In Conversation
Sam Lipsyte
Geoff Dyer
Thursday, October 20, 2022, 6:30pm
NeueHouse Hollywood, Los Angeles
www.neuehouse.com
Join Gagosian to celebrate the publication of Friend of the Pod by Sam Lipsyte with a reading by the author, followed by a conversation between Lipsyte and writer Geoff Dyer. Matched with an artwork by Jordan Wolfson, in the form of a printed poster, the book is the third release from Gagosian’s Picture Books, an imprint conceived by author Emma Cline and dedicated to publishing fiction by leading writers alongside contributions by celebrated contemporary artists.
Friend of the Pod introduces readers to Jason, a stalled Gen X playwright from Queens whose friend Nando lands him a job producing a podcast. But when Ted Goldsworthy, the aging but irrepressible host of Inter Alia, New Jersey, insists that Jason commutes to his house in the Garden State, his egomaniacal daughter Roanne begins to cast her spell. Wolfson’s photograph—a self-portrait of the artist clutching a smartphone as he shoots a selfie in a mirror—reflects on the psychological power of the confrontational and prompts consideration—as does Lipsyte’s fiction—of the ways in which new media further complicates the already myriad challenges of self-expression.
Sam Lipsyte, Friend of the Pod / Jordan Wolfson, Untitled (New York: Picture Books | Gagosian, 2022)