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Letter From the Editor

Apr.01.2006

I was at the doctor's office the other day browsing through the February 27th issue of New York magazine when I ran across an ad for this year's Armory Show. The tagline read: "154 of the World's Leading Galleries Featuring New Art by Living Artists."

I only knew my "Oh brother" was uttered out loud because the lady across the way reading People arched her eyebrows at me in disapproval; "Thou shalt not intrude upon my Brangelina time," her eyes flashed.

I raised my own eyebrows in surprise for a moment, then fell back down into a frown at the Armory Show advertisement.

Being somewhat media shy (there's a bit of ludicrous hypocrisy for you), the only other recent time I remember having such a shock reading a magazine was last fall when I anxiously flipped through the September issue of Art in America to the "Report from Seattle" only to be reminded by the magazine itself that it hadn't done a feature on Seattle in almost twenty years, and its claim (in the form of an accepted fact) that Seattle hadn't had a "characteristic art style" since the Mystics.

In a strange way I guess we have that article partly to blame for Visual Codec becoming a reality. I had been on the fence about starting something up for almost a year when that issue came out, and it wasn't long after reading that article with its strange claims, out-of-date information, and general ennui that I jumped off the fence, started running at top speed, and didn't look back.

Perhaps the founding of the Armory Show harbors a similar story. The artworld seems to run the frequent risk of being smothered by the Ghosts of Christmas past. So why not a gargantuan show solely set aside for "New Art by Living Artists?" It seems necessary, really, but regrettably so.

But I digress into that which I despise the most; whining.

The cure for chronic whining is deliberate action, and here at Visual Codec we are action-oriented. We are a living practice, a new model, an open door; qualities I'm confident you will find in our mélange of content this month.

From new dialogue formats such as an anonymous instant message interview with Evan Lee, a fiction installation by Lance Blomgren, and our newest monthly column, "Dear Mona," to the more formal critical reviews of Stan Douglas by Clint Burnham and Shirin Neshat by Carrie E.A. Scott, this issue is dedicated to showcasing the contemporary, the vigorous, the nouveau, the experimental, the current zeitgeist of this idea we dare to call art.

Cheers to the living,

m.

Founding Editor
Visual Codec
editor@visualcodec.com