Air Bubbles
Volume One, Issue Two, Fall 2020
ISSUE #2: “Air Bubbles” Overview
In this issue, we feature new work on the idea of air bubbles — the special kind of air that binds with liquid and enchants us with its elemental in-betweenness. We cover the vanitas of the seventeenth century and the scientific findings of the eighteenth, pause to contemplate symbolist visual fields, dream our way to the playful popping of surrealism, and conclude with the darker side of bubbles of the late-twentieth century, their political and environmental contexts, and end with a reflection of our present — on quarantine bubbles filled with the levity of bread.
table of contents
(1)
Some Fragmentary Reflections on Air Bubbles
Written by Jessie Alperin
Preface
(2)
Fragments in a Modulated Time
Written by Sylvia Gorelick
Poetry
(3)
What Might Not, Might Last
Written by Mary Ann Caws
Essay
(4)
Seven Mixed Media Works
Created by Lee Miller
Visual Art
(5)
“If you think the world is a balloon in your head:” Rethinking Vignettes
Written by Andrei Pop
Essay
(6)
Puddled Vignettes: A Photo-Poem
Written & Photographed by Jessie Alperin
Poetry & Visual Art
(7)
Machado’s Counselor of the Air
Written by Kenneth David Jackson
Essay
(8)
Brief Interlude
Written by Em Schwager
Poetry
(9)
Colors of Light: Newton’s Observations and Chardin’s Representation
Written by Anita Hosseini
Essay
(10)
Musical Interlude
Composed by Haast - Hawea
Audio
(11)
Bubbles in Northern European Self-Portraits
Written by Liana Cheney
Essay
(12)
Tunnels
Written by Petra Kuppers
Poetry
(13)
Death in the Air: Exploring Tension, Threat, and (In)visibility in Teresa Margolles' En el aire
Written by Julia Banwell
Essay
(14)
Bubble Murals & Muralist Jokes: Asco’s Skyscraper Skin
Written by Mariana Fernández
Essay
(15)
Three Poems
Written by Wayne Koestenbaum
Poetry & Visual Art
(16)
Bubble Planets
Created by Melanie King
Visual Art
(17)
Leavening Agents: Some Meditations on Baking Bread under Lockdown
Written by Charles Keiffer
Essay
(18)
Sink Paintings
Created by Amanda Rothschild
Visual Art
(19)
“Like my dreams, they fade and die…”
Written by Esther Leslie
Essay
(20)
On Air: A Venti Podcast
Featuring Esther Leslie
Episode Two - “Air Bubbles”
Audio
Appendix
___________
Further Reading
Playlist
Dedication
2020 has been host to multiple crises in the air. They are all too familiar by now: amidst global climate catastrophe, a virus that targets our lungs has affected lives, economies, and sharply refigured our social and political atmospheres. Simultaneously, the death of a Black man at the hands of the police has laid bare the conditions of austerity and violence that the United States’ racialized poor must endure.
Though having inspired many who believe in a future where people might one day be allowed to breathe easy, these tragedies continue to stifle the air of thousands across the globe. We take this moment to thank medical workers for their tireless efforts to heal us from a devastating pandemic; we thank those who continue to do the work and speak out, holding us all in bated breath for the change we know is yet to come. We also take a moment of silence to recognize and remember all those who have lost their breath in 2020.
It is to these people, and to those who love and continue to fight for them — for all of us — that Venti is humbly dedicated.
We recognize these events could neither be fully spoken to nor accounted for by a dedication. At its best, intellectual dialogue supplements and informs action. Venti, in its simple bid to think about the air, might be just one tool among many for weathering this tragic, tempestuous, yet hopeful moment.
As we continue to move through the topic of air, we believe it is our duty not only to mourn but to also derive inspiration.
Illustration by Charlotte Lee