The Arts Journal, vol. I

Jack Sargent

One thinks, given that there hasn't been a second issue of the trade-paperback sized Suture in the ensuing four years since its publication, that they could have both come out with a vol. II and solved the main problem with vol. I in the same way; cut the length in half. There is much to be discovered here, but it can be overwhelming at times.

When most people think of what we consider underground art today, the names that come to mind are Andy Warhol, Elias Merhige, maybe for those a little more in the know Masami Akita or Kenneth Anger. A select few are aware of how much farther the artistic underground goes, and Jack Sargent takes on the role of tourguide in this book/magazine though some of the basics, running the gamut from music (Lydia Lunch) to film (Mark Hejnar) to art (Trevor Brown) to photography (Romain Slocombe) and just about everything in between. Profiles and interviews of some of the biggest names in underground art, people who have been working at their chosen professions for years without ever achieving the popular success that should have gone along with the critical acclaim they have continued to pile up over the years. In general, the articles therein start with a quick profile and then go into an in-depth interview with the subject (most of the interviews were conducted by Sargent himself, but a few others were conscripted as well). Most everything here is good, solid stuff, and the words and images presented would most likely succeed in getting the uninitiated intrigued by a subject here to go seeking out more about any particular artist. Two hundred pages, though, is just too much to take all in one bite. If you pick this up—and if you have any interest at all in the stuff going on today that's more exciting than anything in the mainstream, you should—be prepared to take this at a most leisurely pace.