This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Jimmie Durham: Various Items and Complaints (1 October – 8 November 2015) at Serpentine, London.
It presents a survey of Durham’s work, which goes beyond the scope of the exhibition and also celebrates his writing practice. A selection of essays and poems by Durham featured in the book articulate his experience and perceptions of living in Europe. This includes a number of works previously unpublished such as the poems After My Surgery, Askance and LISE MEITNER (After Primo Levi) and; The Kid the Cop Shot as well as the essay Celebrating Europe.
The book features two essays that underscore different approaches to Durham’s practice through the lens of several works in the exhibition. Jean Fisher, Emeritus Professor of Fine Art and Transcultural Studies at Middlesex University, has followed and written on Durham’s practice since 1985. In her new essay Holding a Mirror to Humanity she summarises the socio-historical background that informs some of Durham’s artistic choices. ‘I intend to use this information in the future’ by Kate Nesin, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, examines ideas of storytelling in Durham’s sculptural language and works that incorporate text.
Jimmie Durham
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Jimmie Durham (b. 1940, USA), an artist, poet, essayist and political activist whose career spans five decades. At the heart of Durham’s practice is a continuous exploration and production of hybrid and seemingly fragmented installations that invite the viewer to reconstitute or reconstruct the underlying signs embedded in his works. His work addresses the political and cultural forces, e.g. the forces of colonialism that constructs our contemporary discourses and challenges our understanding of authenticity in art. Since Durham moved to Europe in the early 1990s, his works often, but not exclusively, challenge the idea of architecture, monumental works and narration of national identities by deconstructing those stereotypes and prejudices on which the Western culture is based.
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