Retraction 1: The Object [A*Desk: Journal of Critical Thinking]

Eljer Co. Two-Fired Vitreous China Catalogue, Bedfordshire No. 700 [Available in 1917 from the J. L. Mott Iron Works, 118 Fifth Avenue, NYC] — Eljer Co. Two-Fired Vitreous China Catalogue, Bedfordshire No. 700
[Available in 1917 from the J. L. Mott Iron Works, 118 Fifth Avenue, NYC]

This week A*Desk: Journal of Critical Thinking published the first of five installments of my editorial project, Retraction, which brings together the work of twenty artists and writers who interpret the idea of «retraction» from multiple vantage points in various mediums. The project springs from the Retracted Cinema program I curated earlier this year (screened at the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB, Xcèntric), in September 2020) but brings the central idea into its own and in a broader context, independent of the distinction I previously leaned on between a “retracted” and “expanded” cinema. The November issue of A*Desk is thematically organized into five weekly installments, each introduced by a segment of a running text I wrote to frame the work. The first installment, Retraction 1: The Object, begins by giving a few necessary twists to a familiar artistic touchstone, the Duchampian ready-made – a plumbing appliance turned into a seminal work of art – which many credit with scandalously launching a new conceptual emphasis in twentieth and twenty-first century art. These twists become a way to set up and introduce the first set of contributions by artists Dora Garcia, Werner Thöni, and Alexandre Madureira.

An excerpt from the first installment’s introduction: «Retraction endeavors to follow the lead of entropy in the object. Entropy represents not only the loss produced in any work, as thermodynamics defines it, but also the specific lack or surplus that launches the work to begin with. Imagine three scenarios: The structural identity of a book as object necessarily excludes from its contents the very element that makes it possible: the reading act. Imagine then the same book entirely rewritten to retract the reading process (marginalia, ruminations, free associations) back into the text, woven together, compiled and bound into a single volume. Second, think of the stretcher board as a straight-jacket that defends the cultural identity of painting against the entropy of the painted canvas, which wants to bend, crimp, and bow. One might then imagine an artwork in which the canvas – removed from its stretcher board – is left to curl at its edges, even encouraged to do so, teased on; and then for the final winking flourish, a zipper is installed to join the edges. Or, third, one could picture a series of works in which applied paint is meticulously peeled in a single sheet from the plane surface, held aloft, then parachuted down and configured onto a pedestal like a sculpture.»

To read and view the first installment, please visit the A-Desk site at this link:
Retraction 1: The Object.