VISUAL CULTURE
Kobena Mercer: Projects
Recent & Forthcoming Publications
Kobena Mercer ed., Cosmopolitan Modernism, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press /
London: inIVA, 2005, 208 pp., 30 color illustrations.
ISBN-10: 0-262-63321-3. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-63321-5Cosmopolitan Modernism, the first book in the Annotating Art’s Histories series edited by Kobena Mercer, revisits the period in which modernist attitudes took shape, examining the ways in which a shared history of art and ideas was experienced in different nations and cultures. Joining cultural studies debates that have sought to re-think the ‘cosmopolitan’ from the bottom-up, this volume addresses the notion of the modern artist as world-citizen. Original essays by leading art historians and curators trace the dynamic interplay of cultures across the story of modern art, looking at moments of crisis and innovation in modernism’s cross-cultural past, from constructivism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism to neo-concrete art. For more information, see Annotating Art’s Histories, below.
Kobena Mercer ed., Discrepant Abstraction, Cambridge, MA:MIT Press /
London: inIVA, 2006, 224 pp., 29 illustrations,
ISBN-10: 0-262-63337-X. ISBN-13:978-0-262-63337-6Discrepant Abstraction is hybrid and partial, elusive and repetitive, obstinate and strange. It includes almost everything that does not neatly fit into the institutional narrative of abstract art as a monolithic quest for artistic purity. Drawing on the concept of ‘discrepant engagement’ in the literary model of cross-cultural studies proposed by Nathaniel Mackey, this second volume in the Annotating Art’s Histories series alters our understanding of abstract art as a signifier of modernity by revealing the multiple directions it has taken in wide-ranging international contexts.
Impure, imperfect, and incomplete, the version of abstraction that emerges from this global journey shows how the formal ingenuity of abstract art has been cross-fertilized, from abstract expressionism onwards, by creative discrepancies that arise when disparate visual languages are brought into dialogue. For more information, see Annotating Art’s Histories, below.
Kobena Mercer ed., Pop Art and Vernacular Cultures (inIVA and MIT Press, 2007, forthcoming). The third volume in the Annotating Art’s Histories series.
Kobena Mercer ed., Exiles, Diasporas & Strangers (inIVA and MIT Press, 2008, forthcoming). The final volume in the Annotating Art’s Histories series.
David A. Bailey , Ian Baucom, and Sonia Boyce eds., Shades of Black:
Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain, North Carolina: Duke UP /
London: inIVA, 2005, 368 pp, 116 ill. (31 col.)
pb, ISBN 0-8223-3420-8, ISBN13 978-0-8223-3420-0.In the 1980s—at the height of Thatcherism and in the wake of civil unrest and rioting in a number of British cities—the Black Arts Movement burst onto the British art scene with breathtaking intensity, changing the nature and perception of British culture irreversibly. This richly illustrated volume presents a history of that movement. It brings together in a lively dialogue leading artists, curators, art historians, and critics, many of whom were actively involved in the Black Arts Movement. Combining cultural theory with anecdote and experience, the contributors debate how the work of the black British artists of the 1980s should be viewed historically. They consider the political, cultural, and artistic developments that sparked the movement even as they explore the extent to which such a diverse body of work can be said to constitute a distinct artistic movement—particularly given that “black” in Britain in the 1980s encompassed those of South Asian, North and sub-Saharan African, and Caribbean descent, referring as much to shared experiences of disenfranchisement as to shades of skin.
In thirteen original essays, the contributors examine the movement in relation to artistic practice, public funding, and the transnational art market and consider its legacy for today’s artists and activists. The volume includes a unique catalog of images, an extensive list of suggested readings, and a descriptive timeline situating the movement vis-à-vis relevant artworks and films, exhibitions, cultural criticism, and political events from 1960 to 2000. A dynamic living archive of conversations, texts, and images, Shades of Black is an essential resource.
Contributors: Stanley Abe, Jawad Al-Nawab, Rasheed Araeen, David A. Bailey, Adelaide Bannerman, Ian Baucom, Dawoud Bey, Sonia Boyce, Allan deSouza, Jean Fisher, Stuart Hall, Lubaina Himid, Naseem Khan, susan pui san lok, Kobena Mercer, Yong Soon Min, Keith Piper, Zineb Sedira, Gilane Tawadros, Leon Wainwright, Judith Wilson
Kobena Mercer and Chris Darke, Isaac Julien - Minigraph 3
London: Film & Video Umbrella, 2002, 88pp, col.,
ISBN 1 84166 073 6Isaac Julien is one of Britain’s foremost artist filmmakers, as acclaimed for his fluent and arresting single-screen works as his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. Moving deftly between filmworld and artworld, Julien remains one of the most original voices on the contemporary scene, and this book, Isaac Julien – Minigraph 3, published at the time of his nomination for the 2001 Turner Prize, provides a vivid visual introduction to a unique and prolific career spanning almost 20 years.
minigraphs is a series of publications developed by Film and Video Umbrella devoted to contemporary artists working with film and video. Fully illustrated, and with specially commissioned essays and an extensive lists of works, this series provides an attractive and indispensable introduction to some of Britain’s most exciting contemporary artists.
Africas: the Artist and the City: A Journey and an Exhibition,
exhibition catalogue, Barcelona: Centre de Cultura Contemporania de
Barcelona, 2001, 224 pp., col. ill.; 24 cm, ISBN 8495273861Published to accompany the exhibition Africas: the artist and the city, organised by the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, 2001, and curated by Pep Subiros, focusing on issues of tradition and modernity, local and global. Artists and contributors include: Akinbode Akinbiyi; Jane Alexander; Aristide Anapa; El Anatsui; Luis Pedro Basto; Willie Bester; Berry Bickle; David Brazier; Sokari Douglas Camp; Viye Diba; Dilomprizulike; Calvin Dondo; Godfried Donkor; Samuel Fosso; Joy Gregory; Amadou Kane Sy (Kan-Si); Bodys Isek Kingelez; Yacouba Konate; Moshekwa Langa; Ananias Leki; Kobena Mercer Santu Mofokeng; Zwelethu Mthethwa; Ousmane Dago Ndiaye; Simon Njami; Eileen Perrier; Penny Siopis; Patrice Felix Tchicaya.
