Published by KMEC Books. Edited by Karen Marta. Text by Tavia Nyong'o.
Embracing a spectrum of expression and form, Jordan Roth’s ongoing engagement with theater arts and fashion has evolved into a performance-based practice incorporating acting and the visual arts, which Roth has termed Narrative Fashion Performance. This publication documents Roth’s premiere public performance piece, Radical Acts of Unrelenting Beauty: Musée du Louvre, which took place in 2025 as part of the Musée du Louvre’s first fashion exhibition, Louvre Couture. Across three acts, Roth’s garments shifted from sculpture into movement, and from movement into a meditation on perception, situating the body as a living vessel for fashion, art history and ritual. Exquisitely designed, this book features extensive photographic documentation complemented by an exploration of works in the Louvre’s collection that served as source material. The book’s design also incorporates special insets that echo the sensory and spatial experience of the three-act performance. An insightful essay and background texts trace connections to couture ateliers, classical sculpture, painting and performance traditions, revealing the conceptual architecture of Roth’s performance. Altogether, the publication figures as an extension of Roth’s performance itself in which page, texture and image carry forward an exploration of beauty’s capacity to alter how we see. New York–based artist Jordan Roth (born 1975) is a celebrated performer and producer whose work sits at the intersection of fashion, art and performance, exploring themes of beauty, spectatorship and transformation. Roth makes his television acting debut with a recurring role in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis novel The Shards on FX.
