Sabine, 38 and living in Melbourne, is a reasonably successful conceptual artist. Woo Woo, Ella Baxter’s second novel, takes place the week before the opening of Sabine’s “career-defining” exhibition, titled Fuck You, Help Me. The psychic pressure of her looming public consumption is already warping Sabine’s relationships with Constantine (her chef husband), Cecily (her gallerist) and Ruth (her best friend, also an artist). Into this shimmering stress comes a stalker, whom Sabine dubs “Rembrandt man” – not a compliment.
The stalker is not a metaphor – Woo Woo, Baxter has said, is a “scorched earth response” to her own. Her novel frames art not merely as salve, but an instrument for reclaiming personal sovereignty.
