Islands and Contemporary Art
Published on 1. October 2024
Book
Hardback
308 pages
978-1-78914-936-4 (ISBN)
Description
In this groundbreaking book, Gill Perry looks at the vital role that islands play in contemporary visual arts. She shows that in response to urgent issues such as the climate emergency, migration and colonial and gendered histories, artists have created compelling and provocative works that resonate across continents and colonial archipelagos.
Perry navigates landscapes of the British Isles, Ireland, the Caribbean, Pacific Oceania, the Atlantic Ocean and the Galapagos, drawing on desert island myths and insights from Island Studies. From the 1970s to the present, she illuminates imaginative strategies of representation and metaphor in installation, multi-media and film projects by renowned artists including Robert Smithson, Lisa Reihana, Roni Horn, Rodney Graham, Tacita Dean, Karen McLean, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, Isaac Julien, Alex Hartley and Cornelia Parker. Taking into account diverse perspectives, she offers us a profound journey through artistic explorations of the island theme.
Perry navigates landscapes of the British Isles, Ireland, the Caribbean, Pacific Oceania, the Atlantic Ocean and the Galapagos, drawing on desert island myths and insights from Island Studies. From the 1970s to the present, she illuminates imaginative strategies of representation and metaphor in installation, multi-media and film projects by renowned artists including Robert Smithson, Lisa Reihana, Roni Horn, Rodney Graham, Tacita Dean, Karen McLean, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, Isaac Julien, Alex Hartley and Cornelia Parker. Taking into account diverse perspectives, she offers us a profound journey through artistic explorations of the island theme.
Reviews / Votes
Gill Perry has produced something remarkable for anyone interested in contemporary art and culture. Islands and Contemporary Art is a totally captivating and accessible survey of works and ideas illuminating our relationship to islands, both real and imaginary. It addresses important issues about how we value art, literature and film in a way that will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the forces - ecological, cultural and political - shaping our world. * Michael Corris, Professor Emeritus of Art, Southern Methodist University * In this exemplary and curious interweaving of themes, environments, communities and artworks, Gill Perry mobilizes an ecologically aware, feminist and postcolonial intelligence in the exploration of a conceptual archipelago of allegory, myth and creative place making. This generously illustrated book explores gender, ecology, politics and aesthetics, entangled with the facts and fantasies of island stories. It provides an insightful understanding of how artists work to stimulate spectacular and elemental intimations of these elusive themes. * Barry Curtis, Istituto Marangoni and Central Saint Martins, London * For artists the island offers an irresistible trope of paradise and dystopia. Like an incredible group exhibition - museums take note! - Gill Perry's unprecedented study takes the legacy of Robert Smithson as her point of departure for an enthralling journey around the practices of 21st-century artists. Spanning a vast range of mediums and aesthetic and conceptual strategies, her beautifully written and revelatory survey reveals the deeper concerns shaping the art of our time as artists engage with the legacies of patriarchy, colonialism and environmental destruction. Essential reading for students, scholars, curators and practitioners, this book will also be illuminating for the interested lay reader. * Iwona Blazwick, curator, Arts AlUla, and author *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
136 illustrations, 130 in colour
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
857 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78914-936-4 (9781789149364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gill Perry is Emeritus Professor of Art History at the Open University, UK. Her books include Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde (1995), Themes in Contemporary Art (editor, 2004), Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art and Theatre, 1768-1820 (2007) and Playing at Home: The House in Contemporary Art (Reaktion, 2013).