
Found-objects sculptor Kenji Fujita talks with Betsy Sussler about why he is able to endow a group of otherwise ordinary materials with such poignancy and such grace.

Actress Jodi Long speaks with Michael McClard on moments of the ordinary turning extraordinary. Some of her roles in film and theater play the “figuring it out” we all take on.

On the occasion of the 1988 production of Our Town at the Lincoln Center, actor and playwright Jeff Weiss discusses fame, taking chances, and the pleasure of obscurity in a BOMB short with Allen Frame.

Jon Robin Baitz speaks to Craig Gholson about growing up as a detached observer and turning that to his advantage as a successful writer for stage and television.

Harry Mathews has covered the literary terrain: as short story writer, poet, novelist, essayist, translator and editor. Here, he and Lynne Tillman discuss his recent novel, Cigarettes, the role of the reader, and the OuLiPo’s use of literary contraintes — constrictive forms.

Christian Boltanski discusses his MOCA installation (Summer 1988) with Irene Borger. Boltanski’s somber installation reflects his concern that the Jews face a fate similar to that of the American Indians.
Manda and I were stretched out naked on our bed when my grandmother called.
The Spirit of St. Louis for John Speicher
I step out onto Wiborg’s at 4:00 p.m. under a cloudless sky, a jet trail over the Clubhouse, a slight breeze and the sun warm on my face, the new poems in a side pocket of the corduroy jacket I am wearing, a perfect one for a walk on the beach.

Looking back on it, I suppose it was obvious there might be trouble, but at the time I really hadn’t thought so.

[To honor the passing of Jonas Mekas, BOMB presents his series of diary excerpts and introduction, first published in the Winter 1989 issue.]

Station and Soveit War memorial Teptow Park East Berlin, acrylic paintings on plastic panels, by Peter Waite.

A sculpture of a beaker, sealing wax, wood, ladle, steel, soot, and glass, titled Ladle, by Orshi Drozdik.

An albumen print, titled Rivaulx Abbey, Interior of the Choir, by Philip Henry Delamotte and Joseph Cundall.