All in Review

There are a couple of reasons to read biographies. They share revelations gleaned from patient research in archives or unearth letters the bear out the subject’s thinking. Alternatively, a biographer might track down people who had not been previously interviewed – the childhood friend or the boyfriend or girlfriend from college. These can be scandalous and cutting or sad, revealing hidden traumas. Then, there are biographies built around dazzling reinterpretations of the novels, letters, or films by the subject. A gifted close reader can discover formerly hidden patterns and new intersections between life and art.

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.