CRUSH JAC 2025 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS www.journalofartcriticism.com
For our 10th issue, the Journal of Art Criticism (JAC) seeks essays of contemporary art criticism and original artworks on the theme of CRUSH. Some questions that might guide this exploration include—but are certainly not limited to—the following:
CRUSHING
+ What kind of labor involves the act of crushing? What art practices rely upon this kind of labor? What are the stakes of contemporary art that rely on the labor of unnamed contributors, the viewer, or individuals other than the artist?
+ In what ways can the act of crushing or collapsing – of media, ideas, space, or time – be generative? Does this reflect recklessness or freedom?
BEING CRUSHED
+ Environmental concerns, censorship, and social demands are but a few of the impactful, and at times detrimental, influences in contemporary art production. What crushing influences are beyond the control of the artist? How do artists confront the forces weighing on them?
+ When the hydraulic press comes down, what explodes out? Brittle objects create little pieces and minutiae, soft and flexible objects are squeezed and deformed. In what ways have contemporary artists dealt with what is left over after being crushed?
CRUSHING BETWEEN THINGS
+ How do artists resist being crushed, or crush back?
+ Crushing implies at least two oppositional forces. Crushing also implies both abstract notions and physical realities. How can we reconcile these binaries or conflicting meanings?
CROWD CRUSHES
+ Crowd crushes can be deadly. How does contemporary art navigate the crowd, the public, the audience, and the space? Can this navigation be dangerous, or ensure safety?
+ Crowds are sweaty and loud: what kinds of intimacy, community, and noise do crowds produce?
CRUSHING ON
+ What does it feel like to have a crush? How are these emotions expressed in contemporary art? How do contemporary artists toe the line between subtle and explicit in presenting their intimate relationships to the viewer?
+ What kinds of crushes are there? If there is tenderness and naivety, can this coexist with violence and obscenity? When feelings are unrequited, how do imagination and voyeurism come into play? How does contemporary art reconcile all of this?
FINALLY…
+ What artists are totally crushing it right now?
We welcome written submissions discussing any work of contemporary art so long as it engages critically with the theme of CRUSH. Essays should be 1,000-3,000 words and previously unpublished.
We also welcome submissions of original visual art in any medium (up to 10 per artist) that engage with CRUSH formally or thematically. Artist statements of up to 500 words are accepted, but not required.
Undergraduate students from any institution are encouraged to submit. Please note that JAC is a strictly undergraduate journal and we are regrettably unable to consider submissions from post-graduates. For all submissions, please clarify your school and year.
Submissions are due by Sunday, January 26th, 2025. Please visit https://journalofartcriticism.cargo.site/Submit for full submission guidelines.
Some historical definitions for CRUSH from the Oxford English Dictionary:
NOUN
1. c.1130. † The noise of violent percussion; clashing; a crash.
2a. 1599–present. The act of crushing; violent compression or pressure that bruises, breaks down, injures, or destroys; also figurative.
2c. 1849-present. Coal Mining.
3. 1601–1702. † A bruise or injury caused by crushing.
4a. 1806–present. The crowding together of a number of things, or esp. persons, so that they press forcibly upon each other; the mass so crowded together.
5a. 1825–present. Cartilage, gristle.
VERB
1. 1398–1540. † To dash together with the sound of violent percussion, to clash, crash; to make the harsh grating noise of things forcibly smashed or pounded to fragments.
2a. 1400–present. Transitive. To compress with violence, so as to break, bruise, destroy, squeeze out of natural shape or condition: said of the effect of pressure whether acting with momentum or otherwise.
2c. 1893–present. To crumple or put out of shape (cloth, a dress, etc.) by pressure or rough handling.
2e. 1755–present. Intransitive (for reflexive). To become violently compressed, squeezed out of shape, or otherwise injured, by outside pressure.