Hard Return

About this book

Published as a companion to an exhibition of the same name at The Neuberger Museum of Art, this illustrated catalogue features essays detailing the show's curatorial rationale, preparatory images and texts (designed by the nine featured artists) used in the production of their new commissions, and full color layouts of selected previous works by each of them. The exhibition (February 1-May 7, 2023) comprises a succession of nine incredible artists - Jesus Benavente, Daniel Bozhkov, Nao Bustamante, Patty Chang, Emily Coates, Brendan Fernandes, Amber Hawk Swanson, Autumn Knight, and Alix Pearlstein - who transform the museum into an active site of collaboration and investigation for a series of one-week long performance works. In these participatory, durational projects, the artists explore how our senses of intimacy and community been transformed over the past few years of pandemic and political reckoning. How have ideas about what makes life sustainable been challenged? And what does it take to begin again? Curated by performance artist Kate Gilmore and art historian Jonah Westerman, Hard Return is committed both to supporting modes of artistic activity that the pandemic made impo…