Kodwo Eshun – författare

"The point of departure for the book Black Ark with Lee “Scratch” Perry (1936–2021),a Jamaican musical and visual artist who was based in Switzerland, is a detailedinventory of photographs and writings (Spring 2021) from the Black Ark Studios inKingston, Jamaica, where Lee produced his music from 1973 on. He was a seminalpioneer of dub, an electronic subgenre of reggae that uses sampling, looping,remixing, reverb and echoes to create new songs as well as rework and appropriatepre-recorded songs and tracks.Black Ark Studios was one of the cradles of dub. It’s also where Lee “Scratch”Perry’s musical approach found an enduring visual counterpart in the form ofcontinuously evolving mural paintings and drawings as well as shape-shiftingassemblages of records, instruments, found objects, posters, newspaper andmagazine clippings, and appropriated books. The artworks form actual layers uponlayers that are rhizomatically intertwined with the studio building itself as well as withthe furniture inside—and with Perry’s biography and persona.Perry created his very own, dense and eclectic world—a world that is documented inBlack Ark, before it disappears for good: the premises have recently been sold. Thephotographic documentation of the studio was supplemented by efforts to secure andpreserve Perry’s cultural objects as part of a joint project with various culturalinstitutions.Black Ark which reflects the rhythm and layering effects of collage both in its contentand the materials used to craft the book. Perry was involved in the conception of thebook in its early stages. It also interweaves various media and chronologies. The newphotographs of the Black Ark Studios will be juxtaposed with stills from olddocumentaries and archival photos.The idea of a “house” serves as both a working hypothesis and a metaphor. It will bethe starting point and endpoint of various thematic strands, both visual and textual:for example, the book will explore the Black Ark as a “spiritual yard” in the context ofAfrican diaspora, as well as looking into archeomusicological aspects. Furthermore,extended captions by Perry’s biographer will provide the backdrop for a kaleidoscopicpanorama of Perry’s eclectic and ingenious work."

Arrows of Desire indexes numerous intellectual, political, and artistic histories of the twentieth century. The book presents Wollen's engagement with anti-imperialist politics and counter-cinema, gathering essays, lectures, and proposals that contest the dominant geographies of the avant-garde. At once playful, theoretically rigorous, and historically precise, Wollen's writing reinvented criticism as a formally experimental practice that extends into poetry and sci-fi.This collection brings together unpublished and inaccessible writings on Eisenstein and Godard with texts that champion developments in independent moving image after the 1970s. It tracks the political energies running through Wollen's filmmaking and writing on political crises in Iran and Indonesia published under his pseudonym Lucien Rey, his introduction to Michel Khleifi's film Wedding in Galilee, and an interview concerning his visionary film Friendship's Death.Wollen's extensive engagement with revolutionary Mexican art is revealed in the paradigm-shifting exhibitions he conceived and curated, culminating in The Continent, an ambitious, unrealised project that brought together Mexican muralism, Native American abstraction, and US abstract expressionism for the first time. Arrows of Desire reveals, in its breadth and detail, the restless imagination, iconoclastic approach, and lucid style of Peter Wollen.The first of three books of uncollected essays by Peter Wollen, to be published consecutively. PRAISE FOR PETER WOLLEN "The single most influential film theorist in the English language."Henry K. Miller, Sight and Sound "A brilliant mind. Peter wrote on film, art, politics, fashion, on culture generally. To say Peter Wollen was preternaturally and uniquely gifted is not adequate."Lynne Tillman, Artforum "An intransigently original and politically engaged figure." Edward Said, Nation

What were the conditions of possibility for art and music-making before the era of neoliberal capitalism? What role did punk play in turning artists to experiment with popular music in the late 1970s and early 1980s? And why does the art and music of these times seem so newly pertinent to our political present, despite the seeming remoteness of its historical moment? Focusing upon the production of post-punk art, film, music, and publishing, this book offers new perspectives on an overlooked period ofcultural activity, and probes the lessons that might be learnt from history for artists and musicians working under 21st century conditions of austerity.