“Life here is surreal” writes science fiction author Angélica Gorodischer in a letter to Marguerite Feitlowitz. Here she discusses the writing life in a time and place where independent thinkers face the risk of anything from torture to death.

Jeanne Silverthorne is a New York based sculptress who works re-contextualizing primitive and iconic works of art to challenge dominant ideology. See her work at Shoshana Wayne Gallery through 1/9.

Griselda Gambaro talks to Marguerite Feitlowitz about the pressures of writing under an oppressive government regime in Argentina.

Mark Leyner’s prose is steeped in American pop culture and Burroughsesque descriptions of the grosser aspects of human behavior. Amanda Meer warns against reading them at the dinner table.

From ridiculous phone messages, to vacuums that are ex-lovers, to waitresses who withhold food from customers, Deb Margolin’s plays are absurdly funny.

Richard Nelson has adapted Lolita into a 90-minute monologue for the National Theater in London.

The joy of flesh, femininity, and pleasure flow from the hands of Alain Kirili into his abstract sculptures creating a suggestive and tactile experience for the audience.

Blue Man Group, three individuals making one collective whole, delves into their sociopolitical reasoning for using Cap’n Crunch cereal as a musical instrument.

Upon the release of Reversal of Fortune, Barbet Schroeder’s film about Claus and Sonny Von Bulow, he speaks to Bette Gordon about the many meanings and incarnations of evil, and the “dramatic possibilities” of fiction.

Ed Lachman continues to work as a cinematographer with some of our era’s most visionary directors. His perceptive eye and earnest voice are a welcome departure from an industry overshadowed by greed and consumerism.

At the hands of Filmmaker Percy Adlon, ordinary events are transformed into colorful cinematic adventures. With the help of actress and muse, Marianne Saegbrecht, his story Rosalie Goes Shopping is brought to life on the silver screen.

Volker Schlondorff has made a name for himself adapting the works of literary giants like Proust, Grass, and Atwood. He speaks with Claudia Steinberg on the eve of German Reunification.

I can’t say that my beginnings were easy, no, no way. Perhaps that’s why I believe anything gained without great sacrifice lacks, how shall I say, true stability, solidity, worth, that’s it, worth.

GUIDE: Ladies and gentlemen: Admission is ____________________________, for adults. If you’ve already paid, you can’t repent. 

An eddy the size of Cuba breaks off the Gulf Stream
and bellies up the continental shelf
bringing to New York Bight a storm
of Caribbean warmth and a woman over the radio

Hoof beats clacked across the driveway. Horns honked. “The horse! The horse!” someone shrieked. “Oh, he’s so beautiful!” Jimmy recognized the voice of one of his girl-cousins.

I have long ceased trying to iron out the contradictions of my existence, I just live them.

Juan Perón had two wives. First was Evita, who lived like a queen and died like a dog, and then there was Isabel.

I love the blue goat with her intelligent
and patient head, her one ear for listening
to the sound of the pail and the milker.

Five standing lacquered wood panels in relief, Remember and Forget by Ed Ruscha. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Oil painting on nine wood panels, La Combe II by Ellsworth Kelly. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Their legs are offered to the viewer in a vase of shadow and stone. One kicks like a stem tilts. They are clearly angels’ legs, celestial dancers, moving on an axis of stilled time. So does Venus, emerging from cloth like a snake in a basket, her own snake and her own apple. Stiff dead Egyptians can be sexy, sensuous like a fossil with a heartbeat. The most overtly sexy female in her Empire recliner is more removed. Her chaise, like a vitrine, shows her off but it offers her less.

The landscapes are where the blackness lives in the photographs. The blackness has its own inner density, printed with absoluteness like a mezzotint. How can we get to the light when the darkness and weight are so inviting? The mossy fountain burgeons with life, a vanitas. The waterfall fountain is a thing unto itself like the Venus, its own dais and its own axis, turning almost imperceptibly. It spills to renew itself.

—April Gornik

Watercolor painting on a four paneled folding screen, Paravent by Francesco Clemente. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Three panel folding screen of bronze and prints, Gateway 8/12 by Helen Frankenthaler. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Enamel on a folding screen of two aluminum panels, Tabriz by Jack Youngerman. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Enamel painting on a folding screen of seven mahongany panels, To The Island by Jennifer Bartlett. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Five paneled folding screen, Landscape Screen (Sky, Sun, Grass, Snow, Rainbow). This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Lacquer painting on a screen of five board panels, Surprise Valley by Jim Jacobs.

Six panels of painted wood with holes cut in, Screen by Lucas Samaras. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Portfolio of Roberto Juarez’s work assembled and introduced by Edward Albee.

Five paneled screen, lacquered wood in relief with silver leaf, Screen with Brushstrokes by Roy Lichtenstein. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.

Section titled “The Folding Screen,” curated by Ursula Helman featuring folding screen works by Ed Ruscha, Lucas Samaras, Helen Frankenthaler, and Jennifer Bartlett among others.

Isabel Toledo on designer Angel Estrada, including a photo shoot of the designers work by Susan Shacter.

Kimberly Carter on hat designer Lola Ehrlich.

Artwork by Allan McCollum, 1988–90, pencil, 14 × 9½ inches. 

Lithograph, screen print, collage and stencil piece on a folding, five panel screen of a table set for tea, Caribbean Tea Time by David Hockney. This piece appears in the portfolio The Folding Screen, curated by Ursula Helman.