Inner City Inspiration (02:57)

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Mark Bradford incorporates messages and images from billboards into work he calls "collage and décollage." He became interested in calligraphy and text while making signs for his mother's hair salon.

"Black Venus" (03:02)

Bradford uses materials representing personal memories in paintings. "Black Venus" combines his interest in map making and abstract grids. He recalls discovering that postmodern theory represents his lifestyle.

Multimedia Installation (03:43)

Bradford creates the feeling of being simultaneously outdoors and indoors in a mirrored corridor. Advertising signs placed together form a narrative. Videos of Martin Luther King Day and an Egyptian marketplace represent racial politics.

"Practice" (03:30)

Bradford's art is detail oriented, allowing his creative ideas to surface. He brings a piece to Sao Paulo and is pleased with the results. He discusses "Practice," a video he made playing basketball in a hoop skirt that addresses cultural, gender, and racial roadblocks.

Acting and Stage Craft (02:21)

Catherine Sullivan directs a choreography piece and discusses her interest in theater and in the visual arts. She's fascinated by the body's transformation capacity.

Information Overload (02:27)

Sullivan uses a variety of images, allowing viewers to choose what to look at. An Avignon installation uses mirrors, screens, and sound effects to "compete" for attention.

"Five Economies" (03:53)

Sullivan's video work "Five Economies" draws on film, real life, and popular ritual research to explore pleasure at the misfortune of others. She discusses working with actors and creating automated movement sequences representing office management and 19th century leisure.

"Ice Flows of Franz Joseph Land" (04:00)

Sullivan discusses making a project based on events she has no direct contact with. She explains the concept of a video work commenting on Chechen separatists taking hostages in a Moscow theater in 2002; actors pantomiming the play "Nord-Oest" also make references to oppressive regimes.

Art-Music Connection (03:49)

Robert Ryman was inspired by jazz to move to New York from Nashville and approached painting from a similar structural standpoint. He believes painting should look easy and spontaneous. Rather than "entertain" viewers, he lets them come to him.

Creative Process (03:27)

Ryman takes an experimental approach to art and looks at painting as solving a visual problem. He works without assistance to oversee every aspect of each project.

Color White (03:09)

Ryman uses real daylight to show his paintings. He discusses visual aspects of white canvasses and explains his interest in squares as neutral spaces.

"Third Philadelphia Prototype" (02:31)

Ryman discusses how the light impacts his exhibition of white canvasses and explains his intention for the series.

Sound Weapon (02:27)

Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla discuss a project called "Clamor," in which they explore the use of music in war through sculpture and live musicians. They research issues or social phenomena to formulate a public response.

Engaging the Public in Art (02:19)

Allora and Calzadilla are interested in chalk as an ideological tool. They placed giant pieces in front of governmental buildings in Peru to provide protesters with an expressive medium. Police "arrested" the sculpture, showing free speech limitations.

Vieques Project (03:34)

Calzadilla and Allora discuss how arguing contributes to their artistic collaboration. When Puerto Rican citizens gained access to a former military island, they filmed a man riding on a scooter fitted with a tail pipe trumpet to express the event through sound.

Nonsense Lens (02:19)

Influenced by scientific backgrounds, Calzadilla and Allora employ absurdity to approach difficult subjects, such as using a floating table to encourage civic debate in Vieques.

Conceptual Art (02:19)

Allora and Calzadilla discuss violent symbolism in a video project showing a pig roast on a spit attached to a car wheel. They use ideological "glue" to hold together disparate elements in a sculptural installation about the music of war.

Credits: Paradox (02:12)

Credits: Paradox