In this week’s episode of The Lo-Down Culture Cast, Lower East Side NYC podcast host Traven Rice interviews Filmmaker Stuart Ginsberg about his new film “It’s A to Z: The Art of Arleen Schloss.” Schloss was a downtown performance artist who invited other artists to collaborate and perform with her on a weekly basis.
The film explores Schloss’s creative work and evolution and how it changed over time. A highly original cross-disciplinary artist, she was known for her boundary-pushing, idiosyncratic performance art, video, and installations.
Through exclusive never-before-seen archival footage shot by Schloss herself and mixed with commentary from people from the scene, we trace Schloss’s story and see, from her point of view, the texture of New York City’s downtown art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s.
Known as an “artist’s artist,” Schloss became influential through A’s, her loft space that was a hub for genre-defying music, gallery shows, performance art, films, and other happenings. A hotbed of experimentation, A’s featured the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Bogosian, Glenn Branca, Kim Gordon, Shirin Neshat, Thurston Moore, Alan Suiclde, Ai Wei Wei, and John Zorn, among others.
You can listen to the conversation on any of your preferred podcast platforms here.
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The Lo-Down Culture Cast is a podcast that features downtown NYC culture changers from all walks of life. If you know someone who would be a good guest, email us here: tips@thelodownny.com.
