Think of it as analogous to The Doors‘ two versions of “Light My Fire”: There’s the short version, suitable for top-40 radio play, and then there’s the mind-blowing longer version.
If you were up at about 8:30 this morning and tuned in to WQXR, New York’s public classical radio station, you heard the drive-time cut of my conversation with Kerry Nolan about the hot-button “Skin Fruit” show of Dakis Joannou‘s collection at the New Museum.
Now take a trip with me through the mesmerizing unexpurgated version—the station’s online podcast (which I’ve also embedded at the end of this post)—where you will hear me expounding on “body parts doing things that I can’t discuss without running afoul of WQXR broadcast standards.” (I guess I can’t say THAT on the radio either!)
This is one of the reasons why I advised, “Don’t bring the children”:
Kiki Smith, “Mother/Child,” 1993
On the seven-minute podcast, I express in greater detail my concerns about the show (which, as I say in the broadcast, I do regard as worth seeing), including the museum’s “very grudging and slow transparency” about its funding sources.
I speculate:
Either they tried to get other funding and failed, because people are reluctant to fund a private-collection show, or maybe they had something else in mind and decided they’d better not do that: They’d better just take it out of their own funds, to avoid any problems with the show.
I also discuss the symposium tomorrow, which I regard as the New Museum’s misguided attempt to position the three-month loan of a small portion of a private collector/trustee’s trove in the grand tradition of Gilded Age museum patronage by megacollectors.
But the kicker at the end of the broadcast version isn’t heard on the podcast and came as a complete surprise to me when I listened this morning. Kerry thanked me for my comments and then added:
We asked the New Museum to comment on this story, but they declined our request.
Turning down the chance for air time to talk up their show? I guess they don’t want to fan any flames. Or maybe they didn’t want to dignify my critique with a reply.
Speaking of “Light My Fire,” there’s no more “time to wallow in the mire.” I need to cozy up to Kentridge today, in preparation for my opera excursion tomorrow!
In the meantime, you can hear me lighting some fires here: