Actional Poetics – ASH SHE HE: The Performance Actuations of Alastair MacLennan, 1971-2020

A retrospective monograph on the pioneering performance artist and teacher Alastair MacLennan.

This is the most comprehensive study of Alastair MacLennan’s extensive performance practice, nationally and internationally renowned for its contribution to the field of performance art. The essays in this collection explore MacLennan’s art practice, its influence on the Belfast art scene, and its relationships with wider art histories.

The book places MacLennan’s work in its proper historical context, featuring outstanding archival visual documentation alongside new commissioned essays and interviews, none of which have been previously published. The essays range from descriptive to interpretive: some set the work in historical context while others provide pertinent biography. This variety is appropriate—and perhaps even necessary—in looking at the work of a living artist whose work is particularly complex and challenging. Each writer addresses the art on their own terms, and the resulting essays provide an approachable presentation of a multilayered body of work.

Sandra Johnston is a visual artist from Northern Ireland who has been active internationally since 1992. Chérie Driver is a lecturer in art theory at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Paula Blair is a researcher, writer and podcaster who experiments with performative written and spoken documentation of live performance art.