The Radical Unpresent
Cultural Resistance in a Fractured World
Format:Paperback
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Publishing:20th Oct '26
£32.00
This title is due to be published on 20th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A necessary and timely exploration of art activism today, informed by centuries of protest.
How contemporary artists and activists are navigating and resisting the collapse of historical time in our uncanny present.
The Radical Unpresent examines our disorienting contemporary moment, in which our experience of time has become profoundly disrupted. Building on his earlier work on “dark matter” in the art world, Gregory Sholette introduces the concept of the unpresent—a condition in which everything appears the same yet is completely transformed, lacking both a past and a future.
The book traces the emergence of this uncanny temporal state through Brexit, Trump’s first election, and the COVID pandemic, culminating in the January 6th insurrection and the rise of MAGA 2.0 in 2025. Sholette analyzes how this temporal crisis manifests in both progressive and reactionary cultural responses, arguing that MAGA represents not simply regression but also a new kind of “retro-vanguard” that seeks to escape the unpresent by restoring an imagined past.
Never one to be content with the status quo, Sholette reveals the inner workings of a “phantom archive”—a surplus repository of activist practices, unrealized possibilities, and spectral histories that artists access through repair, repurposing, and reenactment. Through examples ranging from Dread Scott’s slave rebellion reenactment to contemporary Belarus protest art, he demonstrates how artists are creating temporal interventions that acknowledge historical wounds while opening pathways to alternative futures.
ENDORSEMENTS
“With both expansiveness and precision, Sholette delivers key insights into the arts of social engagement. The result: a sobering analysis of our radically ‘unpresent’ present, one that simultaneously underscores the speculative power of everyday possibility.”
—Shannon Jackson, Cyrus and Michelle Hadidi Professor of the Arts and Humanities, UC Berkeley, author of Back Stages
“Greg has his finger on the pulse of radical art. He places this art in the context of history and is always looking at how the most challenging art of our time can be a bridge to a better future.”
—Dread Scott, artist
“Sholette names capitalism’s newest enclosure: time itself. He reveals the systematic destruction of collective memory and shared imagination from which alternatives are built—and the art practices of repair and refusal that reconstitute them. This is essential reading. It is an act of solidarity with those who refuse to stop imagining otherwise.”
—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch and Revolution at Point Zero
“Gregory Sholette takes a hard look at MAGA riots to come up with sobering and constructive suggestions for a new progressive realism. Essential reading!”
—Hito Steyerl, author of Duty Free Art and Medium Hot
“The liberal status quo is dead. What happens when progressive movements lose and only respond to violent force? Sholette practices what he preaches: diagnosis first. Only then can the building blocks necessary for the strategic takeover of power be created. Artists will play a pivotal role in overcoming the spectacle of unart.”
—Geert Lovink, author of Stuck on the Platform: Reclaiming the Internet
“Greg Sholette has deepened and enlightened the dialogue around international activist art for decades. The Radical Unpresent is another intellectually passionate and original discourse on our current crises and how artists can intervene in even the most dominant contexts, jolting the way we see the world.”
—Lucy R. Lippard, author of Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change
ISBN: 9780262054119
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
344 pages