Sam Taylor-Wood [Hardcover]

Michael Bracewell (Author), Jeremy Miller (Author), Sam Taylor-Wood (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2002

In highly choreographed photographic and filmic scenes, Sam Taylor-Wood examines emotional isolation, inner realities, and a range of states of being, from self-absorption and anguish to tense confrontation. Her explorations of how emotions are expressed have resulted in works like the panoramic Five Revolutionary Seconds, in which a rotating camera turns nearly 360 degrees in five seconds, recording the motions and gestures of six actors and non-actors, each of whom appears lost in his or her own reality. Questions of emotional reality, of who is acting and who is not, were also raised in her 1994 film Method in Madness, which captured a young man apparently in the throes of a nervous breakdown. In fact, he was a method actor playing a role that seemed painfully real. Centering on the creation of enigmatic situations replete with a latent but explosive energy, drawing freely on a variety of sources from Renaissance painting to Hollywood cinema, Taylor-Wood's use of film, video, and photogrpahy has put her at the forefront of British art for the past decade. This first monograph on Taylor-Wood is published to coincide with a major retrospective of her work at the Hayward Gallery in London, where she is the first artist of her generation to have been given a solo exhibition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As one of London's Young British Artists (YBAs), Taylor-Wood gained international notoriety for her participation in the Sensation show in 1997, which inspired a furor over public funding for art when it appeared at the Brooklyn Museum of Art two years later; in 1998 she was short-listed for England's Turner Prize. This self-titled book is the first comprehensive look at her work, and its publication coincides with a major exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery. Using film, video installation, and photography, Taylor-Wood creates scenarios that examine hidden aspects of the human condition. In her celebrated series "Five Revolutionary Seconds," for instance, she presented highly staged, 360 panoramic photographs of actors in ambiguous, upscale London interiors. Despite the crowded rooms, these grand panoramas suggest emotional isolation, a recurrent theme in the artist's work. Featuring essays by British cultural critic Bracewell and artist/curator Miller, as well as an insightful interview with the artist herself, this book is highly recommended for all collections, especially academic libraries.
Shauna Frischkorn, Millersville Univ., PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Born in 1967 in London, Sam Taylor-Wood graduated from Goldsmith's College as part of the generation of Young British Artists (YBAs). Since her first solo exhibition at White Cube in 1995, she has had solo showings at the Kunsthalle, Zurich; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; Fondazione Prada, Milan; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 1997 she received the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale and was nominated for the Turner Prize. Taylor-Wood lives and works in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Steidl/Hayward Gallery, London (August 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3882438304
• ISBN-13: 978-3882438307
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,583,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Light on Content, October 7, 2008

By 

M. Howell "likes good things" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sam Taylor-Wood (Paperback)

I was very excited to see that there was a new collection of Sam Taylor-Wood's work available. Unfortunately, this book is extremely disappointing. There are nearly as many pages of text as there are photographs, and very little of Taylor-Wood's work is included. Although the book is inexpensive, you are basically only getting about 20 full page pictures, another 20 pages of tiny pictures on the page with a lot of negative space, and another 10 pages of something in between.