Description

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A document of New York from an author too close to the story to be a trustworthy eyewitness.

Composed of stories, fragmentary essays, and even press releases Stagg has been commissioned to write, Artless captures the media landscape lived and generated in New York during the past half decade. Since the 2016 publication of her debut novel Surveys, Stagg has positioned herself as an in-demand expert on—and critic of—the psychic experience of self-mythology within the cruelly optimistic metaverse of infinite branding. Part voyeur and part participant, Stagg continues her exploration of the branded identity and its elusive, bottomless desire for authenticity.

About the Author

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Natasha Stagg is the author of a novel, Surveys, and a collection, Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York 2011–2019. Her essays have appeared in the books Excellences and Perfections, Link in Bio: Art After Social Media, You Had To Be There: Rape Jokes, Intersubjectivity Vol. II: Scripting the Human, and 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art: The Present in Drag, among others.

Praise For…

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"Stagg, as almost no one else writing today, has her eyes peeled for that 'other side where people are disposed.' That could be miles away from the desert: it could be, even in glamorous, unstoppable New York, on the highway hurtling home after another disappointing night at the end of youth, and innumerable other things besides, just around the corner."
—Ann Manov, Bookforum

"Stagg is one of our sharpest writers on life in the digital age."
—Cal Revely-Calder, The Telegraph