Traction
Tirdad Zolghadr
Published by Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2016, 264 pages, (1 b/w and 4 colour ill.), 13 × 21 cm, English
Price: €18 (Temporarily out of stock)

Traction argues that contemporary art is defined by a moral economy of indeterminacy that allows curators and artists to imagine themselves on the other side of power. This self-positioning, in turn, leaves us politically bankrupt, intellectually stagnant, and aesthetically predictable. In his memoir-polemic, curator and writer Tirdad Zolghadr candidly reflects on his own experiences and the work of others. He also drafts possibilities for a logic and a support structure that can offer some purchase of their own, beyond the gravitational pull of business as usual. Ultimately, Traction calls for a renewed sense of profession, somewhere within the corridors of power where, for better or worse, contemporary art has long arrived. Design by Aude Lehmann, Zurich.

#2016 #sternbergpress #tirdadzolghadr
Tell Them I Said No
Martin Herbert
Published by Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2016, 128 pages (b/w ill.), 12.8 × 19.7 cm, English
Price: €18 (Out of stock)

This collection of essays by Martin Herbert considers various artists who have withdrawn from the art world or adopted an antagonistic position toward its mechanisms. A large part of the artist’s role in today’s professionalized art system is being present. Providing a counterargument to this concept of self-marketing, Herbert examines the nature of retreat, whether in protest, as a deliberate conceptual act, or out of necessity. By illuminating these motives, Tell Them I Said No offers a unique perspective on where and how the needs of the artist and the needs of the art world diverge. Essays on Lutz Bacher, Stanley Brouwn, Christopher D’Arcangelo, Trisha Donnelly, David Hammons, Agnes Martin, Cady Noland, Laurie Parsons, Charlotte Posenenske, and Albert York.

#2016 #agnesmartin #cadynoland #charlotteposenenske #christopherdarcangelo #davidhammons #laurieparsons #lutzbacher #martinherbert #stanleybrouwn #sternbergpress #trishadonnelly
Like a Woman: Essays, Readings, Poems
Quinn Latimer
Published by Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2017, 248 pages, 13.6 × 20.5 cm, English
Price: €19 (Temporarily out of stock)

Composed in the space between the page and live performance, Latimer’s recent essays and poems collected here examine issues of genealogy and influence, the poverty and privilege of place, architecture’s relationship to language, and feminist economies of writing, reading, and art making. Shifting between written language and live address, between the needs of the internal and the external voice, Like a Woman retrieves the refrain, the litany, and the chorus, exploring their serial ecstasies and political possibilities.

#2017 #quinnlatimer #samdegroot #sternbergpress