- Continue Shopping
- Your Basket is Empty
In December 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington made headlines when it responded to protests from the Catholic League by voluntarily censoring an excerpt of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly from its show on American portraiture.
Why a work of art could stir such emotions is at the heart of Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly, the first biography of a beleaguered art-world figure who became one of the most important voices of his generation. Wojnarowicz emerged from a Dickensian childhood that included orphanages, abusive and absent parents, and a life of hustling on the street. He first found acclaim in New York's East Village, a neighbourhood noted in the 1970s and '80s for its abandoned buildings, junkies, and burgeoning art scene. Along with Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wojnarowicz helped redefine art for the times.
As uptown art collectors looked downtown for the next big thing, this community of cultural outsiders was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. The ensuing culture war, the neighborhood's gentrification, and the AIDS crisis then devastated the East Village scene. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of thirty-seven. Carr's brilliant biography traces the untold story of a controversial and seminal figure at a pivotal moment in American culture.
Below is a sequence from "Fire in My Belly" (1987): by David Wojnarowicz, with music by Diamanda Galas:
Bloomsbury, 2012. 613 pages, paperback, colour and black and white images throughout,25 cm x 16 cm.
ISBN: 978-1-59691-533-6
Other Unbound Items
Live Art in the UK: Contemporary Performances of Precarity
Ed. Maria Chatzichristodoulou£21.99
Since entering the performance lexicon in the 1970s, the term Live Art has been used to describe a diverse but interrelated array of performance practices and approaches. This volume offers...
Dogs of Love: Manifesting Queer Histories in the Body
R Aslan and Chris Gylee£15.00
Dogs of Love is a companion book to the titular performance by ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS. In this practical guide, we ask you to celebrate queer life and love by...
An Apartment on Uranus
Paul B. Preciado£12.99
Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system, a frozen giant named after a Greek deity. It is also the inspiration for Uranism, a concept coined by the writer...
© 2020 Unbound/Live Art Development Agency. POS and Ecommerce by Shopify
