Bad at Sports Episode 952: Tali Halpern

Bad at Sports Episode 951 has Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller still in Miami for a conversation with Chicago artist Tali Halpern at NADA, representing 1210 Gallery. The conversation spans weaving, sobriety, punk music, queer identity, labor, spectacle, and the ecstatic possibilities of fiber art. Halpern discusses their transition from painting and addiction into weaving, their work with digital looms at Loom Room, and the way embellishment, rhinestones, embroidery, and collage become acts of healing and reconstruction. The episode touches on Chicago's art community, punk aesthetics, club culture, spiritual labor, and the tension between craft traditions and contemporary experimentation.

Name Drops & Links

• Tali Halpern — https://tali.rocks/

• Twelve Ten Gallery — https://twelvetengallery.com/

• NADA Miami — https://www.newartdealers.org/

• School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) — https://www.saic.edu/

• Loom Room Chicago — https://www.lmrmchicago.com/

• Hope Lange — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Lange

• Gregg Araki — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Araki

• Nowhere — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119809/

• Mike Kelley — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Kelley_(artist)

• Paul McCarthy — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCarthy

• Tracey Emin — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin

• Sylvia Plath — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath

• Elliott Smith — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Smith

• Ken Burns — https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/

• Nirvana — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)

• The B-52's — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-52s

• Guns N' Roses — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_N%27_Roses

• Howardena Pindell — https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/howardena-pindell

• Melissa Cody — https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/melissa-cody

• Cranbrook Academy of Art — https://cranbrookart.edu/

• Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art — https://bmoca.org/

• The Weaving Mill — https://theweavingmill.com/

• Mikey Mosher — https://www.mikeymosher.com/

• Cindy Sherman — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman

• Noelia Towers — https://www.noeliatowers.com/

• The Killers — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killers