{"id":8133,"title":"The Jive Talker or How to Get a British Passport","dimensions":"14.4 x 22.4 cm, 336 p, language: English, publisher: Jonathan Cape London, ISBN: 978-0224081061","date_begin":"2008-01-01","material":"ink, paper","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":26,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":6,"stream_count":0,"collection":"Collection M HKA, Antwerp","cached_tag_list":"artist novel","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"B 2025/878","stream_count_app":19,"permalink":"the-jive-talker-or-how-to-get-a-british-passport","description_ca":null,"short_description_ca":null,"description_it":null,"short_description_it":null,"cached_primary_asset_url":null,"cached_actor_names":null,"hide_from_json":false,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":true,"category":{"en":"Book","nl":"Boek","fr":"Livre"},"poster_image":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/018/994/large/Untitled.jpg?1380291514","poster_credits":"(c)image: M HKA","translations":[{"locale":"en","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiterary synopsis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;When London-based conceptual artist Samson Kambalu was eleven, he founded his own religion, Holyballism. Based on sun worship and influenced by Nietzsche, Freud, and Frida Kahlo\u0026rsquo;s painting Nuclear Sun, the \u0026ldquo;holy ball\u0026rdquo; is the religion\u0026rsquo;s sacred/blasphemous object: a soccer ball plastered with pages ripped from the Bible and kicked about for \u0026ldquo;exercises and exorcisms.\u0026rdquo; Kambalu\u0026rsquo;s memoir, \u003cem\u003eThe Jive Talker\u003c/em\u003e, is another form of exorcism and exercise, a literary, polyphonic performance of exuberance and delight. The book opens with Kambalu\u0026rsquo;s father, Aaron. Ambitious and dogmatic, he was a \u0026ldquo;medical clinical officer\u0026rdquo; whose postings required the family to relocate frequently. The bathroom was always the room in the house he prized most, and his Diptych\u0026mdash;a large two-part bookshelf filled with the complete works of his favorite writer, Nietzsche (\u0026ldquo;the perfect philosopher for the toilet because of his searing aphoristic style and cold truths\u0026rdquo;)\u0026mdash;was the center of the family home. He loved cutlery even more than food, and after a couple of bottles of Carlsberg Brown beer (which he called jive), he would regale his children with drunken sessions on Nietzsche\u0026rsquo;s \u003cem\u003eZarathustra \u003c/em\u003eor the \u0026ldquo;two great European narcotics,\u0026rdquo; alcoholism and born-again Christianity\u0026mdash;hence his nickname, the Jive Talker.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoscelyn Jurich, Bookforum Sept/Oct/Nov 2008\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelation of the novel to the artist\u0026rsquo;s practice\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe novel is at the centre of Samson Kambalu\u0026rsquo;s practice. His writing influences his studio practice and his studio practise influences his writing.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://samsonkambalu.com/the-jive-talker\"\u003eNovel\u0026#39;s website\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"},{"locale":"nl","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"fr","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"ru","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"de","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"es","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"el","short_description":"","description":""}],"actors":[{"id":2058,"name":"Samson Kambalu ","category":{"en":"Creator","nl":"Vervaardiger","fr":"Créateur"}}]}