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On Life and Meaning


Aug 15, 2017

John W. Love Jr. is a surreal apparition of a being who creates multi-sensory experiences that invite participants into a world of Yes. He is an interdisciplinary literary and performance artist. His work is as "deliciously complex, circuitous, textual, and contextual as his own nappy hair." He tells stories that are earthen and fantastical. His installations delight and confound. He smears boundaries because "definitions all fit like a fat man in a toddler's big girl dress."  John is a poet, an actor, a dancer, a sculptor, a director and a teller of tales. In his stories characters burn blue. He is a recipient of the Arts & Sciences McColl Award in recognition of artistic excellence and a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist residency.  He is a North Carolina Artist Council Artist Fellow and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. His work has brought him to Sweden, Germany, France and points beyond. His insights are flavors in the mind.

This episode is perfect for anyone interested in the life-affirming funkiness of a daring interdisciplinary mind and the intentions and expressions of a love warrior mystical being.

IN THIS EPISODE

  • John shares the beautifully absurd and wonderfully ridiculous nature of defining himself and his objection to lines of demarcation.
  • He discusses the elements that make up his art and the influence of his meditative practice on his performances and installations.
  • He explains what he means by 'rescuing narrative.'
  • He describes one of his signature performance and installation works and the role salt as a spice played in it and the return of all things to the Source.
  • John talks about several of his characters from Neequa or She Who Would Be King to Roscoe 'The Eggplant' Takimoto to The Perpetually Pregnant Man.
  • He explains the world of Yes, the correct posture for living, and when 'no' is appropriate.
  • He responds to the idea that he and his characters are intertwined and that how he presents himself could very well be a character he has written.
  • He shares whether the responses of others to his work matters to him.
  • John talks about how much of his art is flirtation, how much is consummation, and the sensuality of his work.
  • He reflects on the rewards and constraints of fellowships and recognitions, the yumminess of his applications, and what he refuses to do as an artist seeking support.
  • He reacts to what makes anything art and the power he sees in his own work.
  • John shares what Meryl Streep, Bill T. Jones and Bjork have in common.
  • He describes himself as a young person and what his younger self would recognize and be surprised by his current self.
  • John reads a poem of his called 'Early Morning Ritual.'
  • He responds to rapid-fire questions that he composed that reveals the temperature of his mind, what makes him cry, and the sexiest tool in his arsenal.

After the conversation, host Mark Peres adds a personal word that begins this way, "When I hear David talk about cities and memory and song, I'm reminded of the poem Chicago by Carl Sandburg..."

To learn more about this podcast, visit On Life and Meaning.