Michael Workman

The strategy of operating Chicago-based art and language journal Whitewalls on a shoestring has paid off in spades. As the self-proclaimed "oldest running art journal in the world," keeping this staple of the local art scene healthy for nearly thirty years has meant never straying from its modest goal of providing artists a place to publish their writing. Besides the journal, Whitewalls has also turned out books such as Stephen Lapthisophon's "Hotel Terminus," Helen Mirra's "Names and Poems" and an album by Academy Records. Given Whitewalls' long, productive presence in Chicago, it's somewhat unfortunate that a survey of the journal's rich history will be conspicuously absent from the 26th anniversary exhibit, "Fine Words Butter No Cabbage" opening this weekend at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Whitewalls' launch in 1978, by writers Regan and Roberta Upshaw and artist Buzz Spector, helped mark a significant art-historical shift influenced in part by the rising influence of French theory in the academy. By publishing the works and writings of artists such as Tony Tassett and Jeanne Dunning, the journal heralded those artists who eventually came to produce much of the city's best art. Spector, now chair of the Art Department at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, stayed on until 1987. There was a lapse before the journal was revived by the current director, Anthony Elms, also an artist. But Spector's was unquestionably the defining influence that Whitewalls carries on from under Elms.

Respect for Spector's accomplishment both as founder and as a recognized book artist has been a mixed blessing. Spector has long personally represented the specter of Whitewalls as a conceptual publishing project. And since he left, the skies over the art world have also changed, in some ways dramatically. By the time Elms came to oversee his first issue "as managing editor from conception to finish," as he wrote in 1998, the journal had taken on a time-capsule feel. In that issue, Elms published work that incorporates newspaper clippings and photographs, serving what read as the impulse of a loving archivist. No longer were the philosophies of the late seventies and early eighties a sufficiently defining cultural and artistic force. Now the magazine had to develop a fresh direction, under a young-though-enthusiastic director. Whitewalls became a kind of museum in print, a place to keep the work of Chicago artists' perspectives on contemporary culture safe from the ravages of time. But choosing to tow this line has had the effect of keeping the journal's profile humble. Reaching outside a small art-world audience to bring in readers from the general public was a challenge, but never more so than in the present.

Recognizing Whitewalls as the "beached whale" of its own history may ultimately help. Drawing from the "Cheeseborger! Cheeseborger!! No Coke, Pepsi!" line in that famous Saturday Night Live skit for the show's title alludes to the journal's connection to the city's past, even as it reaches after higher visibility in its present. And that's precisely the goal of this Hyde Park Art Center exhibit, where more than forty artists will offer up "newly created works and performances from artists formerly or currently associated with Whitewalls." If ever there was a chance to usher in a new phase, this show's focus on early-career artists such as Mindy Rose Schwartz, Helen Mirra, Mark Booth, Andreas Fischer and a host of others gives Whitewalls a much-needed chance at rebirth in a nod to its unacknowledged past.

Two Minute Interview: Amanda Ross-Ho

Former Chicagoan Amanda Ross-Ho phoned in from the backseat of a pickup truck in Los Angeles to discuss her final show in Chicago:

Newcity: You've just moved to Los Angeles. Why did you leave Chicago?

Amanda Ross-Ho: I'm in a grad school program here at the University of Southern California. It's a small program with fifteen students.

Newcity: You made the piece in your farewell show at Western Exhibitions somewhere else. Where did you do it?

ARH: I made it while I was in a residency program in Hollad, in Rotterdam at the Kunster Complex. It was for an installation I did at the end of my residency. The installation at Western Exhibitions is very similar, but a Chicago version of that installation. Basically, I wanted to explore the residue of all my social interactions here. Putting it up, we spent a lot of time drinking and smoking cigarettes. There are beer cans, soy-milk containers and texts I've been writing throughout the summer in there. It's this organic environment that kind of functions as a garden. I called it "Season Finale" because that tied in for me with this organic idea but also connotes the end of a season of TV shows or plays.

Newcity: Did you do any gardening to prepare for the project?

ARH: I stayed at my mom's house this summer and ended up doing a lot of landscaping for a friend of hers. We spent a lot of time digging these deep roots out of the ground. I started thinking about my move as this emotional transition too and that tied it all together for me.

"Fine Words Butter No Cabbage" shows at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5307 South Hyde Park, (773)324-5520, through Oct 2. Amanda Ross-Ho shows at Western Exhibitions, 1648 West Kinzie, (312)307-4685, through Sept 12.

(2004-08-25)

Also by Michael Workman

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Most of the Chicago nightspots offering art as a lure don't have as well-integrated a vision as Darkroom in Ukrainian Village
(2004-08-17)

Eye Exam
Bad feelings, bilious public sniping and nonstop drama have rocked the art world over the last few weeks with the well-reported announcements surrounding the shifts in the city's spring art fair schedule
(2004-08-17)

El is for lovers
Messinger has long had a special relationship with the Chicago Transit Authority, beginning with a column centered around public transportation that he wrote while working for the Pioneer Press newspaper, Oak Leaves
(2004-08-10)

Eye Exam
Rich Lehl's canvases are an adventure in fantasies of a gothic banal
(2004-08-03)

Tip of the Week
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Eye Exam
(2004-07-27)

Tip of the Week
(2004-07-20)

Tip of the Week
(2004-07-13)

There's no place like home
(2004-07-13)

Eye Exam
(2004-06-29)

Soapbox Studs
(2004-06-22)

Eye Exam
(2004-06-22)

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