Read more
In the Interview, curator Dirk Snauwaert talks with the artist about his multi-faceted practice The Survey, by film and art critic Laura Mulvey, explores themes of history, language, space and time in Durham's work. In the Focus, performance artist and writer Mark Alice Durant analyses Durham's diary of Shakespeare's Caliban The Caliban Codex or A Thing Most Brutish For Artist's Choice, Durham has selected texts by Italo Calvino about the loss of speech and the poetry of the invisible.
Artist's Writings include essays, poems, and screenplays, as well as a conversation between the artist, anthropologist Michael Taussig, and curators Miwon Kwon and Helen Molesworth. In the Update, curator and writer Kate Nesin positions Durham's work within an historical context white offering an insightful view on the work he has made over the past two decades.
About the author
Mark Alice Durant is is an artist, curator and Professor of Photography at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County.
Jimmie Durham is an artist, writer and poet based in Berlin and Naples.
Laura Mulvey is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Kate Nesin is an Associated Curator for Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Dirk Snauwaert is the Artistic Director of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels.
Summary
An updated edition of the first - and still most authoritative - book on the legendary American iconoclast
Twenty years ago, Phaidon published what has become the definitive study of Arkansas-born Jimmie Durham's career. This highly anticipated new edition brings this important book up to date, tracing his remarkable life from his experiences in the US, Mexico, and Europe - including his early involvement with the American Indian Movement - to his most recent output. It presents a full assessment of his sculptures, performances, wall-based collages, and ersatz ethnographic displays, that deliver ironic assaults on the colonizing procedures of Western culture.
Report
"This revised and expanded monograph, part of Phaidon's 'Contemporary Artists' series, provides a rounded portrait of Jimmie Durham's multifaceted oeuvre."-The Burlington Magazine
On the Contemporary Artists Series
"The boldest, best executed, and most far-reaching publishing project devoted to contemporary art. These books will revolutionize the way contemporary art is presented and written about."- Artforum
"The combination of intelligent analysis, personal insight, useful facts and plentiful pictures is a superb format invaluable for specialists but also interesting for casual readers, it makes these books a must for the library of anyone who cares about contemporary art."-Time Out
"A unique series of informative monographs on individual artists."-The Sunday Times
"Gives the reader the impression of a personal encounter with the artists. Apart from the writing which is lucid and illuminating, it is undoubtedly the wealth of lavish illustrations which makes looking at these books a satisfying entertainment."-The Art Book
