For the first episode of the second season of Criss Cross, podcast host KC Trommer spoke with Gallatin faculty member and celebrated multimedia artist Nina Katchadourian about the collaborative process behind To Feel Something That Was Not of Our World, an art exhibition which premiered at the Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco in January 2021. The exhibition was the result of Katchadourian's "lifelong obsession" with Survive the Savage Sea (1973), a best-selling book about how the Robertson family survived a shipwreck. Having read the book as a child, Katchadourian and shipwreck survivor Douglas Robertson scheduled daily phone calls during the early days of the pandemic for thirty-eight consecutive days, mirroring the time that Robertson and his family were adrift at sea.
Based off of the exchange, Katchadourian created videos, sculptures, photographs, drawings, text message exchanges, and excerpts from her recorded phone calls with Robertson to explore all dimensions of a story of resourcefulness, hope, and creative capacity under duress. To Feel Something That Was Not of Our World is currently on display at the Columbus Museum of Art through April 24, 2022.
Season One guests include Gallatin faculty members Eugenia Kisin, Matthew Stanley, George Shulman, Kwami Coleman, Stephen Duncombe, Shatima Jones, and their student and alumni collaborators. Listen to Criss Cross by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.