Sheena Patel

"Pure fire from start to finish. Sheena Patel is the future" - Niven Govinden "A fast, fizzing cherry bomb of a debut..." - Observer "Mesmerising, powerful, and finely observed" - Olivia Sudjic --- AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2022 I'M A FAN tells the story of an unnamed narrator's involvement in a toxic affair. Endlessly scrolling through the social media profiles of her boyfriend's girlfriend, her obsession with the couple spirals out of control. With a clear and unforgiving eye, Sheena Patel makes startling connections between power struggles at the heart of human relationships to those in the wider world, offering a devastating critique of social media, patriarchy, and class structures.

I'm a Fan

Sarah Christine Gill

Seventy-two objects associated with pain or pleasure are laid out on a table. Amongst them are a rose, a feather, grapes, lipstick, honey, a whip, a scalpel, a gun and a bullet. Abramović stands in the centre of the room for six hours and surrenders herself to the audience. At the beginning the audience are timid and nervous. They reposition Abramović's arms and tentatively engage with her. As the performance matures, they are bolder. They place objects on her, take pictures of her and pose with her, taking staged photographs playing with her body, using it as a prop. They become comfortable with her inertness which makes them aggressive, pouring oil on her head, pricking her with the thorns of the rose, they cut her clothing, cut her body, they place the knife between her legs driving the blade into the wood behind her, they carry her around the room halfnaked, one participant licks her blood and another loads the bullet in the gun and points it at her head and holds it there, finger on the trigger until another audience member pushes his hand away. When the gallerist announces the end of the performance, Abramović comes alive and walks about the space of her own agency. The audience members scatter, unable to bear or deal with the reminder that she is, in fact, a person. She says of the performance, it was six hours of horror and if you leave it up to the audience they can kill you.

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