artists reflect on how they see themselves, how others see them, and how to look at the world through performance, portraiture, and abstract painting. Photo: Toyin Ojih Odutola. Photo by King Texas © 2015. Artists featured in this episode: James Luna, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Katherine Sherwood.

Art is emotional. This episode examines the concept of “home.” Through their work, a sculptor, a painter, and a singer express feelings about being at home, being in exile, safety, fear, connection, and belonging. Photo: Ana Teresa Fernández, by Geraldine Ah-Sue. Artists featured in this episode: Mildred Howard, Ana Teresa Fernández, and Diana Gameros.

Art is material. This episode explores art in relation to the body. Hear artists reflect on gender and performance, transform themselves into cockroaches, and sculpt self-portraits from chocolate and soap. Photo: Xandra Ibarra, Nude Laughing, performance at The Broad, Los Angeles, 2016. Photo by John Tain. Artists featured in this episode: Xandra Ibarra, Cassils, and Janine Antoni.

Art is a journey. This episode considers hidden histories through artworks that explore the movement of people, goods and ideas across distant lands. Hear about works made from curry, a 25-part installation on Angel Island, and an immersive three-channel film piece that uses imagery of the sea to evoke larger themes about history and politics. Photo: Flo Oy Wong, by Geraldine Ah-Sue. Artists featured in this episode: Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, John Akomfrah, and Flo Oy Wong.

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material, from SFMOMA.

An artist discusses her interest in extraterrestrials, including sightings, abductions, and other memories of aliens. She examines how descriptions of these interactions have both changed with cultural norms and reflected individual, inner feelings. Image: courtesy of Desirée Holman Artists featured: Desirée Holman

Artists share personal experiences they have had with ghosts and the paranormal. A conceptual sculptor describes creating a piece using a “presence” as his primary material. Artists featured in this episode: Tom Friedman, India Cook, Rosemary Brown, Elizabeth Robinson, Micki Pellerano Image © Tom Friedman; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Artists discuss how they both add to and draw from from Earth’s vibrations. A conceptual artist presents a chapel he has built for bees, and a free jazz improviser talks about making music with natural biological rhythms. Photo: Terence Koh, by Ross Simonini. Artists featured in this episode: Terence Koh, Milford Graves, Nat Evans.

Artists discuss intuition and divination, techniques used to perceive and foresee the unknown. They explore the intersections of their work with palmistry, poetry, astrology, and clairsentient readings. Artists featured in this episode: CA Conrad To read a transcript of our full interview with CAConrad, visit: http://openspace.sfmoma.org/2016/11/extreme-present-a-conversation-with-caconrad/

Experimental musician, pioneering performance artist, and general cult phenomenon Genesis Breyer P-Orridge reveals the role of magic in h/er life and artistic practice. S/he describes h/er decades-long mystical work with sigils, chaos magick, sex magick, and the philosophies of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Image: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge by Ross Simonini Artists featured in this episode: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Micki Pellerano

A folk musician conducts an ayahuasca ceremony, a performance artist describes her shamanic rituals, and a pioneer of conceptual art communes with animals and inhabits his own unconscious. Image: Joseph Beuys, I Like America And America Likes Me, 1974. Artists featured in this episode: Santiparro, Dohee Lee, Joseph Beuys.

A performance artist, a philosopher, a violinist, and a new age composer make art by harnessing unknown forces, deities, and interdimensional beings. An artist at the turn of the twentieth century holds a séance with spirits and gives birth to abstract painting. Photo of Dohee Lee by Pak Han.

Raw Material is a new arts and culture podcast from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Season 1: Otherworld, hosted by Bay Area artist and writer Ross Simonini, documents artists who work with the unknown. Rituals, hauntings, magic — we conjure these topics and more in our six-episode fall season. Coming October 2016.

Discover Raw Material, a new arts and culture podcast from SFMOMA, coming October 2016.