The Classroom
Third FloorTraces of Resistance: Graphic Activism and Publishing in Chile, with Camila Gonzalez-Simon, Daniela Josefina, and Maricruz Alarcón López
The lesbian publishing initiative HAMBRE (Chile) shares insights into contemporary graphic activism and independent publishing emerging from the 2019 Chilean social uprising. Drawing on their experience creating and circulating political posters and zines, the collective explores the challenges and possibilities of documenting protest in a context where such visual traces are constantly being removed from public space. This talk highlights HAMBRE’s experimental publishing methodologies rooted in feminist and queer collaboration, situating their work within Chile’s long tradition of graphic resistance. Coinciding with the 52nd commemoration of the Chilean military coup, the presentation reflects on the role of printed matter in resisting erasure, building memory, and circulating counter-narratives by offering publishing as an act of political resistance that confronts institutional neglect. Presented by HAMBRE HAMBRE HAMBRE.
Vanishing Points: the Language of Energy-Colonialism and Ecological Grief, with Amy Kennedy
In this program, climate writer Amy Kennedy discusses her research about the petrochemical industry along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and the ongoing energy-colonialism in the region. This type of extractivism is engineering dozens of culture-bearing communities out of existence. Kennedy will discuss her new book, Vanishing Points: Words for Disappearing, a collection of micro-essays and photographs exploring the surreal intersection of heavy industry and nature along the Gulf Coast, and the grief these spaces elicit. Through this program, Kennedy will share conceptual tools that help people recognize and process ecological grief, as well as underscore how this grief can function as a portal for more meaningful engagement with climate action. Presented by Antenna Press.
Jason Polan: The Post Office, with Jason Fulford, Starlee Kine, and Richard McGuire
To mark the release of Jason Polan: The Post Office, newly published by Printed Matter, Inc., project editor and designer Jason Fulford will be joined in discussion by radio producer Starlee Kine and illustrator Richard McGuire about the correspondence practice of artist Jason Polan, and his longtime affinity for the US Postal Service. The conversation will look to the trove of drawings, letters, objects, and ephemera that Polan exchanged through the mail with friends, fans, and penpals around the world, considering how these playful and often touching exchanges offered a way to forge new connections, and gave us a portrait of the artist himself. Presented by Printed Matter, Inc.
The Last Man, with Meg Onli, Lucy Ives, and Image Text Ithaca students
This event features a conversation between curator Meg Onli and writer Lucy Ives, along with a performance centered on the launch of a radical re-issue of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s apocalyptic novel, The Last Man (1826). Edited by Meg Onli, the Whitney Museum's Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, the publication features visual and textual contributions from students in the Image Text MFA Program at Cornell University. Shelley’s incisive reflections on the vanity of power, the disappointments of political ambition, and the loneliness of living in a ruined world all resonate powerfully today. The artists’ interventions amplify and reinterpret these themes. Together, they offer a collective contemplation of our troubled present, inviting the audience to consider our engagements with each other and our world. Presented by Image Text Ithaca.
Messages in a Bottle, with Marie Warsh, Yona Backer, Julia Klein, and Jarrett Earnest
This program examines how publications can introduce, reintroduce, and unite audiences around under-recognized historical artists. The discussion will focus on publications that showcase archival materials, minor works, artist writings, and other documentation that offer alternatives to traditional monographs or catalogues raisonnés. Writer and critic Jarrett Earnest has described these projects as “messages in a bottle”—carefully crafted publications with modest commercial expectations whose portability and affordability broaden access to artists and their work in unexpected ways. Featuring Marie Warsh (Soft Network and Estate of Rosemary Mayer), Yona Backer (Alvin Baltrop Trust), Julia Klein (Soberscove Press), and Jarrett Earnest, the program explores how such publications raise awareness of overlooked artists and contribute to expanding the art historical canon. Presented by Soberscove Press.
The Gatherers Book Launch
This closing program celebrates the publication of The Gatherers, a catalogue produced on the occasion of the eponymous MoMA PS1 exhibition currently on view. Designed by Alec Mapes-Frances, the publication brings together original texts relating to waste, accumulation, and excess. It also features newly commissioned texts on each of the show’s fourteen artists, including a longform essay by Chief Curator Ruba Katrib that contextualizes their practices within larger art historical trends, from Dutch still lifes to post-war assemblage. In the program, Katrib will moderate a conversation between catalogue contributors on the promises and failures of neoliberalism, the shifting constructions of East and West, and the explosion of new technologies.