Essayism

EssayismFrom the blurb: Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised between tradition and experiment. The essay wants above all to wander, but also to arrive at symmetry and wholeness; it nurses competing urges to integrity and disarray, perfection and fragmentation, confession and invention. How to write about essays and essayists while staying true to

mapping the relationships among chance

skilfully realised in various mediums such as collages on canvas

ambiguous objects

Johannesburg and Havana biennials

Fosso’s work is now held in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate

"Bead by Bead: Reviving an Ancient African Tradition showcases the funky

in the past 5 years

the catalogue includes original thematic essays by leading art historians

Blom explicates his efforts as “narrowing the gap between mind and hand

the artist’s first retrospective

slightly wonky

and the houses of the rich become palaces