Vol 3 No 1 | Winter 2022

Letters from the Editors

Map of ArtWorks in This Issue

The Artworks

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Bait/Switch Magazine: Bait/Switch Vol 3 No 1

Winter 2022 | Im/material

Letters from the Editors

Happy New Year!

You know, one of the perks of teaching ESL was getting to share everyone’s various holidays and observances. In a good year, I would get to celebrate the new year four times in a row. Most of the western world observes it on January 1st, Lunar New Year comes along a few weeks later, Nowruz (Persian New Year) lands in March, and Songkran (Thai New Year) arrives in April. Naturally, every culture celebrates with their own traditions. In Mexico, folks devour a dozen large grapes in a hurry at midnight. In China, kids go nuts over red envelopes of money. In Iran, families paint eggs and set a table with symbolic foods. In Thailand, the entire community arms themselves for an insane water fight in the streets.

As varied as these celebrations are, what they all have in common is the idea of renewal. The calendar is starting over, Spring is arriving along with all the promise that comes with it, the previous year is laid to rest, and the new year is welcomed with open arms. It doesn’t really matter exactly when you mark the change from one era to the next. What matters is that you observe the passage of time and make note of any change. And there’s always change.

Bait/Switch doesn’t reset once a year. Instead, I think every issue offers a sense of rebirth as we introduce a fresh litter of weird, screaming babies to the world every few months. We may be light on “out with the old” but we certainly deliver “in with the new.”

Regardless of how you celebrate the changing seasons and what it means, I hope 2022 brings us all plenty of positive change. Here, let’s start with a wild, colorful magazine bursting with newness. I can’t wait!

Cody VanWinkle, Art Director

Hello to our wonderful community!

I’ve been thinking about magic lately. This might be a slightly redundant statement since I’m kind of always thinking about magic. But as we plow ahead into 2022, the unseen seems to feel more important than ever. How do we talk about things we can’t see? How do we explain events that seem to defy logic or human understanding?

There has always been a lot of magic in Bait/Switch, and as time goes on, the magic grows. As an aspiring astromage, I have learned that although magic can be used for specific purposes, the ultimate goal is to change the magician. We can work magic for outside outcomes, but the thing we’re always really working towards is the refining of the soul.

I find the same is true of everything. As human beings, we are always changing. No matter what effect or outcome we strive for in this world (or whom we’re hoping to serve), what we are really working to develop is ourselves. We don’t have a choice in this. Our only choices lie in whether or not we take action in ways that align us with integrity, liberation, and truth.

All this is to say, that the magical journey that we’re taking with Bait/Switch is changing the shape of the work itself, and it’s an amazing thing to witness. I am so excited to see what this year brings, and how this project continues to grow and shift.

The works in this issue explore things that are seen and unseen. Shapeshifting. Spells. Inner voices. Ghosts of past events. Enlightenment. The space in between. It is a remarkable collection of works, and I hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Lu Valena, Executive Director

Map of Works in This Issue

Bait/Switch is an interdisciplinary exquisite corpse project. Every work is a creative response to a piece made by another artist. The project is divided into three branches- cyan, magenta and yellow. This map/diagram shows how the works in this issue fit together, and what came before. You can see the entire corpus on our maps page.