Los Angeles-based visual artist Harry Dodge gives a talk on his writing methodology. He discusses his writing practice through the approach he took with My Meteorite: Or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing (Penguin, 2020), a New York Times Book Review editors’ choice and one of LitHub’s most anticipated books of 2020. The form of My Meteorite weaves artistic subjectivity with theory, life, literature, history, apocalyptic ideation, and eclectic deep-dives. He also explores the relation between his writing and visual art practices within the larger context of critical and creative writing in the art world.

Harry Dodge (he/him) is a writer and visual artist. His recent book of literary non-fiction, My Meteorite: or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing, which has been described as “brilliant,” “exhilarating,” “transcendent,” “breathtaking,” and a “high-pressure, poetic approach to narrative and language,” was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and one of LitHub’s most anticipated books of 2020. Dodge’s sculpture, drawing, and video work have been exhibited at venues nationally and internationally. His solo and collaborative work is held in numerous institutions, such as the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Hammer Museum, LA; Museum of Contemporary Art, LA and his writing has appeared in publications including Art Forum, The Paris Review, and Harper’s. In 2017 Dodge was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. In the early 90s, Dodge was one of the founders of the now-legendary San Francisco community-based performance space, The Bearded Lady, which served as a touchstone for a pioneering, queer, DIY literary and arts scene. During that time Dodge also wrote, directed, and performed several critically-acclaimed, evening-length, monologue-based, multimedia performances, including Muddy Little River (1996) and From Where I’m Sitting (I Can Only Reach Your Ass) (1997). In the latter part of 90s, Dodge co-wrote, directed, edited and starred in (with Silas Howard) a narrative feature film, By Hook or By Crook, which premiered at Sundance in 2002 and went on to garner several awards including the audience favorite award at South-by-Southwest. Dodge, who is married to writer Maggie Nelson, has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2001. He holds an MFA from Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College and teaches at California Institute of the Arts where he is currently serving as Program Director.

"My Meteorite: An Artist’s Inter-Genre Writing Methodology" was presented on 27 October 2021 as part of the Curious Criticism symposium presented by C Magazine. This programming series brings together writers, critics, artists, curators, and other thinkers to take up these questions in relation to their manifold practices of reflecting on contemporary art and culture

C Magzine is published three times each year by C The Visual Arts Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization established to present ideas, advance education and document contemporary visual art and artist culture. Read C online at cmagazine.com.