The love that loves you back

Valerie and Jonathan welcome contemporary sculptor, Abdollah Nafisi for a second round, return to a questioning what it means to be an artist in difficult times. From war and displacement to the pressures of the contemporary art world, they ask whether art can and should respond to political turmoil. Abdollah argues for slowing down and looking at ideas from the past rather than obsessing over the demand for constant originality. This episode considers what it means to live in the present, and whether artists can help imagine futures that are less obsessed with speed, consumption and certainty.

Simeon Nelson is an artist who’s always been preoccupied with systems and systems thinking, which has at regular intervals have landed him in the realm of science. In his most recent incarnation he is visiting art professor at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University. Supported by an inaugural Faraday Discovery Award from the Royal Society in London, he is collaborating on a research project called “Responsive Disorder in Functional Materials”. We speak to Simeon about negotiating the broad spectrum of knowledge and experience between art and science, the possibilities for meaningful synthesis and how to work through the constraints.

As society rushes to automate creativity, we ask a difficult question, what happens when humanity begins outsourcing the very things that make us human before we’ve even understood our own humanity? Join hosts Valerie and Jonathan in conversation as they unpack AI participation in the creation and critique of art.

What happens when the preciousness of process in practice itself to be challenged? Join hosts Valerie Kabov and Jonathan Freemantle as they explore when to adopt a process and when to release it

Our special guest this episode is Abdollah Nafisi, a public sculpture artist born in Tehran, Iran, during the Iran–Iraq War. In his twenties, Nafisi travelled with nomadic tribes to learn traditional crafts and local material practices. Originally trained as a furniture maker in Iran and later relocating to the UK, he has developed a sculptural practice that considers the relationship between material, space, and identity. Working primarily with wood, his work often reflects a deep sensitivity to trees.