Nato Thompson

One of the country's leading activist curators explores how corporations and governments have used art and culture to mystify and manipulate us. The production of culture was once the domain of artists, but beginning in the early 1900s, the emerging fields of public relations, advertising and marketing transformed the way the powerful communicate with the rest of us. A century later, the tools are more sophisticated than ever, the onslaught more relentless. In Culture as Weapon, acclaimed curator and critic Nato Thompson reveals how institutions use art and culture to ensure profits and constrain dissent--and shows us that there are alternatives. An eye-opening account of the way advertising, media, and politics work today, Culture as Weapon offers a radically new way of looking at our world.

Art and Marketing in the Age of Total Communication

Culture As Weapon

When their cruel master Marty McGuinn heads off to the Muddy Carnival, two peculiar nocturnal children, Fennel and Isabella, seize the opportunity to explore the city of Barrenwood. Horse drawn carriages, neon lights, the forces of gentrification, and the industrial revolution provide the outside-of-time backdrop as Isabella searches for like minded supernatural creatures and her malicious brother crafts the ultimate disaster.

Marshsong

Experimental geography

Andrew Bolton

Nick (ART) Cave

Elvira Dyangani Ose

As electrifying and colorful as the "Soundsuits" it features, this survey of the renowned artist Nick Cave also features his latest performance work, public installations, and sculptural assemblages. The book chronicles the artist's ingenious use of materials, which began with a Soundsuit constructed entirely from twigs and has since ranged from secondhand rugs and other thrift-store finds to feathers, buttons, beading, and rainbow-dyed synthetic hair. Dazzling images of Cave's Soundsuits are presented alongside video stills and performance views that capture the current of joyful energy that runs throughout the work.

Epitome

Nick Cave

'Living as Form' grew out of a major exhibition at Creative Time in New York City. Like the exhibition, the book is a landmark survey of more than 100 projects selected by a 30-person curatorial advisory team; each project is documented by a selection of colour images.

Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011

Living as Form

Marc Azoulay

Joseph Remnant

The first major and in-depth retrospective monograph on JR, the enigmatic and anonymous Parisian photographer/street artist/activist behind some of the world's most provocative large-scale public photography projects. Created in close collaboration with JR, this book includes all bodies of his work, his collaborations with other artists and institutions such as the New York Ballet and previously unpublished behind-the-scenes documentation of his studios in Paris and New York, where he and his creative collaborators live and work. Introducing JR 's story is a specially commissioned graphic novel by comic artist Joseph Remnant, which charts his rise from graffiti roots and his decision to become a full-time artist. Features a survey essay by Nato Thompson, Chief Curator of Creative Time, New York.

JR: Can Art Change the World?

The most comprehensive monograph on the enigmatic French street artist - now updated to include brand-new work Filled with stunning photography, this extraordinary monograph charts JR's widereaching trajectory and a range of collaborative projects executed across the globe. Created in close collaboration with the artist, it features chapters on each of JR's major bodies of work - from 'Expo2Rue,' which launched his career as a street artist, to 'The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America' published in Time magazine in 2018. A specially commissioned graphic novel by comic artist Joseph Remnant and a survey essay by Nato Thompson tell JR's fascinating story.

JR: Can Art Change the World? (Revised and Expanded Edition)

In our chaotic world of co-opted imagery, does art still have power? A fog of images and information permeates the world nowadays: from advertising, television, radio, and film to the glut produced by the new economy and the rise of social media . . . where even our friends suddenly seem to be selling us the ultimate product: themselves. Here, Nato Thompson—one of the country’s most celebrated young curators and critics—investigates what this deluge means for those dedicated to socially engaged art and activism. How can anyone find a voice and make change in a world flooded with such pseudo-art? How are we supposed to discern what’s true in the product emanating from the ceaseless machine of consumer capitalism, a machine that appropriates from art history, and now from the methods of grassroots political organizing and even social networking? Thompson’s invigorating answers to those questions highlights the work of some of the most innovative and interesting artists and activists working today, as well as institutions that empower their communities to see power and reimagine it. From cooperative housing to anarchist infoshops to alternative art venues, Seeing Power reveals ways that art today can and does inspire innovation and dramatic transformation . . . perhaps as never before.

Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century

Seeing Power

Corina L. Apostol

Making Another World Possible offers a broad look at an array of socially engaged cultural practices that have become increasingly visible in the past decade, across diverse fields such as visual art, performance, theater, activism, architecture, urban planning, pedagogy, and ecology. Part I of the book introduces the reader to the field of socially engaged art and cultural practice, spanning the past ten years of dynamism and development. Part II presents a visually striking summary of key events from 1945 to the present, offering an expansive view of socially engaged art throughout history, and Part III offers an overview of the current state of the field, elucidating some of the key issues facing practitioners and communities. Finally, Part IV identifies ten global issues and, in turn, documents 100 key artistic projects from around the world to illustrate the various critical, aesthetic and political modes in which artists, cultural workers, and communities are responding to these issues from their specific local contexts. This is a much needed and timely archive that broadens and deepens the conversation on socially engaged art and culture. It includes commissioned essays from noted critics, practitioners, and theorists in the field, as well as key examples that allow insights into methodologies, contextualize the conditions of sites, and broaden the range of what constitutes an engaged culture. Of interest to a wide range of readers, from practitioners and scholars of performance to curators and historians, Making Another World Possible offers both breadth and depth, spanning history and individual works, to offer a unique insight into the field of socially engaged art.

10 Creative Time Summits, 10 Global Issues, 100 Art Projects

Making Another World Possible

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

Contemporary artists investigate the boundaries between animal and human in a world of transgenics and dissolving distinctions; with 65 color images of new works.

Nato Thompson

Books

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