03/14/2026

Other Words-curated by Yi Chin Hsieh

Shot outside of Mindy Solomon Gallery (with Monica McGivern and Dustin Blitchock)

Writing on the wall — maybe so maybe not

by Carol Jazzar

- Hey!!!!! long time no see!!
- oh --- hey -- yeah - I don’t go out much these days
- HOW come?
- art’s shit now I’m not interested I’ve got better things to do with my life
- what do you mean art’s shit?
- aren’t you in the gallery? aren’t you seeing this show?
- well	I don’t like every piece but I love the video - it’s so poetic!
- Aargh - Poetic!! it’s the worst fucking piece!!!
- did you really watch it?
- Yeah I did! and what a waste of time!! I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the room but I was - with my friend – there - he knows the artist -THE artist??	we watched it
- together -- and OMG!!! what a piece of crap!
- A piece of crap!? for me it’s the best piece in the show!
- you call that art?
- Hell Yeah!	I give you that it’s little amateurish - it’s not a big production but that’s
- what I like about it - these are just raw moments of everyday life - little snapshots we wish we - could record in the course of our days –-- if we were not so busy -- if we were not so much in our head if we were more attuned to the beauty and magic around us - cause in retrospect i wish i could have recorded lots of little moments like those –- moments i would have loved to keep and watch again - moments that made my life richer
- HAaaa!!
- What?
- It’s one thing to do it yourself with your phone to remember special moments in your life but I don’t need to see this crap in a gallery --- especially a posh gallery like this one
Hiss! You’re harsh! -- what did you dislike so much about that video?
- -----for real?? ---- supermarket carwash and cat shots! -- yo! --- ain’t tiktok
- BAH!	you didn’t get it
- OHOH I’d love to hear your explanation
- when I first watched it it made me think about this book I read in college Journey to the End of the Night - for the title – ‘cause one has nothing to do with the other – Celine’s book is set during WWI and is about the human condition - but the video is like a trip ---a night trip with gleams of daylight here and there it’s got movement --- it’s like an inner trip with moments of consciousness injected into the inner experience -- or –it’s a metaphor for the subconscious for the inner working --- I don’t know something like that – fast sequences one after another like in a dream --- that’s what am feeling - jeer! ---- let me crack up --- you’re far out dude
- Ugh --- dudette!
- Come on!!!! --- an inner trip! 20 little snaps badly edited and you see an inner trip!!!
- There’re actually 31-
- I DON’T CARE HOW MANY!!! -------They’re bad! It’s fucking BAD!!!!! --- and you
counted them on top of it!!!! -----how many times did you watch that shit?   OMG
what’s wrong with people?!
- Baaahh --- you’re just blasé ---- that video is AWESOME!   and yes SIR it IS an inner
trip a voyage till the end of the night a trip into the unconscious with all its weirdness and uncanny moments  the water the stingrays the spinning wheel – the wheel of
fortune the cosmos the dark the colorful parts
- HAAA!!!   post-Its on the wall? and supermarket displays with cheesy music!!??
sequences are well juxtaposed with one another   oscillating between representation
and abstraction just like in a dream---
- A fucking nightmare!
--a dream or a jazz composition with the right tension between structure and flow ---structure and flow structure and flow structure and flow make the world the perfect dough ahahahah
- OMG how the hell did I get sucked in this conversation!!!!!
- and the sound added to the purpose cause
- let me get out of here!!!!!
- NO DUDE let me finish!!! GONNA follow you outside!
- now WHAT? this master piece will be nominated at the Oscars?
- It Might hihihihi	but more likely be snapped up by a big collection the Rubells and
PAMM’s chief curator were here earlier
- OMG – they gonna buy that crap with tax payer money???!!! what’s wrong with people that’s what I’m saying this biz is fucked!
- HAAA you’re a downer!
- am a downer? you’re delusional gurl!!
- Come one --- you’re too linear! too ----- two dimensional ------ like Don Quixote! --- but
on the negative side!
- HaHaHa I wish I was like Don Quixote! not a worry in the world minding my own business while admiring beauty around but the world is shit --- the ART world’s shit!!
- pfuff
- artists are out of ideas ---- or soul actually! this biz’s soulless -- I used to love art I
remember going to museums with my peeps and looking at paintings or sculptures that moved me so deeply I wanted to be an artist -- now it’s bullshit! like that piece of crap video!
- That video is AWESOME!!! --- now you sound a bit like a stingray in a tank with no
outlet to release your frustration and anger -- I’M the gurl swimming freely
- HAHA YEAH! --- in the pool! – where’s the freedom!?
- Bah! ------------ no but seriously -- you didn’t get it	that’s all art is subjective anyway we don’t dig the same stuff and
- that’s n’t art that’s entertainment
- it’s a visual journal
- exactly I don’t need to see this shit in a gallery I want to be engaged that’s the difference between art and entertainment.
- this video engaged me I saw myself in it - moments of my life experiences I have or could have had --I can totally relate
- relating is passive to be engaged is active it demands…  
- TO relate you have to put yourselves in someone else shoe so it requires an active participation on your part 
- what I mean by being engaged is that I either want to be engaged visually emotionally or intellectually I want to be in awe or feel or think --see the cleverness of the mind in a piece --- nowadays everything is a one-liner
- I get it ---- I want to feel or think too 
- “Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective of nature with reason of the unconscious with the conscious and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.” 
- WOW WELL EXPRESSED !!! 
- Slow down it’s Tolstoy 
- so I was kinda on point with my trip into the unconscious 
- except that the piece is shitty 
- for YOU
- for many! --- I’m sure 
- ----- let’s go around the room and ask 
- ahah
- look! --- let’s ask these people -- over there – come -- gonna be fun hihihi 
- kk ------------------------- Oh my friend’s leaving - gotta go
- ah too bad -- was nice to see you though ----- see you around - maybe?
- hit me up ----------
- ---- what? ---- okay will do -- we’ll talk out our differences
- ahaha ……. Ciao bella 

This text is part of a collection of eleven other texts written by writers/artists in response to a video that curator Y Chin sent them for her exhibition *In Other Words*.

About the show

In Other Words is an exhibition that examines the fluid, subjective nature of interpretation through the lens of art writing. In this project, a group of writers, critics, poets, and artists—each of whom considers text their primary medium—are invited to respond to a video artwork presented with little to no contextual information. Stripped of explanatory frameworks and authorship, the artwork becomes an open field of perception, inviting interpretation rooted in each participant’s own sensibility, discipline, and way of seeing.

The resulting texts span a wide range of literary and critical forms, from poetic fragments and speculative fiction to theoretical musings and art criticism. These responses do not aim to explain or define the artwork; rather, they illuminate the many ways meaning is made, remade, and unraveled through language. The exhibition foregrounds writing as both a creative and interpretive act—one inherently shaped by cultural background, aesthetic vocabulary, and personal narrative.

By presenting these texts in place of the artwork itself, In Other Words invites viewers to consider how language can serve not only as a mirror, but as a filter, a vessel, or even a veil. What emerges is a polyphonic experience: one that resists singular readings and embraces multiplicity, ambiguity, and the generative space between seeing and saying.

Participating artists/writers: Cristobal Alday, Catherine Camargo, Kayla Delacerda, Tayina Deravile, Oscar Fuentes/The Biscayne Poet, Isabella Marie Garcia, Tam Gryn, Carol Jazzar, Douglas Markowitz, Alexandra Martinez, and Carmen Ferreira De Terenzio. The exhibtion is curated by Yi Chin Hsieh

 

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