S2E7 | Oxygen

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Hosted by Jennifer Gutman and Lutz Koepnick

Our air and atmosphere require 21% oxygen to sustain life as we know it. Human-induced climate change has put this ratio under pressure. In this episode of Art of Interference, we feature Santiago Sierra’s work 52 Canvases and Ted Chiang’s short story Exhalation as two recent interventions that draw our attention to the precarity of the air around us. We talk with curator Meredith Malone about the strange beauty of Sierra’s toxic images and we discuss what can be learned from marine mammals about the future of oxygen on our planet.

Ted Chiang. Photo: Alan Burner

Visit this Tate Shorts video for more information on Santiago Sierra or go to his website directly.

Click here to learn more about 52 Canvases Exposed to Mexico City’s Air and its installation at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis. To learn more about curator Meredith Malone, please follow this link.

Ted Chiang’s author page at Penguin Random House can be found here.


Also mentioned in this episode:

Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (2020)

Juliana Snapper’s operatic performances under water

Edward Burtynsky’s photographic work on rust and climate change.

Florian Wirtz’s magical perfomances as #10 on the football pitch.