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Working: Artist Nayland Blake on Capitalism and Creativity

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Society & Culture, Business

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to artist Nayland Blake, whose current exhibition “Got an Art Problem?” allows them to help artists move past creative blocks. In the interview, Nayland discusses the reasoning behind the exhibition and their affinity for interactive art. They also talk about capitalism, museums, and the importance of ambiguity in art.  After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss the concept of “niching down,” i.e. cultivating a narrow brand for yourself instead of following your artistic instincts.   In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Isaac and Nayland talk about the interactive art of video games.  Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Big Mood, Little Mood—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus. __ Thanks to Atlassian Work Check Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:43.0

One of the things about the commercial art world is that it will take as much of your power as you're willing to give it. If you want to give it all of your power over what you do in the studio and what you're capable of thinking about then fine it will take all of that.

1:06.0

It doesn't mean that you will automatically be rewarded.

1:13.0

Welcome back to working, I'm your host, June Thomas.

1:16.0

And I'm your other host, Isaac Butler.

1:18.0

Isaac, I'm so happy to see you again.

1:20.0

I feel like it's been a long time.

1:22.0

Yeah, we've had a, because of summer and vacations and trips we've had a, we've got enough schedule so it's been a bit strange.

1:29.0

Well, also there was the time that Karen sabotaged the break line of your car so that she could fill in for you for a couple of weeks.

1:35.0

Yeah, good luck finding a car in my life but sure, sure.

1:39.0

Before we get any further, I have to know whose voice we heard at the top of the show. Who was that?

1:46.0

That was the artist, teacher and thinker, Nailand Blake, whose work actually is currently on display as part of the Whitney Biennial.

1:53.0

Wow. And what kind of work does Nailand make?

1:56.0

Well, Nailand's had a long career in a variety of different media.

2:00.0

I read an interview with them where they refer to themselves as a sculptor in the past.

2:05.0

And there's certainly a lot of that in the, in the uvra, but they've also done performance work, lots of drawing, lots of kind of stuff that defies categorization, etc.

2:17.0

As you'll hear in the interview, actually, one of the three works they have at the Whitney takes the form of a consulting practice of all things.

2:24.0

I am very excited to hear this interview, but first I believe that you have an extra segment just for slate plus members. What will they hear?

...

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