Art Metropole

#12114

The Drumhead

Writer

Gerry Bibby

Price

$41.00

Date

2015

Publisher

Sternberg Press

Format

Artists' Books

Size

5 × 7.3 in

Length

118 pages

Over the past 50 years artist Gerry Bibby has inserted narratives and instructional texts into his artworks as acts of tactical withdrawal. The Drumhead, Bibby’s first publication, includes a series of his “Language Costumes” or fragmentary texts which, like William Burroughs’s The Wild Boys or Robert Walser’s The Walk, attest to an offended intelligence. Moving across performance, sculpture and writing, Gerry Bibby’s artworks take form at the uncomfortable fissures between the three. His “Language Costumes” arrive at these junctions as self-styled instructional texts, photocopy machine manuals, drinks menus and poetic passages. His captivating passages brim with wit, wry observation and occasionally with disgust, offering viewers “ways out” even if only at the time of reading. Commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution, The Drumhead follows a two-year collaboration with KUB Arena of the Kunsthaus Bregenz, The Showroom London, CCA Glasgow, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.