For the Record

Issue 12

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

What do we preserve

and why?

In the arts, discussions around institutional archives abound. We know, though, that what’s on view at a museum is only a sliver of its holdings and that museums are not the only keepers of artifacts. With this in mind, we invited artists to deepen and expand our understanding of archives: how they’re made, who keeps them, and why they matter (or don’t). As sculptors, musicians, designers, and filmmakers, each contributor in For the Record brings their own sensibility to the contentious practice of archiving. They challenge us as individuals to archive with more intention, generosity, and openness than institutions can in order to undo and prevent continued erasure.

Moreover, the issue title nods to New Suns’ own function as a dynamic archive of contemporary artists’ perspectives from different disciplines and regions. As we enter our fifth year of circulation, we remain committed to evolving this platform by, for, and about artists and the themes driving their work. And as always, we hope the ideas you encounter here expand your creative horizons.

In orbit with you,
Jessica Gomez Ferrer and Kate Blair

A note on the art direction in this issue: A key points to a lock, a system, an idea — something meant to be kept safe. It exists in this binary, bound to what it grants or denies. A key also gestures toward the future, unlocking what is anticipated or unseen. Keys open, initiate, permit passage. They shift power, drawing lines between those who hold them and those who do not. Without the key — whether an object or knowledge — you are subject to what it controls. To every record, there is a key. Some we design, others form on their own. But what happens when systems are fleeting, when our keys are given away, when they vanish altogether?