RECENT NEWS

Esopus 14: Projects Now On Newsstands

April 13, 2010

For its 14th issue, Esopus commissioned 12 contemporary artists, including John Baldessari, Judy Pfaff, and Kerry James Marshall, to create projects specifically for the magazine. Esopus 14: Projects is not only the largest and most visually dynamic Esopus to date, it has also proven to be the most complicated to produce. The issue features 11 different kinds of paper stocks and 40 removable inserts, and includes contributions from 60 artists, writers, and musicians.

The artists’ projects include a suite of 16 exquisite drawings (including a 25" by 37" pullout poster) of dendritic forms by artist Roxy Paine; Marcia Kure’s stunning “Vogue Series” of collages conflating hip-hop and Victorian sartorial conventions; and a nearly six-foot-long double foldout by installation pioneer Judy Pfaff. Conceptualist John Baldessari introduces his new “Foot and Stocking Series” with six 10-color images that can be removed by readers, while Barbara Probst contributes one of her most elaborate Exposure pieces to date, featuring 18 pages’ worth of synchronized photographs taken by multiple cameras at the same instant in time.

Several contributors chose to open up their projects to other collaborators: Knitting-design pioneer and photographer Jared Flood asked five other designers to join him in creating a garment based on the Surrealists’ “Exquisite Corpse” exercise, while Suzanne Bocanegra invited 31 poets, playwrights, and novelists (from Jennifer Moxley to John Yau) to contribute to her “Suzanne Bocanegra Recipe Card Library” (consisting of 32 perforated cards with recipes such as “Inspiration Soup” and “Dark Star Confit”).

Another 12 artists, ranging from 16th-century Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini to Russian Constructivist El Lissitzy, serve as the starting point for Esopus 14’s “Artists” compilation CD. The magazine invited a group of musicians, among them Doveman, Sharon Van Etten, and Memoryhouse, to create new songs inspired by (and titled after) the artist of their choice. Some of the tracks focus on particular artworks, like the rousing “Carlyn Bezic” by Kingston, Ontario–based band PS I Love You, while others serve as a more general meditation on the artist’s biography or methodology (“Chuck Close” by New Yorker Tim Fite).

Other Recent News