Hello!
Did you know that I made a book? Well, I curated and edited a book, which contains the work of 10 brilliant, wonderful neuroqueering artists all brought together cohesively by amazing designer Sef.
It’s called Deliquescent Beings: A Neuroqueering Book of Love.
Deliquescent is a word that’s a bit like Eustasian. It’s a little bit made up, a little bit of a neuroqueered version of a real word. To deliquesce is to become fluid or liquid during the process of decomposition. So deliquescent beings are those that choose to decompose, refuse rigidity, and choose to transition beyond the bounds of normative expectations. Fluidifying is neuroqueering.
In the book you’ll find work by Axe Raulet, Georgia Holman, Rebecca Jagoe & Ila, Jess Murrain & Lua Bairstow, Rrangwane, Sam Metz, and V Westerman, as well as myself, Laurie Green.
When curating Deliquescent Beings, I chose to work with neuroqueering artists who make work that:
1. I find beautiful
and
2. evokes, elicits, or expresses love
This reflects the importance of Love and of Beauty in my artistic and curatorial practice.
Love and Beauty are unspecific and diffuse notions, debated, theorised and socially constructed by dominating systems for millenia.
However: Love and Beauty are experiences within the body as well, and inherently relational at that. They are subjective phenomena experienced individually, but only when in relation.
I feel Beauty when I am in the presence of Beauty - in myself, in others, across the entire universe.
There is a truth to beauty. It is not just pretty, attractive, or visually appealing. It is a deep quality inherent to every single one of us, to every single object that has ever existed. It can be expressed in any medium and form, sensed through any perceiving system.
I feel Love inside my body when I am in love with myself, others, and the whole universe — and when I choose to Love myself, others, and the whole universe.
It cannot be confined by normative and dominating structures. It is too liquid and unruly. Like gravity, Love brings objects together: but it also repels. It’s complicated, Love, isn’t it?
I don’t want to explain the book to you. It’s an offering of love that I hope will be received with love. It’s not about defining love, or explaining how to love. It’s about how different people experience love, relate to love, and live love. It’s about choosing to Love.
If you’d like to buy the book, you can do so at neuroqueering.network/product/deliquescentbeings/. Shipping globally today.
The book is also available at the following independent, queer, and radical bookshops located in the UK:
Good Press, Glasgow
The Queery, Brighton
Dead Ink Books, Liverpool
The Bookish Type, Leeds
Yellowback Books, Cardiff
Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh
Housmans, London
Folkestone Bookshop, Folkestone
Caracol, Norwich
If you can, do support these places. They are important. If you know of any bookstores local to you that might like to take Deliquescent Beings, wherever you are in the world, please do let me know.
I’ll leave you with some more extracts from the book, so you have a more complete idea of the sensory experience. The cover is soft touch with foiled text, and it’s lovely to stroke. The paper is smooth to touch. I’ll sign the book if you order it from neuroqueering.network.
Love,
Laurie
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