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"Interlock: Art, Conspiracy, and the Shadow Worlds of Mark Lombardi"

Aired on Tuesday, November 10th.

On this edition of ST, a discussion with Patricia Goldstone, who has been a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has written for The Washington Post and The Economist, and is also an award-winning playwright. She tells us all about her new book, an interesting blend of biography, art history, and political reportage called "Interlock: Art, Conspiracy, and the Shadow Worlds of Mark Lombardi." Lombardi, who died in 2000 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, was a conceptual artist mainly acclaimed for his drawings known as "interlocks." These spidery and sprawling diagrams depict the growth and development of the modern shadow-banking industry -- an unsettling evolution going back over decades, and thriving on alliances between intelligence agencies, banking firms, governments, and organized crime. Lombardi is therefore, as Goldstone points out, not only a unique figure in art history but also probably the only artist ever whose primary subject -- the CIA -- has subsequently (after his death) studied him and his art work. "Interlock" is a book that raises many questions -- about a certain artist's work, and life, and death, and overall subject matter -- and while most if not all of those questions go unanswered, it's a fascinating read nonetheless. As was noted of this book by Artnet: "Goldstone has written the first comprehensive biography of the conceptual artist...which is full of details from those who were closest to him: family, friends, colleagues, and past loves. Goldstone weaves U.S. historical records into the course of the artist's life, citing scandals, political intrigue, and economic turbulence along the way."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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