Art and sustenance in the work of Sara Baume

Abstract

ABSTRACT The question of what role literature and art may play has become all the more urgent amidst the present intersectional crisis. This article discusses the oeuvre of author and visual artist Sara Baume which invites engagement with central aspects of this crisis: humanity’s impact on nature and the resulting climate change, and the effects of neoliberal capitalism. Discussing Baume’s three novels (Spill Simmer Falter Wither, A Line Made by Walking, and Seven Steeples) together with her non-fictional narrative Handiwork and the performance piece “The Alphabet of Birds,” the essay argues that while it might be justified to approach Baume’s work as poignant critique of the Anthropocene and its attendant ecological and spiritual devastation, it distinctly transcends such instrumentalist critical paradigms. Stoically lyrical about nature interlaced with variegated detritus, and using protagonists positioned on the margins of society, Baume offers an extended meditation on the role of art at the time of crisis and the possibilities of drawing sustenance from artistic creation. As such, Baume’s work engagingly illustrates what Derek Attridge has termed the “singularity” of literature and art, resisting predetermined agendas (including those vitally beneficial) and providing a repeatable opportunity for a potentially risky encounter with alterity.