My Barbarian

An unprecedented look at the contemporary collectives theatrical art, charting their performances and exploring their social and creative commitments The first monographic publication on the art collective My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade) offers new insights into the work of this singular group of performers. My Barbarian has used performance to theatricalize social issues, adapting narratives from modern plays, historical texts, and mass media; this volume accompanies a major retrospective celebrating the groups twentieth anniversary. An overview essay relates their works formal qualities to several historical moments over this span: the club era following September 11, 2001; postcolonial theater after the 2008 financial collapse; and political theater responding to the pressing issues of today. Other contributions read the collectives output through a lens of queer and other critical theory, and contextualize it within the twenty-first-century experimental performance scene. A richly illustrated visual chronology features texts on each of My Barbarians past works written by the artists. Performances and video works are re-created using stills alongside photos, drawings, scripts, and personal materials drawn from the artists archives, many never previously published. Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (October 29, 2021February 27, 2022) Institute of Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles (September 2022January 2023)