'This book is a stunning piece of scholarship, authorship, curation, and artistry. A potent historical record of performance art, it would serve well as a primer for any scholar, artist, or upper-level/graduate course interested in learning this history from a primary source. At the same time, the essays combine to become an inspiring call-to-action for experimental art-making. I frequently found myself wanting to know Apple and LaPalmas current thoughts on the questions they raise, but the books true gift is the space they allow for the essays to question each other. Through their tremendous restraint in not adding additional comment, they invite readers to explore their own curiosity about performance, performance art, or whatever term comes next.' -- Daniel Bird Tobin, Ecumenica: Performance and Religion '[ Apple] seems to have done more thinking and writing about this unstable and hard-to-contain genre than anyone else on the West Coast. [ ...] As a chronicle of 35-plus years of avant-garde barricadesmanship in Los Angeles, Performance / Media / Art / Culture preserves an atmosphere of politico-aesthetic urgency, which can give the reader the off-kilter feeling that art spaces surely are the place where the world gets changed. [ ...] Its a valuable history of some very untamed goings-on over time, and a detailed chronicle of what can happen when art turns into agitprop ruled by committee. One has the feeling that Jacki Apples influence extends to many an arts professor and art performer working today; this book ensures that and also shows why. It will have a long shelf life in academic and art libraries.' -- Anthony Mostrom, Los Angeles Review of Books 'Only a handful of writers have the intellectual chops, creative intuition and vision of art history to speak holistically about performance art, but Jacki Apple consistently proves herself essential to the field and how we understand it. She digs into both the formal and the ineffable dimensions of performance with unmatched power and clarity without sacrificing honesty about the art and artists she clearly loves. Jacki stands in the evolving vortex of performance art so we can see its future.' -- Eric Gutierrez, Writer/former Executive Editor, High Performance 'In the late 1980s and early '90s, Jacki Apple's pioneering essays on radio art as an emerging practice in the U.S. stood tall. Hardly any other writers publishing texts on radio, came from an arts background let alone an interdisciplinary one. Apple did, and her voice spoke with unprecedented insight, intellectual rigour, clarity and passionate conviction on the subject. She discussed and critiqued the most innovative and inspiring art works for broadcast in the context of the politics of the industry and of contemporary American culture. This wonderful edition encompasses the full range of her critical writings.' -- Regine Beyer, writer/radio producer and editor, Germany-USA 'For several decades now, Jacki Apple's astute observations of the arts,
performance and culture in Los Angeles have added profound insight to this still
burgeoning landscape populated by the movers and shakers who flock here. Her
history as an artist in her own right expands the depth and comprehension of her
analysis. She has been an influencer in the truest sense, advancing the cultural
discussion with erudition and compassion. Among the annals of tomes
dedicated to understanding why LA is so significant, so centripetal, this is a long-
awaited addition.' -- Tony Abatemarco, Playwright, Performer, Co-Artistic Director - Skylight Theatre Company 'Writing with deep historical knowledge, compassion and generosity, Jacki Apple
is an artists critic, always seeking first to reveal and then to celebrate the heart of
a performance, no matter what the medium. Her fearless radicalism, tempered by
a refreshing sense of humour, uncovers buried roots while also posing the most
essential cultural question: how does this art help us understand who we are? I
am particularly enthralled by the final section, Concerning Nature, essential
reading during a time when ecocidal capitalism has surely reached the breaking
point.' -- Gregory Whitehead, Artist/writer 'Jacki Apples writing about the temporal arts stuns the reader with its capacity
to contextualise projects historically. She weaves together diverse cultural
interventions with an urgency about their meaning for this crucial moment in the
world.' -- Beverly Naidus, artist, author, activist and Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Washington, Tacoma 'Jacki Apple has always made works that come at you from every possible angle.
As composer, performer, writer and cultural detective, she is fearless at pushing
the boundaries of her own work, while simultaneously providing platforms for
other artists to push their own possibilities. This book has been brewing for over
35 years. It is the story of what where when why and how we are in this culture
now, told by a vital participant and invaluable witness.' -- Terry Allen, Artist 2019 'Jacki Apple is a tireless advocate for the aesthetic, the generative, for art that intervenes and illuminates. She is the rare artist who is generous and revelatory,
bringing enormous skill and knowledge to the work of fellow artists crossing
many disciplines, as do her own intricate and multifaceted creations.' -- Jeff McMahon, Performer and writer. Associate Professor, Arizona State University 'Jacki Apple has always been a fair and thoughtful advocate of the arts. There are
so few writers with her depth and knowledge around. Expansive and generous,
Jacki writes with an open, inclusive heart.' -- Ping Chong, Artistic director, Ping Chong and Company 'Jacki Apples heightened artistic perception has opened my eyes to the meaning of my early visceral raw performances from the 1980s to the present more theatrically polished ones. Her insightful critical writing not only changed the way I understood my own work and its role in pushing boundaries and breaking taboos, but also the performance work of my peers in times of political pressure. For anyone who wants to understand this history, this book is eye-opening.' -- John Fleck, Performance artist 'Jacki Apples accurate, intimate, gracious, erudite and insightful writing
provides a front row seat to an expanding cultural big-bang. This book is a gift to
those of us determined to understand the who, the where, the when, the how and
the why of the tectonic shifts that brought social interaction into the scope and
insight of art makers. Her enthusiasm for the subject coupled with a commitment
to her readers makes for learning more than history. She makes the history feel
contemporary.' -- Conrad Gleber PhD, Media artist
