Writing in Space, 1973–2019

Description

Writing in Space, 1973-2019 gathers the writings of conceptual artist Lorraine O'Grady, who for over forty years has investigated the complicated relationship between text and image. A firsthand account of O'Grady's wide-ranging practice, this volume contains statements, scripts, and previously unpublished notes charting the development of her performance work and conceptual photography; her art and music criticism that appeared in the Village Voice and Artforum; critical and theoretical essays on art and culture, including her classic "Olympia's Maid"; and interviews in which O'Grady maps, expands, and complicates the intellectual terrain of her work. She examines issues ranging from black female subjectivity to diaspora and race and representation in contemporary art, exploring both their personal and their institutional implications. O'Grady's writings—introduced in this collection by critic and curator Aruna D'Souza—offer a unique window into her artistic and intellectual evolution while consistently plumbing the political possibilities of art. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: For Those Who Will Know Aruna / D’Souza 1. Statements and Performance Transcripts Two Biographical Statements (2012 and 2019) Cutting Out the New York Times (CONYT), 1977 (2006) Mlle Bourgeoise Noire 1955 (1981) Rivers, First Draft, 1982: Working Script, Cast List, Production Credits (1982) Statement for Moira Roth re: Art Is . . . , 1983 (2007) Body Is the Ground of My Experience, 1991: Image Descriptions (2010) Studies for a Sixteen-Diptych Installation to Be Called Flowers of Evil and Good, 1995–Present (1998) 2. Writing in Space Performance Statement #1: Thoughts about Myself, When Seen as a Political Performance Artist (1981) Performance Statement #2: Why Judson Memorial? or, Thoughts about the Spiritual Attitudes of My Work (1982) Performance Statement #3: Thinking Out Loud: About Performance Art and My Place in It (1983) Nefertiti/Devonia Evangeline, 1980 (1997) Interview with Cecilia Alemani: Living Symbols of New Epochs (2010) Interview with Amanda Hunt on Art Is . . . , 1983 (2015) On Creating a Counter-confessional Poetry (2018) 3. Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity Black Dreams (1982) Interview with Linda Montano (1986) Dada Meets Mama: Lorraine O’Grady on WAC (1992) The Cave: Lorraine O’Grady on Black Women Film Directors (1992) Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity (1992/1994) Mlle Bourgeoise Noire and Feminism (2007) 4. Hybridity, Diaspora, and Thinking Both/And On Being the Presence That Signals an Absence (1993) Some Thoughts on Diaspora and Hybridity: An Unpublished Slide Lecture (1994) Flannery and Other Regions (1999) Responding Politically to William Kentridge (2002) Sketchy Thoughts on My Attraction to the Surrealists (2013) Two Exhibits: The Diptych vs. the Triptych (1998) and Notes on the Diptych (2018) Introducing: Lorraine O’Grady and Juliana Huxtable (2016) 5. Other Art Worlds A Day at the Races: Lorraine O’Grady on Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Black Art World (1993) SWM: On Sean Landers (1994) Poison Ivy (1998) The Black and White Show, 1982 (2009) Email Q&A with Artforum Editor (2009) My 1980s (2012) Rivers and Just Above Midtown (2013, 2015) Plates Sections 6. Retrospectives Interview with Laura Cottingham (1995) Interview with Jarrett Earnest (2016) The Mlle Bourgeoise Noire Project, 1980–1983 (2018) Job History (from a Feminist “Retrospective”) (2004) First There Is a Mountain, Then There Is No Mountain, Then . . . ? (1973) The Wailers and Bruce Springsteen at Max’s Kansas City, July 18, 1973 (1973) Lorraine O’Grady, Portfolio: Art, Affinities, and Interests, 2019. Images appear following page 180. Plate captions begin on page 281. Notes Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T V W Z Credits