Editorial
Matthew Partridge

Pictures speak a different language to words. They tell a different story. Well, they try to tell the same story, but they do it so differently that it ends up being another story all together. But that’s the story of our relationship to language and all sorts of complicated stuff that we can’t really get into right now.

Instead, adjective will let you make up your own mind by way of a new section; Picture & Prose. If you haven’t got Issue 1 yet, then this is probably your first time hearing of the idea. It’s quite simple really; taking off the blinkers of orthodoxy by ignoring ‘art’ for a second,  it presents a section of writing devoted to the space between words and images. First up is Rosa Lyster with dodgy things at the bottom of the pool, taking angry swims and feeling 25 again.

Then to the highlights of Monday night’s Strauss & Co auction where guest auctioneer Dendy Easton held a cracking good sale, what. It’s a quick riot through history, with art jumping through the hoops. First up are the oldies of Stern, Pierneef & Laubser with Kentridge and Hodgins in hot pursuit. Skotnes is trailing but he’s still there. Sporting a lovely bowl of figs is Jean Welz which makes him a definite contender for the new “Most Attractive Bowl of Figs on Sale” award.

And what would any block be without new kids? So in the naughty corner we have Jess Webster, George Gratrix and Z-dog Blom all representing painting with Pieter Hugo and Mikhael Subotzky showing photography a good time.

In another first, because hey, life is full of firsts, adjective would like to introduce our readers to the cartoons of Ms. Gratrix. Because everybody loves cartoons. They also feature in Issue 1, so sorry internet you won’t be able to see those ones here.

Finally we turn our attention to Judith Mason who died in December last year. In the place of an obituary, we instead present her own words in an essay on how the human gesture haunts her work. “Life has been, for me, a mass of contradictory and often threatening stimuli, flashing past at random. My attempts to catch, pin down and identify some of these are what my work is about.”