{"title":"Books by Gregory Sholette","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781848224414","title":"The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against capitalism, political authoritarianism, colonial legacies, gentrification, but also in opposition to their own exploitation. They have also absorbed and reflected forms of protest within their art practice itself. \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Activism and the Activism of Art\u003c\/i\u003e maps, critiques, celebrates and historicises activist art, exploring its current urgency alongside the processes which have given rise to activism by artists, and activist forms of art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Gregory Sholette approaches his subject from the unusual dual perspective of commentator (as scholar and writer) and insider (as activist artist). He describes a new wave of activist art taking place not only within community-based protest groups, as it has for decades, but also amongst professionally trained, MFA-bearing art practitioners, many of whom, by choice or by circumstance, refuse to respect the conventional borders separating painting from protest, or art from utility. The book explores the subtle distinction between activist forms of art and protest by artists, and proposes that contemporary activist art and art activism constitute a broader paradigm shift that reflects the crisis of contemporary capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313066848629,"sku":"9781848224414","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848224414_c9402806-60b9-4e6a-be11-a8416c78bc95.jpg?v=1786029776"},{"product_id":"the-radical-unpresent","title":"The Radical Unpresent","description":"\u003cb\u003eA necessary and timely exploration of art activism today, informed by centuries of protest.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHow contemporary artists and activists are navigating and resisting the collapse of historical time in our uncanny present.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Radical Unpresent\u003c\/i\u003e examines our disorienting contemporary moment, in which our experience of time has become profoundly disrupted. Building on his earlier work on “dark matter” in the art world, Gregory Sholette introduces the concept of the \u003ci\u003eunpresent\u003c\/i\u003e—a condition in which everything appears the same yet is completely transformed, lacking both a past and a future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book traces the emergence of this uncanny temporal state through Brexit, Trump’s first election, and the COVID pandemic, culminating in the January 6th insurrection and the rise of MAGA 2.0 in 2025. Sholette analyzes how this temporal crisis manifests in both progressive and reactionary cultural responses, arguing that MAGA represents not simply regression but also a new kind of “retro-vanguard” that seeks to escape the \u003ci\u003eunpresent\u003c\/i\u003e by restoring an imagined past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNever one to be content with the status quo, Sholette reveals the inner workings of a “phantom archive”—a surplus repository of activist practices, unrealized possibilities, and spectral histories that artists access through repair, repurposing, and reenactment. Through examples ranging from Dread Scott’s slave rebellion reenactment to contemporary Belarus protest art, he demonstrates how artists are creating temporal interventions that acknowledge historical wounds while opening pathways to alternative futures.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499191411061,"sku":"9780262054119","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780262054119.jpg?v=1786694507"},{"product_id":"delirium-and-resistance","title":"Delirium and Resistance","description":"In the aftermath of the 2016 US elections, Brexit, and a global upsurge of nationalist populism, it is evident that the delirium and the crisis of neoliberal capitalism is now the delirium and crisis of liberal democracy and its culture. And though capitalist crisis does not begin within art, art can reflect and amplify its effects, to positive and negative ends. In this follow-up to his influential 2010 book, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture, Sholette engages in critical dialogue with artists' collectives, counter-institutions, and activist groups to offer an insightful, firsthand account of the relationship between politics and art in neoliberal society. Sholette lays out clear examples of art's deep involvement in capitalism: the dizzying prices achieved by artists who pander to the financial elite, the proliferation of museums that contribute to global competition between cities in order to attract capital, and the strange relationship between art and rampant gentrification that restructures the urban landscape. With a preface by noted author Lucy R. Lippard and an introduction by theorist Kim Charnley, Delirium and Resistance draws on over thirty years of critical debates and practices both in and beyond the art world to historicize and advocate for the art activist tradition that radically - and, at times, deliriously - entangles the visual arts with political struggles.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57695222563189,"sku":"9780745336848","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745336848.jpg?v=1793032128"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-gregory-sholette.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}