Twenty years of writing on art, performance, and photography.

This collection of short, critical writings on contemporary art, performance, and photography analyzes a wide range of global practitioners, from emerging to established artists. The result is a well-informed, jargon-free survey of significant developments in contemporary art and culture over the past two decades. Among the artists discussed are Francis Alÿs, Laurie Anderson, Chris Burden, William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol.

The subject area examines an important series of interconnected contemporary art practices. Comprising writings on performance-based work, material forms, and photography, the book locates performance within a broader art context. Approachable for a wide audience, it provides scholarly and critical depth along with an accessible writing style. It will particularly appeal to readers closely involved in contemporary art theory and practice, whether students, artists, or academics.

Table of Contents:

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Original Sources of Publication
Preface: The Performing Observer

PART I: PERFORMANCE
1. Chris Burden, Iggy Pop, and the Aesthetics of Early 1970s Performance Art (2004)
2. Laurie Anderson’s Adventures in George W. Bush’s America (2005)
3. David Cross’s Confounding Hybridity (2018)
4. Richard Maloy: Try and Try Again (2010)
5. Victoria Singh: The Waiting Room (2014)
6. Interview with Artist Catherine Bagnall (2015) 
7. ‘My Life Is One Big Experiment’: A Conversation with Laurie Anderson (2020)

PART II: PHOTOGRAPHY 
8. Francis Alÿs and Photography: Snapshots from an Indefinite Vacation (2007)
9. William Eggleston on Film (2006)
10. ‘Vaguely Stealthy Creatures’: Max Kozloff on the Poetics of Street Photography (2002)
11. Vantage Points and Vanishing Spaces: Ann Shelton (2008)
12. Imagined Landscapes and Subterranean Simulacra (2011)
13. Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place (2013)
14. On Taryn Simon’s 2007 series An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar (2010)
15. On the Recent Photographs of Simon Mark (2010)
16. Talking Around (and Around) Yvonne Todd (2012)
17. Cindy Sherman: Morphing Changeling (2016)

PART III: PUBLICNESS
18. Encounter (2009)
19. On False Leads, Readymades and Seascapes (2008)
20. Hope Is Not About What We Expect (2011)
21. Echoes, Signs, Disruptions (2015)
22. Billy Apple: Mercurial Consistency (2015)
23. Reorientations (2018)

PART IV: VIDEO
24. Shannon Te Ao: A torch and a light (cover) (2015) 
25. Watching Sean Grattan’s HADHAD (2015)
26. On Mike Heynes: Video Art, Animation and Activist Critique (2016)
27. Pat Badani: [in time time] (2008) 
28. Bogdan Perzyński: Selected Photographic Documents and Video Works (2011)

PART V: BOOKS 
29. Clement Greenberg: Late Writings ed. Robert C. Morgan, University of Minnesota Press, 2003
30. The Experimental Group: Ilya Kabakov, Moscow Conceptualism, Soviet Avant-Gardes, Matthew Jesse Jackson, University of Chicago Press, 2010
31. Parallel Presents: The Art of Pierre Huyghe, Amelia Barikin, MIT Press, 2012
32. Performing Contagious Bodies: Ritual Participation in Contemporary Art, Christopher Braddock, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
33. It’s the Political Economy, Stupid: The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory, eds. Gregory Sholette and Oliver Ressler, Pluto Press, 2013
34. Zizz! The Life and Art of Len Lye, in His Own Words, with Roger Horrocks, Awa Press, 2015

PART VI: EXHIBITIONS 
35. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (2003)
36. Robyn Kahukiwa (2012)
37. Sad Songs (2005) 
38. Shona Macdonald: Simmer Dim (2010) 
39. Craig Easton: Collapse (2009)
40. 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012)
41. Simon Starling: In Speculum (2014)
42. Chris Heaphy’s Kaleidoscopic Eye (2012) 
43. Niki Hastings-McFall: In Flyte (2013) 
44. Simon Morris: Black Water Colour Painting (2015) 
45. Dan Graham: Beyond (2009)
46. Richard Long: Heaven and Earth (2009)
47. Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art (2019) 
48. Elisabeth Pointon’s Pop Problematics (or the Customer Might Just Be Wrong) (2020)
49. Warhol: Immortal (2013)
50. Is It the Beginning of a New Age? (2016)

Notes 
Bibliography
Index