Helen Molesworth and the Art of Everyday Objects
In conversation with renowned curator Helen Molesworth
Helen Molesworth has spent a lifetime considering objects. A renowned writer and curator, Molesworth is known for pushing against the traditions of the institutional art world to broaden and diversify both the work it represents and the people it reaches. Most recently, she has contributed to several podcasts, including the award-winning Death of an Artist series about Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, in hopes of making the art world more accessible to a wider audience. Molesworth has called herself “an artist’s curator” and, like much of her writing and curatorial work, the podcasts reveal an interest in exploring the creative process.
For over 20 years, Molesworth served in curatorial roles at institutions like the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Over time, her work began to blur the boundaries between art and design. The high point of this was her 2016 exhibition Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957. With an ambitious range of work that gathered objects across art, design and the everyday, the exhibition illustrated a way of thinking and being that is hard to capture within the walls of a museum. Yet, Molesworth’s thoughts on design have rarely been heard.
Design has a particularly nebulous place in American culture. Over the past decade, with the emergence of the collectable design market, how we understand the field has become even blurrier. As a curator and art historian, Molesworth offers a unique lens. What follows is a conversation between Molesworth and Kalon co-founder, Michaele Simmering — the first in our new podcast series Objects in Conversation. In it Molesworth discusses her deep study of Black Mountain College; the narrative potential of objects; and — through her well honed curatorial lens — offers a deeply personal look at the meaning of everyday objects in our lives.
Objects in Conversation Episode 001 — Helen Molesworth and the Art of Everyday Objects
Presented by Kalon, Objects in Conversation is a deep dive into contemporary design and the everyday objects that shape our lives. In it we sit down with practitioners, thinkers and leading voices in the field to discuss the meaning of design in the complex, ever-changing world we live in.
