Design & writing by Ben Judson
[ essays & reviews portfolio ]
Below you will find a sampling of essays, reviews, and interviews I have produced over the last few years. Some have been published in art magazines such as Artlies, ...might be good, and NeoAztlan, while others were written for Emvergeoning, a group arts blog based in San Antonio. Since I launched the blog in 2006, I have personally written over 350 posts.
“I went out to buy the human blood in the morning, and then I began the walk. It probably lasted about 45 minutes: that walk on pavement that did not burn.” Thus Regina José Galindo begins to describe her 2003 protest in the streets of Guatemala City to an interviewer for Bomb magazine. She continues: “I suppose my mind fell completely silent during that time. I was focused on the image of dipping my feet and leaving my footprints at every step along the way. But when I got to the Palacio Nacional and saw the line of police officers guarding it, I ignited. I walked more firmly, I reached the main doors, I saw the eyes looking back at me, and I left two final footprints side by side. I left the basin holding the blood there, too. Nobody followed me, nobody said anything.” Read more at San Antonio Current »
Publication: San Antonio Current April 16 (2008)
In 1975, Laurie Anderson released the song “Walking & Falling,” explaining that when we walk, we are actually simultaneously falling: “With each step, you fall forward slightly. And then catch yourself from falling. Over and over, you’re falling. And then catching yourself from falling. And this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.” What Anderson leaves implicit, of course, is that sometimes you don’t — or can’t — always catch yourself. This system of movement — of negotiating the world — allows us to support ourselves but also threatens to pull us down, restricting our freedom of movement. With a similar sentiment, the curators of Standing on one foot, Patrick Charpenel and Cynthia Gutiérrez, set about organizing the most ambitious (and successful) exhibition to date at tps (formerly the Triangle Project Space). Read more at Art Lies »
Publication: Art Lies #57 (2008)
Alan Licht digs deep. In underground music circles he is known not only for his often challenging solo recordings, including Rabbi Sky, The Evan Dando of Noise?, and Plays Well, but also his collaborations with avant-blues guitarist Loren Connors, free jazz drummer Rashied Ali, and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. Although Licht’s solo recordings have mostly dealt with minimalist themes, he is able to explore these themes from a fresh perspective on virtually every record, weaving in noise experiments, samples of popular disco songs, and blues riffs. Read more at NeoAztlan »
Publication: NeoAztlan #6 (2007)
I’ve long considered tattoo flash sheets to be fascinating art objects. With their repetition of similar or related images, they often riff on visual themes in a quite poetic way. These dragons by E. C. Kidd (dated 1912), for instance, chart a conceptually nebulous course between the serpent and the bird. For the artist, the various permutations of the dragon flesh out the significance of the image as a psychic construct. As each drawing (potentially) expands the concept, the mind is able to approach the problems posed by the image from new angles. Read more at Emvergeoning »
Publication: Emvergeoning (2007)
I went to see Edward Hirsch’s lecture at Trinity the other day, and found him to be a thought-provoking and entertaining speaker. The main thrust of his talk was encapsulated in a single image: the message in a bottle adrift at sea. Hirsch sees the poem as this message, launched into the turbulence of the world with the hope that one day, on a distant shore, someone might be able to give this message life through the reciprocal act: the act of reading. The thought that the reader is required to give life to the poem is a nice thought, and is a good complement to the book series he is editing for Trinity University Press (Writers On Writing). The readers in the audience (presumably a large number of those attending the lecture) got to feel that they do in fact have an essential role to play in the process of writing. I do think it’s important for readers to understand that they are directly involved in a creative process — the act of reading is not purely receptive, but involves interpretation, feeling, and growth. Read more at Emvergeoning »
Publication: Emvergeoning (2007)
Edgar Arceneaux’s new work at Artpace, Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid, attempts to string together narratives that span thousands of years, beginning with Moses and culminating with the centerpiece of the show, videos of the comedy routines of David Alan Grier. Medieval alchemy forms an expansive bridge between these two unlikely characters. The transformative role of the comedian, analogous to the role of the alchemist, seems to be the crux of the work. Read more at ...might be good »
Publication: ...might be good #67 (2006)
Those words will just drag you down. Down below the horizon where you built your city of chones. That’s not a city you want to show on the first date. That’s not a city you want to be buried in. But that’s where those words will take you. Down below to the city of pipes and wires. You’d like to think this is about your ego, but it’s about something else. Something between your skin and your pants. Between your beliefs and your politics. You could never clean out that space; but who cares? That space is invisible, right, even at the edge of the world. Even when the wind is blowing and the false names of the gods carry your hat away. But there’s a problem. The chones may be invisible, but they can still be discovered, because you wear your pants too tight. And once they see your pantyline, they can almost make out the edges of your politics. The death of your beliefs can’t be too far behind. Those words will just drag you down. Down below the belt where you built your city of sand, and where the names of the false gods push innocently up the shore.
Publication: Wall text for Alberto Mijangos exhibit at Blue Star Contemporary Art Space (2006)
Christa Mares has developed a visual language from human anatomy and cultural signifiers that is whimsically suggestive. In her new sculptural ceramic exhibit at Cactus Bra, Mares spins a web of imagery connecting social mores to a visceral understanding of the body and its relationship with pottery and the home. By forming several of her vessels to resemble internal organs, Mares invites the viewer to draw associations between the human body and ceramic utensils. Read more »
Publication: Unpublished