BOOKS
Recent books featuring my work (click on images for more info):
In Fairyland: The World of Tessa Farmer, Catriona McAra
For almost two decades now, Tessa Farmer has been evolving a new species of fairy. They represent the point at which science tilts into fantasy – as the sleep of reason produces monsters. In Fairyland is the first substantial scholarly volume devoted to Farmer’s work. Here, leading thinkers in the fields of animal art, natural history and gothic studies assemble to investigate the significance of Farmer and her fairies, covering aspects from their relationship to fairy traditions in folklore and art, to entomological precedents for the malevolent behaviours of her creations.
Edited by art historian and curator Catriona McAra, In Fairyland consists of eight carefully crafted chapters by Giovanni Aloi, Gail-Nina Anderson, Gavin Broad, Brian Catling, Jeremy Harte, Petra Lange-Berndt, and John Sears. (Strange Attractor Press)
“Tessa Farmer’s dark, delicate spaces, her untamed, intricate creatures absolutely mesmerise me.” Kate Bernheimer, author of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture, Barrett Klein (forthcoming)
From one of America’s leading entomologists comes a buzz-worthy exploration of the many ways insects have affected human society, history, and culture
Insects surround us. They fuel life on earth through their natural biological functions as pollinators, predators, and prey, but they also play an often overlooked role in our culture. Their anatomy and habitats have informed how we live, how we build, how we create art, and how we take flight. In Insect Epiphany, author Barrett Klein shares his expert insights into the outsize influence that insects have had on civilization. Our world would look very different without insects, not just because they are part of the food chain, but because they have inspired so many aspects of our cultural output. (Timber Press)
Reimag(in)ing The Victorians in Contemporary Art, Britain and Beyond, Isobel Elstob
From contemporary deployments of taxidermy, magic lanterns and microscopy to the visualization of forgotten lives, marginalized narratives and colonial histories, this book explores how the work of artists including Mat Collishaw, Yinka Shonibare, Tessa Farmer, Mark Dion, Dorothy Cross and Ingrid Pollard reimag(in)es the Victorians in the ‘present’. Examining how recent paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations and films revisit and re-present nineteenth-century technologies, practices and events, the book’s rich interdisciplinary approach applies literary, media and linguistic theories to its analysis of visual art, alongside in-depth discussions of the Victorian inventions, concepts and narratives that they invoke. The book’s emphasis on how – and why – we represent the historical past makes its contribution particularly timely. And by drawing attention to the importance of historiography to the work of these artists, it also unravels the complicated history of History itself. This book will speak to diverse audiences including those interested in art history, visual culture, Victorian and neo-Victorian studies, as well as literature, histories of science and media, postcolonialism, museology, gender studies, postmodernism and the history of ideas. (Palgrave Macmillan)
House Of Flies, Iain Sinclair
A new series of London tales: story, memoir, urban wandering... by a diverse group of gifted writers.
Arthur Machen once wrote 'I think of these things as I pass along the interminable wandering of the London streets; of the strange things which may have been done behind the weariest, dreariest walls'.
The shades of long-dead writers in the London streets, random meetngs, quests and journeys striking lines across the city, days of joy or woe, the past seeping through the pavements, glimpses of the fantastic in the everyday: London Adventures can be any or all of these. In House of Flies, the first in the series, the ghost of Arthur Machen peers from behind the veil, his visions pulling modern pilgrims through the portals of the Grays Inn Road and the groves of Stoke Newington. (The Three Imposters)
Imagining England’s Past: Inspiration, Enchantment, Obsession, Susan Owens
England has long built its sense of self on visions of its past. What does it mean for medieval writers to summon King Arthur from the post-Roman fog; for William Morris to resurrect the skills of the medieval workshop and Julia Margaret Cameron to portray the Arthurian court with her Victorian camera; or for Yinka Shonibare in the final years of the twentieth century to visualize a Black Victorian dandy?
By exploring the imaginations of successive generations, this book reveals how diverse notions of the past have inspired literature, art, music, architecture and fashion. It shines a light on subjects from myths to mock-Tudor houses, Stonehenge to steampunk, and asks how – and why – the past continues so powerfully to shape the present. Not a history of England, but a history of those who have written, painted and dreamed it into being, Imagining England's Past offers a lively, erudite account of the making and manipulation of the days of old. (Thames and Hudson)
L’insecte dans tous ses etats, Alain Montandon
At a time when insects are doomed to sudden disappearance, this book reminds us how much they fascinate and inspire creators. With tapestry, toile de Jouy, costumes and clothing, the whole textile world is invited to participate. Jewels and ornaments take us into Art Nouveau and Art Deco. In addition to static but nonetheless striking images for the more popular destinations of the press or posters, the creature finds animation in cartoons and cinema. In the very contemporary fields of installations, sculptures and photographs, insects themselves, caddisflies or flies, participate in the creation of the work.
The beauty of each work is associated with a commentary made by the artist himself or a specialist in the field. (Blaise Pascal University Press)
Interviews/ ARTICLES
BURN OR PUBLISH Frankfurter Allgemeine, Review of Kafka: Making of an Icon
WAX, WINGS AND SWARMS: Insects and their products as art media, Barrett A. Klein
FAD MAGAZINE Review of Reimag(in)ing the Victorians by Theo Ellison
STUDIO INTERNATIONAL Review of Reimag(in)ing the Victorians by Anna Mcnay
HUFFINGTON POST Artist Tessa Farmer discusses battling anxiety and depression
IN WILD AIR A weekly newsletter featuring interesting people and interesting things
HUNGER MAGAZINE Interview by Hayden Kays
PRESERVED PROJECT Interview by Petra Lange-Berndt
HOLDFAST MAGAZINE Interview by Laurel Sills
CURATED BY CREATIVES Interview by Janine Bartels
CURIOUS CONGRESS Article/ Interview by Catriona Mcara
VICE Tessa Farmer's creepy little fairy gangs. Interview by Esra Gürmen
NOTTINGHAM VISUAL ARTS Interview by Beth Bramich