The latest issue of Esopus launches at BRIC Rotunda Gallery on Thursday, May 2nd, from 7 to 9pm, and hits newsstands the following week. Sporting a new format (including a custom-designed slipcase), and printed with specially formulated inks on 11 different paper stocks, Esopus 19 features artists’ projects by Sharon Core (with removable insert), Joyce Pensato (with removable poster), and John Sparagana (with removable poster); 100 still frames from the opening sequence of David Lynch’s iconic 1986 film Blue Velvet (introduced by acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson); fascinating materials—including 8 facsimile inserts—from MoMA’s archives related to late artist Scott Burton’s early performance pieces; 23 never-before-published photographs from 1949 by Magnum photographer Burt Glinn; insightful commentary on artworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art by two of its guards; an excerpt from an extraordinary journal by artist Matt Freedman related to his harrowing experience undergoing cancer treatment; an exquisite found object recovered from a Paris dumpster by artist David Scher; and gripping new fiction by first-time author Chelli Riddiough.
The issue’s themed CD is an audio compilation of brand-new songs inspired by the customer-service travails of Jens Lekman, Dirty Beaches, Richard Swift, Cakes Da Killa, Basia Bulat, Literature, and six other musical acts.
The issue's new format is only the latest in an exciting series of changes the Esopus Foundation has undertaken as it enters its 10th year of operation. Last summer, it closed Esopus Space, the performance and exhibition venue in Greenwich Village, in order to be able to focus more fully on producing the magazine. In September, the Foundation relocated its offices to Brooklyn. Because that trip across the river happened to coincide with what would have been the production period for a new issue, the Foundation asked the contemporary artist Robert Gober to create a limited edition in place of the issue. The result, the remarkable Hope Hill Road, was sent as a gift to Esopus subscribers in October. The rest of the fall and winter was spent rebuilding the Esopus website from scratch; the redesigned esopusmag.com launched this January.
Esopus 19 costs $20; domestic subscriptions to Esopus are $24 for one year (2 issues) and $45 for two years (4 issues). For more information, call 212-473-0919 or send an inquiry to info@esopusmag.com.
The Esopus 19 launch party is free and open to the public; directions to BRIC Rotunda Gallery can be found here.