WILLIAMS, Kandis
Josephine Baker: Icon in Motion

Baker fragmented her authorship and retained authority to protect and retell conflicting versions of her personal life in a s trategy to sustain her privacy—all while living in the public eye.

Published in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Icon in Motion “reflects upon Josephine Baker’s iconicity,” “her mediated image, both person and persona,” through a quite exciting collection of photographs and images taken from movies and TV apparitions, from Baker’s childhood to the 1970s. Baker’s unique performance draws comparisons with how contemporary performers conceived, and used, their own images. One may recognize in this dynamic approach of Baker’s image, the engaged zine spirit of Kandis Williams’ Cassandra Press. (The exhibition design and “dramaturgy” of the Neue Nationalgalerie show was hers.) The book also comprises an essay by Terri Francis, the author of Josephine Baker’s Cinematic Prism (Indiana University Press, 2021), and a conversation between Francis and curator Klaus Biesenbach.

Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König / Cassandra, 2024
Design by Any Studio (Katerina Trakakis, Max Edelberg) and Kandis Williams
Exhibition Catalogues / Dance