How can a magic trick help us understand an artwork? The spectator of a magic trick wonders what happened in the ineffable moment when a magician disappears and reappears at the other side of the stage, in the same way a museum visitor might wonder what happened when a common object like a bar of soap, a mirror, or a shoe reappears as a sculpture. Magic, like artwork, relies on a system of belief cultivated between the magician and his or her audience. The wider the gap between what the audience sees and what it is asked to believe, the more efficient and spectacular the trick can be. A foreword by museum director and exhibition curator Marc-Olivier Wahler discusses the contemporary art exhibition within the framework of a teleportation magic trick described in Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel The Prestige. Included is an interview between Wahler and France-based curator Christophe Kihm addressing how the brain reacts when interpreting an artwork, the language with which to approach art, and how these impact the future of museums and art exhibitions. Pairing the exhibition objectives with methods of illusion, an original essay by Christopher Priest, and a text by Francis Ponge, the book provides insight into the importance of belief and the nature of visual perception. Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Transported Man at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

The Transported Man

Arts & Photography

Wahler, Marc-Olivier

History & Criticism

MSU Broad

<div>This long overdue publication tells the story of artists Mike Kelley (1954-2012) and Jim Shaw (b. 1952), who shared a lifelong friendship and common background: an upbringing and education in the State of Michigan. Published on the occasion of the major exhibition of the same title, this catalogue is the first to place these artists' practices alongside each other in historical context, approaching their work as parallel visual meditations on Midwestern culture in particular and on American culture more broadly. The catalogue begins with their meeting at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and early collaborations, including the formation of the collective Destroy All Monsters. Branching out from there, major bodies of work from each artist are presented with a specific interest in tracing the lines of influence as rooted in the vernacular visual cultures of Michigan and the Midwest. Illustrations of the artists' source material, their individual works, and installation views from the exhibition feature prominently throughout the publication, offering readers new perspectives on the work of these seminal artists. Essays by exhibition cocurators Marc-Olivier Wahler, Carla Acevedo-Yates, and Steven L. Bridges also unpack the many narratives layered in the exhibition, including an interview with Jim Shaw.</div>

Michigan Stories: Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw

Acevedo-Yates, Carla

Bridges, Steven L.

Oscar Tuazon: Water School is the first catalogue of a series of four that narrates the complete story making of Water School. Conceived as an artist's book, the first book focuses on the commencement with Steve and Holly Baer's passive solar Zome House-the original model, transformed into a mobile, modular public space. The publication includes extensive textual and visual documentation on the construction, alteration, and development of this architectural pavilion conceived in 2016 by Oscar Tuazon, which culminated with the exhibition Oscar Tuazon:&nbsp;&nbsp;Water School at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in 2019. &nbsp;

Oscar Tuazon: Water School

Tuazon, Oscar

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Books by MSU Broad