A conversation between visual artist Cornelia Thomsen and renowned novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt. In this exchange, the two New-York based painter and novelist will reflect on the concept of the collective self―the many ways in which human identities are created, disassembled, and reconfigured in the context of social, political, historical, cultural, and familial systems. They will discuss how the complex process by which countless influences bear upon the formation and evolution of the self has impacted their personal histories and memories. How, for instance, did their selves evolve at the interstices of different languages, cultures, and political systems? What influence has this multiplicity of belonging had on their later lives? How do memories, and present circumstances, continually reshape one’s sense of being and self -- and, in that context, how has the experience of motherhood reshaped their identities? How are their multifaceted and multitudinous identities reflected, discussed, and negotiated in their literature and art?
New York City, NY; NYC