KEEFER, Angie
Second Thoughts

“I half hold that my life is a fine ride as long as I don’t attempt to navigate. The least critical way to describe this outlook is “bemused fatalism,” and as coping mechanisms go, there’s much to be said for keeping that faith, but so far it hasn’t proved compatible with ambitious ideas like writing a book, though this may turn out to be the first page of a first chapter, in which case I’ve changed my life and overruled fate with you as my witness.”

A selection of writings from 2008 to 2018 by artist Angie Keefer, that traverses disciplines from physics to philosophy, incorporating biographical elements and running parallel to Keefer’s visual practice.

Without directly addressing her own visual work, the book shadows the artist’s research, capturing her thoughts, travels, and encounters across a broad spectrum of subjects, including octopuses, protons, pictographs, poets, grammar, economy, love, loss, and politics. Accumulated knowledge is reconfigured through the pacing and cadence of each sentence.

Keefer worked closely with designer Scott Ponik to present this selection of writing as a unified whole while framing each individual text with its own synopsis and postscript. Though all of the pieces have been published previously, many were significantly updated, amended, and rewritten for this edition. Second Thoughts includes an introduction by Maxine Kopsa and a short text co-written with Lucy Skaer. The title is pulled in part from Keefer’s 2017 solo exhibition FIRST CLASS, SECOND THOUGHTS, INTERMINABLE SWELL at Plug In ICA. [publisher’s note]

Published by Kunstverein Amsterdam / Plug In ICA, 2019
Design by Scott Ponik
Essays / Artists' Writings