The Selection Committee Radio Show with Josiah McElheny, 10/8/24

Over the last 10 years, world-renowned glassblower and joyful polymath Josiah McElheny has brought sound and music into his visual artwork. He’s deeply interested in musicians trying to push against existing structures and expand the boundaries of both sound and imagination. Visionary German writer Paul Scheerbart spoke about how all utopias will fail, but it’s important to talk about them anyway. For Josiah, this kind of contradiction is a way forward; a way to imagine futures without glossing over all the things that are wrong with the world.

Among the artists he chose for his playlist is legendary jazz composer Sun Ra, who had a notion that everything in life was a kind of equation—balanced with the precision of the Fates—and that “the impossible attracts me, because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change.” This kind of push-pull can lead one to surprising places, and it’s something McElheny is looking for in music and art.