Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s “banana taped to the wall†at Art Basel might have kept art worlders up at night tweeting about whether it was art or not. But now he’s curating a new project in the growing celebrity-lulls-you-to-sleep genre. By now, you know Matthew McConaughey is easing listeners into a Calm slumber. Diddy is guiding meditators in how to Honor Yourself. While Dolly Parton and Julie Andrews are hosting their own story time for kiddos. Now the New Museum launches “Bedtime Stories,†an online series where Cattelan invites other artists of various types — including Nicole Eisenman, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Jordan Wolfson, and David Byrne — to read a selection from their favorite book or put on an impromptu performance.
Cattelan himself isn’t very picky about his late-night reading. “My mum used to read me the list of her unpaid bills to make me fall asleep,†he says. “Anything in comparison is soothing music to my ears.â€
The project starts off with the ever-soothing Iggy Pop reading a love letter to his deceased dog, Tromba. “You were always a street dog,†he says. “You hated New York City. Ugh, and those little fluffy dogs on Tompkins Square. You didn’t like the traffic … You loved the open land and the smell of garbage in the gutter.â€
Other selections include Rashid Johnson reciting Amiri Baraka’s poem Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note and Marilyn Minter performing a political limerick about the current president. One story will be posted each day at 5 p.m. ET on the museum’s website and social-media channels through the end of June. Here’s the upcoming schedule:
Tacita Dean, May 15
Abraham Cruzvillegas, May 16
Andra Ursuta, May 17
David Byrne, May 18
Laure Prouvost, May 19
Raymond Pettibon, May 20
Rashid Johnson, May 21
Minerva Cuevas, May 22
Nicole Eisenman and Sarah Nicole Prickett, May 23
Marilyn Minter, May 24