Lorraine O’Grady, in All of Her Literary Brilliance
The first book to offer a comprehensive overview of O’Grady’s writings, Writing in Space 1973 — 2019 affirms both the range and reach of the artist’s impact upon an art world that has only belatedly recognized her.
by Alexandra M. Thomas
November 16, 2020
Lorraine O’Grady is a pivotal figure of the Black American avant-garde — a performance artist, conceptual artist, Black feminist provocateur, and cultural critic. Although the art world has mainly focused on the visual elements of O’Grady’s work, she has long been a prolific writer. Lorraine O’Grady: Writing in Space 1973 — 2019, edited by art critic and feminist writer Aruna D’Souza, underscores the preeminence of the written word as a medium for O’Grady. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of O’Grady’s writing. Monumental texts, canonical essays, interviews, performance transcripts, and previously unpublished material form the edited volume, affirming both the range and reach of the artist’s significant impact upon an art world that has only belatedly recognized her. From O’Grady’s time as a rock critic for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice in the 1970s, to her ongoing performance art and conceptual photography practices, the book
highlights myriad chapters of O’Grady’s career while foregrounding how literary production dictates the stakes of her visual works.
In a 1983 artist statement, she asserts: “I’d say that I am writing in space.” She expresses that writing in the traditional sense is too linear; instead, writing in space allows for a simultaneity that can only be gained through considering language along with one’s spatial surroundings. Her enigmatic yet compelling statement positions performance and conceptual art as liaisons between textual and visual worlds. She elaborates on other guiding principles: hybridity, an attention to both/andisms and the diptych — these interconnected notions animate many of her searing assessments of race, gender, subjectivity, and modernism.( … )