Today there are manifold ways that artists and writers are creating generative responses to the notion of âthe socialâ, including activist initiatives, satirical interventions, campaigns for justice, as well as returns to DIY and related notions of the smaller in scale. The current issue of Drain is less overtly concerned with the objecthood of art, but rather what one might call the after-life of the artwork, dispersed through social and participatory practices into wider political, social, and material ecologies.
This issue of Drain features a wide range of responses to our many social realities, artworks that use a variety of strategies: reconsidering historic artworks in a contemporary framework (Gregory Sholetteâs 8’46”); inserting free publications into the public sphere during the pandemic (Marc Fischerâs QUARANZINE); and a bringing of seemingly distant historical material into an eerily congruent present in Jon Fieldâs Mottoes. With regard to this issueâs featured artist project, Steve Lockeâs fascinating and troubling Homage to the Auction Block (2019-), the artist commented âI am thinking about how Modernist idioms can and do contain a racial history. The work posits that the basic Modernist form is indeed the slave auction block. With the discovery of that form, all the other forms became possible.â
In the essay section, Pat Badani reconsiders the crucial importance of food to our lives, which is in turn, correspondingly shaped by our surrounding cultural assumptions and economies. <the archive fever dream team> contributes a simultaneously entrancing and confounding dialogue enlisting AI and echoed voices of contemporary social thought. Jondi Keane and Katie Lee consider contemporary art from Australia in the light of theories of cognition and embodiment. And a variety of Thought Experiments explore themes including the demolition of monuments (Zoe Beloff); an absurdist artistâs book (Theo Macdonald and Isabella Dampney); an excursion into the history of performance (Lena Pozdnyakova); and a photographerâs personal manifesto (Abdi Osman).
The current moment, in which some might be drawn toward hopelessness, again brings to mind some insightful thoughts from writer Rebecca Solnit: âhope is not about what we expect. It is an embrace of the essential unknowability of the world, of the breaks with the present, the surprises. ⊠I believe in hope as an act of defiance, or rather as the foundation for an ongoing series of acts of defiance, those acts necessary to bring about some of what we hope for while we live by principle in the meantime. There is no alternative, except surrender. And surrender not only abandons the future, it abandons the soul.â[1]
The theme of SOCIAL/AFFECTS was developed just prior to the many challenging, disruptive, and significant events which have unfolded in real time globally, from protests for justice to the COVID-19 pandemic. Resonances of this recent period can be felt throughout the issue. We at Drain would like to send all positive thoughts to those encountering recent difficulties and hardships.
[1] Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power (Melbourne: Canongate, 2005) 163.
IN THIS ISSUE
Feature Artist
Homage to the Auction Block – Steve Locke
Essays
Cru et CrĂ©dible (Raw and Credible): Art and Food – Pat Badani
Enacting cognitive change through Australian art – Jondi Keane and Katie Lee
The chronicle of <the archive fever dream team> (Text generated by AI in collaboration with Eugene Hansen, Jenny Gillam and Bruce E. Phillips)
Social Practices and the Shifting Discourse: On Collaborative Strategies and âCurating the Socialâ – Martin Patrick
Thought Experiments
My Personal Photographerâs Manifesto â Abdi Osman
Creative Demolition at the American Museum of Natural History â Zoe Beloff
Tempestas Digital â Marilyn Allen
AN ESSAY ON THE MONKEY BOOK – Theo Macdonald and Isabella Dampney
Thoughts on the dichotomy between socially-oriented performance as a lifelike art form and its relation to the institutionalized art world – Lena Pozdnyakova
Reviews
The Wave Rolling In – Pavel Arsenev on VOLNA art collective
Interviews
We Share the Same Memories: Connecting with Hong Kongâs zine underground – Kerry Ann Lee and Forrest Lau
Creative Writing
Drawing Interstices – Phil Sawdon
Art Projects
Quaranzine – Marc Fischer
Te Moana Meridian – Sam Hamilton
Mottoes – Jon Field
On TK Returning to Rotorua – Balamohan Shingade
Virtual Eat Chocopie Together Taking a Bite for Global Peace – Mina Cheon
Negative Mass â Jessica Chubb and Jonathan Kay
Bridal Rumour – AndrĂ© Guiboux
Columbus is Dead: Long Live Duchamp! – THEMM!
8’46” – Gregory Sholette
This issue was led and edited by Martin Patrick
I would also like to offer many thanks for the opportunity to guest edit this issue and acknowledge all the support and assistance from the editors, particularly the invitation and counsel of Greg Minissale, the able steerage of art projects by Avantika Bawa, and all of the work peer reviewing and offering editorial advice from Drainâs wider advisory team. And to the many contributors, thanks for your work and for your patience!