Lynn Marie Kirby interviewed by Miranda Mellis for BOMB Magazine
By Miranda Mellis
originally published by BOMB
Time & Place: on the work of Lynn Marie Kirby via BOMB
Lynn Marie Kirby’s artistic practice encompasses experimental film; social practice; public art; multimedia and conceptual work; international collaborations; and a subtle, deeply generous, and convivial sensibility. I first heard the term culture worker from the poet Anne Waldman, who used it in a way that at once described, modeled, and prefigured its actualities. I see Kirby as a culture worker in two senses: that her work produces and “works on” culture in ways that make visible what otherwise goes unseen, unfelt, and unheard; and that she has worked across cultures—she is a cross-culture worker—between societies and languages, translating between concepts to activate events and animate public spaces with works that soften borders between mediums, forms, and modalities, generating sensory and relational intimacies. Her dedication to deep listening as a contemplative, somatic, time-based practice, which she learned from Pauline Oliveros, is primary across her oeuvre. Kirby, for me, is an exemplary artist in her curiosity, her powerful desire for ongoing learning, and her enormous capacity to befriend. If you want to experience her work in a deep way, Time & Place: On the Work of Lynn Marie Kirby (X Artists’ Books, 2024) is a prescient collection of essays all about it.