“He even went to the length of offering Swann a card of invitation to the Dental Exhibition”

“This will let you in, and anyone you take with you,” he explained, “but dogs are not admitted. I’m just warning you, you understand, because some friends of mine went there once without knowing, and bitterly regretted it.”

—Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, “Swann’s Way”

Obsession with detail. Making sure the rules are known, understood, and reflected in the outcome. Certainly that can be said of the opus which is quoted from above, and why this Proustian reference is cited. But it is the humor reflected through the societal mannerisms, and the obsessive overtures for even the most inane of activities, that makes this moment anachronistic—both at the time of its conception and now. And I would say, that in fact it is this same weird anachronistic obsession in the fourth issue of zingmagazine that makes for its own common denominator. So as you read from the autographed cover to the reviews, look for the obsessive nature of current times. We’ve just come off the “Trial of the Century,” a crime of celebrity passion known the world over. Now pundits lack the same sophistication—much less humor—to make comparisons to the likes of the Railroad Labor dispute that Clarence Darrow settled, or in another of his centennial landmark cases, the argument for Darwinism being taught in American elementary schools, and this omission remains sobering. Our Darrow cover indicates that when these two cases were being argued, the advocate made a note to his editor at the Young Democracy: ” if you need to slick it up, do it.” Now not really knowing if “the review” in question was indeed “slicked up” provides the magic. The possibility of change, of the obsessive rewriting of one’s history or the editing of one’s own daily toil, is the dream of any contributor to any magazine. Seeing real heroes of yesteryear converse about it is the contributor/curators’ vicarious joyride: people who are artists, writers, lawyers, as they change their minds and edit what they deem publishable. And the squabbles and struggles that one encounters—these little day-to-day often “obsessive” exchanges are what zing strives for, and, oddly enough in this issue, there is plenty of this Darrow “slicking up” but none of it by the editorial staff. It’s all just rolling in through the curators and contributors. Call it trivial coincidence.

Another Proustian moment: “The fault I find with our journalism is that it forces us to take interest in some fresh triviality or other every day, whereas only three or four books in a lifetime give us anything that is of real importance.” Certainly the selectivity of this statement calls for notice, but its verity overshadows the essence that is its makeup—the momentary infinitesimal. Importance/no importance, good/ bad, in/out. This, of course, is what makes a magazine. The idea of in & out, who’s in the know, what’s in the loop, where’s the in context: context—the end of the millennium, and we are nearly out of it. As if zing was the recipient of the invitation for the Dental Exhibition, paying close attention to the fact that dogs aren’t welcome, in order to rebuff any disappointments, bitter or otherwise.

Devon Dikeou
New York City
1997

Terri Friedman is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. She went to grade school with Devon Dikeou and remembers one day in fourth grade when Devon arrived with her ponytails crudely cut off. “She got mad the night before and decided to cut them off.” From that day on, Terri knew Devon was someone to follow.

Brian Antoni’s first novel, Paradise Overdose, was just released in paperback by Grove, and he is one of the collaborators of the best-selling novel, Naked Came the Manatee, published by Putnam. He is currently at work on his second novel, Eye of the Orgy. In his spare time, he tries to find as many uses as he can for a glue gun.

Simon Bill is an artist from London.

Pauline Daly and Sarah Staton are YEAs (Young European Artists) living in the Blue and working out of the Blue (London UK).

Uscha Pohl runs UP & CO, an art gallery and project space, with a vision of fusion and enterprise. Collaborations include a fashion collection based on Jeremy Deller’s “Suburban Genius” T-shirt label and “Supastore de Luxe” showcasing small works, drawings and editions in Sarah Staton’s kunstkammer kiosk. The openning fall show “very” will combine art and fashion and the idea that “press” is “bigger than we are”

Max Henry is a poet. He writes for zingmagazine and Cream & Sugar magazine.

Jenny Marketou is a Greek multimedia artist who lives between New York City and Athens, Greece. Her work revolves around the idea of creating situations in the gallery or museum which serve as a laboratory for human interaction and participation. She was invited to show her work most recently at Witte de With, “MANIFESTA 1,” Rotterdam, The Netherlands; “ART & IDEA,” Mexico City, Mexico; “ART-Focus,” Jerusalem, Israel; “Laboratoire Sculpture Urbaine,” Grenoble, France; “Projected Sites,” Cummings Art Center, Connecticut; the “Techno-Seduction” show, Cooper Union, New York City. In May 1997, she will be lecturing and presenting her work during the “Women and the Art of Multimedia” Conference and Showcase at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Goethe Institute, Washington, D.C. She teaches at Cooper Union School of Art, New York City.

Rachel Harrison is an artist living in Brooklyn. She believes humor is a strategy to negotiate life.

Toby Webster is an artist who lives and works from Glasgow in Scotland. “Insane Stupid Phat Fuct Pervert” is one of a series of projects where he has asked for the participation of other artists, another such project being “The Word of Ponce.” “Insane Stupid Phat Fuct Pervert” started as works by 12 artists on skateboards, most of whom had never set foot on a board. It has taken many guises from very commercial fashion wear skate shops to a gallery to a flat and now a magazine.

Bjarne Melgaard is an artist living in Oslo, Norway.

Christian Schumann is a painter whose work is exhibited internationally and is represented by the Postmasters gallery in New York City. His favorite Donald Duck comics are “King Solomon’s Mines,” “Mystery of the Swamp,” “Lost in the Andes,” and “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon.”

Sina Najafi is an editor at Index Magazine, Stockholm. He is currently co-curating “Auto-Index,” a show of car-specific works to be presented in a car in Kassel, Germany, in June 1997. He lives in New York, although he is currently homeless and looking for housing.