A major influence on 20th-century contemporary art, the sound and performance artist Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947) works from a highly personal universe of ritual, intoxication, and shamanism. Part exhibition document and artist book, this oversized publication is both electrifying and an assault to the senses exploding with images of rooms overflowing with the stuffed animals the artist calls “divinities.”
A sampling from 40 years of Charlemagne’s extensive experimental musical compositions, performances, and installations is complemented by Kunsthalle Wien curator Luca Lo Pinto’s interview with the artist and an essay by Whitney performance curator Jay Sanders. Also included are Palestine’s extraordinary music and sound annotations and a large collection of works on paper translating sound into images.
Besides Palestine being a force of his own, few recognize the powerful influence Charlemagne had on young artists such as Mike Kelly while he was teaching at Cal Arts in the 1970s. Palestine's work is exhibited and collected by major institutions throughout Europe and the US.
Hardcover, 80 pages, 75 color images, 10 inches x 13 inches, Kunsthalle Wien/Witte de With/Sternberg Press 2016.