One of the things I love about being back on my university campus is the hallway chats I am having with students and colleagues about all things art and culture. Everyone seems to be sharing what they are reading, watching, and listening to, so I thought I would add my own list to this week's round up. I have also collected thumbnail images of each pick and added them to the images below—clicking on the pictures will send you to the source.
First up are books I am reading for my research. Currently, I am working on a manuscript proposal exploring the symbolic capital around which the art world has operated in the past few decades, and this has led me in many different directions. In particular, I have become very interested in the rise of income inequality globally in the past two decades and the art collecting practices of the ultra-rich, along with recent theories of display and prestige. Two books that have helped my understand these areas are Barbara Carnevali’s Social Appearances: A Philosophy of Display and Prestige (2020) and Michael Mechanic’s Jackpot: how the Super-Rich Really Live, and How Their Wealth Harms Us (2021).
Next up, television. I have far less time these days to watch all the excellent shows that are popping up on the ever-growing cable and streaming services, but two that I am making time for are Call My Agent on Netflix and Euphoria on HBO. The first show is a French dramedy series that follows agents working in a top Paris talent and PR firm. Now in its fourth season, this is a show that combines two things I love, on-location shooting in Paris (forget about Emily in Paris—this is far closer to an authentic Paris experience), and a set of strong and likeable female characters, especially the wonderful actress Camille Cottin! The second show is probably the most talked about tv show on the Internet right now, but the hype is very real. What I love about Euphoria (usually described as a show about the lives of teenagers) beyond all the amazing cinematography, music, and experimental elements, is how successfully the inner lives of the parents (Gen Xers like me) are also explored. If you watched the most recent episode examining Cal Jacobs’ backstory and confrontation with his family, you will know what I mean.
Finally, what I am reading and looking at/listening to in my leisure time. Over the Christmas holidays, I finished Ladyparts (2021), a much-anticipated follow-up memoir by photographer and journalist Deborah Copaken, the author of the much loved memoir Shutterbabe (2021) from two decades ago. What people may not know is that Copaken was also the muse for the real Emily in Emily in Paris, and her memoir captures stories from her life as she navigates midlife, sexism in the publishing industry (including being shafted on the making of Emily In Paris), and making peace with her body. In a very similar vein, Meghan Daum’s short essays in The Problem with Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars (2019) interrogate how ideas around feminism and identity politics have been transformed in light of Trump’s presidency and the #MeToo movement.
Two last mentions are first, an Instagram account I am absolutely loving called “90s Art School” that aptly describes what it presents in the form of nostalgic photos of art school antics of the 1990s-- “Out of the shoebox and into our shared memory.” Second, I was obsessed this past fall with the tv series Succession and am now listening to the official “HBO Succession Podcast”with host Kara Swisher. Each episode of the show is carefully and thoughtfully dissected on the podcast with special guests (the one with Anthony Scaramucci discussing the realistic portrayal of power politics and the corporate elite was a favourite!). I cannot recommend highly enough the delight of simultaneously listening to a well-done podcast while watching an excellent television series. I just wish I had discovered the podcast sooner to listen when I first watched season 3 of Succession.
Enjoy the round up below and I hope some of my suggestions above prove interesting and useful! Again, find all links in the gallery above.
