3L anthology We are very excited to bring you this special and final anthology issue, culminating four years of 3rd Language publications. In it you will find some of our “greatest hits” from past issues, photos of past events and shows, as well as a special double issue, featuring Practice, our final theme driven publication. The release of this publication is in conjunction with our final event and farewell hurrah at Pinky Swear on March 18th 2016. It is sad to see our collective of four years come to an end, but all seven of our remaining members (and all the members past) are still invigorated with the same goals and convictions that brought us together. We are still committed to doing the work to make DIY connections with other queer artists and artists of color in Chicago. We have learned so much together, truly operating outside of hierarchical organizational
structures. Our funding has always come primarily through our own community of supporters. Our work would not have been possible without you. We hope that as we have been inspired and invigorated by those holding it down here in Chicago, and those who have come before us, that those who are starting new projects who are inspired by our vision feel free to reach out to us. It is vital to pass on the knowledge gained through DIY efforts in order to continue DIY longevity in an art world that stifles that growth at every turn. Please never hesitate to reach out to us about any questions relating to this! We hope we have created change, we hope we have helped people and given artists a platform they may not have otherwise had, and we hope that the energy that we felt working together to make positive change radiates out from us into the world. —Emily Schulert & Allie Shyer www.3rdlanguage.com 3rdlanguageinfo@gmail.com Publication layout & design by Molly Berkson.
1 the shape
of uncertainty 2012
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featured artists Magritte Nankin 4-6 Amina Ross 7-9 Joel Mercedes 10-13
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
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2 queer nihilism
& utopias 2013
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featured artists Jory Drew 16-19 NIC Kay 20-21 Justin Allen 22 Amara Leipzig 23
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8
7
9
18
10
19
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Why you wanna fly
Black Bird?
Why you wanna fly Black Bird? When you gonna fly? “You ain't never gonna fly.”
How you gonna fly Black Bird?
"You
ain't got no space for holding all the tears you gonna cry.”
(trigger pulled)
FLY BLACK BIRD! FLY BLACK BIRD! FLY! RISE reborn like a Phoenix in thenight! 28
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Cognates “Say it quick” “Green ghost” “Keep saying it” “Green ghost, green ghost, greenghost, greenghos’” He taught me maldiciones en Epsañol Salvadoreño “If someone annoys you you tell them mamamela” I attempted what I could with Spanish 1 vocab “¿Te gusta Fall Out Boy?” Our mundo was middle school Black and Latino estudiantes White Ts and cordones as hair ties B2K and Daddy Yankee MS13 tags scribbled in Sharpie on mesas I listened to emo música wore Hot Topic band Ts watched The Real World He watched The World Cup styled his Mohawk with gel liked a white girl with big chices When the Black kids isolated me as a “faggit” he embraced me with his lenguaje
He didn’t notice my afeminación “Is this piercing gay?” He squeezed his ceja
with an American accent “It’s not Gerardo it’s Gerardo,” he’d correct
I noticed his thick acento his proficiency in matemáticas his disdain for the país he’d arrived to three años prior his disdain for the lengua despite his mastery of it for white personas despite his crush
I made an effort at my own accent the trilled R stuck under my Anglophone tongue
When my madre refused to shop Office Depot in the absence of a school supply lista en Inglés I was unsure of whether her refusal to attempt to understand the list en Epsañol was racismo unsure if when I heard the rumor circling my little Northern Virginia county that illegal imigrantes were being “sent back” I feared Gerardo’s salida or enjoyed the feeling of regained privilegio I’d thought I lost caught up in the vocabulario I’d yet to understand
“Ey chico”
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“Gerardo” someone would say
“Gerardo” I’d attempt “Gerardo” I’d try again When I’d fail he’d embraced me with his language “Jutino” “Gerardo” “¿Que onda?” Soon we’d for high school
separate
He to a new school in which the county zoned all the Latino students rumor had it I a predominately white school for their arts program Soon I’d complete AP Spanish 5 my tongue still heavy but my eyes open enough to see all the greenghos’ gringhos’ gringos I once didn’t believe in I remember Gerardo Hernandez.
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3 queer lineage &
archive
2013
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featured artists H. Melt 26-34 Clara Atri 32-35
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H. MELT My artistic practice is not separate from my every day life. I use the people, places, and experiences from my daily life as source material for my poetry and art. I document Chicago’s queer and trans communities because not enough people are doing it. Because people need to know we exist, we make art, and we are real. I view my work as queer. I define queer as a verb—an active challenging of the individual and institutional powers that define who and what is normal. The goal of my work is to empower everyone who differs from the norm to share their experiences–regardless of whether or not they recognize themselves as queer. It is through my art and writing that I understand and question myself. It is through my art and writing that I understand and question others. I want others to understand queer experiences and use the power of queerness to resist. To make the world a safer space for all. H. Melt is a poet and artist who was born in Chicago. Their work proudly documents Chicago’s queer and trans communities. They are the author of SIRvival in the Second City: Transqueer Chicago Poems, described by Original Plumbing Magazine as “a queer call to arms asking us to take up a pen (rather than a sword) to document the richness of our complex queer lives.” In addition, they’ve participated in Chicago’s queer arts scene by publishing and performing in places such as: Chicago IRL, In Our Words, Lexica at Salonathon, Making Out with Wes Perry & Friends, Nuts & Bolts, and Subject to Change. They are currently an emerging teaching artist with Young Chicago Authors, an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and hard at work on their next book: Straight Jacket.
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Briefly explain your work: I am a poet and text artist. I write poems and essays capturing the stories of my own life and my communities, rooted in the Chicago tradition of realist, confrontational portraiture. In addition to my writing, I make text art—applying short phrases or words like “no hetero,” “trans pussy,” and “damn straight” to found objects such as condoms, clothing, posters, maps, flags, and every day items. I also collect and photograph text that I find interesting—on a button or a license plate. Both my poetry and art are rooted in queerness. How have other queer art/artists shaped or contributed to your work? Audre Lorde. Edie Fake. Mark Aguhar. James Baldwin. Dean Spade. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. Rebecca Kling. Julia Serano. Keith Haring. Catherine Opie. Amos Mac. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. John Waters. Kiam Marcelo Junio. These are a few of the queer and trans artists, writers, and activists who have influenced my work. Right now, I am very inspired by Topside Press. They are focused on trans fiction. Even though I’m not a fiction fan, it’s very exciting to see the work they’re doing—books they’re promoting, interviews they give, awards and recognition they receive. One of the most important queer artifacts in my life is Chicago IRL, which was a print publication that featured writing, art, interviews and more focused on Chicago’s creative queer communities. Being accepted into that publication changed my life. Meeting Joe Varisco changed my life. I found community through Chicago IRL and am so thankful for its existence.
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Joe Varisco is a documentarian and producer focused on utilizing creative collaborations as a means of building community relationships and deconstructing boundaries.
JOE TELLS ME The results came in I am positive in a text message with a smiley face Received Friday December 14 1:40 pm
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Jesus Plaza aka [X]P is a queer Mexican DJ, choreographer, performer and hair stylist currently living in Chicago.
ODE TO JESUS You were the first to dye my hair
A triangle upside down
A saint painting brown blank canvas
I walked away scared I’d be bashed from behind
You called it virgin bleach didn’t sting
No one even said a word.
Mixed bright pink to brush on the back of my head
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Janie Stamm is a sequin dress wearing printmaker who was born on Miami Beach.
ELECTION NIGHT 2012 nuts and bolts @ township Tonight american queer party is on the ballot
We dance the devil out We strut sequin shine
In my second election I’m voting with my hellos
after election results balloons drop & pop
Hi Janie Hey Joe
We celebrate like We won something
Mar is white sox fan Mar is south side irish
buy another cheap drink
on the north west side logan squeer is alive
We stay til 2 am We stay til close
waving pink nails plastic stars & stripes
because there’s no where else to go.
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Is creating an archive a collective effort? How does the idea of the collective or group work influence your practice? I am part of a collective movement of queer artists in Chicago creating and performing with and for each other. I want us to gain more exposure, to be recognized for our creativity and hard work. To expand our reach while staying connected to community. I want people to stop moving to New York. I want us to be recognized as an artistic movement that is specific to Chicago, and also connected to the work queer artists and activists are doing across the country and across the world. What is the role of documentation in your work? I proudly document Chicago’s queer and trans artistic communities and my place within them. I write about the people who I love, my friends, mentors, fellow artists and organizers. I document our queering of the city’s architecture—the places that welcome us for one night a month and those that close the door in our faces. Sometimes those are the same places. I am documenting what’s happening right now in the lives of queer and trans people in Chicago. I am writing the history as we live it because I’m afraid of being erased. Of never getting the acknowledgement we deserve.
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Adelante Print and pastel on fiber paper Mexico City, 2013
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CLARA ATRI
Soy esto. Bueno, a veces… cuando se puede… cuando me lo permito. Nos fragmentamos. Tú, yo… Todos nos fragmentamos. “A Veces…” es una serie de retratos de diferentes mujeres lesbianas que explora la fragmentación a la que son sometidas las personas que pertenecen a una minoría aislada, discriminada. Uno se fragmenta al quedarse callado, al querer ser algo que no es, al aceptar algo que no quiere, al saberse diferente y no asumirse con dignidad. La serie también invita a la reflexión sobre la posible reintegración a través del dolor compartido con otros seres humanos, como resultado de la discriminación, sin importar la minoría a la que se pertenezca.
Clara Atri was born, raised and enjoys living in Mexico City. She has had the opportunity to participate in different photography, drawing and writing workshops in Mexico and the US. Her main focus is to stay still in order to see and share with others that which she comes upon through the process of contemplation and self exploration.
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Briefly explain your work: My work consists of combining different visual techniques, mainly related to photography and drawing, in order to share that which I slowly come upon… images revealed by paying attention and trying to see not merely with my eyes. How does your work contribute to a queer lineage/archive? It is nice to be able to see one´s own visions in a tangible form and, hopefully, passed down from hand to hand. My work contributes to a queer lineage/archive mainly because it is now out there and no longer solely in my head. It is not mine anymore… and for this I am deeply thankful.
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How does your specific community influence your work? I live in a somewhat close, traditional community both religiously and culturally speaking. Therefore, a feeling of segregation has been my loyal companion throughout my life. This has taken me to explore both the world I live in and myself as a means to better understanding. The thorough, compromised and daily exploration has in turn made me hesitant about certain practices because of what I´ve discovered to be genuinely important. This is what I offer in my work‌ an invitation to look within, to be an outsider of the conventional but an inhabitant of the world, of the universe‌ to dare be part of humanity as a whole.
Yes, Other. Print and pastel on fiber paper Mexico City, 2013
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AquĂ Mismo Print and pastel on fiber paper Mexico City, 2013
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Por AllaĂ Print and pastel on fiber paper Mexico City, 2013
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4 queer lineage &
archive II 2013
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featured artists Cristian Gorostieta 40-41 Midori Bowen 42-43 Chance Ramirez 44 Documentation 45
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14
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MIDORI BOWEN
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Chance Nicole My middle name is so boring. My mother chose it. My brother refuses to call me by my first name, because my father chose it. A name he couldn’t even pronounce. Shance. My mother doesn’t know why, even though I ask her every few years. The ones who made me had no idea what they were doing.
CHANCE RAMIREZ
Someone once told me I was a mistake. As in, I wasn’t supposed to have been conceived. As in, my mother wanted another child, but my father didn’t.
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Chance has ants in her pants when she dances in France. Chance of Rain Chance of Recovery Chance of Knippa, Texas. Chance of Miscommunication. Fate, fortune, a gamble. I always use the word “opportunity” when I write, instead of putting myself into my work. I’m still so hesitant, so uncertain about my own existence. As if believing strongly in something was against my nature. As if believing strongly in myself would undermine the essence of my being. As if anybody’s name held that much power.
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5 never satisfied 2014
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featured artists Hannah Cook 48-49 theory f. practice 50 Alejandra Alvarez & Hiba Ali 51
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HANNAH COOK
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HANNAH COOK
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Concepts from Desire, A dialogue between Hiba Ali & Alejandra Álvarez What is desire and how does one articulate their relationship to it? For, desire is a subjective emotion that professes itself through ones’ action. It is articulated through ones’ experiences, in that way, it is unable to be fully defined as it is constantly in flux. There is no real answer to the question of desire; it is an inquiry that keeps being asked.
look back and desire always wants it to be returned but it is not necessarily so ---- and I catch her looking at me, right when I do it and when I look at her and she looks at me, I look away and she looks away – keep staring at her but there’s this exchange that happens that I think she wants to tell me something but then I think it’s a lot about the gaze, that return back.
Alejandra: His gaze was like intense like you could tell he wanted to posses me but of like passion I couldn’t like.. It would like scare me like oh my god, he’s looking at me with such intensity. Hiba: Yeah!.. Alejandra and I didn’t come up with Alejandra: I would like look away, any answers. But we chanced upon y’know… questions of complexity and prompts Hiba: Yeah!.. for further interrogations. Alejandra: Yeah… Hiba: …and that looking away too I recorded and engaged in a is really important too, because your conversation with an interlocutor, like, you grant it for like maybe five Alejandra, about the mechanisms ten maybe longer seconds or minutes that one employs to express desire. and then you look away cause your One derives their relation to others like its such a hard thing to keep going by considering the concept of desire. The element of sound is one of integral on right ‘cause then you get tense like, staring, staring whose gonna move? importance as the goal of [subjective] And then like you falter your like I can’t desire is, initially, to express it; the articulation of desire through language keep looking at you so I am going to exit visually and look away. But is an act that occurs after one has then your body is still there and their expressed it psychologically. The still staring at you. And that’s what I emanation of the voice happens after one decides that they want to articulate find the most exciting and the most fascination and scary in that aspect but their yearning for the attention of the idea of possession is way important another. because we look at something, someone you want to possess them you Before acting upon it, the initial expression of desire is through the gaze. want to them like look back at you and have you…” Gaze is “integral to systems of power and ideas about knowledge.” 1 Desire can be infiltrated by patriarchy and imperial modus operandi – these /1Desire-Gaze.mp3 modes articulate practices of control “Hiba: Desire to me is inherently like – amongst others, the domination and unrequited like something that will oppression of an individual – this logic not be granted necessarily and that’s informs the notion of possession and one thing has really informed of--how one sees another. my implication in relationships and gender roles, how I can gain that, I /3Desire-Possess.mp3 think, when I look at people, I look “Alejandra: I always told him like for the gaze back, that’s when I think from the beginning I’m like I see you something is happening.” as my partner like I don’t, if I cant like Staring at another is confined to ones’ reciprocate or return – I’m like I don’t wanna own you. Your not for me to inhabitation of space. One enters this like have and I would always be like… [proposed] exchange when the gaze Hiba: So possession is having is returned; there is eminent tension something? and anxiety involved. The impetus Alejandra: Yeah. of the gaze is for the desire to be reciprocated. In this interchange, one’s Hiba: …and having under your own emotions can be communicated by the control? Or your own domain? Alejandra: Yeah. I never want to be way and how long one looks. that kind of partner Hiba: But isn’t that a way of like.. /2Desire-Gaze-Possession.mp3 cause look it, if were going with the “Hiba: So desire can be inherently idea that desire is like unrequited unrequited right. When you look at then having that person in your someone and they don’t look back at possession…won’t that be a way of you and your like you want them to
controlling desire and making sure that its’ returned to you? Cause then its’ no longer desire, its control, right? A controlled— Alejandra: Possession? Hiba: Yeah. Your desire to see them online, in kind of frozen, or you know frozen in that picture and then you see them in person and their like moving and that’s when desire just like comes at you full force cause your like oough, your right there! You know, right across, try to talk to you so then you use your words as a way to bring them in and take desire, use the mechanism of desire to get them to come to you, rightAlejandra: Mhhm Hiba:..there’s a weird magnetic force. Alejandra: It just happened, he just like pulled me in and kissed me, it was really like passionate, no I can’t do this, we can’t do this like..” When one employs desire they utilize it to attract its subject. In this mode, one utilizes their voice as a mechanism of control and a tool of allure.2 /4-chionQuote.mp3 “Hiba: If the subject of desire and the other are entwined in a dialectic movement then the voice is their non dialectic moment. The voice ties language to the body but the nature of this tie is paradoxical. The voice does not belong to either, it is not part of linguistics, it is not the part of the body either. Not only does it detach itself from the body and leave it behind, it does not the affect the body either, it cannot be situated in it.” Desire, for us, was defined through its expression- the exchange of the gaze, its compounded implication to the notion of possession and physically acting upon it by employing the voice. The voice, through the articulation of language, in the form of dialogue and its use in attempting to be noticed by the subject of desire, is not of the body. It is an expression that is dislocated, lodged in the liminal space, the anticipation of the gaze to be reciprocated. _________________________________ Sturken, Marita; Cartwright, Lisa. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press,Inc., 2009. p. 94, 103.
1
Dolar, Mladen. “The Linguistics of the Voice.” A Voice and Nothing More. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2006. N. pag. Print.
2
HIBA ALI & ALE-ALE
6 family dinner 2015
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featured artists Camille Laut 54-55 Emily Schulert 56-57
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camille laut My work appeals to the physical and emotional distance created by the decaying urban and mainstream web spaces. These ideas are strongly tied to a commentary on the privileges and exclusions produced by the normative social and gender structures of our capitalistic society. I believe now is the time to pursue a political time-based media practice. The U.S. urban landscape and its industrial horizon have been the subject of many artistic works. However I desire to explore the politics of interpretation and translation of the new urban layout: how it allowed greater misunderstandings, and wider gaps between people while letting the massive institutions of consumerism, to spy and assure the patterns of incarceration. In experimental forms, by investi-
gating editing as time-based collages and with GIFs and 3D animated models; or writing scenarios, and directing non-professional actors, I want to pursue an expansive cinematic experience. I previously approached stranger encounters through canvassing, gratifying the dissatisfaction of will, want and desire; while the lining up of Google images, intended to remind the vastness and limits of its own potential. Most recently, the enclosure forced upon youth of color, victims of patterns of re-incarceration created by the American prison system, and dictated by the overall strings of supremacist mode(s) of consumption has been the core of my work. Camille Laut is a French visual artist and aspiring filmmaker graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Excerpts from Il Faudra Combler La Distance . Il Faudra Combler La Distance is an 11 minute video piece combining 3D, 2.5D animation and real footage. The work explores distance in the Chicagoan landscape, a physical distance establishing an emotional one.
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Dancing girl
emily schulert My current work explores the aesthetics, content and identity building of American teen and tween girl culture. This work celebrates youth -ful sexuality as a powerful thing existing outside of capitalism, in a fantasy utopia. This location rejects consumerism’s habit of exploiting teen girl emotions like obsession, sexuality or desire in order to turn profits. I use plastic beads, acrylic yarn, sequins, sculpy, paper maché, gel-pens, glitter and girls magazines. These “amateur” or “young girl” materials are reclaimed in a fine art context that would typically reject their connotations, escaping the consumer market of their intended use. My work evokes a feminine, humorous perspective. This perspective utilizes cuteness and girliness to protest conceptions of young femininity and sexuality, as shown in my nude
dancing figure animations. These girls seem to revel in being watched, comfortable and playful in their nudity. Recently I have been creating sculptural props that would be present in the bedroom space of a young girl who uses consumer objects and popular American culture to practice identity forming. With a beaded curtain, I play with the self-consciousness of being watched that is present in the lives of young females. I construct spaces that deflect and attract gaze, revel in the self, and elevate gendered and lowcraft materials. Emily is a New Englander currently based in Chicago with a BFA with emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies from S.A.I.C. She is an interdisciplinary artist also interested in self-publishing, community organizing, and writing.
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Tuo Peek is a beaded sculpture of a curtain. The curtain places the viewer within a bedroom, as the words of “Keep Out” are flipped, locating the viewer inside the room looking out through the curtain. The curtain is made of pink plastic beads and resembles young girl’s bedroom bead-curtains. The character of the young girl associated with this object is important, as it represents someone who is just starting to play with identity formation and construction. She uses the bedroom because it is a private space she can claim ownership of. It is a stage for setting up this play and practice of identity. The curtain is also a bit futile. The beads don’t actually succeed as a barrier, and the space beyond it is only partially obscured.
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thank you!   3rd Language would like to extend a heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all who have supported us over these past few years. Thank you so much for all forms of support we have received. Thank you to all who have participated with us in the past in some capacity, whether that be past collective members, transportation in a pinch or lending your collective skills or labor in whatever form.