ARIA DEAN
Abattoir, U.S.A.!
The Renaissance Society, Chicago

Abattoir, U.S.A.!
$45
Hardcover
Color
135 pages
8.5 x 10.25 inches
978-0-941548-90-8
Published on the occasion of Aria Dean's solo exhibition Abattoir, U.S.A.! at The Renaissance Society, Chicago in 2023.
This publication documents the exhibition as well as selected material from Dean’s process and research. It includes essays by film scholar Erika Balsom, who writes on the history of abattoirs and their relation to modernism, Afropessimist theory, and the dehumanizing rationality of capitalism. Architect and writer Keller Easterling contributes a quasi-fictional text from her ongoing series of Draft Teenage Essays, which are part of her collection of experimental writings titled No One Thing. This volume also includes transcripts of two conversations: one between Dean and film historian Bruce Jenkins in which they discuss Dean’s work in relation to historical avant-garde films; and another with Dean and co-director of Rhizome Michael Connor, media artist Filip Kostik, and composer Evan Zierk, who created the soundtrack for Abattoir, U.S.A.!