I am just writing to complain about a review that was written about the “Domestic Policy” show at the District Fine Arts gallery (City Lights, 4/15). The reviewer must have been drunk at the opening, because a lot of these pieces spell out politically charged messages. For example, the critic wrote: “If the idea was for each piece to communicate a clear and easily understood political message, as the title seems to suggest, then a majority of the works fall short—hobbled, more than anything else, by resolutely obscure imagery. Witness Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Taylor’s wordless silk-screen Big Black, featuring a mustachioed, effeminate-looking man holding a black cloud over the head of a blue goose, all occurring within a ring of miniature Washington Monuments.”

This piece had a big banner at the bottom that said “Alaska,” and the title was Big Black. The writer also had the audacity to call the piece wordless when it has the word “Alaska” right on it. If the writer needs more of an explanation than that, then maybe he should try to read—and spend a little more time than just glancing at a piece of art and then criticizing it. Obviously, the piece is about pollution and drilling in Alaska, and environmental protection is a U.S. domestic policy.

You guys should really check on what your reviewers are writing. This is absolutely unprofessional and a very unacademic review, but I guess that is media for you: dishonest and shitty! Please take note of this and maybe actually check out what your writers are writing.

Charlottesville, Va.