Art Criticism as Annotation
From Kat Davis' Terra Firma exhibition
As someone who often buys books secondhand, I delight in finding the annotations of previous readers. A “been there” scribbled next to a notebook entry by Susan Sontag or a question mark placed next to some inscrutable sentence translated from a French thinker changes my entire relationship with a text. I’m now side-by-side with someone else, studying, joking, commiserating.
I carry the tradition forward with my own books. I’m sorry to whoever will pick them up later to find illegible marginalia and underlining that wobbles and slices through words haphazardly. But I feel compelled to leave a trace of what is important to me and share what associations come to mind as I read. Maybe most annotations are made by readers who intend to return to the text, and so want to know where to look to find a half-remembered idea. I almost never get around to rereading–there are too many other books still to read–and so annotation becomes a form of journaling, a way of getting thoughts onto a page; whenever they’re reread, if ever, is unimportant–except maybe to a different reader who could use a friend, or psychopomp.
I’m new to art criticism. I’ve written various forms of creative nonfiction and prose poetry in the past, and so I rely on these methods when writing art criticism. And while my style has changed marginally, the ethos remains the same–it’s the ethos of annotation. My writing–old and new–is an informal and sporadic commentary, latching onto associations and images conjured up by my experiences and thought patterns.
I never intend to interpret art in a literal way (if you interpret a work into words, what need do you have for the work afterward? I show disdain toward the typical “artist statement” for this reason). I believe art ought to say what can’t be said any other way. But when you approach a new, individualized language, annotations help. They can offer new approaches to understanding.
Like the words I scribble into books, annotations help my own understanding first and foremost. They are not likely to have the academic rigor one might expect with art criticism. Instead, you’ll find among the essays I publish here the associations I have when experiencing art. I present them to cement my relationship with the works and hopefully offer you a new perspective–or at least some companionship. I hope you find value in them, even if you have to cross them out to add your own notes to the margin.
