ART FICTIONS

Grace Woodcock selects 'Mind of my Mind' by Octavia Butler. Published in 1977, it details the development of a new species of telepaths led by Mary, a mixed-race young woman raised in poverty. In our conversation, we discuss what distinguishes Octavia Butler as a unique sci-fi voice as we focus on Grace's debut London solo exhibition GUT-BRAIN at Castor, exploring the ideas behind her research-led...

Emma Cousin selects the seminal novel 'Nausea' by Jean-Paul Sartre. Published in 1938, it describes Antoine Roquentin's existential crisis which plays out in the library, streets and cafes of Bouville, which literally means 'mud town'. In a world devoid of God, lacking in meaning, Antoine shrinks further and further inside himself as he struggles in his search for purpose, finally deciding the bes...

Dr Charley Peters selects ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Published in 1892, it was inspired by the author’s own experience of post natal depression and the resulting inappropriate treatment she battled against. The short story describes one woman’s descent into madness as she is overtaken by the yellow wallpaper she loathes. Her supposedly devoted husband keeps her isolated in...

Welcome back to Art Fictions ! Jordan Baseman selects ‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith. Published in 1950, the book tells of Bruno and Guy who happen meet on a train and, between whiskies and cigarettes, Bruno suggests they swap murders. I’ll kill your pesky wife if you kill my horrid father. Seems fair though somewhat macabre, not at all the sort of thing a nice young woman from Texas...

In this final episode of Series 1, Alice Browne selects 'Seawater and the Dragon' by Luciana Chetwynd and the Chetwynd Children. Published in 1973, the children's book tells of a feared dragon and his monster buddies who find an ally in naughty boy Seawater, and together, they all go on to become darlings of the village. As a painter of measured inaccuracies, Alice identifies with the book's wobbl...

Tom Wilmott selects 'The Exorcist' by William Peter Blatty. Published in 1971, the novel portrays the wildly disturbing behaviour of 12 year old Regan, whose mother seeks help from a plethora of medical specialists until, in desperation, she arranges a priest to perform an exorcism of her daughter to cast out the devil. In a fascinating and deeply personal reading of the book, Tom sees the devil a...

Andrea Wright selects 'Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions' by theologian, schoolmaster and Anglican priest Edwin A Abbott. Published in 1884, the novella tells a story of geometry and the pettiness of the class system in equal tones of giggly satire and eye rolling dismay. We venture into Andrea's Irish ancestry and the shifts throughout her family's history, as well as her own vast experienc...

Hannah Luxton selects 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit, published by Canongate Books in 2005. We join the author’s drunken debut and travel with her to extremes at the western edges of America as she explores a myriad of geographical, ancestral and metaphysical ways of getting lost. Picking up on Rebecca’s fascination with the elusiveness of blue - the colour of where you are not...

Simon Linington, visual artist and story writer, has selected his own fiction for this episode. ‘Evangaline Too’ was originally published in New York’s ‘Sunday Salon’ zine and creates an intriguing viewing platform for our conversation. We probe the meticulous details of smoking, worms, dirty water and so on, as Simon grasps at that which is readily available. Dreams, travel and memories feed his...

Grant Foster and I pick up where we left off, discussing connections between his work and J G Ballard's 1970 novel 'The Atrocity Exhibition'. Considering Ballard often referred to parallels with painters, it seems natural that an artist might return the gesture, drawing on this author to feed his own practice. In this episode, Grant talks about eternal life, use of the motif and painting as a sequ...

Grant Foster selects 'The Atrocity Exhibition' by J G Ballard, first published by Jonathan Cape UK, 1970. Both artist and writer embrace in equal measure the freedom, fear and disappointment that results from the individual being a fragmented composition, vulnerable to manipulation and capable of dynamic reconfiguration. In hope and despair, Grant points out that there is the possibility that 'tru...

Rosalind Davis - artist, curator, author, educator - and I weave in, out and around her paintings, installations and the mysterious diaries of Hungarian painter Janos Lavin from 'A Painter of Our Time' 1958 by John Berger. Rosalind details the decision to build her own art community and the many branches of her practice which have developed as a result. (Mixed Tapes is an introductory series recor...

Lockdown has given the unharmed among us, opportunities, doubts and challenges in equal measure. The first 'Art Fictions' series, using a mixed bag of equipment, is a buzzing start to a down-to-earth podcast exploring creative connections between fiction and fine art. Each artist shares insights and inspirations around fictional themes and teenage dreams, and this podcast would not be possible wit...