Piercing Brightness: Shezad Dawood, 2012

Having worked with Shezad several years earlier on the book Feature: Reconstructed (published as part of the Fabrications series at Book Works), he invited me to work on a publication for his Piercing Brightness project (see also Contested Spaces post).

Published on the occasion of his eponymous touring solo exhibition, Piercing Brightness is the first major monograph of British artist Shezad Dawood. Concentrating on his engagement with film, and particularly  science fiction, the publication features illustrations of past exhibitions, projects and individual works.

The book contains a diverse series of texts, ranging from biographical fiction, to art historical and musical contextualisation, to film theoretical analysis. With contributions by Shumon Basar, Mark Bartlett, Matthew G. Gregory, Jean Fisher, Abdellah Karroum, Ghalya Saadawi, Elaine Speight & Charles Quick, Michael Stanley  and Sam Thorne. Contrary to the classic catalogue raisonné structure of the artists’ monographs, the publication functions as a meta-text, highlighting recurrent ideas and themes in Shezad’s practice.

Design by Åbäke

Published by Modern Art Oxford

ISBN: 978 3 86335 146 5, 160 pp.

Distributed by Koenig Books, London