New York Consolidated – förlag

On the reconstitution of a body, death, translation, and editingThis first monograph on artist and filmmaker Nicole Miller focuses on a single sculpture by the artist: Michael in Black (2018). This book brings together a cohort of writers and other artists through newly commissioned texts and works for the page, as well as republished texts and images that exist as their own whole. Some texts hinge on the sculpture, others are tangents. The book’s texts and images build on each other, functioning as a prism for the publication’s subject.Michael in Black (2018) is a bronze cast of Michael Jackson’s kneeling figure, poured from a mold made directly from his body around 1986. This talismanic object comprises myriad aspects of celebrity and image: the objecthood of the performer, the potency and perversity of objects, death, and grief.This sculpture is an outlier in Miller's work, though it excavates some concerns she has similarly articulated in moving image: her recurring interest in the self-performance of her film subjects; the dehumanizing effects of the mass gaze; the celebrity as a host object for contemporary projections; the tactility of film, the sculptural qualities of editing; and the potential for self-storytelling to reconstitute an individual’s wholeness.

A multidisciplinary illustrated reader unpacking imperialist representations of Africa by promoting dialogue, memory and everyday practice, and reimagining cultural institutions and the arts—from museums to academia, from architecture to artIn 2017, curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu initiated research on the traditional positioning and mispositioning of the arts across the African continent. Where Is Africa has been an extended set of exchanges with contemporary artists, curators, designers and academics who are actively engaged in representing the continent—both within and outside its geographic boundaries. By examining artist collectives, new currents in art history and the rise of contemporary art festivals in and about Africa from the past 10 years, the project unpacks the imperialist foundations of cultural institutions and their anthropological fascination with African objects, people and places.The interviews in Where Is Africa examine African and African-diasporic identities and spaces through questions of positionality in relation to specific disciplinary, cultural and political contexts. The texts address Afro-diasporic aesthetic practices and the curatorial, museological and artistic matrices that confront epistemologies of dominance and exclusion. The commissioned essays and images offer concise methodologies that expand or complicate issues addressed by the interviewees.Where Is Africa is a conceptual project that accompanies a conceptual place, driven by the desire to dislodge Africa from categorical fixity and the representational logics of nation-states. Africa can never be fully enclosed by the residue of colonial violence or the totalitarian gaze of neoliberalism; instead, it creates infinite malleability, where place and concept are untethered from each other.Contributors include: Mikael Awake, Salome Asega, Tau Tavengwa, Anthony Bogues, Jay Simple, Eric Gottesman, Rebecca Corey, Aida Mulkozi, Rakeb Sile, Mesai Haileleul, Mpho Matsipa, Niama Safia Sandy, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Rehema Chachage, Robel Temesgen, Valerie Amani, Meskerem Assegued, Elias Sime, Olalekan Jeyifous, Amanda Williams, Germane Barnes and Mario Gooden.

Spiraling snail shells form the basis for Sasamoto’s latest performance and installation worksPublished on the occasion of her standout solo exhibition at the Queens Museum, Point Reflection is the first major volume devoted to the work of New York–based artist Aki Sasamoto (born 1980). Conceived as an artist’s book, Point Reflection centers on Sasamoto’s major installation Sink or Float, first presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Building on the artist’s idiosyncratic research into snail shell chirality—the direction in which the shell coils—as a cypher for thinking through questions of change, aging, (non)normativity, vulnerability and natural processes, Point Reflection brings together the diagrammatic visions, narrative experimentation, structured improvisations and stream-of-consciousness monologues characteristic of her performances and installations. The book features writing and drawings by Sasamoto, a critical essay by Lumi Tan, interviews with biologists conducted by the artist and an afterword by Queens Museum curator Hitomi Iwasaki.

The first monograph dedicated to the legacy of an under-recognized artist who passed on September 11, 2001American artist Michael Richards (1963–2001) was born in Brooklyn and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Integral to a generation of Black artists emerging in the 1990s, Richards’ work gestures toward reprieve from social injustices, often in the context of the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people. Richards’ exploration of freedom and escape centered on themes of flight and aviation, with which he engaged through the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, Greek mythology, Christianity and African and African American folklore. His nascent career was cut short when he passed away on September 11, 2001, while working in his Lower Manhattan Cultural Council studio in the World Trade Center.This monograph, published on the occasion of the major touring retrospective exhibition Are You Down?, centers his life and work by attending to the historical and contemporary significance of his practice. An invaluable resource on the artist, the publication is amplified by an expansive critical essay by editors Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin, essays by acclaimed writer Edwidge Danticat and curator Franklin Sirmans, as well as a personal reflection by the artist’s cousin and steward of his estate, Dawn Dale, and contributions from artists, curators and scholars who knew Richards personally or have engaged with his work closely.

A scintillating record of Cynthia Hawkins’ work and the Black gallery scene of 1970s and 1980s New YorkSince the 1970s, Cynthia Hawkins (born 1950) has investigated the potentials of abstract painting. Her process-oriented practice embraces the improvisational to create a space for her continually evolving vocabulary. From 1979 to 1981, Hawkins documented these developments in a journal. A record of routine and the everyday, the journal also gathers sketches, notes for new and in-progress works, and responses to contemporary art and criticism, bringing the artist’s reflections into relief. Art Notes, Art also offers a picture of the burgeoning Black-owned gallery scene in New York that Hawkins was an important participant in—including Just Above Midtown, where she had her first solo exhibition in 1981—as well as the women artists’ circle she was an active member of. Art Notes, Art is richly illustrated with works by the artist produced during this key period, photographs and ephemera, and a visual archive of contemporaneous work by her peers.

Artists from across the African and South Asian diasporas grapple with colonial legacies through a reimagining of the lost city of Atlantis transplanted to the bottom of the Indian OceanWhat if the book was a technology invented at sea? How would its language reflect the intonations of the sea? And how might we think of a Brown Atlantis at the bottom of the Indian Ocean without the blinkers of human navigation or instruments of measurement? Radio Brown Atlantis explores the entanglements between brown and Black people from the African diaspora and South Asia, displaced through enslavement and indenture, and connected through experiences of oceanic colonial routes. Using storytelling, music and poetry, this new anthology reimagines their stories and histories underwater, in an Atlantis at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, and the subaquatic ecologies and life forms surrounding them below. Originally a radio show broadcast on the Onassis Foundation’s Movement Radio station, Radio Brown Atlantis assembles contributions from 15 practitioners in music, visual art and literature to continue to imagine the cartographically unmappable.

The first English-language introduction to the documentary cinema of Arlette Pacquit, a revered storyteller of Martinican culture and Afro-Caribbean historyThe first publication dedicated to the work of Martinican journalist and filmmaker Arlette Pacquit, Andidan takes the form of a continuous dialogue spanning from 2020 to 2023, between the artist and the poet and translator Nathanaël. Through her documentary-style films, Pacquit has given voice to Martinican history in the wake of French colonialism and to the Afro-Caribbean experience at large. Edited to mimic a film, the book is composed of five recorded interviews (transcribed), two written interviews, several texts by Pacquit and an essay by Nathanaël, amplified by a filmography, film stills and production shots, many previously unseen. Translated into English from French and Kréyol, the book preserves the intimacy of conversation to discuss subjects ranging from Pacquit’s films to her engagement with a transnational politics of solidarity, the French colonial imprint on Martinique and Kréyol as a language of the interior.

Utilizing case studies from Caribbean and Latin American history, Cruz redefines artistic and cultural practices within the legal labyrinth of restitutionIn discussions over repatriation and restitution of cultural objects, artistic practices often clash with the legal and political frameworks of sovereignty. To untangle these theoretical issues, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz draws on examples from Latin American and Caribbean history dating back to the 16th century, grounding these reflections in anticolonial struggles and claims for justice. In revisiting such case studies as the so-called Aztec Feather Headdress of Moctezuma and the international dispute over the Spanish galleon San José shipwrecked off the coast of Colombia; or Indigenous political leader and philosopher Ailton Krenak’s intervention at the 1987 Brazilian Constitutional Assembly, Cruz confronts not only history’s effects on conceptions of art and cultural heritage, but also its juridical and political effects on what he calls cultural sovereignty.Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz is a philosopher based in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Translating a popular song from Luganda into English, Moses spins a fictional story of housework and domestic labor across 40 years of Ugandan historySerubiri Moses’ Judith Namala: A Novella, the author’s fiction debut, is an experiment in adaptation, translation and genre. Set in Uganda between the late 1970s and early 2000s, the book stages the domestic dramas of Judith Namala, a Black maid, and Esther Nambi, her Black madam. Unfolding across short vignettes of fiction, poetry, Ugandan history, art criticism and journalistic reportage, Moses’ narrative is also an exercise in translation as fictocriticism: unraveling the lyrics to a popular Ugandan song into an expansive new approach to storytelling.Serubiri Moses is a Ugandan author and curator based in New York City. He is an adjunct faculty member in Art History at Hunter College, CUNY, and a visiting faculty member at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Invoking sound and gesture to weave a tapestry of Marrakech's multicultural traditions and their preservation across generationsPublished with Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.This first in a series of four educational publications released in conjunction with the 36th Bienal de São Paulo centers on the Invocation held in Marrakech. The contributions examine listening as a practice of coexistence, the precarity of breath and the cultural traditions of Gnawa and Sufi communities. Marrakech is a crossroads of cultures, belief systems and languages, with much of its vast knowledge transmitted through sound and gesture. This first Invocation explores how these sonic traditions are enacted, preserved and passed down. The ancient practices of deep listening—from the performative rituals of Gnawa brotherhood to the oral tradition of Halqa (people's theater) in North African theater forms—serve as the starting point for this edition. The title is borrowed from "Souffles," a poem by Birago Diop, on the potential of listening to a plethora of beings.

Linking dance to a life philosophy that embraces impermanence and adaptability as forms of survival and cultural resistancePublished with Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.This second in a series of four educational publications of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo centers on the Invocation held in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, exploring the intelligence of bodily movements as they navigate rupture and adaptation to maintain balance amid crises. By reflecting on resilience and the dynamics of movement, this volume aims to deepen understanding of how physicality and adaptability intersect with broader cultural and social challenges. The concept stems from bigidi, a core element of the Guadeloupean dance gwoka, characterized by improvisation and alternating between moments of rupture and continuity in a constant effort to maintain balance. Léna Blou, a leading authority on this tradition, identifies bigidi and its mode of moving as the essential nature of the Caribbean being, which, in her words, "knows how to stabilize instability and transform disharmony into harmony."

Delving into the cultural exchange between West Africa and the Indian Ocean through the music genre taarabPublished with Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.This third volume in a series of four educational publications in conjunction with the 36th Bienal de São Paulo centers on the Invocation held in Zanzibar in February 2025, focusing on the rich cultural dynamics of taarab. Far beyond a musical rhythm, taarab is understood as a framework of encounters and exchanges shaped by the confluence of influences in Tanzania and the Indian Ocean. This publication examines how these interactions have fostered a vibrant cultural landscape, offering readers insights into the ways artistic practices and historical exchanges intertwine to create a tapestry of shared heritage and creativity. Echoing the complexities of Zanzibar's history—a crossroads of African, Arabic, Asian and European influences—this volume offers the possibility of reflecting on nuances and accents of humanity on an island that is a point of intersection for multiple cultures, philosophies and sciences.

Examining the "uncanny valley" experienced by humans in the presence of the humanoidPublished with Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.This fourth and final volume in a series of educational publications in conjunction with the 36th Bienal de São Paulo centers on the Invocation held in Tokyo in April 2025, exploring the complex relationship between humans and machines through sound, performance and visual practices. Inspired by the concept of the "uncanny valley" proposed by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, the Tokyo Invocation reflects on the ambiguities of the human in the face of technology and the issues that emerge at the intersection between art, artificial intelligence and corporeality. This book addresses issues such as the impact of artificial intelligence on artistic creation, the performativity of machines and the affective dimension of the relationship between humans and automated devices.

Redressing the woeful under-recognition of a pioneering Black queer architect and artistPublished with Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.This is an experimental illustrated reader exploring the work and legacy of American architect, educator and artist Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), a trailblazer who was the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States.This book takes Meredith's expansive letter-writing practice as a conceptual framework for epistolary responses in the present, plotting Meredith's life and work within themes of placemaking, gender, sexuality and Black love, with a focus on how she built sanctuaries (homes, institutions and communities) for herself and other people of color to foster rigorous artistic pursuit, free of persecution.The book features previously unpublished photos, blueprints, letters and scrapbooks from Meredith's archives and an annotated timeline of her life and work. Essays from architectural scholars and oral histories with former students, colleagues and friends explore her legacy in public education, the arts, modernist architecture and the built environment in the context of school desegregation, civil rights, and land and property rights. A diverse group of contemporary artists also respond to Meredith's legacy.

On the enduring legacies, present contradictions and future directions of Asian American contemporary artPublished with 80WSE.Published as a critical complement to the award-winning exhibition of the same name, Legacies: Asian American Art Movements is a groundbreaking collection of new essays and never-before-seen archival material that unites the voices of leading Asian American artists, scholars and community members. From historical movements to contemporary practices, from the radical ’60s to the dawn of the new millennium, and case studies including three key organizations—Godzilla: Asian American Art Network, The Basement Workshop and Asian American Arts Centre—this richly illustrated reader charts how artists of Asian descent have negotiated identity in the United States through situated practices and institutional structures, amid transnational diasporas, racial phantasms and political imaginaries. Legacies examines the development of “Asian American Art” as a concept and category, offering fresh insights into its cultural, social and political significance.