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