I was invited to talk to Michael Shaw for his Conversation podcast and it was a real pleasure. He ended up turning it into two-episodes, the first more about the work of the Center for Artistic Activism and the second drifting into how capitalism works in my life; how we measure success and deal with financial anxiety. Of course there’s much more I could say about how capitalism doesn’t work for me that gets into my family history and other life experience, but we talked much more depth than I usually get to.
Episode 280 – Steve Lambert on walking towards Utopia
Beacon, NY-based artist and professor Steve Lambert talks about the perils of working in ‘new media,’ particularly around scarcity and the market. He discusses the the complex relationship between art and activism, which led to him co-found the Center for Artistic Activism. He talks about working on a project in Macedonia that addressed rampant corruption, and a clever workaround for illegal protesting in Barcelona. He also discusses training artist-activists in how to achieve real “wins,” and what they actually look like.
Episode 281 – Steve Lambert on how Capitalism works – and doesn’t work – for him
In Part 2 with artist Steve Lambert, he discusses his most well-known artwork, Capitalism Works For Me, wherein he prompts participants to decide between “true” or “false” on whether capitalism really works for them on a personal level. Lambert himself says “false”, despite being in a better position than others and lists reasons why within the episode. He also weighs his career making more gallery-friendly art with his art for social change, and how he’s ultimately come down on the latter. His social change work thru the Center Artistic Activism was just featured on CBS News.
