A brush with… Doris Salcedo, a podcast by The Art Newspaper

A brush with…, sponsored by Cork Street Galleries, is an engaging podcast from The Art Newspaper

In the latest round of exclusive, in-depth conversations, host Ben Luke interviews four more leading artists about their life and work through their cultural experiences.

This week, Columbian-born artist Doris Salcedo, known for her political and mental archaeology relating to Columbian life, reflects on the artists she most admires, the writers that keep her returning and the music she listens to.

Salcedo recalls a moment of epiphany when confronted with the works of Francisco de Goya: how his empathy with the victims of war and violence prompted her own aim to give voice to the voiceless in the Colombian civil war and beyond.

She talks about the poetry of Paul Celan, which she has directly quoted in her Unland series. And describes a sensitivity to place seen in Joseph Beuys’s public sculpture – something that she has employed in her many memorable public works.

Plus the artist shares a secret relating to her studio life and faces the series’ most trying questions: if she could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for?

You can listen to all A brush with… episodes and subscribe to the podcast here.