Books by Amelia Jones

The Dada Seminars (CASVA Seminar Papers)

by Matthew Witkovsky, Helen Molesworth, Hal Foster, David Joselit, George Baker, T.J. Demos, Uwe Fleckner, Marcella Lista, Arnauld Pierre, Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Amelia Jones

This volume of 12 essays fills a broad gap in Modernist art history. Taken together, these case studies on artists and concepts present Dada as a coherent movement with a set of operating principles. Among the “ tactics” elaborated are the hyperbolic mimicry of dominant social and linguistic conventions, the performance of gender and other aspects of identity, the usurpation of the modes of a new media culture and the marketplace, and the recycling of history and memory in a world traumatized by war. The Dada Seminars developed out of a series held by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, in advance of 2005's major traveling exhibition on international Dada. Contributors include George Baker, T.J. Demos, Leah Dickerman, Uwe Fleckner, Hal Foster, Amelia Jones, David Joselit, Marcella Lista, Helen Molesworth, Arnauld Pierre, Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Matthew S. Witkovsky.

Sexuality (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art)

by Amelia Jones

Tracing the identification of art with sexual expression or repression, from the era of the rights movements to the present.
It has been argued, most notably in psychoanalytic and modernist art discourse, that the production of works of art is fundamentally driven by sexual desire. It has been further argued, particularly since the early 1970s, that sexual drives and desires also condition the distribution, display and reception of art.
This anthology traces how and why this identification of art with sexual expression or repression arose and how the terms have shifted in tandem with artistic and theoretical debates, from the era of the rights movements to the present. Among the subjects it discusses are abjection and the “informe,” or formless; pornography and the obscene; the performativity of gender and sexuality; and the role of sexuality in forging radical art or curatorial practices in response to such issues as state-sponsored repression and anti-feminism in the broader social realm.
Artists surveyed include
Vito Acconci, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Gerard Byrne, George Chakravarthi, Judy Chicago, Vaginal Davis, Wim Delvoye, Elmgreen & Dragset, Valie Export, Félix González-Torres, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Harmony Hammond, Claudette Johnson, Mary Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Legorreta, Paul McCarthy, Sarah Maple, Shirin Neshat, Lorraine O'Grady, Yoko Ono, Catherine Opie, Orlan, William Pope.L, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Barbara Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Alina Szapocznikow, Del LaGrace Volcano, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz
Writers include
Malek Alloula, Norman O. Brown, Judith Butler, Douglas Crimp, Angela Dimitrakaki, Michel Foucault, Daniel Guérin, Eleanor Heartney, Jonathan D. Katz, Rosalind Krauss, Julia Kristeva, Paweł Leszkowicz, Herbert Marcuse, Kobena Mercer, Laura Mulvey, Lawrence Rinder, Jacqueline Rose, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Susan Sontag, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Stephen Whittle

Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic History of New York Dada (The MIT Press)

by Amelia Jones

A revisionist history of New York Dada, with appearances by Baroness Elsa as the embodiment of irrational modernism.
In Irrational Modernism, Amelia Jones gives us a history of New York Dada, reinterpreted in relation to the life and works of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Jones enlarges our conception of New York Dada beyond the male avant-garde heroics of Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia to include the rebellious body of the Baroness. If they practiced Dada, she lived it, with her unorthodox personal life, wild assemblage objects, radical poetry and prose, and the flamboyant self-displays by which she became her own work of art. Through this reinterpretation, Jones not only provides a revisionist history of an art movement but also suggests a new method of art history. Jones argues that the accepted idea of New York Dada as epitomized by Duchamp's readymades and their implicit cultural critique does not take into consideration the contradictions within the movement—its misogyny, for example—or the social turmoil of the period caused by industrialization, urbanization, and the upheaval of World War I and its aftermath, which coincided with the Baroness's time in New York (1913-1923). Baroness Elsa, whose appearances in Jones's narrative of New York Dada mirror her volcanic intrusions into the artistic circles of the time, can be seen to embody a new way to understand the history of avant-gardism—one that embraces the irrational and marginal rather than promoting the canonical. Acknowledging her identification with the Baroness (as a "fellow neurasthenic"), and interrupting her own objective passages of art historical argument with what she describes in her introduction as "bursts of irrationality," Jones explores the interestedness of all art history, and proposes a new "immersive" understanding of history (reflecting the historian's own history) that parallels the irrational immersive trajectory of avant- gardism as practiced by Baroness Elsa.

Ken Gonzales-Day - History's Nevermade

by Amelia Jones

Through visualizing, absence, and erasure, Ken Gonzales-Day reveals the deeply political act of seeing, forcing us to reconsider the histories we inherit.

Ken Gonzales-Day's work confronts the role of the visual in conveying history or in history's absences, including bodies and spaces deliberately erased, forgotten, or never acknowledged. As illustrated and discussed in Ken Gonzales-Day: History's "Nevermade," his photography, film, drawing, and painting interrogate race and power, questioning how bodies are seen, rendered, or made invisible. His art moves between presence and absence, compelling viewers to confront their own position in relation to systems of oppression and representation.

This volume, accompanying the exhibition of the same name, offers the first comprehensive study of Gonzales-Day's practice. Organized around his major series, sections of the book--including Rethinking History, Collecting Race, Forging Community, and Redrawing Boundaries--explore how his work engages with archives, bodies, museums, and public space to challenge institutional narratives. Through critical analysis and over one hundred full-color images, Ken Gonzales-Day: History's "Nevermade" illuminates the profound political and theoretical stakes of his art.

Essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners in art history, photography, museum studies, American history, and decolonial and queer studies, this book is a testament to the power of art to reckon with the past and imagine new futures.

The Stage Kiss A Novel

by Amelia Jones

In this slow-burn yet highly combustible enemies-to-lovers romance, perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon and Abby Jimenez, two stage actors find themselves falling for each other with each onstage kiss...against their better judgment.

Actress Eden Blake’s biggest claim to fame is a mortifying pharmaceutical commercial for male enhancement pills. That is, until the female lead on the nationwide tour of Broadway’s hit Pride & Prejudice musical abruptly quits, and Eden is called up to fill the role.

The cast of Liz and Darcy: The Musical has just settled into a three-week run in Washington, DC, and Broadway royalty Brennon Thorne is set to play Darcy. Despite Brennon’s reputation as being “a dream to work with,” Eden’s first impression of him is more like a nightmare. Now, she’ll have to kiss the pompous jerk eight shows per week.

Brennon can’t disguise his disdain for understudies like Eden. But New York is filled with reminders of his most recent failed relationship, and this American tour is a much-needed distraction from his loneliness. As Eden and Brennon take the stage playing Jane Austen’s most memorable characters, their reality begins to mirror Elizabeth and Darcy’s—explosive chemistry and all. Together, they power through press performances and curtain calls, even as rumors of Brennon’s checkered romantic past resurface and prove to Eden that he can’t be trusted.

But with each choreographed stage kiss, Eden and Brennon’s passion for the stage—and each other—ignites. Maybe, just maybe, not all rumors are to be believed—and not all showmances are doomed to fail.