Quodlibetica originated from the desire to write about art and visual culture in ways not confined by academic conventions or journalistic hype. Part journal, part blog, Quodlibetica fosters critical conversations about visual arts in a forum that is accessible, engaging, and committed to quality writing. Based on the Latin quodlibet, which has entered the English language as (1) a statement proposed for disputation, (2) the actual discussion, and (3) the whimsical combination of familiar elements, Quodlibetica is a space to argue eloquently and whimsically about art, find out what’s happening in the Twin Cities art scene, and engage with writers, artists, and critics, who like to think. Contact us if you want to get involved.
An Evolution of Environments
Do environments matter when we encounter art? Do environmental concerns enter into the language of art? This constellation explores the import of environments, environmentalism, context and community. All of the essays assembled here have been previously published.
Christina Schmid
Leaving the Twin Cities on one of the first appropriately cold weekends this November, I visited Hudson to take in the current exhibition at the Phipps, where six women—a sculptor, a photographer, a printmaker, a textile artist, a weaver, and a painter—delve into the complex meanings of home, place, memory, and transitions.
Most interesting among the [...]
Published 9.12.2009
Artists have sought to represent the natural world for almost as long as people have been awed into reverential silence by nature’s sublime attractions. Historically, the convergence of nature and art has been, if not tumultuous, subject to occasional controversy—think, for example, of Damien Hirst’s carcasses floating in formaldehyde or the insects in Huang Yong [...]
Published 9.11.2009
Loss always comes unbidden. It is a profoundly involuntary experience; we do not choose to lose someone, or something, that we care about. How are we to come to terms with this experience that has been forced on us? In the light of loss, our lives turn strange and incomprehensible. Grief takes time. Re-arranging a [...]
Published 9.11.2009
Remember beauty? The breath-taking, awe-inspiring kind? Take a pause to remember. And remember what followed the initial encounter—the inescapable impulse to share: did you fumble for your phone or camera to snap a picture for posterity right away? Did you turn to the person next to you, excitedly asking “did you see…?” or verbally pointing, [...]
Published 9.11.2009
If an exhibition makes you think about conversing with William Blake, William Gibson, and Terry Tempest Williams in the same breath, it seems safe to assume that there’s something going on: something that just might live up to art’s potential to intrigue, confound, and, ever so slightly, alter the way you perceive the work at [...]
Published 9.11.2009
How is your balance these days? I’m asking only because I’m about to take you out on a limb—and who knows how many of us have learned to walk on a tightrope unafraid, arms spread wide, how to fall without getting hurt, and how to lift off and take flight? (Impossible, you say? But there [...]
Published 9.11.2009
No, I’m not going to complain about the beauty of Peyton’s androgynous renditions of pop cultural icons. But I am struck by the deep provincialism of a fine artist who so eagerly emulates pop culture’s glossy sheen with gesso-polished seduction: if you want to see fine art reduced to a province of pop, do not [...]
Published 9.11.2009