Description:
Channeling hallucinated versions of dead artists and junkies, these fragments access the uncanny allure of shared experience. Elements of speculative fiction, criticism and encrypted auto-biography merge to form a disconcerting portrait of the artist as addict. Neither denunciation nor valorization, Communions is an attempt to probe the haunting singularity of opiate addiction and its ineradicable influence on art and culture.
Review Quotes:
Lehrer makes me yearn for a time when being a critic was an artform in itself, and that makes me even more grateful to have him.
- Thomas Moore
...a gripping hybrid text about the paradoxes of drug addiction as a means of both freedom and enslavement, insight and stultification...Amidst the dull critical monoculture of the current moment, Lehrer's is a bold and unique voice.
- Geoff Shullenberger