This series of essays, dating from 1994 to the present, hits you right in the face from the jump. To call it subversive is probably doing it a disservice. The first essay, ‘Where Your Cabaret Comes From’ seems designed to shock you, then inure you to what might come later. McGregor’s relish for the queer party scene in Sydney is evident. This is boundary-pushing, take-it-or-leave-it commentary.

This collection of 15 essays represents a selection of her non-fiction work. Then there’s her not-inconsiderable body of performance art and award-winning fiction. The majority of these essays pertain to performance art, where expression is found in the ‘puncturing of obedience and relief of transgression’. She is unfailingly encouraging to those she sees as not getting due reward (such as Latai Taumoepeau), but willing to call out the egotism of those whose focus has turned to themselves, rather than on their art.

The title essay refers to Mike Parr’s burial under the asphalt in Hobart. She respects him, particularly for his outré performances, but questions whether this particular act sublimates his ego, as she thinks all performance art should.

McGregor’s heartfelt examination of art and feminist and queer issues is designed to be confrontational. It has to be to crash through barriers imposed by the hegemony. Her heart is openly visible. Even in her criticism she has a genuine interest in, and care for, the person inside the artist. Her intelligence and insightfulness delivers passionate, wide-ranging studies of Sydney, performance art and literature.

Reviewed Bob Moore $26.95