It is spring of 2020 and the world is quite different than it was when I last wrote in this blog in the fall. The globe is in the midst of a pandemic of extraordinary proportions, so first of all I hope that you are well and are taking all necessary precautions for the safety of our communities, large and small. It is also a time where the fate of many institutions is decidedly uncertain in the face of tremendous losses, from the closure of facilities to widespread layoffs. Arts institutions and artists are at risk of losing their audiences as the momentum of positive energy, sustained through performances and exhibitions, wanes over the next few months and beyond. So thank you for reading this update and for wanting to stay clued into my artistic world. I appreciate the support! After many months of planning, I am ready to announce my new project!
Part of my artistic practice for a long time has been working in the text medium, but that has increased since 2017, following my presentation of the collaborative art experience thaw as well as reconnecting with the ideas of the Fluxus movement of the 1960's. I have wanted to distribute, disseminate or otherwise share this type of work for a while, but I needed to find the right vehicle, and now I have: zines. For those of you not familiar, zines are generally small paper booklets that reflect a DIY aesthetic and can literally contain anything, from memoirs to recipes to poetry. It's a perfect empty vessel for my wide range of text pieces. I will be releasing quite a few pieces over the course of this year, most of them in printed form and distributed by mail and some will be available as PDFs and distributed by email. Some will exist in other forms entirely; zines are merely a starting place. But all will be created, formatted and lovingly hand-finished by me.
I've chosen BandCamp to be my distribution platform for this project. It's about time I set up a BandCamp page for some audio as well, so I've taken care of both at the same time. You'll find some offbeat tracks available to stream and download under "sounds." Click on "not sounds" to view my published works and any other art objects that I create in the future. I've kept the prices as low as possible, but as BandCamp and PayPal both get a significant cut whenever you make a purchase, you are absolutely welcome to pay more than the base price and help support more work like this. The first three pieces are available now. Check them out and let me know what you think!
Hopefully as the year goes on I will be better able to connect with my music and dance collaborators in person and continue my work in live performance, but I am so excited to present this publishing project and share some of the other kinds of work I do with all of you. I had no idea that I'd be currently living and working in quarantine when I began work on this project last fall, but I feel fortunate I am able to do it right now and that you can experience it too from your own home, via the mail or email. If you're not on the mailing list yet, you can join via the box at the bottom of this webpage, and you'll get all the details about forthcoming releases, projects and more. Thanks again and be well!
Justin
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