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By our calculations, The Thing Quarterly launched a full four years ago, with a hand-wringing window shade bearing silkscreened text by Miranda July. Each issue of The Thing, conceived as an object-based periodical, is the brainchild (or red-headed stepchild, depending on your aesthetic inclinations) of a different invited artist, writer, musician, or filmmaker, including the likes of Trisha Donnelly, Jonathan Lethem, Doo.Ri, and James Franco. Charged with the task of marrying a useful object with text, contributors have created, among other things, a bamboo cutting board with text seared into its surface (“Crying Instructions” by Starlee Kline), and a hefty rubber doorstop bearing a letter to Billie Jean King written by the artist’s much younger self (untitled, by Anne Walsh). The editors, Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan, are visual artists themselves, and the most interesting of the things they have produced walk an elegant or provocative line between literature, fine art, and functional object.
Category: publications
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You might want The Thing right now: Dave Eggers, Shannon Ebner, Mike Mills and David Shrigley
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Robert Adams moves forward, looks back
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Alec Soth meditates on the photographs of Robert Adams in this beautiful, timely post as much about listening as it is about looking. -
More tantric drawings to stir your soul
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Back at the beginning of November we posted on these exquisite tantric drawings in relationship to recent work by Fred Tomaselli. Now we’ve just become aware that a stunning new book on these contemporary abstract drawings was coincidentally released just days before our post, and it contains many more examples than were included in the original Drawing Center show and publication from 2004–2005. -
The aesthetics of protest: how Occupy sees itself (chapter one)
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Hello and thanks for visiting. We originally wrote this post at the beginning of December 2011, and as new information and events continued to unfold in the following weeks, we updated this page with fresh links and images. Now, as Occupy emerges from the winter months having given birth to an entirely new movement in contemporary visual culture, we feel it is appropriate to archive this post as a chronicle of Occupy’s visual beginnings, and allow the movement time and space to further evolve with respect to protest aesthetics in the arts and design, music and performance, giant puppets, flashmobs, bat signals, and whatever other forms it will eventually take. Thanks for the feedback and interest, and let’s all stay tuned. -
Please touch the art: Derek Sullivan at The Power Plant and Jane LowBeer at Loop Gallery
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Over the past few weeks we’ve been thinking especially hard about art. So hard, in fact, that recent encounters with art that foregrounds the physical experience have been a hugely welcome relief from all that heady cogitation.The first such encounter got us out of our chairs and walking up stairs as part of Derek Sullivan’s recent Power Plant show, Albatross Omnibus. Comprising three industrial-sized stepladders and 52 print-on-demand artist books suspended from the ceiling, Albatross Omnibus conceptually echoes Yoko Ono’s well-known 1966 installation, Ceiling Painting (YES Painting), whereby viewer initiative and participation is required to experience and complete the performance of the exhibition. However while Albatross has similarly playful, meditative, and uplifting moments, Sullivan’s books collectively embody a much more idiosyncratic and energetic profusion of words, images and ideas rather than a singular (albeit profound) experience. This is not to say that Sullivan’s work is superficial; in fact the many humourous concrete texts and visual koans which make up the body of Albatross belie a deeper love and engagement with the history of reading, print, and the book itself. Steering a ladder through space, ascending the steps, and stretching up to page through each slim volume in turn, one enacts a physical experience of the pre-digital library, wherein books occupy positions, not always easy to reach, in a specific place and time. At a moment when books are rapidly beginning to disappear into the cloud, we are reminded not only of the sheer pleasure of touching and turning a page, but also of the importance of preserving and protecting the printed format as one of the still-unsurpassed achievements of human social, political and cultural expression.
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Alec Soth: Should artists be entertainers?
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Taking a short break from another long day of writing, we decided to troll around for an update on the Alec Soth portrait auction announced two weeks ago via his blog, Little Brown Mushroom. In an effort to help out with medical expenses for friend and collaborator Brad Zellar, Soth is making this rare opportunity available on Ebay until November 25th. We love Soth’s work, but would never stand a chance of winning–and indeed after 8 bids by 4 individuals, the bidding stands at $8100 with g***g holding down a slim lead over the next highest bidder. Just two more days to get your bids in, folks, and all for a good cause… -
Ursus Wehrli’s new world order
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Ursus Wehrli’s photographs propose an orderly, perhaps obsessive, way of looking at the world. Ranging in scale from the tiny (an inventory of pine needles) to the colossal (galaxies and stars ordered by size), they provide a vicariously pleasing, if transitory, sense of control over our environment.