Raúl de Nieves and Colin Self get metaphysical with collaborative performances, dance parties, and the challenging of corporeal limitations.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Raúl de Nieves and Colin Self this month. I’ve been admiring De Nieves’s work since seeing some of his gallery shows and his performances both in Ryan Trecartin’s videos and at Trecartin’s closing party at MoMA P.S.1 last year, Dis RT, and Self’s since seeing him perform with the band Ssion and at his monthly party, Clump.

On Saturday, I was on location for a shoot of Ssion’s newest music video, “Listen to the Girls,” which includes cameos of both de Nieves, who also works with Ssion’s Cody Critcheloe regularly, and Self.

On Friday, I watched Critcheloe and de Nieves get photographed for a Swatch ad at the Standard Hotel on Bowery with up-and-comers Grimes and Iggy [Azalea]. De Nieves helped style and scout.

On January 14th, I went with de Nieves to Trophy Bar for Clump, which has a rotating cast of DJs and performance artists contributing to themes. The theme this month was, appropriately, “future.”

On the 7th, I went to Pussy Faggot!, part of the American Realness Festival, and watched Self DJ a fantastic set—a performance in its own right—between acts by Mikki Blanco, de Nieves’s brilliant band, Haribos, and an extensive lineup, hosted by Penny Arcade and Sophia Lamar, at Public Assembly.

On Friday, Self hosted Next Time (1): Already at Triskelion Arts. Haribos performed alongside artists Analisa Teachworth, David K. Geer, Isaac Richard, Linda Simpson, and Jake Dibeler.

Self’s varied tastes showed up in his curation of the event, and yet the performances felt congruent. Teachworth’s live tweeting of an “Existing Self” felt as future-driven as Simpson’s future game show, while Richard’s commentary of the state of Feminism today bled into the frantic politics of Dibeler’s girl-boy slumber party, which set the stage for an exploding bag of Haribo candy (balloons in a wall-sized plastic wrap) taken on by ladder-climbing, Hello Kitty-head-wearing de Nieves, as he sang over music by bandmates Jessie Stead and Nathan Whipple.

And January isn’t necessarily a busier month than any other for Self or de Nieves. It’s been the same since I met the two friends: neither one stops working, even for a second. That said, they have two of the calmest demeanors I’ve come across in New York. I’ve yet to see one get overwhelmed. Self is close to it when I meet with him and de Nieves for lunch in Williamsburg the Wednesday before Next Time, but his anxiety melts away once we start to chat.

“I’ve lost my voice, but I can still talk,” he says raspily. He tells me that stress is the culprit, born of the last-minute location change and the arguing he’s had to do in order to make sure all of his performers were paid for Next Time. The two discuss logistics, and the next Next Time, happening on February 29th.

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Emily Testa chats with author Emma Straub about her new book Other People We Married, the awkwardness of teendom, and the benefits of working in a bookstore.

Emma Straub is very likeable. For instance, I like her collection of short stories, Other People We Married. I also like its cover, which she and her husband designed to striking perfection. I also like her blog. And, yes, I like her tweets.

Yet beneath this winsome veneer lurks the heart of the matter: a fiercely original talent, and a resolute will to get the job done. Emma is that rare writer whose divergent interests (Alan Hollinghurst and Joey McIntire among them) can peacefully, even rapturously, coexist. Just don’t call her womanly.

Emily Testa I wanted to start by talking about late bloomers, because your stories are full of them. Why are late bloomers such natural creatures of fiction?

Emma Straub Actually I find that many writers and their characters are the opposite of late bloomers. Instead they’re these 23 or whatever year old people who are just finding their way in the world. Maybe my focus on late bloomers was reactionary. For whatever reason, I was really obsessed with people who didn’t know who they were or where they were going.

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There’s a lot to believe in this week. Just trust us.

MONDAY

BOMB is celebrating Valentine’s Day early with its Powerhouse Reading tonight at 7PM. Come check out the readings from Tina Chang, Alexander Chee, Robin Beth Schaer, and Myla Goldberg, and a performance by Alina Simone. In addition, it will be Paul Morris’s last official night with the staff, so come by and join us in draining the Gatorade cooler on coach. The reading will be held at the Powerhouse Arena on 37 Main Street in DUMBO from 7–9PM.

TUESDAY

BAM Café, that forum of all things cultural and spiritual, hosts philosophers Cornel West and Simon Critchley for a night of deep thought and even deeper conversation. Held in honor of Critchley’s just-published The Faith of the Faithless, the philosophy will be followed by a book-signing.

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Let’s act like real heartbroken artists and drown our sorrows in readings and exhibitions. They will never leave you. Promise. <3.

FRIDAY

Young Jean Lee’s latest show, UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW, is an exploration of identity that substitutes conversation for expressive movement. She’s an artist who thrives on making the kind of thing she doesn’t want to do worth seeing. See the show to see how she dogs feminism into a show distinctively her own. The show plays at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in the Jerome Robbins Theater on 450 West 37th St. at 8:00pm. Pre-game by reading a BOMB interview with Lee conducted while she was mid-production in her last show, We’re All Going to Die.

SATURDAY

The Marlborough Chelsea will present “Blind Cut,” a group exhibition curated by Jonah Freeman and Vera Neykov until February 18. The collection is presented under the thematic banner of fiction or deception and includes work spanning several generations, reaching although way back to Dada. The gallery is located on 545 West 25th Street and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10:00–5:30PM.

SUNDAY

A book party will be held at the Bowery Poetry Club to celebrate Christopher Funkhouser’s new book, New Directions in Digital Poetry on Febrary 5 from 2PM and on. The book documents the mechanics of new digital poetry and offers a window into the future of those short things with pretty words.

MONDAY

BOMB’s celebrating Valentine’s Day early with its Powerhouse Reading at 7PM. Come check out the readings from Tina Chang, Alexander Chee, Robin Beth Schaer, and Myla Goldberg with a performance by Alina Simone. In addition, it will be Paul Morris’s last official night with staff, so come by and join us in draining the Gatorade cooler on coach. The reading will be held at the powerhouse Arena on 37 Main Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn from 7–9PM. Complimentary drinks!

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BOMBlog’s Page Break is an ongoing Friday series that embraces long-form writing on the web by showcasing original works of fiction by emerging literary talents. This fourth installment features “Blood” by Irina Reyn.

The aftermath of the snowstorm is like a mother’s caress following punishment, the earth still and white and untainted. When she told her husband she was trapped in this city, he had said, “Of course,” and “Be careful.” Now she and her Russian lover roam the streets as if they are the final survivors, up to their ankles with snow. They should never have left the hotel, but even if it makes no sense, the further they walk, the more emboldened they are to keep going. They see a sign for a park, trails. It is as if they think at the same time, “Why not?”

They walk deeper into the woods, the trail snaking before them down into a snowy chasm; she can feel him breathing beside her like a poised, panting dog. He is a bulky man, overwhelming in girth. The hat on his head is boxy, furry, the felt blending with his thin sandy hair. At the precipice of a small hill, he takes her by the arm, slides down one careful step at a time. There is no one else on the trail, but they can hear high floating voices pinging between the torsos of trees.

“But what if I did?” he asks, not looking at her. They are both staring straight ahead. They can see that as soon as they hit bottom, the trail will even out, lead to stairs out of the park. “It would be just like an accident.”

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Lina Mannheimer talks about her relationship to French popular icon Catherine Robbe-Grillet, who is the subject of Mannheimer’s upcoming documentary, The Ceremony.

At the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) last year, I saw an exquisitely shot 13-minute film that takes place at a beautiful old chateau in the French countryside. It was entitled The Contract and was directed by a young Swedish filmmaker named Lina Mannheimer. The film depicts the relationship between an old woman and her much younger mistress. In 2005, Beverly Charpentier declared an oath of allegiance to Catherine Robbe-Grillet, thereby giving up her freedom for the rest of her life. Beverly is Catherine’s property—materially, mentally and physically. Although Beverly has never been attracted to women, she tells us that Catherine is her idealized, unattainable love. In part, the two women express their love for one another in choreographed, ritualized ceremonies directed by Robbe-Grillet. After seeing this short film, the images never quite left my consciousness.

This past November at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, a documentary project called The Ceremony was presented at the Forum. The Ceremony is the feature film Mannheimer has been creating on the life and work of Catherine Robbe-Grillet. Robbe-Grillet has been part of France’s intellectual élite for most of her life. She was married to famous writer, Alain Robbe-Grillet, who died in 2008. For over fifty years, the two had an open relationship. Throughout their married life, simultaneously, she played the role of the perfect muse and wife, while publishing several works under both a male and a female pseudonym, Jean and Jeanne de Berg. Her first novel, “The Image,” was first published in 1956, shocking the citizenry of Paris so profoundly that it was publicly burned. Her work is often of a highly erotic nature, mostly inspired by her own life. For decades, she has organized sadomasochistic ceremonies and her book, “Cérémonies de femmes” focuses entirely on this aspect of her life. As curious as I was to know more about the protagonists I met in Mannheimer’s short film, I found myself even more curious to know who Mannheimer was and how she came to make this film. Recently, I had a chance to talk with her about her fascinating relationship with Robbe-Grillet, and the project they embarked upon together three years ago.

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An editor of creative translation journal Telephone and the EFA Project Space’s curator discuss hybrid translations of Brazilian concrete poet Augusto de Campos.

In the 1950s in Brazil, Augusto de Campos and a few collaborators concocted what they called concrete poetry—a “tension of thing-words in space-time,” as a phrase of de Campos’s manifesto puts it. Their work collided written language with image and sound, creating a synesthetic barrage of poems that are also in their ways physical objects. “The concrete poet does not turn away from words, he does not glance at them obliquely: he goes directly to their center, in order to live and vivify their facticity,” de Campos proclaimed. The editors of creative translation journal Telephone recently joined forces with the Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts’ EFA Project Space to put on an exhibition featuring de Campos’s work alongside hybrid translations of it by a number of poets and artists. After visiting the exhibition, I exchanged emails with Sharmila Cohen of Telephone and Michelle Levy from EFA Project Space to get a sense of the resonance of concrete poetry. Selected work of de Campos and translations follow.

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Peter Bebergal and Jeffrey J. Kripal on the experience of pop culture and its mystical and mythological implications.

Roughly around the same time in 2011, Peter Bebergal and Jeffrey J. Kripal both published books on the intricate crosscurrents between American popular culture, altered states of consciousness, and religious mysticism—Bebergal’s Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood (Soft Skull Press) and Kripal’s Mutants and Mystics: Superhero Comics, Science Fiction, and the Paranormal (University of Chicago Press). Too Much to Dream is both a memoir and cultural history of psychedelic culture. It relates the story of a teenage quest for personal illumination couched in the pop culture of occultism and psychedelics drugs. This project led Bebergal through a journey involving comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, rock ‘n’ roll, and occultism, all of it fueled by drugs. Too Much to Dream is also a story of recovery and a meditation on addiction, spirituality, and art. Mutant and Mystics is a joyride through similar terrain, a pop history of the paranormal as it expresses itself in comic books, science fiction, and other modern myths. Kripal draws a strange and compelling secret history that reveals how paranormal experiences influenced the very grammar of comic books and suggests that the stories of alien supermen, mutants, and cosmic adventurers are windows into the true shape of consciousness often ignored by science.

Peter Bebergal Both of our books emphasize the way in which pop culture works on the unconscious, how it creates a grammar by which we understand and frame non-ordinary experiences. At the same time, these kinds of experiences shape pop culture in often hidden ways. As you write “consciousness needs culture . . . just as culture needs consciousness.” But inherent in this is the chicken and egg problem. How can we trust the authenticity of any person’s experience if they are so mediated?

Jeffrey J. Kripal Wow, you go right to the heart of things, don’t you? There are two parts to my answer. First, as a historian of religions, terms like “authenticity” and “pure” are extremely suspect. Authentic to whom? These sorts of experiences, when honestly reported, are always authentic to the experiencer (of course, sometimes they are not honestly reported, that is, they are fraudulent). It is orthodox religion, orthodox science, or the normative social censor that then comes in and declares experiences that cannot be slotted into their systems “inauthentic,” “heretical,” “anecdotal,” “crazy,” “New Agey,” or whatever. Second, the chicken and egg problem you cite is just as present and just as powerful in orthodox religion as in pop culture. When the Catholic mystic experiences the stigmata, she or he develops wounds that follow the religious art of the place and time, not the actual crucifixion of Jesus, whatever that involved; a Buddhist near-death experience takes on Buddhist contours; a medieval Hindu encounter with a deity displays Hindu notions; and so on.

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Collaboration is the theme of the week: powerhouses from all walks of art join together for a dazzling array of readings, performances, films, celebrations and reading-performance-filmic-celebrations.

MONDAY

Poets Mark Strand and Susan Stewart join forces to read and celebrate their new collections at 92y Tribeca’s uptown arena. Need even more incentive to go? John Koethe and Maureen McLane will be introducing the extraordinary pair.

TUESDAY

WNYC and Arts Brookfield are presenting four films by Bill Morrison this week. The first, “The Miners’ Hymns,” is a dark homage to English mining culture, and it features archival footage and a live accompaniment by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and the Wordless Music Orchestra.

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Based in out-of-the-way Red Hook in Brooklyn, the Still House Group brings a fresh new perspective on what a collective creative effort should look like.

The Still House Group, founded by Isaac Brest and Alex Perweiler, is inspired by the ideals of a young creative demographic bound by expectations of subordination to preexisting models. Still House is hell-bent on escaping the traditional gallery set-up, gearing itself, regardless of the seemingly insurmountable challenges, toward the goal of creative sustainability. Method beyond madness; it seems to be working. After ending an impressive year with the exhibition Riffraff at Art Basel Miami this past December, the Red Hook, Brooklyn-based collective is now preparing for a solo show from one of its members, continuing to make strides toward a more self-sufficient—more communal—creative community.

Fred Paginton You held your first show as the Still House Group in 2008, emerging as a creative environment which allows artists free rein to experiment; what was it like once you began life as an exhibiting collective?

Isaac Brest The group has never been a collective in the sense that we work together on collaborative pieces. However, our process is such that during the conceptual, production, and exhibition phases, our work shares an underlying commonality that bonds it together. At times these similarities are obvious, and at other times they can be hardly noticeable, but palpable nevertheless. It’s undoubtedly been for the better, yet certain works or bodies of work call for individual exhibition, free of the associations brought on by the group. This has led us to program solo shows for all our artists, in order to examine the benefits and drawbacks of releasing the contextual implications of the Still House collective model.

FP Tell me about about the origins of the Still House Group.

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