POWER, DESIRE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, REPRESENTATION, BEAUTY, AND COMPASSION Widely considered to be one of the most influential American living artists, Carrie Mae Weems has developed a practice celebrated for her exploration of cultural identity, power dynamics, desire, intimacy and social justice through a body of work that challenges the prevailing representations of race, gender, and class. Defined by the use of photography, installation, film, performance and textile, her remarkably diverse and radical practice questions dominant ideologies and historical narratives created and disseminated within science, architecture, and mass media. Published in the context of her solo exhibitions at Barbican Art Gallery London and Kunstmuseum Basel, this book brings together a selection of Weems’ own writings, lectures, and conversations for the first time, providing personal insights into themes such as the consequences of power, artistic appropriation, music as inspiration, history-making, and the normative role of architecture.

Now available in paperback, this definitive book explores the multidisciplinary career of one of the most experimental and pioneering artists of the 20th century. Encompassing the entirety of Isamu Noguchi's work in sculpture, ceramics, photography, architecture, design, as well as the artist's playscapes, gardens and stage sets for modern dance and theatre performance, this survey explores Noguchi's creative process and lesser-known aspects of his practice, his engagement with a wide range of mediums and cultures, and his innovative achievements over six decades. Brimming with imagery and contributions from an international range of authors, this book helps readers grasp the diversity and patterns of Noguchi's work both in situ and in galleries. Archival photographs of the artist's studios offer glimpses into his experimental attitude towards sculpture. Themes of harmony and dissonance, which were central to his practice, are explored in a series of essays that consider the artist's dual heritage, the Japanese American experience, his worldwide travel and his many influences. It also pays tribute to Noguchi's fruitful collaborations with creatives from a range of industries, such as R. Buckminster Fuller, Martha Graham and Louis Kahn. Throughout the monograph Noguchi's own words provide a critical backdrop towards understanding an artist who embraced many schools of thought, and whose entire life and career set an example for partnership and cooperation across artistic, political and cultural boundaries.

Hailed as "British dance's true iconoclast", Michael Clark is a defining cultural figure in the contemporary dance world. Since emerging in the early 1980s as a prodigy at London's Royal Ballet School, Clark has remained at the forefront of innovation in dance, working in close collaboration with a broad range of pioneering artists such as Sarah Lucas, Leigh Bowery, Charles Atlas, Cerith Wyn Evans, Peter Doig, Elizabeth Peyton, Wolfgang Tillmans and musicians such as Mark E. Smith, Wire, Scritti Politti, and Relaxed Muscle. As a young choreographer, Clark brought together his classical ballet training with London's club culture, fashion, and punk rock to establish himself as one of the most innovative artists working in modern dance. His work-variously referencing punk, rock, and pop-is marked by a mixture of technical rigor and experimentation in a way that disrupts and reimagines our understanding of dance. This book features a series of enlightening essays and vivid illustrations of Clark's best-known performances, alongside archival material. Loosely tracing the chronological evolution of his career, a variety of cultural figures- ranging from Jarvis Cocker to Charles Atlas-write about the countercultural undercurrents with which Clark's work connects.

These creative spaces were incubators of radical thinking, in which artists could exchange provocative ideas. They were welcoming environments for artists, dancers, designers, writers, and musicians pushing the boundaries of cultural and social norms. Spanning the decades from the 1880s to the 1960s, this unique and multi-faceted illustrated history of alternative artistic spaces covers four continents and includes both famed and little-known sites of the avant-garde. Organized by city, it features painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, film, and archival material emanating from over a dozen cabarets, clubs, and bars that were home to the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Loie Fuller, Josef Hoffmann, Giacomo Balla, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Theo Van Doesburg, Jeanne Mammen, Jacob Lawrence, Ramon Alva de la Canal, and Ibrahim El-Salahi. It includes photographs of the interiors of the Chat Noir in Paris, the Cafe L'Aubette in Strasbourg and the Mbari Club in Nigeria; a cocktail menu from the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna; a 1930s night club map of Harlem; posters and invitations advertising performances at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and Mexico City's Cafe de Nadie; and countless artworks that emerged from these spaces conveying the energy and excitement of the time. A series of enlightening essays explore how each space fostered and stimulated new forms of artistic expression.