We Live Here Now by C.D Rose

Book Blurb

When a famous conceptual artist’s installation project suddenly vanishes, the sinister aftershocks radiate outwards through twelve people who were involved in the project, changing all of their lives, and launching them on a crazy-quilt trajectory that will end with them all together at one final, apocalyptic bacchanal. Mixing illusion and reality, simulacra and replicants, sound artists and death artists, performers and filmmakers and gallerists and journalists, We Live Here Now ranges across the world of weapons dealers and international shipping to the galleries and studios on the cutting edge of hyper-contemporary art. Rose’s characters are, as one of the puts it, in search of ‘a gateway to the Un, the Ex, the Outer, the Under, the Anti, the Non, the Other Place, the Not,’ and it is those mysterious Other Places where C. D. Rose weaves his surreal magic. We Live Here Now spins a dazzling web that conveys, with eerie precision, the sheer strangeness of what it is like to be alive today.

My Review
It’s always exciting to be invited to take part in a blog tour, and today I am grateful to Melville House for giving me the opportunity to read and review We Live Here Now by C.D Rose. I have previously read a book by C.D.Rose so knew this was going to be a fascinating and origional read, and it certainly was.

C.D Rose has taken a witty and humerous look at the world of modern art in We Live Here Now. The book starts with a critic writing about artist Sigi Conrad a reclusive and apparently difficult artist to work with. She creates the installation ‘We Live Here Now’ with the help of a team, until it suddenly vanishes with the artist. In a series of short stories C.D Rose tells the stories of those involved in the project and the trajectory their lives take until they all comeback to be part of another piece of art.

This is quite a hard book to review as it has a dreamlike and origional quality that made for such a intriguing reading experience. I did wonder at times just what was I reading, especially in respect of the stories of those who were part of the original project; including a scientist with four people pretending to be him, an art consultant, and a artist who uses sound as a medium. These stories, and the experiences of those who were the focus for them, had a surreal and dreamlike quality that had me thinking about what is art, can it been defined, and how art and life can blurr into one. C.D Rose also explores art as a commodity, as an investment put away for a future date and as currency , as an art lover this is something I see as the more unsavoury side of the art work; art should be enjoyed not hidden away. I did find some of these stories more of a chore to read than others, but I liked how the characters and their experiences all weaved together for the last chapters.

C.D Rose’s understanding of the art world really shines through in this book and is able to use that knowledge to make the reader think and form their own opinions. It was fascinating to see so many people, from varying professions and backgrounds work on the exerience of the installation, and how this then shows the move away from a singular artist to a more collective. There is a lot of humour and wit in this book, a few pieces of tongue in cheek moments that stop this feeling like an over serious read; you don’t need to be a connoisseur to read this book.

If you like a book that makes you stop and think then We Live Here Now is for you. It’s not a light easy read but it is a fascinating one that will take you on it’s own surreal and philosophical journey. I felt like I had really acccomplished something by the end of the book and that I had learned a lot more about conceptual art,how art is used as a currency and investment and surprisingly also about fires on cargo ships; who knew! Erudite and funny this is a read I won’t forget.