SENTIMENTS
Sentiments are like our "Letters from the Editor." We don't have a traditional editor, but the sentiment still applies!
#3.3 March
On March 2, I attended the memorial service for Bay Area artist Paul Clipson. The news was particularly painful; I often attend sound and noise performances that I loosely refer to as "my medicine." The thought of never seeing any more new work by Paul felt like a gaping void speeding away from my body out of grasp. The intangibility of experiencing film and sound are already "out-of-body" for me in general, and now the distance between what my eyes and ears soak in just grew beyond infinity . . . to an abyss. Paul was always so generous and we had many nice chats about his work after the performances; I had also written about one such immersive installation three years ago this same month in March, 2015 at Incline Gallery.
I spent the rest of March 2018 reflecting on Glossary, and on art making, started a new endeavor related to this publication, and continue to visit galleries and speak with artists. Yesterday I stumbled across something I wrote in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire. It's personal, but it's also for anyone who lives and makes art in the margins.
I have such a heavy heart today. For all those times that I gathered in "unsafe" places, in basements, in warehouses, in abandoned or crowded store fronts, in garages, in old music halls, in living rooms, renegade clubs, converted churches and alley ways. To listen to poetry, to hear improv jazz, to see a punk show, to dance to rb&b or 80s hits or new wave, to film an indie flick, to see an art show, to make art. This world is not just about edm - it passes through all channels of the art world and expression. I think about the other worlds I cross, the privileged museums and pristine galleries, where the cerebral reigns, and bodies are restricted and limited.
When people gather at the margins of their chosen culture they do so to challenge the norms, to be together, to use their bodies in ways that normative culture does not allow for. That togetherness leaves us with a small coin to carry, a glimmer of hope or something to exchange later. It is a huge price to pay, and so worth it.
I am saddened by the loss of so many beautiful bodies, seeking togetherness, gathering in a place that was safe, yet so incredibly dangerous at the same time. I have been there, and will continue to do so, because it is the gathering that matters. I love you, Oakland.
In remembering my youth, the current times call for a new womanifesto:
Pave your own way, the art "world" is not one way, nor are aspects of it better or more noble than others—it's just aesthetics, which varies. Find the aesthetics and the outlets that work for you, that make you proud, that give you a flutter in your chest, make you swoon. If you don't like it, don't subscribe to it/support it/condone it—just let it be its own thing without you.
Believe that it is OK to have a job; the job is just work and money required to sustain you, yours and your way of being in a capitalist/predominantly non-barter society/void of government subsistence for things of intrinsic value. Make sure you have a job you can forget about when you go to the studio, as well as one that respects your boundaries/time off/art making endeavors—the same goes for friends and family.
Making art is the primary gesture of true importance for personal well-being—art making is "the life"—the mystique and the lifestyle is not the life. Edit, edit, edit your life and choose making art over networking/art scene BS/fame/recognition/tired traditions/painful obligations. It is a myth that you must do art full time and make a living at it to be a "real" artist, to be of worth. Your worth is in your making, not what you make with it.
Be with others who listen and ask you meaningful questions. Stop seeking people—approach crowds and scenes like gathering berries: if it's rotten, don't pick it, if you take a bite and it's bitter, spit it out. If it's sweet, make jelly and spread it everywhere.
Let’s make jelly.
I spent the rest of March 2018 reflecting on Glossary, and on art making, started a new endeavor related to this publication, and continue to visit galleries and speak with artists. Yesterday I stumbled across something I wrote in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire. It's personal, but it's also for anyone who lives and makes art in the margins.
I have such a heavy heart today. For all those times that I gathered in "unsafe" places, in basements, in warehouses, in abandoned or crowded store fronts, in garages, in old music halls, in living rooms, renegade clubs, converted churches and alley ways. To listen to poetry, to hear improv jazz, to see a punk show, to dance to rb&b or 80s hits or new wave, to film an indie flick, to see an art show, to make art. This world is not just about edm - it passes through all channels of the art world and expression. I think about the other worlds I cross, the privileged museums and pristine galleries, where the cerebral reigns, and bodies are restricted and limited.
When people gather at the margins of their chosen culture they do so to challenge the norms, to be together, to use their bodies in ways that normative culture does not allow for. That togetherness leaves us with a small coin to carry, a glimmer of hope or something to exchange later. It is a huge price to pay, and so worth it.
I am saddened by the loss of so many beautiful bodies, seeking togetherness, gathering in a place that was safe, yet so incredibly dangerous at the same time. I have been there, and will continue to do so, because it is the gathering that matters. I love you, Oakland.
In remembering my youth, the current times call for a new womanifesto:
Pave your own way, the art "world" is not one way, nor are aspects of it better or more noble than others—it's just aesthetics, which varies. Find the aesthetics and the outlets that work for you, that make you proud, that give you a flutter in your chest, make you swoon. If you don't like it, don't subscribe to it/support it/condone it—just let it be its own thing without you.
Believe that it is OK to have a job; the job is just work and money required to sustain you, yours and your way of being in a capitalist/predominantly non-barter society/void of government subsistence for things of intrinsic value. Make sure you have a job you can forget about when you go to the studio, as well as one that respects your boundaries/time off/art making endeavors—the same goes for friends and family.
Making art is the primary gesture of true importance for personal well-being—art making is "the life"—the mystique and the lifestyle is not the life. Edit, edit, edit your life and choose making art over networking/art scene BS/fame/recognition/tired traditions/painful obligations. It is a myth that you must do art full time and make a living at it to be a "real" artist, to be of worth. Your worth is in your making, not what you make with it.
Be with others who listen and ask you meaningful questions. Stop seeking people—approach crowds and scenes like gathering berries: if it's rotten, don't pick it, if you take a bite and it's bitter, spit it out. If it's sweet, make jelly and spread it everywhere.
Let’s make jelly.
#3.2 February
Sometimes you find a text that operates as if you were in dialogue with the writer; their words mimic yours, the sentiment is aligned, their ideas support yours. That’s connection—it helps us feel like we are part of a bigger picture—knowing that we have others on our side, thinking in a similar way, understanding us. Below is an excerpt from “On Judging Art without Absolutes,” by James S. Ackerman.
Judgements of the relative merits of works of art do not actually occupy much of our conscious time as professionals in spite of the fact that we make them constantly, as when we visit a museum or gallery, linger longer over one piece than over another, and pass others by without stopping. We make these judgements as easily and as unconsciously as we classify passerby or people around us on the bus, that is according to their calls, their accent, their dress and so forth, which indicates that they are primarily a result of social conditioning. My split-second decision to linger or to pass by a particular work cannot be based on any serious consideration of the object’s claim to attention; it is a conditioned response to a class of objects. And I believe that part of the reason we have difficulty explaining the grounds on which we make the Rembrandt-type value judgement is that we do not really make it for ourselves but merely appropriate the judgment and find that it works well enough for our purposes. Yet we cannot ask others to trust us as professionals if the reactions to art are merely convention—Pavlovian conditioned spasms rather than the result of personal experience and knowledge. That is no more defensible than holding conventional attitudes toward social call, religion and race.
I do not mean to imply that the primary role of criticism is to label works of art as good, bad and middling and defending that decision; that is the function of art journalism in its role to stimulate the market.* Criticism’s function is rather to discuss works of art in an illuminating way; evaluation enters primarily in selecting those works and situations that are worth interpreting and that stimulate worthwhile responses in the critic. In this respect, criticism and history should be alike: in both, value judgments are not the end products but rather the generators of interpretation. We start with a response and then try to articulate it.
In the historicist view of art there is on overarching value: the capacity of a work to conform to—or preferably to further—the “mainstream” of art. […] Good art has been that which fits the patterns made by historian. Historicism has impelled us into a fixation on process, especially in the form of style development that distorts our perception of the significance of particular works of art, especially those that fall outside our ordained patterns.
[…]Most contemporary historians and critics , especially in England and America, have not admitted to being idealists or historicists but have defined their approach as being something like what I call positivist [1], claiming to judge works of art “on their own terms” to adopt for each work the value structure that presumably brought it into being. That effort is destined to fail: we are not more adequately able to understand intention of artists every time and culture than we are able to abandon our own biases and ideology. The practice of this kind of “objectivity” led in fact to the unconscious application of idealist and/or historicist principles.
[…]I want to avoid approaching works of art from the firm positions that characterize most aesthetic systems; the new or newly discovered art of our time affects our perception of the nature of all art and demands that critical/historical method be in a constant state of evolution.
***
Ackerman, James S. “On Judging Art without Absolutes,” in Critical Inquiry, Volume 5, Number 3, (Chicago: University of Chicago), 1979, p. 441-469. Architecture historian James Sloss Ackerman was born in San Francisco, November 1919, across the bay from where Glossary is based (in Oakland). He died on New Year’s Eve, 2016 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Notes:
[1] The idealist position is that art presents a superior, more perfect world that the one we inhabit . . . A true positivist erroneously believes that an observer can describe phenomena as they actually are without injecting so-called subjective values.
*Glossary is a slow, curated space that continues to squirm at the idea of being “art critics” as long as that means giving an opinion to drive the market of an institution or an artwork—we leave that business to the galleries, museums, dealers and artists who are making a living at selling art.
Judgements of the relative merits of works of art do not actually occupy much of our conscious time as professionals in spite of the fact that we make them constantly, as when we visit a museum or gallery, linger longer over one piece than over another, and pass others by without stopping. We make these judgements as easily and as unconsciously as we classify passerby or people around us on the bus, that is according to their calls, their accent, their dress and so forth, which indicates that they are primarily a result of social conditioning. My split-second decision to linger or to pass by a particular work cannot be based on any serious consideration of the object’s claim to attention; it is a conditioned response to a class of objects. And I believe that part of the reason we have difficulty explaining the grounds on which we make the Rembrandt-type value judgement is that we do not really make it for ourselves but merely appropriate the judgment and find that it works well enough for our purposes. Yet we cannot ask others to trust us as professionals if the reactions to art are merely convention—Pavlovian conditioned spasms rather than the result of personal experience and knowledge. That is no more defensible than holding conventional attitudes toward social call, religion and race.
I do not mean to imply that the primary role of criticism is to label works of art as good, bad and middling and defending that decision; that is the function of art journalism in its role to stimulate the market.* Criticism’s function is rather to discuss works of art in an illuminating way; evaluation enters primarily in selecting those works and situations that are worth interpreting and that stimulate worthwhile responses in the critic. In this respect, criticism and history should be alike: in both, value judgments are not the end products but rather the generators of interpretation. We start with a response and then try to articulate it.
In the historicist view of art there is on overarching value: the capacity of a work to conform to—or preferably to further—the “mainstream” of art. […] Good art has been that which fits the patterns made by historian. Historicism has impelled us into a fixation on process, especially in the form of style development that distorts our perception of the significance of particular works of art, especially those that fall outside our ordained patterns.
[…]Most contemporary historians and critics , especially in England and America, have not admitted to being idealists or historicists but have defined their approach as being something like what I call positivist [1], claiming to judge works of art “on their own terms” to adopt for each work the value structure that presumably brought it into being. That effort is destined to fail: we are not more adequately able to understand intention of artists every time and culture than we are able to abandon our own biases and ideology. The practice of this kind of “objectivity” led in fact to the unconscious application of idealist and/or historicist principles.
[…]I want to avoid approaching works of art from the firm positions that characterize most aesthetic systems; the new or newly discovered art of our time affects our perception of the nature of all art and demands that critical/historical method be in a constant state of evolution.
***
Ackerman, James S. “On Judging Art without Absolutes,” in Critical Inquiry, Volume 5, Number 3, (Chicago: University of Chicago), 1979, p. 441-469. Architecture historian James Sloss Ackerman was born in San Francisco, November 1919, across the bay from where Glossary is based (in Oakland). He died on New Year’s Eve, 2016 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Notes:
[1] The idealist position is that art presents a superior, more perfect world that the one we inhabit . . . A true positivist erroneously believes that an observer can describe phenomena as they actually are without injecting so-called subjective values.
*Glossary is a slow, curated space that continues to squirm at the idea of being “art critics” as long as that means giving an opinion to drive the market of an institution or an artwork—we leave that business to the galleries, museums, dealers and artists who are making a living at selling art.
print edition: "sentiment" written in chromatext
Chromatext is a visual language that replaces letters with color. Each pattern spells a word.
Prints are archival, matte and beautiful.
Click on image to be taken to the shop. $20-$50 each
Proceeds from sales of Chromatext prints and objects support independent publishing at Glossary.
Prints are archival, matte and beautiful.
Click on image to be taken to the shop. $20-$50 each
Proceeds from sales of Chromatext prints and objects support independent publishing at Glossary.
SENTIMENT: (S)epia (E)cru (N)adeshiko Pink (T)aupe (I)ndigo (M)agenta (E)cru (N)adeshiko Pink (T)aupe
2018
#3.1 january
Two years ago I launched Glossary Magazine.
One year ago I intended to relaunch Glossary Magazine.
This year I am relaunching Glossary Magazine.
verb: launch
1. set (a boat) in motion by pushing it or allowing it to roll into the water.
One year ago I intended to relaunch Glossary Magazine.
This year I am relaunching Glossary Magazine.
verb: launch
1. set (a boat) in motion by pushing it or allowing it to roll into the water.
- set (a newly built ship or boat) afloat for the first time, typically as part of an official ceremony.
- send (a missile, satellite, or spacecraft) on its course or into orbit.
- hurl (something) forcefully.
- (of a person) make a sudden energetic movement.
- utter (criticism or a threat) vehemently.
- introduce (a new product or publication) to the public for the first time.
2017
#2.1 JANUARY
One year ago in January, I launched Glossary Magazine.
Today, the site’s content pages are dark (hidden), in recognition of J20 General Labor Strike Day and J20 Art Strike Day.
Today I decided—after a six month hiatus—that I am relaunching Glossary.
Silence is not golden, but today there is nothing more that needs to be said, other than: your work makes me want to work. Together we can do more.
I am with you, for you.
Today, the site’s content pages are dark (hidden), in recognition of J20 General Labor Strike Day and J20 Art Strike Day.
Today I decided—after a six month hiatus—that I am relaunching Glossary.
Silence is not golden, but today there is nothing more that needs to be said, other than: your work makes me want to work. Together we can do more.
I am with you, for you.
2016
#5/6 May/June
May eluded us, but June holds promise.
It’s not that there wasn’t anything going on in the art scene for May—in fact during the end of April, SF was bombarded with new possibility; heavy hitter galleries spawned new outlet homes here including Gagosian and Pace; long-time gallerist John Berggruen set up shop next door to Gagosian, both across the street from the newly reopened SFMOMA.
Meanwhile, April 27 – May 1 was also art fair weekend. Touted as the “rogue” art fair, Parking Lot Art Fair took over the (you guessed it) parking lot at Fort Mason for the second time, directly adjacent to artMRKT which itself landed its sixth year in SF. Also for the second year, stARTup Art Fair set up at the Hotel del Sol, just a few blocks walking distance from artMRKT.
Glossary attended most of these above-mentioned events, taking countless pictures and copious notes, as well as soliciting crowd-sourced images. If that’s not enough, Open Engagement happened at the Oakland Museum of California. Of note is our transcription of the Angela Davis talk at Open Engagement, held on May 1st, the last day of the mega-art-weekend.
None of the other things we did that weekend are published here, we know. Without going into the boring detail of personal reasons, things got in the way and fell by the wayside. That is not to say that all of these other events don’t matter—they did and they do.
Something got us thinking about the importance of public documentation and the idea of the archive, and What is timely? Traditionally and still today “news” is about breaking stories—making headlines within minutes is the norm; and “marketing” extols the next hot thing that must be consumed ASAP. Meanwhile, art reviews have lagged a step behind these outlets—historically having been distributed in print publications that came out within a week of or after the show's closing.
As publishing is changing and internet engagement rushes forward with immediacy, the lines between news, marketing and art reviews are becoming increasingly melded together. As a result, the immediacy has caused a certain amount of social anxiety, a particular sense of urgency that we find curious. We wonder: What gets lost when artists, art objects and art writing are viewed the same as news or marketing?
Fear not, Glossary art reviews will continue—but for the most part, we leave news & marketing to others. Because, although a show or event is over, the artist and the artwork are not; writing and documentation lives on after de-install, after the lights have gone out—more accessible than ever, more valuable than before.
It’s not that there wasn’t anything going on in the art scene for May—in fact during the end of April, SF was bombarded with new possibility; heavy hitter galleries spawned new outlet homes here including Gagosian and Pace; long-time gallerist John Berggruen set up shop next door to Gagosian, both across the street from the newly reopened SFMOMA.
Meanwhile, April 27 – May 1 was also art fair weekend. Touted as the “rogue” art fair, Parking Lot Art Fair took over the (you guessed it) parking lot at Fort Mason for the second time, directly adjacent to artMRKT which itself landed its sixth year in SF. Also for the second year, stARTup Art Fair set up at the Hotel del Sol, just a few blocks walking distance from artMRKT.
Glossary attended most of these above-mentioned events, taking countless pictures and copious notes, as well as soliciting crowd-sourced images. If that’s not enough, Open Engagement happened at the Oakland Museum of California. Of note is our transcription of the Angela Davis talk at Open Engagement, held on May 1st, the last day of the mega-art-weekend.
None of the other things we did that weekend are published here, we know. Without going into the boring detail of personal reasons, things got in the way and fell by the wayside. That is not to say that all of these other events don’t matter—they did and they do.
Something got us thinking about the importance of public documentation and the idea of the archive, and What is timely? Traditionally and still today “news” is about breaking stories—making headlines within minutes is the norm; and “marketing” extols the next hot thing that must be consumed ASAP. Meanwhile, art reviews have lagged a step behind these outlets—historically having been distributed in print publications that came out within a week of or after the show's closing.
As publishing is changing and internet engagement rushes forward with immediacy, the lines between news, marketing and art reviews are becoming increasingly melded together. As a result, the immediacy has caused a certain amount of social anxiety, a particular sense of urgency that we find curious. We wonder: What gets lost when artists, art objects and art writing are viewed the same as news or marketing?
Fear not, Glossary art reviews will continue—but for the most part, we leave news & marketing to others. Because, although a show or event is over, the artist and the artwork are not; writing and documentation lives on after de-install, after the lights have gone out—more accessible than ever, more valuable than before.
#4 april
Almost every day, Glossary chats with readers, galleries, artists or others in the community about our magazine approach. We realized that art publications are taken for granted in a lot of ways and that when something new happens, the world becomes both topsy-turvy and thrilling at the same time.
As we know it: In general, art magazines publish issues, releasing blocks of content in one launch, usually monthly, bimonthly for example. Issues focus on themes, such as “Economy,” “Painting Now,” or “Feminist Phenomenology.” We don’t publish issues, we pace ourselves throughout the weeks; our theme is what is showing right now and what forms an organic curatorial link from one review to the next.
Also, magazines usually follow an editorial rubric consisting of categories, such as “short form reviews,” “feature articles,” “listings,” “artist profiles,” and so forth. The reviews in Glossary respond to art through a creative lens. As such, our editorial categories reflect this unique approach to looking at, thinking about and writing about art.
Our namesake review, Review as Glossary is our signature review that focuses on defining vocabulary, terms or movements associated with the work to form building blocks for discussion and thought. These usually accompany a short introduction to introduce general ideas about the work.
Review as Pictures is a way of visually acknowledging exhibitions through pictorial archives and collections of carefully curated and beautifully photographed images. Usually very little text accompanies these reviews, allowing for viewer interpretation.
Review as Critique includes candid visual analyses offering a deeper look and thoughtful read. These are the most “traditional” reviews, thus they are rarer but no more valuable than any other review.
Review as Dialogue fills a much desired niche, featuring conversations that take place during art panel discussions. Glossary attends talks, takes copious notes and then transcribes them for others to read.
We realize that what we are doing is not what people think they desire.
Desire for reviews as we understand them to be is stemmed from what we observe is urgency established by traditional rhetoric.
As roles of artists, writers, curators and historians become hybridized, so too must art writing take on a new hybridity.
We hope you agree, and will join us in looking at art differently, with desire.
As we know it: In general, art magazines publish issues, releasing blocks of content in one launch, usually monthly, bimonthly for example. Issues focus on themes, such as “Economy,” “Painting Now,” or “Feminist Phenomenology.” We don’t publish issues, we pace ourselves throughout the weeks; our theme is what is showing right now and what forms an organic curatorial link from one review to the next.
Also, magazines usually follow an editorial rubric consisting of categories, such as “short form reviews,” “feature articles,” “listings,” “artist profiles,” and so forth. The reviews in Glossary respond to art through a creative lens. As such, our editorial categories reflect this unique approach to looking at, thinking about and writing about art.
Our namesake review, Review as Glossary is our signature review that focuses on defining vocabulary, terms or movements associated with the work to form building blocks for discussion and thought. These usually accompany a short introduction to introduce general ideas about the work.
Review as Pictures is a way of visually acknowledging exhibitions through pictorial archives and collections of carefully curated and beautifully photographed images. Usually very little text accompanies these reviews, allowing for viewer interpretation.
Review as Critique includes candid visual analyses offering a deeper look and thoughtful read. These are the most “traditional” reviews, thus they are rarer but no more valuable than any other review.
Review as Dialogue fills a much desired niche, featuring conversations that take place during art panel discussions. Glossary attends talks, takes copious notes and then transcribes them for others to read.
We realize that what we are doing is not what people think they desire.
Desire for reviews as we understand them to be is stemmed from what we observe is urgency established by traditional rhetoric.
As roles of artists, writers, curators and historians become hybridized, so too must art writing take on a new hybridity.
We hope you agree, and will join us in looking at art differently, with desire.
#3 MARCH
Glossary calls attention to current contemporary art projects that are at the pulse
of what makes the San Francisco’s visual culture exciting and important.
Spring offers a time for renewal; the clocks will again be set to spring forward on March 13th.
We will lose one hour in time but gain approximately 720 hours of additional daylight until November.
When light hits the eyes, a signal is transmitted to the brain, which in turn interprets the object the viewer is looking at, or the text they are reading. In actuality, it is not the eye that sees, but it is the activity of the brain and the eyes working in tandem with each other that produces sight.
Without light, sight is impossible.
Glossary sheds light on the possible.
of what makes the San Francisco’s visual culture exciting and important.
Spring offers a time for renewal; the clocks will again be set to spring forward on March 13th.
We will lose one hour in time but gain approximately 720 hours of additional daylight until November.
When light hits the eyes, a signal is transmitted to the brain, which in turn interprets the object the viewer is looking at, or the text they are reading. In actuality, it is not the eye that sees, but it is the activity of the brain and the eyes working in tandem with each other that produces sight.
Without light, sight is impossible.
Glossary sheds light on the possible.
#2 FEBRUARY
Glossary is not a singular voice, but rather speaks with many voices through what it views as “conversations” with the work.
If artists create things that cannot be easily said, writing speaks for the art.
To speak objectively for art allows readers and viewers to begin their own conversations with the work.
To speak subjectively for art creates a platform for passionate debate.
To view something is to see, to review is to see it again.
Reviews are not only written.
If artists create things that cannot be easily said, writing speaks for the art.
To speak objectively for art allows readers and viewers to begin their own conversations with the work.
To speak subjectively for art creates a platform for passionate debate.
To view something is to see, to review is to see it again.
Reviews are not only written.
#1 JANUARY
Glossary Magazine is publishing reviews about San Francisco Bay Area art through a creative lens.
It is a project space for looking at and interpreting art as much as it is a critical voice.
It is for gallery goers and collectors, scholars and students, thinkers and lovers; or those who are learning or want to be.
It is a familiar story told in a different way.
Because, no real progress can be made my doing things the same way as everyone else, or as before. Enjoy! - Leora Lutz
It is a project space for looking at and interpreting art as much as it is a critical voice.
It is for gallery goers and collectors, scholars and students, thinkers and lovers; or those who are learning or want to be.
It is a familiar story told in a different way.
Because, no real progress can be made my doing things the same way as everyone else, or as before. Enjoy! - Leora Lutz