Hello everyone. Last night I had a dream that I was in a plane crash — it landed in the water and we all survived — but in the dream I was relieved because I finally had an excuse to cancel plans. What does this mean….
on what an authentic online persona is, how to fake spring with imported rhubarb, and the possible closure of Manhattan’s only Planned Parenthood.
I’m enjoying the Feed Me chat discussing the astronauts who are back here on our planet.
Guest Lecture: Maya Man
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want.
answers your questions about online performance, how she envisions the future of NFTs (spoiler: refreshing answer), and how the concept of girlhood plays into her work.
“What should Substack be doing that we're not?” - Austin
More ability to customize the look and feel of your blog. I feel like I am publishing my posts inside of a WeWork.
“If you had an unlimited budget to make a documentary, what would it be about?” - Emily
“There’s a corner of new media discourse provocating that there are no new art movements or famous artists outside the art world and that avant-garde art is dead. What’s your opinion as an artist, and one I see as working in a non-traditional medium?” - Anu
I am most curious about artists who are engaging with the places that people (real people, not art people) are looking most today. There is an exciting, emerging cohort of artists who are making work about living life in sync with your screen in the post-pandemic era. That’s been a big motivation for me opening HEART out of my studio in SoHo, to put an explicit focus on artists who are engaging with contemporary online culture. Art movements are often recognized in retrospect and it’s hard for me to predict how the current moment might be seen in hindsight, but I love getting to work with and showcase artists who I feel most enthusiastic about right now.
I think a lot about Seth Price’s early 2000s essay Dispersion that urges artists to engage with what the internet makes newly possible. He wrote it in a really different time, when people could feel more hopeful about what the internet might afford, but it still resonates with me as an artist who believes in the importance of making work that fluidly moves between being presented online and in more traditional gallery formats.
“Do you feel like you're performing when you're sharing and posting online? Do you ever think about who you are in person and who you are online as different versions of yourself?” - Gabrielle
Yes, I always feel like I am performing all of the time and I think that is why I am an artist. I wonder lately if it is because I grew up as a competition dancer. Everything online is a performance because you are always mediating for an audience. We do it offline too, just in real-time, so it’s a bit different…
The self I present online exaggerates certain aspects of my identity because it makes sense to do so in that context. It’s like giving a talk on stage versus hanging out with your grandma. They require different performances of self, but neither is “fake.” The self is very context-driven. Thank you Mr. Erving Goffman.
“Given your experience working with NFTs in projects like FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT, how do you envision the future of NFTs as a medium for digital art? What steps do you think the NFT space needs to take—whether in terms of technology, culture, or accessibility—for NFTs to regain the widespread interest and popularity they once had?” - CS
I think NFT spaces need to shift the focus away from blockchain technology and toward the artwork and why digital art is amazing. The NFT space needs to be cool and elegant about it, highlighting what is compelling and removing the necessity of such high technical literacy for access to the culture. I love art on the internet and I believe more people can too, but we can not lead with “NFT” anymore… Let’s lead with love and art and really excellent curation and presentation and I think then a wider audience might be more interested.
“Hi Maya, I hope this isn’t a weird question! Before I learned about your (very cool!) work, I was envy-admiring your dance skill from across the studio at House of Movement. Are you still taking dance classes? Do you have recommendations for studios/dance communities in the city with great vibes, now that HoM is long closed?” - Yoko
Omg this is the best question I am so honored… and I miss House of Movement! Wow that feels like my past life. I do still take class pretty often. I love going to the House class at Mark Morris taught by Kim Holmes on Tuesday nights. It’s very open level and has a super sweet energy. I’ve been more private about my relationship to dance these past few years, but it is still one of the most special practices to me ever.
“Which fellow artists among your contemporaries do you admire? Do you collect art? Whose?” - Lindsay
I like to collect work through trades, exchanging a piece of an artist’s work for mine. I have work by Molly Soda, Ann Hirsch, Zarina Nares, Tess Manhattan, Yoona Bang, Maya Ben David, Taryn Segal, and Suzie Maez in my apartment. I think that’s a nice list of friends and artists I admire. I believe it is good and important to “live with images,” as Zach Lieberman says.
“How do you view humor/sarcasm in your work? The internet can be a very unserious, tongue-in-cheek place. How do you balance that with the "seriousness" of fine art?” - Arden
I view humor as a portal to the other layers of my work that are darker and more grotesque. I like to reference the absurdity of certain online practices, which are often also very funny. But my hope is that by twisting familiar aspects of internet culture into a piece, people who approach my work feel a pull to look closer at it and consider the underlying implications of a certain type of content.
“I would love to know how the concept of “girlhood” impacts her work and what she defines it as? How she feels like her work will evolve in the next few years?” - Brooke
I am curious about girlhood as a malleable state that implies a certain cybernetic relationship with the rest of the world. To me, it’s a condition of being (rather than a firm gendered category) that implies that one is perpetually mediating for an audience and molding oneself accordingly. This ties closely to how I view being online. I write about it more in depth here, with emphasis on the idea of “girl” as collage, and “woman” as fixed-state.
“Do you have any plans to experiment with genAI in your work?” - Emily
Yes :)))))))))))))))))))))) :O !!!!!!!!!!!! I am working on a new body of work using genAI tools now, but already I have with two AI-focused collaborations with artist and friend Ann Hirsch: Ugly Bitches (GAN, 2023) and Little Darlings (Fine-tuned SDXL, 2024).
“How would you describe/detail a day in your life? Realistic or otherwise :)” - Ava
I wake up at 5:00 in the morning and I love seeing the people at Equinox at this time.
It’s 6:00 AM. Reporting for duty. Today I’m working a double, and it’s a two job special.
I ordered Pura Vida as soon as it opened at 7:00 AM.
So I literally woke up at 8:00, and this is my gorgeous, gorgeous view every morning.
It was a beautiful morning. I did a 9:00 AM reformer class that’s fifty minutes long.
A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City, 2024
And then I had work at 10:00. GLOSSLAB is literally half a block from the salon.
I don’t start until 11:00, so I had a nice slow morning, and I actually went to Pure Barre. Then at 12:00, I needed lunch, so I went to DIG.
The day started around 1:00 PM. That was my call time, and I toured the space.
So I woke up around 2:00, which works for me because I have to be up all night.
At 3:00 PM, I take a SoulCycle break, shower, and finally change into a real shirt. Decided to make my bed at 4:00 PM.
Before I knew it, it was already 5:00 PM, so I walked over to the gym.
Around 6:00 PM, I got dressed for work and put on some makeup.
I was working late. That was 7:00 PM. Here’s me in my chair. I had to print something.
It’s 8:00 PM, and I’m in bed already. Today was long.
Lately, I’ve been going to bed at, like, 9:00 PM which has been amazing.
I’m at the gym for a couple of hours, about till 10:00.
So I just had my very first 11:00 PM dinner.
And then around midnight, I went home and basically went right to bed.
Then I walked her home, got home myself, and crashed at 1:00 AM.
We ordered pizza at 2:00 AM, and that was that.
Not going to lie, feeling a little bit dead. The ride was around 45 minutes, around 3:00 AM. I slept at 4:00 AM for the last three weeks.
(A full 24 hour day of excerpts, each from an actual TikTok video… a realistic day in my actual life is watching hundreds of TikTok videos to make this piece.)
“Do you feel that authenticity online is achievable, or is it inherently performative?” - Sierra
Posting online is inherently performative, but not morally bad.
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Le Veau d’Or is open for lunch now. Great for people who live on Billionaire’s Row, but now sure who is ordering duck confit and roast chicken for lunch these days.
Last night, I attended a dinner hosted by Substack and The RealReal. I had the pleasure of sitting with Jalil Johnson and Laura Reilly, and we all enjoyed some divine rhubarb sorbet from the King pastry team at the end of the night. Laura asked if it was already rhubarb season, and I assumed so until I saw an Instagram story from someone this morning who said the rhubarb in the danish at their local Brooklyn bakery was imported from Amsterdam. A reminder that if you want to will spring into existence, you can always import it.
Planned Parenthood might be closing their only Manhattan clinic. “The property at 26 Bleecker St. will go on the market this week with an asking price of $39 million, said Wendy Stark, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York.” I’ve lived in New York since 2012, and I don’t think I’ve gone a year without hearing a story about how this location of Planned Parenthood has helped someone. Yikes.
You thought your boss was bad? Hadn’t thought about Mario Batali in a while, . “I’d failed to realize that being a drinking buddy wasn’t a fun perk of the job; it was the job.”
About your dream, Emily—I take the perspective that each element of a dream represents a part of your own subconscious. A plane is a vehicle, and vehicles like cars and planes often symbolize career or feelings about career. (The career is what literally “carries” us). So there may be a shadow part of your subconscious with a longing to let things crash and burn and fall apart. Or maybe you are second guessing the course you’re on in some way. That doesn’t mean anything bad will happen or that your doubts, if they’re there, are well founded. It just means they want your attention. Your dream ego (the “you” in your dream) is secretly pleased to avoid plans. I think you probably just need a little rest.
Worst part about the Batali article are the comments blaming the author for a range of sins from "not behaving in 2001 the way someone would behave in 2025" and "doing a lot of substances to deal with the terrible stressful job full of sexual harassment she had 25 years ago in her 20s".
The article itself did make me immediately go and put the book on my Libby holds list, though.
About your dream, Emily—I take the perspective that each element of a dream represents a part of your own subconscious. A plane is a vehicle, and vehicles like cars and planes often symbolize career or feelings about career. (The career is what literally “carries” us). So there may be a shadow part of your subconscious with a longing to let things crash and burn and fall apart. Or maybe you are second guessing the course you’re on in some way. That doesn’t mean anything bad will happen or that your doubts, if they’re there, are well founded. It just means they want your attention. Your dream ego (the “you” in your dream) is secretly pleased to avoid plans. I think you probably just need a little rest.
Worst part about the Batali article are the comments blaming the author for a range of sins from "not behaving in 2001 the way someone would behave in 2025" and "doing a lot of substances to deal with the terrible stressful job full of sexual harassment she had 25 years ago in her 20s".
The article itself did make me immediately go and put the book on my Libby holds list, though.