Journal Profile: Cabinet
Print access in the library: Winter 2000, Spring 2003 –
Electronic access: 2000 –
“By operating with the most expansive and inclusive definition of ‘culture’ possible, one that includes both the quotidian and the extraordinary, Cabinet aims to foster curiosity about the world we have made and inhabit. We believe that curiosity is the very basis of ethics insofar as a deeper understanding of our social and material cultures encourages us both to be better custodians of the world and at the same time allows us to imagine it otherwise. We understand this strategy to be fundamentally democratic, and our project aims to be as open as possible by offering programs whose blend of accessibility, seriousness, and humor dismantle the exclusionary hierarchies often associated with the words ‘art’ and ‘culture.‘” — from their website
Each issue of Cabinet has a theme; Spring 2012’s theme is “Games.” My favorite section of each issue is the Colors column in which an author discusses the history, use, and cultural meaning of different colors. Madder Lake, by Lytle Shaw is the color for Spring 2012 and begins like this, “Forget about madder lake’s role in Egyptian tomb painting. Forget Tutankamun. Forget its place in Greek and Roman art where, diluted with gypsum, it would produce a gorgeous pink hue. Forget Corinth and Pompeii. Madder lake found its calling when, in the seventeenth century, it because the color of the British army’s red coat.” Besides Bitch magazine, Cabinet is the only other one that I’ve read front to back.
