Publication

  • Spells
    Ivo Andric and Matthew Jesse Jackson
    Contributors
    Karsten Lund
    Editor
    Sternberg Press, 2015
  • GRANTEE
    Irena Haiduk
    GRANT YEAR
    2013

Irena Haiduk, Spells (Sternberg Press, 2015), Till Wiedeck and Polina Joffe (HelloMe), designers, Karsten Lund, editor, Matthew Jesse Jackson, contributor. Courtesy of the artist.

What is Human? What is Divine? The Divine not only can do things that The Human cannot imagine, The Divine can imagine things that The Human cannot imagine. It is in this space that Irena Haiduk's work lives its perpetually challenged life: where that which we cannot imagine gets imagined. This art is a magnet that extracts psychic metal. –from the introduction by Matthew Jesse Jackson

Spells is the first collection of Irena Haiduk's writing, gathering her texts and limited-edition publications since 2007. Moving through a wide range of formats, the book encompasses manifestos, music scores, forecasts, conversions, translations, architectural programs, and other difficult-to-categorize works. With sharp teeth and a killer instinct, Haiduk leads the way to a sunny spot where every soul suffers infinite injustice. Edited by Karsten Lund with an introduction by Matthew Jesse Jackson. Design by Till Wiedeck and Polina Joffe of HelloMe.

Irena Haiduk's multi-faceted works reach beyond their anchors in Balkan history to mingle with other corrosive forces and slice away at the well-fed bodies of power. She has exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago; AKUD, Berlin; the 4th Athens Biennale;14th Istanbul Biennial; and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. A monograph of Haiduk's written works and scores, Spells, has been published Sternberg Press in 2015. A book on Seductive Exacting Realism is forthcoming by the Renaissance Society and Sternberg Press.