The book by Olivia Laing, The Lonely City from 2016 is perhaps not the first book one thinks of as a source for research notes, but it is as much about art as about the city of New York or loneliness, or rather a few artists like Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, the outsider artist Henry Darger, the singer Klaus Nomi and the internet entrepreneur Josh Harris. And with them their times, including the AIDS epidemic, ACT UP and so on. It was fascinating to read about a time I have witnessed myself, and remember parts of, like the sudden international fame of Klaus Nomi. My short visit to New York in the 1980’s when Nina von Svetlich and Anja Salmela, who later died of AIDS together with her husband, lived there in east village, and then some years later when Roi Vaara performed with Black Market International in Franklin Furnace, left only superficial impressions. Enough to enjoy the book, though, which is written in a personal confession style, but includes analysis of cultural politics, social media and queer resistance and is stimulating on many levels. What I remember best, perhaps, from the end of the book, is the idea of collage and stitching things together as a remedy for loneliness or isolation or the feeling of things falling apart. And also the general idea of art as a remedy for various ailments, like loneliness or isolation or racism and humiliation etc. Of course I started to wonder whether I am lonely, or perhaps so used to being alone that I do not recognise it as loneliness… The book, which is now translated to Finnish and was recommended to me by Eija-Liisa, is well worth reading in any case.
 
Olivia Laing, The Lonely City – Adventures in the art of being alone Canongate books, Edinburgh 2017.