Fugue Chat

Matt talks about Robert Ryman’s time as a museum guard at MOMA, his own time as a gallery assistant at Whitechapel Gallery, and the particular relationship between museum staff and the artwork on display.

Matt talks about seeing the Ana Mendieta exhibition at Tate Modern in London, and while getting a lot from the show, how he felt various layers of embarrassment while viewing it.

Matt talks about realising that he doesn’t live in London anymore.

Matt lays on the couch and speaks about the different experiences of getting his weekly shop delivered by Waitrose vs Ocado.

Matt talks about ear wax and other bodily materials. CW: ear wax, colonic irrigation, Matt couldn’t remember the term ‘colonic irrigation’ so at one point he says the words ‘tube up your bum’

Matt starts talking about the ethics of open calls, but then realises he’s really talking about the ideology of open calls. n.b Matt forgets the name of the US artist Andrea Fraser

Matt talks about coming to the end of his PhD and not wanting to explain himself anymore.

Matt talks about the writer Rachel Cusk and what art can know.

Matt drives to a Chinese takeaway and talks about Isabelle Graw’s article ‘Talk ‘Til You Drop: The Art Conversation and the Communication Imperative,’, from Mousse magazine, first published in 2006.

Matt puts the washing out and talks about a man he saw digging a hole on a Cornish beach.

Matt talks about taking the weather personally and what Alanis Morissette was singing about if she wasn’t singing about irony.

Matt talks about two video works, ‘House Dances’ (2007) by Maren Hassinger and ‘Dad’s Stick’ (2012) by John Smith which through their deployment of various filmic techniques (performance, speech, on screen text, editing, sequencing and montage) constitute their on screen objects as sculptures.

Matt drives to the station and talks about the virtual, the actual, the real, the true, the immediate and the mediated.

Matt talks about trying to remember, and then slowly remembering, the Dr. Evil monologue about his childhood from the Austin Powers film. I got the monologue from this amazing old website: https://www.whysanity.net/monos/

Matt talks about trying to look at his phone less.

Matt and Ross meet at London Liverpool Street for the second in an occasional series of episodes from the station. This time we wander around the Whole Foods Market on Blomfield Street, but we begin with Ross showing Matt how to fold up a Brompton bike.

Matt talks about swearing at inanimate objects.

Matt talks about having ants.

Matt talks about whether it is better to have art as a hobby rather than a career.

Matt talks about biography in art, and how forms are facts.

Matt talks about the relationship between art and the 21st century grift economy.

Matt walks back from the reservoir and talks to Sophie about playing the lottery.

Matt walks to the reservoir and talks about how he might have ‘peasant mindset’.

Matt talks about the time he had to hold a door open for Prince William.

Matt describes a fantasy about winning the lottery being interrupted, but also sustained, by detailed planning around the administration and accounting of such a win.