Media Release
For immediate
release
November 10, 2005
Jimmie Durham launches artist book at The Banff Centre
The Second Particle Wave Theory (as performed on the banks of the River Wear, a stone’s throw from S’underland and the Durham Cathedral)
by Jimmie Durham
Book Launch: 1 p.m., Saturday, November 12
Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre
The Second Particle Wave Theory, a new artist book by internationally acclaimed Cherokee artist, writer, and activist Jimmie Durham, is a companion to a performance that took place on July 16, 2005, on the River Wear in Sunderland, UK The artist sunk a wooden boat with a large pink granite boulder.
The Second Particle Wave Theory, filled with photographs, drawings, and text, is animated by Durham’s distinctive voice – amused, polemical, and politically infused. The book touches upon Sunderland’s local history, medieval ecclesiastical historian the Venerable Bede, the invention of the English language, new scientific discoveries, and the rights of indigenous people. As with all Durham’s writings, history is rewritten and understanding of the truth is subverted. “I feel fairly sure that I could address the entire world if only I had a place to stand,” he has said.
Jimmie Durham was born in Washington, Arkansas, in 1940. During the 1970s and 80s he was active in the American Indian Movement and was the founding member and executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council. His writing has been published in Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, ArtForum, and Third Text, among others. His other publications include The East London Coelecanth, Bookworks, London 1992; A Certain Lack of Coherence, Kala Press, London 1994; Der Verführer und der Steinerne Gast, Springer, Vienna 1996; Between the Furniture and the Building, Walter König, Cologne 1998. A comprehensive survey, Jimmie Durham, has been published by Phaidon Press, London in 1995. His artwork has been exhibited worldwide, and has been selected for exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale, and Documenta.
The Second Particle Wave Theory is co-published by Walter Phillips Gallery Editions, Banff, Canada and Art Editions North, the imprint of the Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland, UK. Printed offset in colour and black and white, 80 pages, hardcover with introduction by editors Robert Blackson and Candice Hopkins. Designed by Janine Vangool. On November 12 receive $5.00 off the regular book price of $29.95 CDN.
The book launch accompanies the opening of the Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition Jimmie Durham: Knew Urk, curated by Robert Blackson and Candice Hopkins, and co-organized by the Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland, UK. Knew Urk is Durham’s first solo exhibition in Canada and his first solo exhibition in North America in over a decade.
Downloadable images for The Second Particle Wave Theory are available at: http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/wpg/#durham
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475
