Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World

by Anne Ellegood, Jennifer A. González (Contributor), Fred Moten (Contributor)

Published in conjunction with the first North American survey of the work of Jimmie Durham, this beautifully illustrated catalogue explores Durham's vital contributions to contemporary art since the 1970s, both in the US and internationally. Born of Cherokee descent, in 1940s Arkansas, Jimmie Durham takes up such issues as the politics of representation, histories of genocide, and citizenship and exile. This volume collects an array of Durham's sculptures, drawings, photography, video, and performance. It includes essays about Durham's material choices and their metaphoric potential; his participation in the NYC art scene in the 1980s; his use of language; and his ties to Mexico after living in Cuernavaca. An interview with Durham traces his involvement with the American Indian Movement and his self-exile from the US, which along with his essays and poetry, illuminate his life and work. This book provides an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Durham, arguably one of the most important artists working today.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2017

Reviews

[William West · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first exposure to Durham's work and I instantly became a fan. Angry, thought provoking, and terribly funny simultaneously, I'd be hard pressed to imagine a modern artist whose work manages to be so... entertaining. Indeed, within the world of contemporary "fine art", Durham is singularly witty. Although Durham was not, to the best of my knowledge, present in the gallery when I saw this show, I almost had the sense of watching a great stand-up comedian and/or performance artist, so immediately does Durham's personality and sense of humor come through his work.

Durham is Native American, and the struggle of indigenous peoples in the Americas is decidedly one of the central themes of his art. He was, for a time, an activist with the American Indian Movement. Yet his art is also critiquing the way that Native Americans are discursively defined by the marginalization and oppression they experience. Indeed, Durham angered some Native activists when he refused to register with a federal program that, supposedly, guaranteed that profits from "Native art" profited Native communities. Why, asked Durham, should his work be defined by his lineage?

One of the exhibit's first works consists of bones Durham found around Manhattan and decorated in "traditional" ways. He documents a sale he had of this "authentic Native American art" which he sold for $5 a piece. His advertisement for the sale reminds the potential customers that art always increases in value after the artist dies and that Native men statistically tend to have short life-spans. He then goes on to list his own health problems.

Durham, in general, does not treat identity with any reverence. The exhibit/ catalogue's title comes from a verbal motif in his work that suggests that identity is inherently self-centered. One's assertion of self-as-x necessarily imposes a certain hierarchy onto being. Durham seems to try to escape this vicious circle by laughing at it. Identity, in certain regards, gradually becomes intertwined with knowledge as Durham is openly mocking of the self-satisfaction of science, both natural and social. Mock-charts and genealogies appear frequently in his work.

Other times, especially in his video work, Durham just seems out to have fun and make people laugh. In one video piece he beats the crap out of a refrigerator by throwing stones at it from off-screen. What remains of the frig is presented as an artwork and dubbed "Saint Frigo."

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

delicious. if you know durham's art, you will certainly want to dive into this study of his work. i am a big fan of his art - not easily digested, assimilated, or summed up. it pushes against all forms of criticism, but that's not the point of his work, more the result of being so wholly unique. it was great to see the retrospective at the hammer museum - this book is the catalogue of that show. made me want to go back for a third time and see more of the video work (some are 5 hours long .... i sat through a few hours of various video works ...). but really, it's the way durham repurposes found objects, most of which were discarded as rubbish and makes miracles with them - and his idiosyncratic use of text. such good stuff!