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Amber Husain

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall, Central Saint Martins. Her essays and criticism appear or are forthcoming in 3AM, The Believer, London Review of Books, LA Review of Books, Radical Philosophy and elsewhere. She is the author of Replace Me, to be published by Peninsula Press in November 2021.



Articles Available Online


Slouching Towards Death

Book Review

July 2021

Amber Husain

Book Review

July 2021

In January, a preview excerpt in The New Yorker of Rachel Kushner’s essay collection The Hard Crowd (2021) warned us that this might turn...

Book Review

August 2020

Natasha Stagg’s ‘Sleeveless’

Amber Husain

Book Review

August 2020

‘The thong is centimetres closer to areas of arousal,’ writes Natasha Stagg in Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York,...

1 Cessation of Breath: Is He Breathing?   He’s not breathing, and he cannot go on like this He needs air Mouth-to-mouth is a fool’s game: you must not believe that you have enough air for the both of you The body should supply itself, but in this it can be encouraged Breath begets breath, and life life One O says yes to another O and that equals oxygen One god nods to the next god, who nods to the next and so on Therefore plant plants, as follows: (i) The chest is just a gathering of shapes as it is, and it knows full well what it means to be a shrubbery There is depth and breadth enough for soil, and it lends itself naturally to inhabitance From there to conurbation Drop seeds and sow It grows in spite of itself (ii) The extremities are a framework already in place: honeysuckles, for example, thrive on the order inherent in limbs; fingers are the beginnings of mathematics, and you will find the sweetpea loops nicely to a ring; ivies are many and incessant (iii) The holes of the head are a blessing Eye sockets, in particular, are favourable to succulents 2 Cardiac Arrest: Is There Any Rhythm to Him?   They say: cut the wood yourself and it will warm you twice It is the same for the heart – if you beat it, it will beat And it is the same with blood – it won’t move unless you move it This is the kind of work that must be done by hand This is monks and manuscripts This is sculpture This is the work your father did, is where you came from (i)        Locate the heart by feeling (ii)       Trace out the gridlocked veins (iii)      Prepare the bell for pealing (iv)       Make fists and take your aim (v)        Pound it till it feels like kissing (vi)       Push the blood between your hands (vii)    

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall,...

On Having No Skin: Nan Goldin’s Sirens

Art Review

January 2020

Amber Husain

Art Review

January 2020

The feeling of drug-induced euphoria could be strips of gauze between beautiful fingers. Or a silver slinky sent down a torso by its own...
In Defence of Dead Women

Essay

November 2018

Amber Husain

Essay

November 2018

The memorial for the artist was as inconclusive as her work, or anybody’s life. Organised haphazardly on Facebook by one of her old friends,...

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fiction

April 2013

The Final Journals of Dr Peter Lurneman

Luke Neima

fiction

April 2013

Editors’ note: After several months of debate we have decided to publish the succeeding text, a reproduction of the...

Art

November 2012

Pending performance: Cally Spooner’s live production

Isabella Maidment

Art

November 2012

It’s 1957 and the press release still isn’t written[1] An actress dressed in black overalls stands on a theatrically...

Interview

February 2015

Interview with Eddie Peake

Lily Le Brun

Interview

February 2015

Like many people, I had seen Eddie Peake’s penis long before I met the artist himself. For several years...

 

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