Estrangement Principle - by Ariel Goldberg (Paperback)

About the Book

A book-length essay that travels through the limits and landscapes of categorization in recent histories of literature and art

Book Synopsis

The Estrangement Principle argues for a wider range of possible associations with art made by queer people by unraveling the difficulties of the queer art label. Goldberg invokes the lives and works of artists Renee Gladman, Jocelyn Saidenberg, Jack Waters & Peter Cramer, and others to bring into focus the problematics of categorization in art and literary histories. This book-length essay mixes cultural criticism, close readings, and personal anecdotes, all the while developing a deftly wrought tension between a polemical voice and one of ambivalence. The Estrangement Principle is an exercise in contradiction with the ultimate goal of resisting the practice of movement naming."

Review Quotes

In eight smart, provocative essays, writer and artist Goldberg (The Photographer) examines queer art--literary, visual, and performance-based--and questions the value of fraught, slippery labels such as queer that are variously deployed and interpreted. Goldberg shows the limits of labels, observing that calling art "queer" excludes certain art that shares quite a lot with queer art. They remind readers that identities, and communities--the multiplicities of art and humankind--resist being reduced to easy, well-bounded categories. Goldberg effectively queers readers' perspective on consuming and producing cultural products, reminding them to recursively look at language, their contexts, and what their purposes may be when they include and exclude: "Labeling art and writing 'queer' affirms the power of those who are consistently silenced." This book is a passport to the bold, complex world of queer art, literature, theory, politics, and community. (Sept.)
Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

This book might contain the seeds of queer canon, which is sorely needed. Certainly any canon can be expanded but let's start somewhere. Let's start here. Ariel understands the limits and demands of definitions and refuses to be a spokesperson, and what felt a bit policing in the beginning feels much less so by the end.--Kenyatta Jean-Paul Garcia "Tarpaulin Sky"

About the Author

ARIEL GOLDBERG'S publications include The Photographer, Picture Cameras and The Photographer without a Camera. They have received a research fellowship at the New York Public Library's Wertheim Study and a Franklin Furnace Fund grant for a series of performances and slideshows. They have been an artist in resident at Headland's Center for the Arts, The Invisible Dog, Residencias Artísticas Intercambios and SOMA in Mexico City.