Literature

I Was A Teenage Banshee

A Künstlerroman by British contemporary artist Sue Webster, which combines personal memoir with an exploration of the ongoing influence of youth, music, and Siouxsie and the Banshees on her life and work.

Emanating from a poignant unpacking of objects and memories--which Webster has turned into a private exhibition to coincide with the publica-tion--this book positions the Banshees and the artist herself alongside visual references to everyone from David Bowie and the Sex Pistols to William Burroughs and Salvador Dalí--using the Banshees and the punk scene amid which she grew up as an entry point to reflect on the cultural and personal evolutions of the last decades.

More than 300 illustrations combine ephemera with artwork and reveal the connection between influence and art: objects documenting her fanaticism of the Banshees, from record covers and photographs to ticket stubs and lyrics; paraphernalia from books, artists, and cultural figures that relate to the Banshees and that world of 1970s and early 1980s post-punk; personal effects from diary pages to unseen photographs; and selected artworks by Sue Webster and longtime partner Tim Noble.

About The Author

Sue Webster's work has been exhibited at many museums and galleries internationally, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London, MoMA's P.S. 1 in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her work with Tim Noble is part of the permanent collections at MoMA, the Guggenheim, and Saatchi. She lives and works in London.

  • Publish Date: March 17, 2020
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Category: Biography & Autobiography - Memoirs
  • Publisher: Rizzoli Electa
  • Trim Size: 8-5/8 x 11-1/8
  • Pages: 480
  • US Price: $50.00
  • CDN Price: $67.50
  • ISBN: 978-0-8478-6820-9

Reviews

"Now solo, Webster continues to be a woman of many parts, and one who has lost none of her desire to work with found objects. But with her new book, installation and home, she is resolutely using her own material and on her own terms." — ART NEWSPAPER

"A book published by Rizzoli and entitled I Was A Teenage Banshee accompanies the work, as a part-personal memoir and part-exploration of the ongoing influence of youth, music, and Siouxsie and the Banshees." — WALLPAPER*

"Her reverence for the band is the subject of her new book, I Was a Teenage Banshee, a catalogue of her obsessions and inspirations. Here, the artist recounts the stories behind some of her Siouxsies." —INTERVIEW