Crying Pine Tree

Since 2018, Goldin+Senneby have been collaborating with American fiction writer Katie Kitamura on an as-yet-untitled novel that emerges from the artist duo’s work on the language of autoimmunity—the fraught notion of a body at war with itself—and the stakes of reengineering life to defend against biological or environmental peril.

The research, experiments, and performances undertaken by Goldin+Senneby have fed into Kitamura’s fiction, which, in turn, has influenced the duo’s work. Kitamura’s novel-in-progress is composed of two discrete parts, “Turpentine” and “Flare-Up,” set in versions of the same world. The plot and characters in each story are shaped by different variables, including mutant organisms and life-altering diseases. One half centers on a mysterious pine tree with a supercharged immune system; the other tells of a stranger whose sense of self—and biological coherence—comes into question as he seeks a novel treatment for his illness.

A draft prologue to the upcoming novel was read at an event at Triple Canopy in January 2020. A two-chapter excerpt from ”Flare-Up” was first published in the twentyeighth issue of Triple Canopy; and re-published together with a two-chapter excerpt from “Turpentine” at the American Academy in Rome in December 2023.

Further Reading