On the occasion of Hérvé Télémaque’s first exhibition in the UK in 2021, A Hopscotch of the Mind. Serpentine, Aspen Art Museum and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter und Franz König have co-published this new catalogue.
This is one of the first major catalogues on Hérvé Télémaque’s work to be published in English and includes newly-commissioned texts that trace Télémaque’s six decades of work through an art historical lens, while also providing new perspectives on his work that draw upon its literary, political, historical and theoretical underpinnings. Richly illustrated and designed by Zak Group, it includes contributions by C.C. McKee, Helen Marten, Lyonel Trouillot, Françoise Vergès, Sarah Wilson, and an interview between Hervé Télémaque and Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Academic C.C. McKee draws on their specialism in the art and visual culture of the modern Atlantic world in order to read Télémaque’s work through a psychoanalytic lens and the context of Haitian art. Artist Helen Marten and writer Lyonel Trouillot have composed thoughtful and poetic responses to Télémaque’s work, suggesting new points of entry into the artist’s oeuvre. Political scientist Françoise Vergès uses the artist’s recurring motif of the open mouth as a starting point for a meditation on Haitian history and the politics of anti-Blackness, while art historian Sarah Wilson’s text contextualises Télémaque’s practice within the wider European artistic scene. The book also includes an extended interview with the artist, bringing together two rich conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as sections comprising selections of the artist’s writings and works on paper.
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