We are incredibly excited that our very own Matt Colquhoun (Gallery Manager and amazing blog post writer) has recently had his first book published! EGRESS: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher is the first book to look at the legacy and work of the cultural critic and academic Mark Fisher.

In writing the book, Matt explored Fisher’s philosophical trajectory, from his days as a PhD student at the University of Warwick to the development of his unfinished book on Acid Communism.
Mark Fisher was a writer, critic, cultural theorist, philosopher and teacher on radical politics and popular culture, based at Goldsmiths University. He sadly took his own life at the age of 48 in 2017.

The title of the book uses three key words that suggests its purpose; “Egress” – a word used by Fisher in his book “The Weird and the Eerie” to describe an escape from present circumstances as experienced by the characters in countless examples of weird fiction; “Mourning” –  considers the politics of death and community in a way that is indebted to Fisher’s own forms of cultural criticism, ruminating on personal experience in the hope of making it productively impersonal; “Melancholy” –  to explore how his death has affected the community, including students, friends, colleagues, and his wife and young son.

Throughout the book, Matt clarifies that Egress is centred around and created by the community, he cites the support of friends, strangers, staff, students as the stimulus that made the book possible. We are very proud of Matt’s incredible achievement and feel very lucky to have him as a member of the gallery team.

Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher will be on general release from 10 March 2020.

Matt and Kodwo Eshun, Lecturer in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths College, Professor at Haut Ecole d’Art et Design, Geneva, and co-founder of The Otolith Group, will be hosted at the ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art – to discuss the importance of the book. The talk will be on Wednesday 11 March 2020 at the ICA Theatre at 7pm.