Three Prospectus Monographs 2016

Artists in Context co-director Louisa McCall produced this limited edition monograph series featuring the work of three artists – Nancy Andrews, Wendy Jacob and Natalie Jeremijenko – who were commissioned by The Arts Company to contribute to the Artists’ Prospectus for the Nation. Each of the three monographs focuses on a theme prevalent in one artist's work through an essay or edited conversation and numerous illustrations. The monograph set is accompanied by an introductory booklet containing additional illustrations and an essay by McCall titled "What It Means to Be Human: The Work of Nancy Andrews, Wendy Jacob, and Natalie Jeremijenko."

 

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The monographs are:

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Empathy Machine

Nancy Andrews

Essay by Walter M. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H.

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A Matter of Engagement 

Wendy Jacob

Essay by Sara Hendren

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Mutualism: A Master Metaphor for the Future  

Natalie Jeremijenko

Conversation with Peter Galison

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Here is an excerpt from the beginning of McCall's essay:

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“This monograph series features the work of three deeply engaged contemporary artists, Nancy Andrews, Wendy Jacob, and Natalie Jeremijenko, who offer new perspectives on the social, cultural, environmental, and scientific controversies of our time. Together, their work creates an opportunity to think about who we are as humans and how we operate, living complicated lives in a time of impending, monumental change. The planet is in peril, our political life is fractured, global health crises mount and the divide between those who have and those who have not grows dangerously wider every day.

 

“Artists are prone to ask questions about the big picture, about what's missing and what's needed to make cultural shifts. The three monographs included in this series, Empathy Machine, A Matter of Engagement, and Mutualism: A Master Metaphor for the Future, represent the kind of questioning and projecting the very best artists do, to help us contemplate alternative paths for moving forward.

 

“None of these artists would lay claim to such a grand vision of her work. They describe their projects as small-scale, actionable proposals for different ways of thinking and doing, often inviting more questions than answers. What's important is that they make us stop and think what the world would be like if our approach to the environment was based on mutualistic systems design, if knowledge production did not privilege one way of knowing but encompassed different ways of knowing, if the zeal for a culture of individual choice and autonomy was transformed into a passion for a culture of collectivity, and if we abandoned the ideal of normalcy and adopted the understanding of difference as constitutive of human identity.

 

“These are the questions the artists in this monograph series are asking us to consider. In many ways, they are asking us to think about our ever-evolving relationship to science, nature, and each other and sharing with us the attitudes and forms we need to inhabit to bring about a different future….”

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