School News
Ten by Ten is not trying to be the next ArtForum. Why should they? Since its pilot issue in the fall of 1999, this full-color arts magazine will do anything to satisfy its appetite for everything that's freaky, off-color, pedantic, without precedent -- everything Chicago. So, take a wild, meandering guess about where such a concept could be born: I give you Annette Ferrara, SAIC class of '96. We are all in need of a little glossy reading material at this divine institution, if only to fiercely covet a center pullout on Matthew Barney before class. Yet Ferrara noticed, after a particularly unsatisfying internship at the now defunct New Art Examiner, that she prized more gloss than the average plebeian. As you know, a budding emissary for the arts will do almost anything to get published -- even work for F News. This Ferrara did, and from her experience at both F News and the New Art Examiner (combined with a mighty dose of initiative) she organized her own ambush into those pages of gloss.
Taking a few moments to conjecture what is lacking from popular arts magazines worldwide, I would have this to say 1) Chicago, 2) quality insofar as aesthetic and journalistic inventiveness are concerned, and 3) meticulous artistic reproduction and editorial rigor. Thus, an astounding new monthly would be armed with an arsenal of Chicagoan artists, critics, and enthusiasts who are more than eager to write prolifically on their vision of the failure and success of modern art, designers who can turn all gloss to gold, and artists who can make each page scream with the agony of their own motives. Ten by Ten might soon be there. By taking a cross-disciplinary stance on the arts, Ten by Ten has already hurdled one of the major problems ArtForum confronted in its early years -- the stratified perspective. Suturing the artistic divides of architecture, fine arts, fashion, and design with excellent writing, often-excellent criticism, and always-innovative themes, the magazine makes good on its promise of creating a "Space for Visual Culture." So, we are now in the realm of a nearly curatorial approach to the magazine production process. What more can we expect when the new Betty Rymer Gallery show turns exhibition catalogs into autonomous art, exhibitions become Maxwell Street, and magazines become "Spectacle," as the new Ten by Ten is titled.
The magazine is in its early moments, as some of the photographs and web content suggest. Of course, the nature of any dawning magazine is to composite itself entirely of volunteers, which Ten by Ten has done. Considering its extraordinarily value as an angle from which to plummet into Chicago arts, and considering the extremely varied, often unfamiliar nature of the scene itself, it is difficult to comprehend exactly how Ten by Ten has managed all this territory. So, despite a few grungy reproductions and an almost over-designed web page, Ten by Ten has emerged unharmed from the gauntlet of problems natural for a burgeoning magazine.
Ferrara has certainly managed her resources well. The fifteen "hard-core" volunteers for the pilot issue were a group of her (obviously talented) friends that met together one night to discuss the possibility of creating an arts magazine. Ferrara comments that "most were in their 20s, so everyone had professional jobs but were looking for some creative satisfaction." After amassing a significant amount of obscure magazines dealing with similar issues, Ferrara and friends distilled an idea of their content, their audience, and their own participation. They decided that they wanted equal importance to be placed on design and editorial reviews, setting aside at least one page to be without text, entirely focused on design. The editorial tone was meant to be sophisticated, catering to readers with a college education, but Ferrara notes, "because everyone had post-grad education and was very tired of that kind of language, we decided it should be accessible -- without all the buzz words and codified language." And so Ten by Ten was born.
The most recent issue hemorrhages spectacle from its neon pink cover to its quirky, un-edited email conversation on the last page. An article on sneaker connoisseurship amalgamates street fashion with out-and-out footwear hysteria, almost paralleling the level of spectacle engendered by articles on the Nipporn performers and Los Diablos Guapos, a full-contact bowling team. This kind of raucous theme is exactly what Ferrara had in mind: "by nature, a magazine is artificial because it involves a lot of paring down of information to what would suit its needs. We [Ten by Ten] do this by focusing on energizing issues, and by excluding x amount of things that have already been done." The printed magazine is supplemented by a well-kept website with reviews of Documenta XI, William Pope L.'s performance art, and masterful assemblage by Ferrara on spectacle and simulacrum -- an applied experiment with Debord's argument on simulacrum from Society of the Spectacle. On the whole, Ten by Ten reflects the nature of its contributors, as Ferrara confirms: "We try to retain an upbeat style and attitude; we try to keep the criticism sincere, not bitter and mean. Everyone on staff is optimistic ... Everyone is doing what they can to get the most out of it." An artsy mag with a critical bent made by spectacularly pleasant people. What more could Chicago need?