Daily Artspace

THE DAILY STORY

Douglas Coupland and Michael Stipe Talk Art, Memory and the Digital Age

On the eve of the Serpentine Gallery’s Memory Marathon, writer Douglas Coupland and musician Michael Stipe sat down at London’s Connaught Hotel to discuss themes from technology to memory to the modern consciousness, crystallized here in Coupland’s recent series of artworks, Slogans from the 21st Century. Since meeting Stipe nearly two decades ago at the MTV inaugural ball for Bill Clinton, the Generation X author has explored multiple creative disciplines, using sculpture, text, image and performance in his visual practice. This series of bold, keenly perceived slogans questions our experience of the first decades of the new millennium, and the way we communicate within it. Stipe’s contribution to the Hans Ulrich Obrist-curated Serpentine event meanwhile constitutes an art world debut for the former R.E.M. frontman. “I’ve never commented, written, much less appeared anywhere with a visa for anything other than musical performance,” he explains. “It’s a little bit of trial by fire—I’m terrified of public speaking, and that’s why I agreed to do it.” As Frieze London concludes, these two enduring luminaries look at contemporary culture, in all its evolving forms. [Read more on Nowness]

Source: nowness.com