Spring/Summer 2025: Editorial notes
April 2025
When we think of the word “soft,” it pulls us into two vastly different directions: glee and disappointment. For some it evokes imagery of kittens, fuzzy blankets and warm cookies. Yet, it is this same descriptor which is used for over-ripened fruit and aging bodies. In this fourth issue of no exits, six texts provide a look at the far stretching ways softness reveals itself.
In many ways, softness leads us into thinking through personal moments of tenderness. This issue features several intimate accounts. Educator and artist Nick Naudi writes through transness, articulated through a profound experience at the Kohler-Andrae State Park; curator Rebecca Ricci reveals the entanglements of her childhood, Catholicism, and vulnerability; and cultural worker Sun Park walks us through a specific pain felt reverberating through her joints.
This fourth issue also features two performance artists working within, through, and extending past the softness of the body. Curator Sarah White is in conversation with Yuka Hayashi about her concept of the “home body,” assuming the body as an inhabited home, while writer Veronica Gisondi interviews Song Xin about how the body heightens our bind to technology, creating links and connections to filmmaker Harry Bayley’s investigation into Lev Manovich’s Soft Cinema (2002) and TikTok brain rot.
At the time when Soft was selected as the theme of this issue, it posed a relatable contrast to the abstract nature of Foil. Much of 2024 felt hopeful, warm, and tender: soft. The ways in which the world has shifted over the last eight months present us with softness’s intrinsic link to power. While conservative actors use softness as a slur, its true appearance comes in the dying wail of American hegemony and the fragility of white supremacy world-wide. Almost a year later, interrogating softness and embracing it as a framework for action feels most appropriate.
When we first launched no exits, our intention was to publish bi-annually, with a limited print run commemorating the year’s issues. However, with time comes clarity and in 2024 we were only able to publish Foil and celebrate our first printed anthology. Soft is the first issue of no exits to be published since Arianna moved home to Manila, with Izzy still in London. We care deeply about sharing your stories and practices but quickly realized the need to be easy on ourselves as we navigate new ways of working across timezones and oceans. We plan to return to a bi-annual schedule soon. In the meantime, we hope that through these texts, you discover something different to softness!
In many ways, softness leads us into thinking through personal moments of tenderness. This issue features several intimate accounts. Educator and artist Nick Naudi writes through transness, articulated through a profound experience at the Kohler-Andrae State Park; curator Rebecca Ricci reveals the entanglements of her childhood, Catholicism, and vulnerability; and cultural worker Sun Park walks us through a specific pain felt reverberating through her joints.
This fourth issue also features two performance artists working within, through, and extending past the softness of the body. Curator Sarah White is in conversation with Yuka Hayashi about her concept of the “home body,” assuming the body as an inhabited home, while writer Veronica Gisondi interviews Song Xin about how the body heightens our bind to technology, creating links and connections to filmmaker Harry Bayley’s investigation into Lev Manovich’s Soft Cinema (2002) and TikTok brain rot.
At the time when Soft was selected as the theme of this issue, it posed a relatable contrast to the abstract nature of Foil. Much of 2024 felt hopeful, warm, and tender: soft. The ways in which the world has shifted over the last eight months present us with softness’s intrinsic link to power. While conservative actors use softness as a slur, its true appearance comes in the dying wail of American hegemony and the fragility of white supremacy world-wide. Almost a year later, interrogating softness and embracing it as a framework for action feels most appropriate.
When we first launched no exits, our intention was to publish bi-annually, with a limited print run commemorating the year’s issues. However, with time comes clarity and in 2024 we were only able to publish Foil and celebrate our first printed anthology. Soft is the first issue of no exits to be published since Arianna moved home to Manila, with Izzy still in London. We care deeply about sharing your stories and practices but quickly realized the need to be easy on ourselves as we navigate new ways of working across timezones and oceans. We plan to return to a bi-annual schedule soon. In the meantime, we hope that through these texts, you discover something different to softness!
Arianna Mercado & Izzy Waite
Spring/Summer 2025
Spring/Summer 2025
