Creation: On Art and Unbecoming
(By Christopher Zeischegg)
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| Author | Christopher Zeischegg |
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else
“A phantasmagoria of the violences comprising an artist’s life. The pursuit of clout a violence of hemorrhage, of taint, of rotting from chest outward. The pursuit of intimacy a violence of sculpting, of repair, of transforming one toward divinity. How the 'art world' violates the divinity of creation. You can let art kill you, let it skin you and sell your hide to the highest bidder (like you have a choice). Or you can take your flayed muscle and pile it into cathedral. Here, you may find another—a surrogate twin, skinned as you’ve been—and press your blood into theirs, intermingle your capillaries, and claim, 'Oh yes, I know you now. I always have. The rhythm of your true heart.' It may not be truth (in fact, you know deep down for certain it cannot be), but it’s enough of a lullaby to soothe your aches; a siren's call to rouse you to wake, to push you to your feet and move you about the world for at least another day."
—B.R. Yeager, author of Negative Space
"Creation asks the bold questions that force us to understand the why and the how of what we create and that which we connect with. It is also a tremendously tender work showcasing Zeischegg's masterful command over his craft. Whether it's combing the depths of personal experience or charting the complexities of the true and false self, plunging into edifices of fiction and storytelling or examining the power and propulsiveness of friendship, Christopher Zeischegg writes from between realms, and his latest is a must-experience tome as vast as the entire spectrum of creativity itself."
—Michael J. Seidlinger, author of The Body Harvest and Anybody Home?
"Christopher Zeischegg’s new book is a fascinating combination of essay, memoir and fiction. It opens with a new novella, which starts at the logical point to pick up from Zeischegg’s previous book, the blank and raw LA noir that was The Magician. Dark, transactional affairs are informed by selfishness and self-survival.
"From then on, we are given a masterclass in dissection as the writer examines and pulls apart relationships of all kinds in all kinds of ways. We are shown the relationship between an artist and their work. We are made to think about the relationship between art and the viewer—we are all pulled in.
"One of the main focuses seems to be on the body. The bodies that we all have. How do we use these bodies? How are our bodies used? What happens when there is no pleasure left in the body that we have and what if there never was?
"Ultimately though, Creation casts its view on friendship. Using the artist Luka Fisher as a muse, a character, a subject of documentary, Zeischegg can consider the notion of platonic friendship—what it means to have a friendship without transaction, and how do you really know someone? It’s a powerful thing to be witness to, and it’s a moving thing.
"Creation is an excitingly original book made by one of our sharpest contemporary writers. It is a book with so much going on inside it that it is still with me now, after multiple reads. And each time the reader rethinks it, they can’t help but rethink themselves."
—Thomas Moore, author of Forever”
