Bobby Baker Redeeming Features of Daily Life

Bobby Baker is one of most widely acclaimed and popular performance artists working today. Over the course of a thirty-five-year career she has toured the globe with her wildly stimulating explorations of 'Daily Life' and has been extensively written about and studied. This fully-illustrated book brings together for the first time an account of Baker's career as an artist– from her first sculptures at Central St Martins in the early 1970s to her most recent work, 'How to Live' and 'Diary Drawings'– with critical commentary by reviewers and academic practitioners. It includes: Bobby Baker's own 'Chronicle' of her work as artist and performer illuminating critical writing about Baker's shows transcripts of Baker's performances and other original materials reproduced here for the first time significant new essays by Michele Barrett and Griselda Pollock anew interview with Bobby Baker by Adrian Heathfield. Under the guiding editorial hand of distinguished cultural theorist Michèle Barrett, this volume is an essential text for students interested in performance, gender, and visual culture, and a hugely absorbing and accessible account of Baker's work.

Part 1: The Artist Introduction. A Historical Artist Bobby Baker. The Tale of the Early Years. Chronicle of Selected Artworks Part 2: The Work Editorial. An Introduction to Baker's Performance Work. Feminist Autobiography and Performance Art. Risk in Intimacy: An Interview with Bobby Baker. The Rebel at the Heart of the Joker. Upstaged by the Foodie Gaze. Feminist Performance as Archive. Saying the Unsayable: A Second Interview Part 3: The Shows Editorial. Drawing on a Mother's Experience. Transcript. Interview with David Tushingham. Review of My Cooking Competes. Daily Life I: Kitchen Show. Booklet Text. Action No. 3 [TV transcript]. Daily Life II: How to Shop. Daily Life III: Take a Peek! Daily Life IV: Grown-Up School. Daily Life V: Box Story. Transcript. 'Dear Bobby'. How to Live. Script Extract.Diary Drawings. Bibliography and Sources

Bobby Baker has been commissioned and/or invited to perform at festivals all over the world, including Adelaide, Chicago, Munich, New Zealand, Slovenia, Brazil, London (the LIFT festival), Brighton, Glasgow, Cairo, and Covent Garden. Venues for her shows include the V&A Museum, the Serpentine Galleryand the Royal Festival Hall. Her work within the university sector includes workshops and residencies at Giessen University in Germany, the University of Essex, and universities in Beijing and Taiwan. She has also performed in New York, Pittsburgh, Helsinki, Dublin, and Edinburgh. She currently has a Creative Arts Fellowship at Queen Mary, University of London. Michele Barratt is Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory at Queen Mary College, University of London. She has published with Verso, Polity, Penguin, Columbia University Press and The Women's Press.