Paul Chan Talks About Arakawa and Madeline GinsSaturday, November 7, 2026, 4pm (RSVP)
When Paul Chan first met Arakawa and Madeline Gins at their loft on Houston Street in the mid-2000s, Arakawa asked him, point blank, “Are you radical?” Without thinking, Chan responded, “No,” in part because Arakawa’s delivery reminded him of people who approach you in the street to ask if you’re ready to be saved by Jesus Christ, another way of living forever. He writes how this exchange made him realize “how underdeveloped their idea of death was” in his essay “Ars :: Longa” (October, 2024).
For this event, Chan will read from his essay, followed by a conversation between Chan and Noa Wesley, curator of Arakawa and Madeline Gins: The Poetic Jump. They’ll discuss how the “boundless aesthetic” of Arakawa and Gins may have included an uncharacteristically conservative view of death, and ask what other models of living and art-making might be available to us if death is not treated as a phenomenon “on the other side” of life.
This event is free and open to the public with RSVP. It takes place on what would have been Madeline Gins’s 85th birthday. Cake will be served. Reservations can be made here.