Buried Not Dead

Essays

Fiona McGregor

$26.95

Paperback

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English

Giramondo Publishing
01 February 2021

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary essays; Australasian & Pacific history; Biography - Australian; Arts & Architecture - Australian

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ---- This collection of essays is for those interested in the arts sub-culture of Sydney, those interested in the less-mainstream - or absolutely non-mainstream! What makes these critiques and writings so engaging is the personal element that Fiona McGregor, performance artist and novelist, brings to them.

Over the course of the book, in addition to reading about a number of artists and performers, we learn a lot about the personal history of McGregor and the importance of this alternative scene in helping her discover and embrace her artistic and queer self. There's even a chapter on cats. It's frank, heartfelt writing that draws the reader in, some of whom may have frequented the same clubs and locations mentioned in this slice of Sydney's history. Craig Kirchner

Shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

Artist and novelist Fiona McGregor's book, Buried Not Dead, is a collection of essays on art, performance, sexuality, activism and the hidden life of the city, through portraits of the artists, writers, dancers, tattooists and DJs that have made their mark on the culture over the past thirty years..

It features performance artists, writers, dancers, tattooists and DJs, some of them famous, like Marina Abramovic and Mike Parr, while others, like Latai Taumoepeau, Lanny K, Kathleen Mary Fallon and Peter Doyle, are important figures but less well known. In her portraits of these performers and artists and the scenes they inhabit, McGregor creates an intimate and expansive archive of a kind rarely recorded in our histories.

Fiona McGregor has a deep and enduring involvement in the worlds she represents. She came of age as an artist during an outpouring of performative queer creativity, in a community that celebrated subversion, dissent and uninhibited partygoing, and in her writing she observes the shift from that moment to new forms of cultural repression. McGregor is a participant in her essays as well as a witness - she sees through an artist's eyes and records what she perceives with a novelist's insight. In excavating the lives of others, she reveals her own, and shows the possibilities that exist beneath the surface of our culture.

'Compromise-averse, dangerous, this book is also a precious archive of radical art-making witnessed firsthand.' - Maria Tumarkin

'MacGregor has a fine eye for the moment, in a text or performance, when the marvellous happens. Cutting across the boring divides between high art and low dives, Buried Not Dead is alive to what's alive.' - McKenzie Wark

'In a world that bludgeons you into numbness Buried Not Dead will startle you back to life. McGregor's book is a shriek of rage and a cry of pleasure, and sometimes it is hard to tell one from the other.' - Krissy Kneen

'A lively and unpretentious book, Buried Not Dead is reminiscent of the work of Kathy Acker and Eileen Myles - a collection that does not indulge in misplaced nostalgia, instead recontextualising the past in hopes of a shared future.' Cher Tan, Books+Publishing

By: Fiona McGregor
Imprint: Giramondo Publishing
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 148mm,
ISBN: 9781925818604
ISBN 10: 1925818608
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 01 February 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active