A Party for The Thing

The Thing Quarterly
What: Wrapping party
Where: Chronicle Books, 680 Second St
When: Friday February 15, 2008
4:00-7:00pm

There will be pizza and beer while it lasts, and you can listen to music on an old portable record player - so bring some vinyl of your own to share.




"Described as an object-based quarterly publication by its creators, THE THING seems to have caught on. The affordable art by subscription, now in its third installment with a work by the German-born artist Koto Ezawa, is the brainchild of Bay Area artists Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan.

The two came up with the idea while they were grad students at UC Berkeley. Interested in the way text can transform an everyday object into something special, they wanted to find a way to explore this idea on a large yet intimate scale at a reasonable cost.

The first installment consisted of plain window shades screenprinted with sayings by performance artist/filmmaker Miranda July. One reads, "If this shade is down I am not who you think I am." THE THINGs roster of artists also includes Trisha Donnelly, Jennifer Allora, Guillermo Calzadilla and Anne Walsh.

Rogan and Herschend envisioned the project as a publication rather than as editioned art. They emphasize the pleasure and mystery of the mail ritual and the dispersed collectivity of their audience rather than the imagined scarcity and exclusivity of the produced objects. Annual subscriptions are $120 per year plus $40 shipping by U.S. Mail."