Time Sensitive

The Slowdown

Candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time. Host Spencer Bailey interviews each guest about how they think about time broadly and how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today. Explore more at timesensitive.fm

  1. Alma Allen on Connecting to the Primordial Through Art

    2 DAYS AGO

    Alma Allen on Connecting to the Primordial Through Art

    There’s an animate quality to the biomorphic sculptures of the self-taught, Utah-born artist Alma Allen. His works, carved from wood, marble, and bronze—and informed by his deep appreciation for the natural world—appear as if they’re living, breathing things, at once prehistoric and futuristic. Far from fixed objects, they eschew any overt symbolism or predetermined narratives. For this “site-specific” episode of Time Sensitive, our milestone 150th, we traveled to Mexico City to sit down with Allen inside his family’s home there to discuss his highest-visibility exhibition yet: “Call Me the Breeze,” a solo presentation at the U.S. Pavilion for the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, opening May 9 and on view through Nov. 22. In addition to his plans for Venice and how he’s been navigating the noise and public debate around his selection for this year’s U.S. Pavilion, he also delves into the hard-to-pin-down nature of his material-forward sculptures and his peripatetic path to art-world ascendancy.  Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes:  Alma Allen [20:04] Issey Miyake [20:04] Todd Oldham [20:04] Julio Espada [26:06] "Call Me the Breeze" (2026) [29:00] Mauricio Rocha [29:00] Isamu Noguchi [32:02] The Sound and the Fury [32:02] Thomas Pynchon [32:02] Samuel Beckett [41:03] Clyfford Still [39:10] Pierre Soulages [50:13] Glenn Adamson [53:00] J.J. Cale [55:41] JB Blunk [57:42] Constantin Brâncuși [57:42] Lynda Benglis [57:42] Louise Bourgeois [57:42] Thaddeus Mosley [59:24] Museo Anahuacalli [1:04:38] Alma Allen on Park Avenue (2025)

    1hr 11min
  2. Devon Turnbull on Elevating the Beauty of Sound

    8 APR

    Devon Turnbull on Elevating the Beauty of Sound

    To be in a room with one of the artist and audiophile Devon Turnbull’s texture-rich Ojas hi-fi audio systems may be the closest one can get to being in the studio with the musicians themselves. It’s not a stretch to call what he creates “sound sculptures”: Over the past two decades, Turnbull has built up his company Ojas through experimentation, engineering, and deep exploration, and in recent years, his work has been presented at SFMOMA, as well as at Lisson Gallery, both in New York and London. Currently at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through July 19), as part of its “Art of Noise” exhibition, he’s showcasing his large-scale “HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3,” with listening sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  On this episode of Time Sensitive, Turnbull discusses why, while there’s a certain spiritual factor to his practice, he wants to “at all costs, avoid the guru complex”; the role of Japan in shaping his understanding of sonic purity; and the synergistic relationship between D.I.Y. culture and his systems. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes:  Devon Turnbull [01:34] “Art of Noise” [14:24] Hamfests [17:07] Isamu Asano [18:29] Wabi-sabi [18:29] Kanso [18:29] Shibui [18:29] Mingei movement [18:29] Theaster Gates [20:27] Tube Kingdom [20:27] Stereo Sound [20:55] Tamura Transformer Company [26:04] Sound Practices [27:29] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) [28:14] Nils Frahm [33:09] Alex Calderwood [33:09] Sarah Andelman [33:09] Virgil Abloh [33:09] James Jebbia [38:43] Toccata and Fugue in D minor [43:24] Karimoku [45:17] Kunichi Nomura [58:45] Arne Jacobsen [58:45] Poul Kjærholm [1:00:20] New Sounds [1:02:35] Fred Again

    1hr 9min
  3. Shohei Shigematsu on Why “Memorable Space” Matters

    25 MAR

    Shohei Shigematsu on Why “Memorable Space” Matters

    According to the Japanese-born, New York–based architect Shohei Shigematsu, there’s such a thing as a building being too refined. What matters most, in his view, is creating what he calls “memorable space”: the antithesis of anything lifeless or lacking a symbiotic relationship to the city or its surroundings. As a long-time partner at the firm OMA, Shigematsu leads its New York studio with a sense of openness, radicality, and unexpectedness. This philosophy connects the dots between his multifarious projects, whether they take the form of the new diamond-like extension to the New Museum in New York; the torquing Faena Forum in Miami; or the Casa Wabi Mushroom Pavilion in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.  For this (serendipitously “site-specific”) episode of Time Sensitive, Spencer met with Shigematsu inside a Hotel Chelsea suite, a fitting location for their long-view conversation on cities, urbanism, mixed-use design, and spaces for art and community-building—with a particular focus on the New Museum. They also discuss Shigematsu’s nearly three-decade evolution at OMA, how he has carved his own distinctive path at the firm, and the ways in which his Japaneseness has come alive through several of his recent building designs. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show Notes: Shohei Shigematsu [4:33] Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) [5:10] Rem Koolhaas [5:47] S,M,L,XL (1995) [6:59] Delirious New York (1978) [7:43] Learning From Las Vegas (1972) [10:57] OMA New York [21:33] Toyo Ito [23:20] Universal Headquarters [26:42] New Museum [31:55] SANAA New Museum Building [48:16] Cai Guo-Quiang [48:16] Taryn Simon [48:16] “An Occupation of Loss” (2016) [50:38] Kengo Kuma [50:38] Alberto Kalach [50:49] Bosco Sodi [50:49] Casa Wabi Mushroom Pavilion [54:22] Wilshire [Boulevard] Temple [59:58] Tenjin Business Center [59:58] Toranomon Hills Station Tower [1:07:14] Olafur Eliasson

    1hr 15min
  4. Lucinda Childs on the Dance of Everyday Life

    11 MAR

    Lucinda Childs on the Dance of Everyday Life

    Over six decades and counting, the postmodern choreographer and dancer Lucinda Childs has built an exceptional, category-defining body of work grounded in a style that draws as much from “pedestrian,” everyday movements as it does from her foundational ballet training. Emerging out of the 1960s Judson Dance Theater in New York City, Childs founded her namesake company in 1973 and has created more than 50 works since. This year will see two major New York presentations of her pieces—the first, from March 14–15, 2026, at the Guggenheim as part of Van Cleef & Arpels’s Dance Reflections Festival, will restage five of her early dances, most of them silent; the second, titled “Momentary Reprise,” will be showcased at Bard College’s Fisher Center from June 26–28 and include her collaborations with the likes of Frank Gehry, Philip Glass, and Robert Wilson. On this episode—our Season 13 opener—Childs reflects on her various experimental collaborations with Glass and Wilson; her profound perspectives on time through the lens of choreography and performance; and how she has remained unapologetically steadfast in refining her highly distinctive approach to dance. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Lucinda Childs [06:23] Philip Glass [12:46] Merce Cunningham Dance Company [10:02] John Cage [12:17] “Pastime” (1963) [12:36] Judson Dance Theater [13:19] Yvonne Rainer [14:04] Robert Ellis Dunn [15:34] “Calico Mingling” (1973) [15:38] “Untitled Trio” (1973) [17:01] Babette Mangolte [17:29] “Reclining Rondo” (1975) [17:29] Robert Morris [29:44] Hanya Holm [22:59] “Radial Courses” (1976) [22:08] “Katema” (1978) [32:30] “Shoulder” (1964) [37:44] Robert Wilson [37:44] Einstein on the Beach (1976) [33:59] Susan Sontag [33:59] Against Interpretation (1966) [34:28] Marguerite Duras [36:34] “Description (of a Description)” (2000) [46:07] “Dance” (1979) [48:36] “Available Light” (1983)

    1 hr
  5. Hans Ulrich Obrist on Art as a Portal to Liberate Time

    17/12/2025

    Hans Ulrich Obrist on Art as a Portal to Liberate Time

    The Swiss-born, London-based curator, art historian, and Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist moves through his life and work with a deep internal sense of urgency. Among the most prolific and everywhere-all-at-once people in the world of art—whose peripatetic path has taken him from a sheltered upbringing in a small Swiss village to his current post in London at the Serpentine—Obrist has been curating shows for more than three decades. During this time, he has recorded conversations with thousands of artists, architects, and others shaping culture and society. He’s also the author of dozens of books, most recently Life in Progress, released in the U.K. this fall, with the U.S. edition coming out next spring. On this episode, Obrist reflects on 25 years of the Serpentine Pavilion, which has become a defining annual moment in culture globally and a springboard for many of today’s leading voices in architecture, including Lina Ghotmeh (the guest on Ep. 129 of Time Sensitive) and Frida Escobedo, and his firm belief that we all need to embrace more promenadology—the science of a stroll—in our lives. Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: Hans Ulrich Obrist [03:37] Brutally Early Club [06:05] Frank Gehry [06:35] Bettina Korek [06:51] Luma Arles [08:26] Pierre Boulez [11:35] Etel Adnan [18:03] Giorgio Vasari [19:41] Ludwig Binswanger [25:45] “Life in Progress” [30:50] Peter Fischli & David Weiss [31:27] Kasper König [37:30] Maria Lassnig [39:45] Serpentine Galleries [40:30] Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris [45:15] Serpentine Pavilion [48:12] Frida Escobedo [49:00] Lina Ghotmeh [53:14] The FLAG Art Foundation [53:38] Play Pavilion [54:11] Serpentine General Ecology [55:10] Serpentine Arts Technologies [58:35] “Peter Doig: House of Music” [1:00:34] “Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: The Delusion” [1:01:25] Édouard Glissant [1:02:17] Umberto Eco [1:08:56] Lucius Burckhardt [1:09:33] Cedric Price [1:08:13] Robert Walser

    1hr 21min
  6. Jennie C. Jones on Time Traveling Through Art, Sound, and Space

    10/12/2025

    Jennie C. Jones on Time Traveling Through Art, Sound, and Space

    When the artist Jennie C. Jones listens closely to a piece of music, she’s particularly attuned to its pauses, in-between moments, and breaks. Widely celebrated for her abstract works in painting, sculpture, and sound art that, in many instances, incorporate architecture or space—through which she often elevates undersung or little-known Black artists and musicians—her practice is largely informed by minimalism and color field painting, as well as by jazz and avant-garde music. Jones currently has two exhibitions on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis (through Feb. 1, 2026): “A Line When Broken Begins Again,” which features a selection of new and existing paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and sound pieces, and “Other Octaves,” a group show she curated of works by artists who have been formative to her practice. She was also commissioned to create the 2025 rooftop installation at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. On this episode of Time Sensitive, she discusses what listening as a conceptual practice looks like in action, the art of putting together a playlist, and her deep love of things tactile and analog. Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes:  [03:00] “Jennie C. Jones: A Line When Broken Begins Again” (2025) [03:00] “Other Octaves” (2025) [03:21] Carmen Herrera [03:21] Agnes Martin [03:21] Martin Puryear [03:21] Alma Thomas [03:21] Mildred Thompson [03:35] A Free and Shifting Tonal Center (2024) [05:43] Ellsworth Kelly [10:07] Fred Moten [10:07] “Dynamics” (2022) [11:26] Trisha Brown’s “Leaning Duets” (1970) [13:04] Tadao Ando [13:16] “These (Mournful) Shores” (2020) [15:38] Moses Williams [15:38] Louis Dotson [16:37] Richard Tuttle [28:41] Olly Wilson [29:52] Maryanne Amacher [29:52] Arthur Russell [35:23] Jennie C. Jones: Compilation (2015) [36:54] “The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism” (1993) [40:48] “Slow Birds” (2004)  [40:48] "Slowly in a Silent Way, Caged” (2010) [40:48] Charlie Parker [1:06:00] “Jennie C. Jones: RPM (revolutions per minute)” (2018) [1:08:37] “Ensemble” (2025)

    1hr 19min
  7. Noah Horowitz on Art Basel as a Cultural Force

    03/12/2025

    Noah Horowitz on Art Basel as a Cultural Force

    As the CEO of Art Basel, Noah Horowitz has made it his mission to ensure that the international art platform is seen, valued, and experienced—far beyond its art-fair roots—as a cultural catalyst and “opportunity accelerator.” Over the past 55 years, beginning with its tight-knit origins in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970, Art Basel has evolved into an international juggernaut, with best-in-class fairs also in Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris—and soon, under Horowitz’s leadership, Qatar, with an edition debuting there in February 2026. With more than two decades of experience, and as a tireless advocate and enthusiast for all things art, from artists and galleries to collectors and institutions, Horowitz is exactly the right person for the job. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Horowitz details his ambitious agenda to stretch Art Basel’s reach into realms far beyond what would traditionally be considered the art world; shares his long-view perspective on the economics of art; and considers the centuries-old history that, in a roundabout way, helped lead to—and continues to inform and shape—today’s art market. Show notes:  [03:36] Art Basel Paris [03:36] Art Basel Qatar [03:36] Art Basel Miami Beach [03:36] Art Basel Hong Kong [06:07] Frida Escobedo [08:51] The Art Basel and UBS 2025 Survey of Global Collecting [08:51] Art Basel Awards [19:35] Rei Naito [20:55] Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market (2011) [24:40] Rirkrit Tiravanija [29:51] KAWS [26:21] Princeton Record Exchange [38:36] High Art Lite: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art (2020) [39:27] Frieze [40:01] Hans Ulrich Obrist [40:01] Okwui Enwezor [41:54] Rem Koolhaas [43:15] Kirk Varnedoe [43:15] Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock (2006) [47:01] Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art (2005) [48:58] Clare McAndrew [51:10] The Experience Economy (2019) [52:12] Vincenzo de Bellis [59:02] Pérez Art Museum

    1hr 7min
  8. Theaster Gates on Building and Bridging Culture, From Chicago to Japan

    19/11/2025

    Theaster Gates on Building and Bridging Culture, From Chicago to Japan

    Over the past two decades, the artist Theaster Gates has poured himself into his multifaceted practice that spans pottery, painting, sculpture, urban development, performance, archival research, and arts administration. Along the way, he has risen to become one of the most widely celebrated figures in the world of art, transforming abandoned, dormant buildings in Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood, on the city’s South Side, into dynamic third spaces for social, cultural, and spiritual communion; linking his hometown of Chicago with Japan, where in 2004 he trained with master potters in the coastal city of Tokoname and has maintained a deep connection ever since; and effectively rescuing, recontextualizing, and resuscitating culturally significant archives. On this episode of Time Sensitive, our latest “site-specific” recording, Gates sits down with Spencer inside his personal library in Chicago to talk about his current exhibition, “Unto Thee,” at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art (on view through Feb. 22, 2026); his forward-looking vision for his latest project, The Land School, which he and his Rebuild Foundation have reshaped into an arts incubator; and the vast, alchemic impacts of music on his life and work. Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes:  Theaster Gates [01:21] Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative [03:33] The Land School (2025) [05:22] St. Laurence Elementary School [05:56] Solange Knowles [07:33] Stony Island Arts Bank [07:33] Rebuild Foundation [07:33] Black Cinema House [07:33] The Listening House [11:09] Jane Addams [11:09] Jane Jacobs [11:09] Jesse Jackson [11:49] Frederick Law Olmsted [11:49]  Huey P. Newton [12:09] Chicago Transit Authority [18:01] Cicero [21:50] Søren] Kierkegaard [21:50] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel  [22:43] “Unto Thee” (2025) [26:15] Fred Moten [26:41] “Art Histories” (2020) [32:22] Tokoname [39:33] “The Listening House” (2022) [45:54] “Afro-Mingei" (2024) [45:54] Mingei [47:55] Black is Beautiful and Black Arts movements [1:03:34] Theaster Gates’s record collections [1:11:39] Martin Puryear [1:13:24] László Moholy-Nagy [1:13:24] Josef Albers [1:13:24] Carrie Mae Weems

    1hr 17min
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About

Candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time. Host Spencer Bailey interviews each guest about how they think about time broadly and how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today. Explore more at timesensitive.fm

Information

  • Creator
    The Slowdown
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    154
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 The Slowdown
  • Show Website
    Time Sensitive

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