This is the most comprehensive study of Alastair MacLennan’s extensive performance practice, nationally and internationally renowned for its contribution to the field of performance art. The essays in this collection explore MacLennan’s art practice, its influence on the Belfast art scene, and its relationships with wider art histories.
The book places MacLennan’s work in its proper historical context, featuring outstanding archival visual documentation alongside new commissioned essays and interviews, none of which have been previously published. The essays range from descriptive to interpretive: some set the work in historical context while others provide pertinent biography. This variety is appropriate—and perhaps even necessary—in looking at the work of a living artist whose work is particularly complex and challenging. Each writer addresses the art on their own terms, and the resulting essays provide an approachable presentation of a multilayered body of work.
Edited by:
Sandra Johnston,
Cherie Driver,
Paula Blair
Imprint: Intellect Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 220mm,
Width: 220mm,
ISBN: 9781789383720
ISBN 10: 1789383722
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 11 January 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Introduction: Actional Poetics – ASH SHE HE: The Performance Actuations of Alastair MacLennan, 1971–2018 Sandra Johnston and Paula Blair Alastair MacLennan: Troubled time Nick Stewart ‘Maybe you don’t need the paintbrush…?’ In conversation Declan McGonagle and Alastair MacLennan Elemental qualities in the work of Alastair MacLennan Denys Blacker Sensible transcendence Chérie Driver Alastair MacLennan: A life seen as a form of pedagogy Brian Connolly ‘Sometimes you need help from other people’s ghosts’: Alastair MacLennan’s multi-disciplinary and ‘instituting’ practice as civil action Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes Alastair MacLennan: Universal nomad Nigel Rolfe Actuations: Alastair MacLennan’s influence on Bbeyond Brian Patterson Tender dwelling in the strewn Adrian Heathfield What shall we ask for? Considering the transformative moment in Alastair MacLennan’s Actuations Sandra Johnston Death, transience and duration – Alastair MacLennan Helge Meyer Proximity and perpetrators: Reflecting on implications of registering perpetrators in the performance art of Alastair MacLennan Dominic Thorpe Triple-AAA: Alastair MacLennan, Adrian Hall & André Stitt Spectral Arc, Vanishing Point and Memoranda: Hauntology and atemporality in performances 2011–13 André Stitt Precarious aftermaths Paula Blair Notes on Contributors
Dr Chérie Driver is a lecturer in art theory at Ulster University. Driver has worked as a painter, arts administrator and as a researcher on a number of collaborative research projects in the area of ‘art and its locations’ and specializing in art in contested spaces and art and documentation. Dr Sandra Johnston is a visual artist from Northern Ireland active internationally since 1992, working predominantly in the areas of site-responsive performance and installation. Johnston’s actions have often involved exploring the aftermath of trauma, through developing acts of commemoration that exist as forms of testimony and empathetic encounter. Dr Paula Blair is a researcher, writer and podcaster who experiments with performative written and spoken documentation of live performance art.
