Category: issue introductions

An Editor’s Thoughts on the Contribution of the Issue as a Whole

Editor’s Introduction

by Hannah Jew Clifford Geertz conceptualized man as existing in “webs of significance he himself has spun.”1 That adage has served as a defining principle for this issue of SEQUITUR, in which we explore how the threads of man’s webs—both physical and metaphorical— create, connect, and maintain networks of people. This issue’s nine contributors discuss the […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Sybil F. Joslyn Affectation, the theme we have chosen for this issue of SEQUITUR, is at once relevant and expansive in its possibilities. In our present moment, as we still feel the effects of a global pandemic, international warfare, social justice uprisings, and climate threats, we as a people face a reckoning: who do […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Sarah Horowitz The term “spectacle” encompasses an array of meanings across disciplines. As early as the seventeenth century, “spectacle” was associated with the theatrical displays of early English drama. Furthermore, the rise of a new middle class particularly in France during the nineteenth century gave way to new interpretations of the expression.1 “Spectacle” in […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Althea Ruoppo There is a certain comfort that is brought only by the stillness of the hours between dusk and dawn. Nightfall has long held a fascination for artists and, especially since the nineteenth century, has had rich treatment in the United States and Europe as our contributors to the Spring 2022 issue of […]

Editor’s Introduction

by Julián Serna1 In 1892, the Colombian political cartoonist Alfredo Greñas (1852–1949) published the back of an engraving plate as a sign of protest for the government censorship of his work (fig. 1).2 Un penitente (A penitent), a monochrome print with Catholic undertones in its title, is a testimony of how images not only represent […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Phillippa Pitts I have always been fascinated by our species’ inclination to find patterns in randomness. There appears to be an indefatigable human capacity to create order from the chaos of lived experience. Across science, religion, civics, and society, we create rules: rules for living, rules for doing, rules for nature, even rules for […]

Editors’ Introduction

by İkbal Dursunoğlu This issue of SEQUITUR reflects upon the “Interiors” of our architectural and psychological boundaries, and witnesses how the overlap of these physical and mental spaces creates both shelters of intimacy and sites of estrangement. Despite writing on one of the most durable, and yet most flexible, features of human existence, and around diverse […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Rebecca Arnheim and Bailey Benson When the theme of “Environment” was selected for the 36th Annual Boston University Graduate Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture, we could not imagine how profoundly relevant it would be for the year 2020. The year began with bushfires in Australia that burned more than 46 million […]

Editors’ Introduction

by Colleen Foran When the editorial staff of SEQUITUR agreed on the theme “UnNatural” for this issue over five months ago, we considered it a thought experiment. It was an exciting and productive thought experiment, certainly, but nonetheless abstract. But the first half of 2020 has been a cultural turning point, alongside devastating health, political, […]

Editors’ Introduction

Our newest issue of SEQUITUR explores ideas around historiography, representation, and canonization through the theme “re/vision.” The essays and exhibition reviews in this issue reflect on varying tactics that expand the thematic and temporal variety in art and architectural history. Moving from gender politics to mass-housing policies, environmental crisis to archeological reproduction, the range of […]