An internationally minded experimental journal of art and writing based in Chicago. Produced by Casey Carsel and Unyimeabasi Udoh.
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From the exploratory poem “Sleeping while awake” by Joan Roach. Joan is an arts writer and curator who focuses on sculptural, textual, and performance-based work concerned with how social space is conceptualised, created, and restricted. Read Joan’s poem in its entirety in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings…” by Evan Fusco. Evan Fusco is a producer of texts and runs their own small press: General Antagonism. “I walk with her” features in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Undemonised: Representation and Intersectionality in ‘Sleeping Aswang’” by curator Fabiola Tosi. The article transcribes a conversation between Fabiola and artist Gericault De La Rose about De La Rose’s performance, “Sleeping Aswang” (2021), which took place at Chicago Artists Coalition as part of the group exhibition “Survey 2” (2021). Read the full conversation in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Make a pillow of one’s spear waiting for daybreak” by Biyun Feng. Biyun co-founded exstudio.co, an alternative architectural research collaborative, with her friend Zhaoxu Tong. In this text, seeking to understand sleeplessness as a manifestation of existential challenges, Biyun depicts the intangible relationships between object, body, and space that manifest in the form of a pillow. Read the full, illustrated text in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From the ekphrastic text “Spiritco” by Martha Ormiston, in which the narrator seeks meaning from a dream and friendship from an elderly spiritualist. Martha works as a graphic designer in New York City, and has won two AIGA book design awards. Read her full text in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Nightwatch as Moon” by Jen Torwudzo-Stroh. “In 2011, on the last night of spring break, my friends and I got high and spent the night on the beach. It’s a fond memory that represents a crucial point in my life: the transition from childhood to adulthood. In ‘Nightwatch,’ I revisit this memory from the perspective of the Moon,” Jen shares about the inspiration behind her contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. Read the full text by buying your copy today: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “shema (after k)” by Jason Lipeles. “‘shema (after k)’ reflects my interest in communing with death and prayer in the days after my friend’s funeral,” Jason wrote about his contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. “I wanted to know what a loving dream would be with him on the page.” Buy a copy of Plates Issue 05 to read the full text: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Sleeping while awake” by Joan Roach. The exploratory poem’s premise works in dialogue with Fernando Pessoa’s writings in “The Book of Disquiet” (1982), which was published posthumously. The poem’s protagonist is both entrapped in and comforted by the cycles of late capitalism. Read the whole poem in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—buy here: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Undemonised: Representation and Intersectionality in ‘Sleeping Aswang’” by Fabiola Tosi. The article revisits a conversation between Fabiola and artist Gericault De La Rose from March 2021. Read the whole conversation in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
Image: Gericault De La Rose, “Sleeping Aswang” (2021). Prop wings, rhinestone gloves, bedazzled breast cups, prosthetic face mask, synthetic wig, and pillows. 3 x 3 x 4 feet. Exhibition view: “Survey 2,” Chicago Artists Coalition (19 March–28 April 2021). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Coda Kalma.
From “Nightwatch as Moon” by Jen Torwudzo-Stroh. Jen is an arts and culture professional, critic, historian, essayist, and editor living and working in Chicago. Read her contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night in full by buying your copy today: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings…” by Evan Fusco. “Lyrical and semi-autobiographical, this piece asks what comes in the in-between of a capitalistic understanding of rest and profit, from the perspective of a kind of pain,” Evan says of their contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. The full text is available online but so beautiful in print—buy today: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “shema (after k)” by Jason Lipeles. In 2020, Jason co-founded “the ee!,” a space for loving responses to zines and artbooks, with Marcella Green. Read Jason’s full text in Plates Issue 05: Good Night by buying a copy here: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From the ekphrastic text “Spiritco” by Martha Ormiston, in which the narrator seeks meaning from a dream and friendship from an elderly spiritualist. Martha works as a graphic designer in New York City, and has won two AIGA book design awards. Read her full text in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Make a pillow of one’s spear waiting for daybreak” by Biyun Feng. Seeking to understand sleeplessness as a manifestation of existential challenges, this text depicts the intangible relationships between object, body, and space that manifest in the form of a pillow. Read on in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Sleeping while awake” by Joan Roach. The exploratory poem was written in response to the dissociation Joan experienced while living alone after living with a partner for nearly two years during the pandemic. Read the full poem in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—available for purchase online https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Undemonised: Representation and Intersectionality in ‘Sleeping Aswang’” by Fabiola Tosi. The article revisits a discussion between Fabiola and artist Gericault De La Rose about De La Rose’s performance, “Sleeping Aswang” (2021), at Chicago Artists Coalition. Read the whole conversation in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Nightwatch as Moon” by Jen Torwudzo-Stroh. “In 2011, on the last night of spring break, my friends and I got high and spent the night on the beach. It’s a fond memory that represents a crucial point in my life: the transition from childhood to adulthood. In ‘Nightwatch,’ I revisit this memory from the perspective of the Moon,” Jen writes about her contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. Buy your copy today to read the full text: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
Buy Plates! Our shop will be closing for a good chunk of the coming months, starting June 16, so get your orders in ASAP. Link to buy in the bio 🍽️
From “The Forbidden Fruit” by Gabriel Chalfin-Piney. Read the rest in Plates Issue 03: Body of Water....... https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “shema (after k)” by Jason Lipeles. “‘shema (after k)’ reflects my interest in communing with death and prayer in the days after my friend’s funeral,” Jason wrote about his contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. “I wanted to know what a loving dream would be with him on the page.” Witness the full text in the flesh—buy a copy of the issue here: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Finding the Words” by Zach Whitworth. The full text is in Plates Issue 04: Craft, available in our online shop—https://platesjournal.com/shop—or from one of our stockists 🍽
From “I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings…” by Evan Fusco. “I awake from a restless sleep; dream and death and illness and labour circle all of the thoughts that come after,” Evan writes about their contribution to Plates Issue 05: Good Night. Buy the issue and read the full essay: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “An Immemorial” by Jonathan Kay and Connah Podmore, first featured in Plates Issue 03: Body of Water—https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Make a pillow of one’s spear waiting for daybreak” by Biyun Feng. The essay uncovers the ways in which pillows were symbols of instrumentality, agency, and interiority long before they became objects of rest, comfort, and decoration. Read the full text in Plates Issue 05: Good Night—buy your copy through one of our stockists or here: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
All copies of Plates Journal remain available for sale in our shop, with various discounts for buying more than one !! Stock up today: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Of the Bird’s Death, and Resurrection” by Thomas Huston, featured in Plates Issue 04: Craft.
https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Spiritco” by Martha Ormiston. “Spiritco,” which opens Plates Issue 05: Good Night, is an ekphrastic text that describes the personal website of an older spiritualist. Prompted by a desire to find meaning from a dream, it explores an attempt at forming a friendship with an elder in hopes that they may pass down knowledge—specifically, knowledge of unknown realms. Read the full text in Plates Issue 05: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
From “Thank You for Joining Me and What Are We Doing Here?” by Lily Homer. Parts of this text were recently reproduced in a collaborative experimental video that will be screened during the upcoming Manifest Urban Arts Festival in Chicago. Register for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/manifest-urban-arts-festival-tickets-303937353807
Copies of Plates Issue 04: Craft, where this text features, are also still available for purchase: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
Image: Spanier arbeit atarah on a tallit (detail), likely from Poland (late 1800s or early 1900s). Collection of Yeshiva University Museum, New York. Gift of the family of Daniel D. Riedler. Courtesy Yeshiva University Museum. Photo: Lily Homer.
The latest issue of the journal, Plates Issue 05: Good Night, is now available in its entirety online, but is oh so beautiful in the flesh. Buy your copy today: https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
I (Casey) have been dragging my feet on returning to posting here. The war in Ukraine is far from over and it still occupies most of my mind. But in preparation for my return back to Chicago at the end of this month, I begin to re-enter some of my old patterns, including scheduling posts for this account. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Dnipro—the river that flows through the heart of Ukraine and is the namesake of the city where I lived before war broke out. I look forward to the day I can see those waters again. Please join me in assisting Ukrainians however you can in working towards that day. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from “The Rivers in the Places We Have Lived Together” by Mána Taylor Hjörleifsdóttir about some other rivers, from Plates Issue 03: Body of Water —https://platesjournal.com/shop 🍽
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