Infrastructural Critique: Contemporary Art Between Reproduction and Abolition

A theory of art and infrastructure by one of her generation’s most brilliant critical theorists

As we search for a life beyond capital, the dream that galleries and museums can function as a refuge from existing social relations appears less credible by the day. In response, Infrastructural Critique proposes a new materialist counterpraxis. By treating contemporary art institutions as a site of struggle as well as a resource, Marina Vishmidt reanimates critique.

A tour de force of Marxist theory and art criticism – embracing such disparate subjects as Milanese radical feminism, dinosaur documentaries, and the water crises of Flint and Detroit – Infrastructural Critique, edited in the wake of the author’s tragic early death, blends theory and praxis to assess the work of artists such as Cameron Rowland, Dora Budor, and Carolyn Lazard. This volume showcases the light-bending, life-shaping thinking of one of the most playful, politically radical theorists of her era.