On Art Writing

My third essay attempts a tentative definition of—and offers up some propositions for—art writing. It begins by demarcating this genre or field of practice from other forms of writing in and around art—in section (1) Precursors and Fellow Travellers. It then goes on to build its argument through eight further themes or propositions: (2) Pitch, Process and Performance. In which I suggest that art writing tends towards the staged or the self-conscious. (3) Scripts, Spells and Voice. In which art writing is seen to often involve performative modes of expression. (4) Other Registers. Here I look to how art writing can involve other forms of representation besides the written word (for example, drawings or found images). (5) Fictioning and the Foregrounding of Method. In which I suggest that art writing often foregrounds imagery and the imagination, especially in terms of conjuring other space-times. (6) Artists’ Books and Novels. In this section, I make the claim that the presentation—in physical form—is important with art writing. (7) Technological Mediations. Here I briefly address art writing in relation to digitalisation and the web. (8) Sites, Scenes and Discursive Communities. In which I address the way in which art writing is often linked to certain sites of publication/distribution and to different scenes. (9) Marked Bodies and a Minor Genre. In this final section, I suggest that art writing can also be a place for marginalised and marked authors and communities (which means it resonates with autofiction and autotheory). These themes/propositions are followed by two codas. The first attends to the art collective I am part of as a case study of art writing, specifically in relation to performance; the second and longer one attends to the possibility that art writing (and indeed theory-fiction) might contribute to the project of decolonisation.