Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Jack Smith at The Modern Institute, 14–20 Osborne Street, Glasgow, 24 January–24 March, 2015.

Jack Smith (1932–1989) is a central figure in the cultural history of downtown New York film, performance, and art. He began producing work in the late 1950s and became one of the most accomplished and influential artists working in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Inspired by 1960s subcultures of New York, underground film and experimental performance, Smith created a fantastical world fiction around his disgust with contemporary American consumer culture and a fascination with faux-Hollywood, as well as Orientalist exoticism. Through his own artistic and personal exploits, Smith developed a truly eccentric and captivating persona. Over the course of three decades, he transformed downtown New York into a theatrical environment for his ventures in film and photography.

Including contributions from Rosa Aiello, Mathis Altman, Tenzing Barshee, Gerry Bibby, The Parliament of Bodies, John Boskovich, Mercedes Bunz, Elijah Burgher, David Bussel, Gu Cheng, Mihaela Chiriac, Jay Chung, Eric D. Clark, Hans-Christian Dany, Bei Dao, Simon Denny, Nikola Dietrich, Francesca Drechsler, Martin Ebner, Melvin Edwards, Haytham El-Wardany, Stefanie Fezer, Carter Frasier, María Galindo, Julian Göthe, Michèle Graf, Selina Grüter, Cornelia Herfurtner, Daniel Herleth, Karl Holmqvist, Stephan Janitzky, Samuel Jeffery, Julia Jung, Mang Ke, Yuki Kimura, Valérie Knoll, Jakob Kolding, Lars Bang Larsen, Elisa R. Linn, Sebstian Lütgert, Ariane Müller, Robert M. Ochshorn, Henrik Olesen, Vera Palme, Paul B. Preciado, Elizabeth Ravn, Ulla Rossek, Huang Rui, Mark von Schlegell, Max Schmidtlein, Nora Schultz, Nong Shoahua, Jack Smith, Dan Solbach, Vera Tollmann, Amelie von Wulffen, Mark van Yetter, Florian Zeyfang.

Designed by Dan Solbach & Starship.

This publication brings together extensive material from Hamlet, mise-en-scène presented at Portikus, along with recently restored as well as never-published stills, drawings, and writings by American filmmaker and artist Jack Smith, related to his film Hamlet in the Rented World (A Fragment) (1970–73).

Hamlet, mise-en-scène, directed by Mark von Schlegell, was an adaptation that retold Shakespeare’s most abused tragedy while channeling the ghost of Jack Smith. The two-night rendition of Hamlet was performed by members of Städelschule’s Pure Fiction seminar, presented here alongside a rare selection of works by Smith, both from private collections and from the Jack Smith Archive.

Texts By Sylvère Lotringer, Birte Löschenkohl, Sophie von Olfers, Laura Preston, Juliane Rebentisch, Mark von Schlegell.

This publication documents an exhibition that took place in 2010 in the window of Antiquariat Buchholz. Michael Krebber presented here in collaboration with Sebastian Höckelmann works by Antonius Höckelmann and Jack Smith. The book contains a new text by Michael Krebber in German and English.

This publication contains the German philosopher Juliane Rebentisch’s seminal text Camp Materialism. Natural History in Jack Smith revised by the author and presented together with a new addendum A note on Camp Ridiculousness.

Jack Smith presented his performance Irrational Landlordism of Bagdad as part of the Cologne Art Fair fringe in the summer of 1977. Many other events were documented photographically and can now be found in the Cologne Art Fair archives—not so Smith’s performance. This poster publication, edited by Michael Krebber, shows him in his fair stall and during his performance for the first time. The pictures are perfect documents of a completely eccentric transaction by this pioneering director and performance artist.