Editors’ Letter | Northeast

We are very pleased to present the inaugural issue of artcore journal!

artcore journal focuses on spatial concepts and considerations in contemporary art with the added infusion of recognizing the efforts of individuals to seek or make art experiences beyond the boundaries of their current ‘home.’ Home is often denoted by a specific geographical location, a question of “where?” answered by referencing a point on a map or particular place, and is inherently identified by degrees of social, economic, and political variants. This first curated issue of artcore, themed Northeast, serves to broaden the intertextual capacity of spatial references by upending the signifying aspects of geographical, economic, and socio-political specificity. Ultimately revealing infinite possibilities for liminal spatial networks that are unfixed to a particular place. As a personal reflection, both Gregory Eltringham, co-collaborator for artcore journal and myself are originally from the Northeast U.S. and therefore decided upon the concept of Northeast as a way of simultaneously utilizing a region as a point of reference and departure.

This issue of artcore brings together insightful written texts, art projects and curatorial initiatives that engage aspects of the Northeast as a concept, directly and indirectly. Erin Dziedzic’s essay Home: An Imagined Place in the Work of Yael Bartana, Nari Ward, and Zineb Sedira explores the dialect between real and imagined spaces in personal, universal, and mythic references to home and homeland. Artist Paul Bloodgood reflects on the privatization of public space induced by Mary Beth Edelson’s continuing series of Story Gathering Boxes, which contain the private responses, opinions and reactions of gallery visitors to neutral questions. Zach Chambers lends poetic insight in two pieces written on aspects of the city.

The artists’ projects section features a selection of artists who either live and work in the Northeast U.S. or have recently completed projects and/or bodies of work in that region. Artists include Honor Bowman, Adam Cvijanovic, Craig Drennen, Gregory Eltringham, Paolo Piscitelli and Joanna M. Wezyk. Each is presented with an accompanying text that highlights spatial aspects in their work(s). In curatorial projects, Jaime Schwartz identifies the objectives of the project space Court Square, founded by Columbia University graduate students in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies, Lisa Williams, Jaime Schwartz and Ceren Erdem. Court Square’s mission is motivated by approaches to contemporary art curating that grapple with the dialectic between historicity and contemporaneity. Glasgow-based ARIKA addresses their influences and experiences in curating their first-ever North American programming for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. In an engaging collection of reviews, Whitney Dail, Steve Locke and Caroline Rush respond to recent exhibitions that have been presented in the Northeast, U.S.

Finally, artcore journal would like to extend a sincere thank you to our assistants Kalin Allen and Heather MacRae for their administrative savvy and continued enthusiasm.