74 pages
182 mm x 128 mm
90 mm cover flaps
Format: Paperback
ISBN 978-1-7384394-5-4
£12 (£3 p&p UK)
Special Edition
book + T-shirt (o/s medium)
Edition of 10
£40 (£3 p&p UK)
The Dead Weight of Beauty, Stuart McKenzie
You don't have to remember us
but know that we were here -
the genius of light that shone
through the green and purple glass
These poems play out in part against the backdrop of the 1980’s and early 90’s, including glimpses into the hedonistic fashion industry of the time and teenage life in the North of England, where sexualities are challenged and identities forged amongst excursions into club culture, as a means of escape - a rite of passage of sorts.
‘In The Dead Weight of Beauty, decades accordion, encounters and remarks surface, and lost loves and lusts pop by to say hello. Stuart McKenzie’s superb collection offers a catalogue of loss and life: eternal Christmases, Johnny Cash, Helen Reddy, drug stunts, dukes, cads, studs, heatwaves, football chants. The morsels of memory and its conjoined twin longing flicker and haunt. He expertly plays the registers of irony and sincerity, dazzling with the blur of references, proper names, fashions, and songs to create an atmosphere like torn-off scraps collaged to fight the empty space and isolation framing us all. It’s like stepping into a room of constantly changing dimensions and furnishings, disquieting and wondrous.’
- Nate Lippens
'These poems are marvellous secrets whispered across eras, from the risky allure of the underbelly and the shifting surfaces of desire and fashion, they slide twisted daggers of memory deep into a treacherous future.'
- Penny Goring
‘Stuart makes me chaotically laugh out loud with total face pain, the way he talks to me feels similar to how he writes, unrestrained, elegant and beautiful.’
- Joanne Robertson
Really enjoyed it. Smokey, affectionate and feels like hauntology.
- Misha Honcharenko
'My book selection for this winter is a new volume of poetry by the fabulous artist and performer Stuart McKenzie, whose irreverent star is on the rise. Verses from the book form the basis of the lyrics in his musical performances, in which he dons, what I call, ‘secretarial drag’ (Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking tuxedo suit jacket with sharp sunglasses) and sings over DIY beats and synths programmed on a trigger pad, which he activates while twisting around a free-standing mic and whipping his long hair. Writing is the core of McKenzie’s work, and he has an elegant, observational style that I associate with northern England. The Dead Weight of Beauty (2025) is a heady mix of queer abandon, everyday life and arch style. Here, you might finally discover what it means to be feminine, marvellous and tough.'
- Frieze Magazine 'What to Read This Winter.'– Sean Burns, Frieze, assistant editor
Stuart McKenzie is an artist, illustrator, poet and musician. He was a founding member of the band Wild Daughter. A studio assistant for Vivienne Westwood in the early 90’s, he went on to become a fashion illustrator. His poems have appeared in publications from Magma Poetry to AnOther Magazine. He performs regularly at venues across London and recently exhibited at Arcadia Missa (for Galerina), Raven Row, London, and Cherry Hill with 4649, Tokyo in Cologne. The Dead Weight of Beauty is his first full length collection.
You don't have to remember us
but know that we were here -
the genius of light that shone
through the green and purple glass
These poems play out in part against the backdrop of the 1980’s and early 90’s, including glimpses into the hedonistic fashion industry of the time and teenage life in the North of England, where sexualities are challenged and identities forged amongst excursions into club culture, as a means of escape - a rite of passage of sorts.
‘In The Dead Weight of Beauty, decades accordion, encounters and remarks surface, and lost loves and lusts pop by to say hello. Stuart McKenzie’s superb collection offers a catalogue of loss and life: eternal Christmases, Johnny Cash, Helen Reddy, drug stunts, dukes, cads, studs, heatwaves, football chants. The morsels of memory and its conjoined twin longing flicker and haunt. He expertly plays the registers of irony and sincerity, dazzling with the blur of references, proper names, fashions, and songs to create an atmosphere like torn-off scraps collaged to fight the empty space and isolation framing us all. It’s like stepping into a room of constantly changing dimensions and furnishings, disquieting and wondrous.’
- Nate Lippens
'These poems are marvellous secrets whispered across eras, from the risky allure of the underbelly and the shifting surfaces of desire and fashion, they slide twisted daggers of memory deep into a treacherous future.'
- Penny Goring
‘Stuart makes me chaotically laugh out loud with total face pain, the way he talks to me feels similar to how he writes, unrestrained, elegant and beautiful.’
- Joanne Robertson
Really enjoyed it. Smokey, affectionate and feels like hauntology.
- Misha Honcharenko
'My book selection for this winter is a new volume of poetry by the fabulous artist and performer Stuart McKenzie, whose irreverent star is on the rise. Verses from the book form the basis of the lyrics in his musical performances, in which he dons, what I call, ‘secretarial drag’ (Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking tuxedo suit jacket with sharp sunglasses) and sings over DIY beats and synths programmed on a trigger pad, which he activates while twisting around a free-standing mic and whipping his long hair. Writing is the core of McKenzie’s work, and he has an elegant, observational style that I associate with northern England. The Dead Weight of Beauty (2025) is a heady mix of queer abandon, everyday life and arch style. Here, you might finally discover what it means to be feminine, marvellous and tough.'
- Frieze Magazine 'What to Read This Winter.'– Sean Burns, Frieze, assistant editor
Stuart McKenzie is an artist, illustrator, poet and musician. He was a founding member of the band Wild Daughter. A studio assistant for Vivienne Westwood in the early 90’s, he went on to become a fashion illustrator. His poems have appeared in publications from Magma Poetry to AnOther Magazine. He performs regularly at venues across London and recently exhibited at Arcadia Missa (for Galerina), Raven Row, London, and Cherry Hill with 4649, Tokyo in Cologne. The Dead Weight of Beauty is his first full length collection.
© Joan Publishing