Overview

This interdisciplinary anthology explores the complex relationships in an artist’s life between fact and fiction, presentation and existence, and critique and creation, and examines the work that ultimately results from these tensions.   Using a combination of critical and personal essays and interviews, MASKS presents David Bowie as the key exemplifier of the concept of the “mask,” then further applies the same framework to other liminal artists and thinkers who challenged the established boundaries of the art/pop academic worlds, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Søren Kierkegaard, Yukio Mishima, and Hunter S. Thompson. Featuring contributions from John Gray and Slavoj Žižek and interviews with Gary Lachman and Davide De Angelis, this book will appeal to scholars and students of cultural criticism, aesthetics, and the philosophy of art; practicing artists; and fans of Bowie and other artists whose work enacts experiments in identity.

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9781789381085

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Reviews

"'Curcio’s book unravels artists and artifice, whether through masks of cosmetics, cultural dance, cartoon illustrations, poetry, politics or literature, the mask either conflicts with or enhances the artist themselves. The fascinating segments of the book offer ways in which Bowie’s artistic life and other artists led similar convictions and creative journeys to find meaning. Curcio brings beautiful narratives together for the reader to see the artist through their self-reflective lens.' -- Dr Catharine Weiss, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture ""Artists who swim in liminal seas, who speak through symbol, myth and mask embodying our deepest and darkest dreams, both intrigue and terrify. Intrinsically compelled or performatively constructed, they become our shamans by proxy.  But Curcio delves further, exploring the complex relationship between the artist and the projections and obsessions that swirl around them, not always transforming but sometimes merging or devouring them. It is a fascinating journey into the mysterious energies surrounding artists of artifice.""    Tanja Stark – artist -- Tanja Stark – artist"

Artists who swim in liminal seas, who speak through symbol, myth and mask embodying our deepest and darkest dreams, both intrigue and terrify. Intrinsically compelled or performatively constructed, they become our shamans by proxy. But Curcio delves further, exploring the complex relationship between the artist and the projections and obsessions that swirl around them, not always transforming but sometimes merging or devouring them. It is a fascinating journey into the mysterious energies surrounding artists of artifice. Tanja Stark - artist -- Tanja Stark - artist

Author Information

Jamie Curcio (BA, Bard College) is a writer, artist, and transmedia producer living in Boston. He is the author of numerous books including Join My Cult! (New Falcon, 2004), Narrative Machines and Party at the World’s End (Mythos Media, 2017, 2013), and former editor for Rebel News, and The Immanence of Myth (Weaponized, 2011). He is the current editor at ModernMythology.net.

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