A N XIETY
Issue 8
2009
w w w. c a n t a n k e r. c o m
Submitting to Cantanker
A NX I E TY Issue 8
Cantanker magazine accepts proposals from artists and writers for upcoming and future issues.
2009
Proposals should be art-related
Curator Andrea Mellard
Proposals MUST be submitted through e-mail at: editor@cantanker.com. Title your email “SUBMISSION”. Please include your snail mail and e-mail addresses, phone number, website link, and a very short biography at the beginning of your submission email.
Editors John Mulvany Debra Broz Shea Little
Include your Resume/CV and an artist’s statement. No hard copy submissions through the mail.
Design Shea Little
You will only be contacted if we are interested in using your proposal. Due to the large volume of e-mails we receive we cannot reply to everyone. If you have not heard from us within a month please assume we were unable to use your submission.
Promotion & Advertising Sean Gaulager Event Coordinator Christina Hiett Interns Mark Rosen
Texts should not exceed 1000 words and should minimize the use of jargon or art-speak. Writing should be accessible to an intelligent general readership. Feel free to include related visual materials with article drafts or proposals.
About the Curator Andrea Mellard helps coordinate innovative exhibitions and programs as the Assistant Curator at the Austin Museum of Art. She came to Austin seven years ago to earn a M.A.
Sophie Taylor Katherine Kunze
in American Studies from the University of Texas. Before
Advisory Board Reza Shirazi Christina Hiett Brad Carlin
seum of American History. Drawing on an interdisciplinary
Printed by American Printing and Mailing www.americanprinters.com
The Anxiety exhibition will be on display from August 29
moving to Austin, she worked as a curatorial and research assistant at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Mubackground she seeks to make connections between visual art and other cultural expressions, inspiration and everyday experience.
through September 19 at Pump Project Art Complex www.pumpproject.org 702 Shady Lane, Austin, TX, 78702
This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Texts should be submitted as an attachment in Microsoft Word (DOC or TXT file types). We do not publish poetry or fiction. Accepted image formats include TIFF, PDF, or JPG. Maximum image size for proposals is 2 MB. If we use your proposal we will request larger files. Photography, conceptual projects, text-based work, or work dealing with the formal issues raised by the print medium (paper, printing, ink, etc.) are particularly well-suited for Cantanker. We encourage pushing the boundaries of the printed medium and welcome all proposals. Thank you in advance for your submissions. We truly appreciate your contribution and your continuing support for our publication. If you have questions about submitting please email us at editor@cantanker.com.
Cantanker magazine is proudly sponsored by Big Medium, a non-profit visual arts organization based in Austin, Texas. For more information visit: www.bigmedium.org
E l Franco Lee II S andy Carson S tephanie Martz S hawn Camp James Michael Starr Terri Thomas S usan Kemner Reed D arryl Lauster James Van Arsdale Yen-Hua Lee K evin Curry S arah Roberts P eter Leighton Mike Whiting B unnyphonic K eri Oldham Matthew Winters K ia Neill Gretchen Bettes
A nxiety suffuses the current zeitgeist. It is simply
A small number of submissions dealt with the
impossible to tune out talk of crisis, meltdown, bail
threat of violence outside our control. Susan Kem-
out, and depression. The subject has a long his-
ner Reed, a mother of a soldier, subtly engaged
tory in American art, defining the turn to Abstract
her own anxieties about the Middle East conflict
Expressionism in the 1950s. After confronting the
by making them a backdrop for painted still lifes of
aftermath of World War II and under the threat of
daily domestic rituals. The 2007 Virginia Tech Uni-
nuclear annihilation, artists expressed their anxiet-
versity shooting inspired Darryl Lauster’s sculpted
ies by painting incredible abstractions. Now, over
amphora. His contemporary memorial to victims
a half century later, what are we all so worried
of senseless violence takes the form of an ancient
about? Cantanker magazine’s 8th issue Anxiety
Greek funerary container. “Exploding Sandbags”
offers perspective.
by James Van Arsdale questions the things that protect us. Underlying the irony of these works is
Several artists consider the consequences of
a fear that objects designed to keep us safe may
trashing the environment. The catastrophic effects
ultimately cause harm.
of climate change can be seen in “Nightmare Katrina II” painted by El Franco Lee II and in Sandy
Worries about social anxieties seem to be univer-
Carson’s photograph of Ike’s aftermath. The
sal. The delicate ink drawings of Yen-Hua Lee
eroded interior landscapes of Stephanie Martz’s
depict the interconnectedness of friends and fam-
series “Abandoned Decay” give the impression of
ily, which can sometimes feel like a burden. Kevin
physical or even mental disaster. Shawn Camp’s
Curry’s interactive sculpture plays with the dis-
textured painting appears as an aerial view of
quieting sense of being misunderstood or ignored
drought-parched earth. The gaps in the abstract
- perhaps with the aid of the multitude of speakers
imagery and between the canvases themselves
they will finally hear you. Social isolation is the
hint at psychological fissures. Whereas, the title
theme of Sarah Roberts’ video shot in a shopping
“Begrebet Angest” refers to the odd urge to leap
mall. Some may commiserate with the invisibility
felt when facing a precipice.
reflected in “Isolation Womb,” while others may welcome a place to publicly hide. Peter Leighton’s
Questions of faith in this life and the next appear
altered photographs take the challenge of acting
in two artists’ submissions. James Michael Starr’s
out gender roles as their subject. Here he up-
collage of sinners facing their final days evokes
dates the original love triangle--man, woman, and
anxiety of the fiery religious type. If that isn’t
serpent--which didn’t work out well in the end.
enough to scare you straight, the seductive sculpture by Terri Thomas takes its inspiration from medieval torture devices used during the Inquisition.
With a variety of approaches and diverse media,
All in all, what the collective submissions don’t
several artists represented the experience of
address about anxiety is just as telling about
feeling anxiety. Mike Whiting’s videogame-
our times. Few works engaged with contempo-
inspired painting parodies this psychological
rary politics, despite our country having been at
state. With simple forms derived from oversized
war for the better part of the last decade. The
pixels and bold colors, the artist depicts a comi-
lack of submissions reflecting the near-collapse
cal expression of dread. Performance anxiety
of capitalism and the housing market may sadly
is front and center for Bunnyphonic. The large
suggest that artists are now just as bad as off
photograph she found imagines the stage fright
economically as they were before the crash.
of playing to a full house. Strangely, two artists turned a cephalopod into a mascot for anxiety.
Like the anxieties of previous generations about
Keri Oldham captured the sensations of being
the future of humankind, contemporary anxiety
overwhelmed and weighed down with her simple
seems decidedly personal. Overwhelmed by
watercolor of a man with an octopus attached to
things outside of their control, artists appear
his back. And Matthew Winters listed then cre-
generally to retreat and internalize. Following
ated his own state of anxiety in order to produce
larger trends in art, work becomes introspective,
the intricate drawing “Angstopus.”
narrative, and self-referential. Still, historically great art comes from tough times. Consider the
Repetitive acts, like writing lists, drawing marks,
explosion of creativity from the abyss of 1920s,
or pulling needle and thread, seem to be both
Weimar Germany or late-70s New York - if the
symptoms of stress and attempts to establish
situation really seems that bad right now, things
order. Making her exquisite cartographic draw-
have got to start looking good.
ings, Kia Neill escapes into a meditative activity.
Despite her fabric sculpture spelling out
Andrea Mellard
an idiom for an unsettled mental state, the neat repetition of stitches Gretchen Bettes makes can also be soothing. Conventional wisdom prescribes, “It’s not work that kills, but worry.” The process of creating detailed-oriented, handmade work can alleviate tension. Yet, when one views the final products and considers the dedication of time and concentration, they can be equally overwhelming.
Assistant Curator, Austin Museum of Art
El Franco Lee II, Nightmare Katrina II, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 36 inches
Sandy Carson, Ike’s Aftermath, Metallic Chromira print, 20 x 20 inches
Stephanie Martz, Vertical Vertigo, Mixed media on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Shawn Camp, Begrebet Angest, Oil and mixed media on canvas, 52 x 54 x 2.5 inches
James Michael Starr, Going to Heaven, Collage on window, 41.75 x 30.5 x 2 inches
Terri Thomas, Spanish Spider (Breast Ripper), Swarovski crystals and beads over form, 24 x 24 x 6 inches
Susan Kemner Reed, Daily News, Teacup, Holbein & Suicida, Oil on paper, 12 x 12 inches
Darryl Lauster, Virginia Tech Amphora, Stoneware, plaster, 27 x 16 x 16 inches
James Van Arsdale, Exploding Sandbag, Canvas, sand, paint, thread, printed paper, 4 x 7 x 1.5 inches
Yen-Hua Lee, Burden, Ink on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Kevin Curry, Speech!, Acrylic and PVC sheet, speakers, microphone and amplifier, 37 x 53 x 12 inches
Sarah Roberts, Isolation Womb (Mall), digital video still, Dimensions variable
Peter Leighton, Cryptome, Digitally altered photograph, 22 x 22 inches
Mike Whiting, Panic, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Bunnyphonic, Ophicleide Stop, Found Photograph, 47 x 48 x 1 inches
Keri Oldham, MMK, Watercolor, 9 x 12 inches
Matthew Winters, Angstopus, Ink on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Kia Neill, Cartographic Drawing No. 16, Graphite on lacquered metal, 21 x 21 inches
Gretchen Bettes, Twiddling Thumbs, Hand-stitched cotton gloves, cotton thread, 71 x 12 inches