Bonus Episode: Hot Takes with Dana Hemenway

In this special bonus episode, artist Dana Hemenway shares hot takes on art, travel, shpants and more.

About Dana Hemenway

Dana Hemenway is an artist based in San Francisco. Her work is rooted in the excavation and elevation of utilitarian objects to make visible what has become habituated in our built environments. Hemenway uses these functional items as materials to form traditionally fiber-based crafts–– lights and cords are woven through ceramics or the gallery wall, extension cords are transformed into macramé chains. Hemenway has had residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), ACRE (Stueben, WI), SÍM (Reykjavik, Iceland), Joya: arte + ecología (Spain), The Wassaic Project (Upstate New York) and at Recology Waste Management (San Francisco). Dana is a 2024 Eureka Fellow, Fleishhacker Foundation and the recipient of The San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant and a Southern Exposure Alternative Exposure Grant. She has a public art commission at SFO’s Terminal 1. Dana has exhibited her artwork locally, nationally, and internationally. From 2015 – 2017, Dana served as a co-director of Royal Nonesuch Gallery, an artist-run project space in Oakland, CA. She received her MFA from Mills College and her BA from University of California Santa Cruz. She is represented by Eleanor Harwood Gallery.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello and welcome to the side. Woo, this is your host Tebow,
helping you navigate the wild and mysterious path that is the
creative. Life.
Join me as I ask our guests about the.
Tools they use. To help them survive in the
creative. Wilderness.

(00:23):
Also, this chair is is really squeaky.
For a podcast chair, that one's not so squeaky.
Yeah, that's true. Huh?
I feel like. Yeah, I've sat in that seat.
Welcome back. We're here for some hot takes.
Yes, squeaky hot takes. Squeaky hot takes all right, so.

(00:46):
Let me. Just get my questions up and
running. OK?
All right, Hot take OK apartmentgalleries or pop up shows from
out of state galleries. Wait, say that again.

(01:09):
So, apartment galleries. Choose one or the other, yeah?
OK, so. Apartment galleries or or.
Pop up shows from out of state galleries, doing a little pop up
at your favorite local gallery or some.
Storefront I choose. Yeah, what do you like better?
Apartment galleries. In my.
I don't know, just like get it more niche, get it more weird,

(01:30):
you know? Get it more weird?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, like have it in a
stairwell, have it in an under bed gallery for a little.
Congratulations bed. Oh, is that?
Something pine. Tree.
Is that what they do? No, they're.
Just making jokes about the nextgallery is going to be under
someone's bed. In the complete dark.
Yeah. Never to be seen.

(01:53):
Oh my God, that's so funny. OK, burrito or Taco?
Oh God, I got to go with the mission burrito.
Oh, and because. Because.
I can like eat half a burrito and then have lunch tomorrow.
Totally. Yes.
Ice cream or cookies? Ice cream I.

(02:16):
Don't know why it's so food themed.
It's me and Matt's nighttime ritual after Mary goes to bed to
have a little ice cream together.
Yeah. Oh I love that OK pants style
that you would bring back Schpants or hammer pants.
What are? What are the 1st?
Ones schpants are short pants like the skaters they would wear

(02:40):
these like big wide leg short pants that are not really sure
it's they're like too long to besure it's too short.
Coming back. Yeah, I think they both made
their comeback, really. Maybe those the yeah, because I
think I got some recently, so I'm heading into that territory.
Oh, you got some fans. Yeah, they don't look quite like

(03:03):
that. They're like checkered like a
like a Plaid black and white, like kind of gingham fabric.
Oh, very much of that cut. Oh, interesting.
And they have like a cargo pocket even.
Oh, totally. Yeah.
And then you wear with like a belt and maybe a tight tee or
something. Yeah, they have like an elastic
waistband, so I wore it with like, yeah, like a tighter

(03:23):
turtleneck top. Oh yeah.
Like black top and then. You get a little skateboard and
you're all set. Get some.
It doesn't. It doesn't read skateboard but
it has the same cut early. No doubt.
Yeah, it does. Have a little ska vibe.
OK, Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that was the
subculture that they came from, right?
Totally. Yeah.
OK. Bond movies or Bondage inspired

(03:46):
performance art. Oh my.
God Bondage inspired performanceart.
Yeah, I just watched a Bond movie last night and it was
good, but definitely like. I want to see live performance
art like I wanna. That's such a treat.
You know, over like Bond. Sorry.
Bond Yeah. It was fun.
Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

(04:07):
Oakland or San Francisco? San Francisco.
No offense to Oakland, but I've lived here the whole time I've
been in the Bay Area, so I have to stick to my side.
Stick to your side. Of the of the.
Bay of the the Tracks. Yeah.
LA or New York. Oh God.
I I just, every time I go to LA,I'm just so happy to see all the

(04:29):
folks I know who you know, you tell recently one included, who
have relocated from the Bay Areadown to Los Angeles.
A. Lot of good California people.
Feel so held in all of that to have just so many good folks to
connect with and see you and catch up with.
So it has to be LA. Yeah, I know.
I mean, especially now that I don't live there, I would say LA

(04:49):
as well. Yeah, but it changes every I've.
Seen people studios there and having all the FOMO for their
big gorgeous studios. That's true.
Too, Yeah. I mean, I love New York, but I
just have less connection to it.So I I'm less like in community
there, I'd say. But I I still love it.
Too. Yeah, yeah.
I feel like LA people seem happier than New York people.

(05:11):
Everyone's so friendly, like I've had so many just like
generative conversations, just with like people being down for
a studio visit, people being down to like meet up with you,
like meeting people at openings,just.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Super friendly.
Yeah. Corduroy or velvet as a fabric

(05:31):
and a texture. Maybe a sculptural tool?
Velvet, but only because like, I, I like corduroy and concept,
but it's like that pants like, you know, like rubbing things.
Yeah, they're really uncomfortable to wear.
That's just yeah, can't get pastthat.
And yeah, they make so much noise.
I remember having a pair of corduroy pants when I was in

(05:52):
high school and being like wait wait wait wait.
Where it's like you put your hand on like a velvet pillow.
Oh yeah, so comfy. Yeah, well, that was my last
one, so we'll leave you with that.
Hot takes. Hot takes.
Nothing woo on here. Ghost stories or tarot reading?
How about that? That's the last one.

(06:13):
Ghost stories. Oh for OK, another hot take.
Ghost stories or tarot reading. Probably tarot reading because I
feel like it gives you a chance to introspect a little on
yourself and like dive into something you're trying to
figure out and work on. Totally.
Yeah. Ghost stories potentially sound
cool. Yeah, they sound cool in theory,
but then they're really boring. A lot of times.

(06:34):
I have this whole book of Icelandic ghost stories and they
just end with like the farmer said no to the ghost or you know
it like or that ghost was there forever more, you know, and
you're like, OK. And that happened.
That's it. That's how they end.
Yeah. All right.
OK, cool. Hot takes.

(06:55):
Hot take. You need a.
You need a. That's all for this week's
episode. Thank you so much for listening.
This was your host TiVo with sound editing help by Natasha
Lowey. If you love this episode, please
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(07:16):
YouTube channel and see all of our videos and live talk
recordings there. Thanks so much for listening.
See you next time on the side view.