#thomaslawson

[worldfoodbooks]

IN THE BOOKSHOP: A FATAL ATTRACTION: ART AND THE MEDIA (1982) “To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream. Advertising is the suggestion that the dream of entering the third person singular might possibly be fulfilled.” -Don DeLillo These are the artists who put the load-bearing post in postmodern, making the visual politics of media, marketplace and patriarchy the crucial issues for the 1980s: Sarah Charlesworth, Eric Bogosian, Nancy Dwyer, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Robert Longo, Richard Prince, David Salle, Cindy Sherman. A Fatal Attraction brought these and other artists who share these concerns together at a seminal point in this movement. This exhibition catalogue is a valuable reference for scholarship of this period of contemporary art, not to mention a cultural relic from an important moment in recent art history. Tom Lawson’s essay links the artists within a set of shared concerns-deconstruction of institutionalized pleasure, demystification of representation-that follow from the discourse of 1960s and 70s conceptual art, but takes this critique of ideology from the insulated art world out into the streets and living rooms of America. Great early catalogue published by The Renaissance Society of Chicago. Available via our website and in the bookshop. #worldfoodbooks #thomaslawson #1982 (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

[mappingcologiesglobalsouth]

what has publishing become? where is it going?

The evolution of contemporary art magazines is markedly entwined with ongoing developments in digital publishing. The way in which audiences consume art media today is an intricate activity that concerns a number of issues including the junction of text and images, copyright, accessibility and the human eye-brain system. Indeed, it feels assuredly natural for contemporary art magazines to publish online as a means of responding to technological advancements and possibilities - such as Web 2.0 - while disseminating their content with breadth and conviction.

Questions surrounding the nature and future of art magazines are as painfully cliched as they are important; and it is clear that digital publishing demands constant reconfiguration. Orin Gat discusses the manner in which IOS and other handheld devices allow for images to be embedded in “a variety of formats: slideshows, moving images, animated GIFS” and so on and so forth. It would appear that utilizing the vertical (or horizontal) scroll while maintaining the history and dignity of print, is symbolic of the greater balancing act of art publishing; one that requires constant editorial and cultural recalibration. According to East of Borneo editor Thomas Lawson, art magazines have, “a purposefully old-school attitude to the idea of the art journal as something deliberately out of time”. East of Borneo, along with other publications such as Mousse, South as a State of Mind, Flash Art and Flaneur (to name a few), strive to embrace the benefits of online media while incorporating certain strengths of traditional print publishing.

Slowness and temporality are, for example, two associated traits of traditional arts publishing that warrant consideration as digital publishing moves forward. However, through embracing user and reader contributions - on top of their own editorial line and agenda - publications such as East of Borneo etc are able to “develop depth over time as material accrues”, allowing them to work towards “becoming substantial repositories of information and interpretation”. As beautiful as this strategy sounds, such notions are probably excessively idealistic and egalitarian at this point in time, as they glaze over some of the key complexities of art publishing today. As an interested party, however, I find the serial tension and confusion that engulfs contemporary art publishing to be richly attractive.

[shockinglyunambitious]

💅🏻#thomasLawson #nada (at Basketball City)

[worldfoodbooks]

IN THE BOOKSHOP: A FATAL ATTRACTION: ART AND THE MEDIA (1982) “To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream. Advertising is the suggestion that the dream of entering the third person singular might possibly be fulfilled.” -Don DeLillo These are the artists who put the load-bearing post in postmodern, making the visual politics of media, marketplace and patriarchy the crucial issues for the 1980s: Sarah Charlesworth, Eric Bogosian, Nancy Dwyer, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Robert Longo, Richard Prince, David Salle, Cindy Sherman. A Fatal Attraction brought these and other artists who share these concerns together at a seminal point in this movement. This exhibition catalogue is a valuable reference for scholarship of this period of contemporary art, not to mention a cultural relic from an important moment in recent art history. Tom Lawson’s essay links the artists within a set of shared concerns-deconstruction of institutionalized pleasure, demystification of representation-that follow from the discourse of 1960s and 70s conceptual art, but takes this critique of ideology from the insulated art world out into the streets and living rooms of America. Great early catalogue published by The Renaissance Society of Chicago. Available via our website and in the bookshop. #worldfoodbooks #thomaslawson #1982 (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)