Including writing about Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Linda Manz, Sadie Benning, Sarah Maldoror, Cecilia Mangini, Agnes Martin, Peggy Ahwesh, Kira Muratova, Alina Szapocznikow, Jean Genet and more…

On subjects including an interrogation on cinephilia and gender, surveillance, infant observation during the pandemic and the screen as psychic portal, Beirut on film, devotional labour, prisons during lockdown, the notion of solidarity, reproduction and futurity, and much more… Roundtables about Sarah Maldoror; hands and fate, work, pleasure, touch, and surveillance; early women’s travel films…

Plus, the year in review…

Featuring writing and contributions by María Palacios Cruz, Lizzie Borden, Kathryn Scanlan, Yasmina Price, Nicolas Russell, Rebecca Liu, Georgie Carr, Pooja Rangan, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Nuotama Bodomo, Phoebe Campion, Janaina Olivera, Cassie da Costa, Frank Beauvais, AS Hamrah, Awa Konaté and many more…

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The Propeller Group—an artist team made up of Phunam, Matt Lucero, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam—blurs the boundaries between fine art and media production, in much the same way that this publication blurs the boundaries between a traditional exhibition catalogue and an artist book. The catalogue features expository essays by curators Naomi Beckwith and Cesar Garcia, as well as contributions by each of the members of The Propeller Group: Tuan pens an obituary for the group that pays homage to Vietnamese funereal celebrations, Phunam shares an astrological reading that similarly honors the cultural legacy of Vietnam, and Lucero creates a travelogue that records the group’s recent exploration of the natural beauty of Papua New Guinea.

This is the first scholarly treatment on The Propeller Group, published on the occasion of the group’s exhibition at the MCA. The exhibition presents a number of multipart projects, comprised of videos and related objects, from the past five years for the first time since the group was formed in 2006.

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John Bock’s latest artist’s book combines over 150 video stills from his film “Skipholt” shot 2005 in Iceland, each with a corresponding drawing. Structured like a logbook of an expedition, it traces the path of the protagonist played by the artist himself, who embarks on a journey across the sea, volcanic plains and glaciers. The drawings read like notations of a journey, sometimes picture, sometimes diagram, peppered with word creations or theoretical explanations that reflect John Bock’s thought bubble and reveal the conjured para zone to the reader. The book is at the same time an art object, packed in a corduroy bag, filled with ‘KleinodtodSods’ – useful everyday objects such as Q-tips, thread and safety pin – and equipped with the practical belt pouch, so that nothing stands in the way of one’s own expedition.

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Morceaux choisis is the first seminal overview of Saâdane Afif’s artistic practices. The publication features 48 exhibitions or performances organized in 28 separate sections, covering a period of 14 years.

Starting with Melancholic Beat at Museum Folkwang, Essen in 2004 and leading up to the recent exhibition Musiques pour tuyauterie, at mor charpentier, Paris in 2018, the monograph considers the format of the exhibition as Saâdane Afif’s medium, through which his work takes form and can be read.

Each one of the figuring exhibitions form an individual booklet: the pages with full color reproductions of the individual works and installation views are inserted within four additional pages providing the exhibition’s title, description, details and captions.

These 28 booklets form the body of the publication. The exhibition texts have been written by Lily Matras and Yasmine d’O. They are accompanied by an interview of Saâdane Afif by Lili Reynaud-Dewar, two critical texts by Zoë Gray and Jörn Schafaff, an index of the exhibited works and an index of Afif ’s released books and records.

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My Kingdom for a Title is a collection of writing by Chicago–based artist Pope.L documenting his use of language as a mode of visual, narrative, and performative story telling.

The act of writing has been integral to how Pope.L works and is arguably the most consistent element in his practice. These works take various forms: scripts, short stories, scribbled notes, large scale installation, and painting—many never before released. Assembled here for the first time, My Kingdom for a Title allows the breadth of the artist’s engagement with language to be fully assessed. Within the book, Pope.L’s work is supplemented with extensive endnotes sourced by artist Kandis Williams.

Pope.L is a visual artist and edu­cator whose multidisciplinary practice uses binaries, contraries, and preconceived notions embedded within contemporary culture to create artworks in various formats including writing, painting, performance, installation, video, and sculpture. Building upon his long history of enacting arduous, provocative, absurdist performances and interventions in public spaces, Pope.L applies some of the same social, formal, and performative strategies to his interests in language, system, gender, race, and community. The goals for his work are several: joy, money, and uncertainty—not necessarily in that order.

Edited by Courtney Willis Blair
Endnotes by Kandis Williams
Co-published by Mitchell-Innes & Nash

First Edition (2021)

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Curator Christine Eyene challenges the Eurocentric and patriarchal frameworks that have informed the history of sound art and, to some extent, continue to define current practice.

Sounds Like Her is a challenge to the restrictive social construct of female voices. The book re-frames how we experience the dynamic of sound as practiced by women from diverse cultures and gender identities.

The themes, debate, and curatorial perspective are explored through three new essays by Christine Eyene (curator and author), Cathy Lane (sound artist, composer and professor of Sound Art at the University of the Arts London) and artist and author Salomé Voegelin (author of The Political Possibility of Sound, Bloomsbury).

The definition of Sound Art has always been narrow, from the perspective of gender, and international cultures. The book widens and rebalances the understanding of the art form and embraces the rich vein of work that needs to be a part of a new history of this creative practice.

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