All in Review

Made by Hand / Born Digital

Either/or oppositions are everywhere, and they have the virtue of compressing complexities into easy to remember pairs. Cats versus dogs; socialism versus capitalism; secular versus religious; coffee versus tea; pen versus pencil; or friend versus enemy. Their virtue is being a cognitive shortcut to keep attention focused. No better way to lose an audience than meandering through a thicket of facts. This virtue is also a vice, however, as it drains away color and subtleties, leaving us to deal with unreal stark binaries. Their simplifications can obscure entirely what is out there IRL, in real life, turn into accidental misrepresentations, or even lies with everything from minor miscommunications to horrific injustices following suit.

Imperfect Pearls

Roughly at the same time over the 2024–25 season, two exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) — Accretion: Works by Latin American Women and Friends and Lovers explore the nuanced and potent ways that the self is an aggregate of relationships, histories, affects and experiences.