I Was A Teenage Banshee

Book excerpt: A Künstlerroman by British contemporary artist Sue Webster, which combines personal memoir with an exploration of the ongoing influence of youth, music, and Siouxsie and the Banshees on her life and work. Emanating from a poignant unpacking of objects and memories--which Webster has turned into a private exhibition to coincide with the publica-tion--this book positions the Banshees and the artist herself alongside visual references to everyone from David Bowie and the Sex Pistols to William Burroughs and Salvador Dalí--using the Banshees and the punk scene amid which she grew up as an entry point to reflect on the cultural and personal evolutions of the last decades. More than 300 illustrations combine ephemera with artwork and reveal the connection between influence and art: objects documenting her fanaticism of the Banshees, from record covers and photographs to ticket stubs and lyrics; paraphernalia from books, artists, and cultural figures that relate to the Banshees and that world of 1970s and early 1980s post-punk; personal effects from diary pages to unseen photographs; and selected artworks by Sue Webster and longtime partner Tim Noble.