Efimova surveys 20 years of conceptual art projects by the writer and philosopher Jonathon Keats

Thought Experiments: The Art of Jonathon Keats, Edited by Alla Efimova and Julie Decker, Hirmer Publishers, forthcoming April 2021.

Jonathon Keats’ work as an artist and thinker is compelling for our time. Keats poses critical questions, asks us to fundamentally reconsider our assumptions, and proposes radical methods of response. In a time when the environment and human lifeways are experiencing unprecedented change, thought leaders like Keats are needed to encourage us to consider possibilities—from the absurd to the profound. Since the turn of the millennium, Keats has comprehensively extended his academic training in philosophy by prolifically presenting conceptual art projects that he refers to as “thought experiments.” These include installations and performances in museums and galleries around the globe. His motivations are to make space for exploring ideas, offering provocations, and confronting systems we generally take for granted. By prototyping alternative realities—systematically asking “what if?”—these projects probe the world in which we live, exploring the potential for societal change.