Book Review

Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis

by Stewart Home

     The 20^th century saw a proliferation of modernist avant-garde art movements. By the 1960s, the numbers and intensity of these schools had begun to dwindle and the so-called postmodernist era had arrived. The artist and author Stewart Home got involved with a group called the Neoists in the 1980s as well as some other obscure movements and projects. In Neoism, Plagiarism and Praxis some theories and activities of these groups get documented and explained.

     The core principles of avant-garde art movements are twofold: one is to critique the institution of art and the other is to radically sweep away all existing institutional forms of oppression for the complete and absolute liberation of human society. The avant-garde embraces both aesthetics and politics. Home identifies one thread of the avant-garde movements that includes Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism. He does not go into great detail about these movements because, as any art student would know, they have been sufficiently explained in plenty of other places. These schools are linked to the later movements of the Situationist International and Fluxus, of which Home has more to say about since they influenced Neoism more directly.

     The avant-garde movements proved to be problematic, mainly because they quickly got assimilated into the culture of the society they wished to destroy. Their works became commodities and now a billionaire can easily purchase one of Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades for a hefty price. Their rebellion became institutionalized and their critiques of capitalism became celebrated by postmodernist art critic buffoons who love using six-syllable words without knowing what they mean. The SI and Fluxus tried to work around this by de-emphasizing traditional art objects and orienting art more towards performance, happenings, and pranks.

     This is where Neoism and the loose networks of art groups mentioned in this book come in. Stewart Home embraces aspects of SI and Fluxus while deriding them at the same time. He rightfully claims that the these movements never developed a mature or coherent theory while the art institution embraced them without really understanding what they were about. So Neoist happenings, the Festival of Plagiarism, the K Foundation, and the Art Strike of 1990-1993 were set up to critique and offend the art snobs and curators who collect art the way big game hunters collect trophies mounted and manicured by taxidermists without any understand of the animals they kill.

     These anti-art movements run some serious risks though. They could be so obscure and opaque that the society they seek to fight against just ignores them. As long as they don’t make too much noise when people are trying to sleep, they might just be left to themselves. No art movement or underground scene has ever overthrown the established order and probably never will. These cells of artists can also become just as elitist and insular as the art establishment and possibly even more so.

Neoism, Plagiarism and Praxis is a book of essays, articles, letters, and interviews. Along with the commentaries on the art movements Home is associated with, he also explains the literary theory of his fiction and goes into some details regarding occultism and secret societies. The latter topic could do with more explanation since he seems to be making a valid point; Home identifies certain “currents” running through society and these currents include avant-garde art movements, underground counter cultures, urban guerrilla movements, and secret societies. His claim is that these are motivated by similar social, psychological, and political impulses. It is something I have given a lot of thought to over the years and would like to hear more from other like-minded authors. There is some redundancy in the ideas presented in this book but that is not really a flaw in the writing since this is a collection of short pieces written for various sources and contexts, not a tome written from beginning to end. The ideas are provocative and serve the purpose of chipping away at the edges of whatever mental cell you have built to imprison your own mind in.

     Stewart Home’s writing almost dares you to offer an interpretation of it. You might get the impression that whatever conclusions you draw, he will tell you they are wrong. Maybe that is for your own good. 

Home, Stewart. Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis. AK Press, Edinburgh & San Francisco, 1995.