tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75117871520424567452024-03-13T11:41:35.929+00:00Alison GibbonsWebsite for Alison Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in English.
This site gives an overview of my academic outputs as well as links and commentary on my favourite things (language, literature, art).
[The blog was originally called 'iconnote' and provided a platform of my musings on art and literature']Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-61836625829501421172012-08-06T00:48:00.000+01:002012-08-06T00:58:11.514+01:00My Book Spine PoetryAs promised, here are my own poetic book spine offerings:<br />
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I'm sorry that the image quality etc isn't great. If you're friends with me on facebook, you can see it as an album (which may or may not be better) <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100300948953292.2523891.61103344&type=1">here</a>.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-48481965496370302652012-08-06T00:20:00.002+01:002012-08-06T00:49:36.331+01:00Book Spine PoetryI recently discovered the art of Book Spine Poetry, the act of making poems out of book titles or at least the titles given on the spines of books. It's a relatively straightforward idea, but as an art or poetic form its rather playful, taking titles as ready-made poetic phrases and linking them together to create a new poetic object.<br />
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The master of book spine poetry is artist <a href="http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/index.php">Nina Katchadourian</a>, whose <a href="http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/languagetranslation/sortedbooks.php"><i>Sorted Books </i>project</a> has been ongoing nearly 20 years. The <i>Sorted Books </i>project began in 1993 and saw the artist arrange books from numerous lookings - private homes to public libraries and specialised books collections. Whilst the artist herself claims that "Taken as a while, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library's focus, idiosyncracies, and inconsistencies - a cross-section of that library's holdings", her work also producing some interesting literary results. Here are two of my favourites (my organisation of typed text):<br />
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Book spine poetry appears to be taking off on the web, perhaps because it seems to offer the same sort of authorly promise as web2.0 - it is an art everyone can do. Indeed, there are libraries in America holding Book Spine Poetry competitions. Another writer of Book Spine Poetry is cultural commentator and literary reviewer Maria Popova, who posted her attempts on her blog <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/">Brain Pickings</a>. Again, two favourites:<br />
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Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at some Book Spine Poetry myself! If you're interested you can see my own Book Spine Poems on the next blog post <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/my-book-spine-poetry.html">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-44199971989943825372012-08-01T17:37:00.000+01:002012-08-02T10:49:14.098+01:00Find the Fragrant WorldAnyone who knows me will know I'm slightly obsessed with the music of Yeasayer, having seen them play in June 2010 on Governor's Island in New York. I've been eagerly anticipating their third album <i>Fragrant World</i>, not due out until 21st August, and the wait has just got all the more exciting!<br />
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Back in May, an unexpected CD-shaped parcel was pushed through my letter box. On opening, I found it to be a letter from the Band and an advanced CD featuring the song "Henrietta". Dated '<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">May 1st, 2012</span>', it read:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Dear Human Being,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Enclosed is a burned compact disc version of "Henrietta," a single from our upcoming album. We wanted you to hear it first. Please know you were chosen (1 of 200) at random from over 7 billion people on the planet earth. Pls share w/ the internets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">More details soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">X- Yeasayer</span><br />
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I was of course insanely excited by this, played the CD straight away and instantly loved it! The band reinforced the online hype this physical release generated by lucky fans like myself with TXTSPK (textspeak) announcements on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter - HNRTTA. This was followed with the internet release of another track "Longevity", also promoted using social meadia - LNGVTY - with both singles available as free digital downloads to fans who preorder the <i>Fragrant World</i> album directly from <a href="http://www.yeasayer.net/">Yeasayer's website</a>.<br />
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Despite this excitement back in May ("Henrietta") and then late June ("Longevity"), I thought I'd just have to be patient for the album's release towards the end of August. I was wrong. Yesterday the band made the following announcement on both their <a href="http://www.facebook.com/yeasayer">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Yeasayer">Twitter</a> feeds:<br />
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Clearly, fans were being fed another cryptic clue. Yet try as I might, I couldn't make PSCYVOTV into a word or a track name, based on the tracklistings for <i>Fragrant World </i>on the internet. Today, the band issued the following letter/photograph:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IsMQG7x79Tg/UBlRq4WoNTI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/M7etMfdABT4/s1600/536791_10150975813021732_288870435_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IsMQG7x79Tg/UBlRq4WoNTI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/M7etMfdABT4/s320/536791_10150975813021732_288870435_n.jpg" width="246" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We have received a message that we are on the verge of embargoed information being leaked through the cracks of the digital universe. Once again an attempt to tell the story before our months can spit. In order to have the edge we have created PSCYVOTV standing for PREEMPTIVE SELF-COMMISIONED YEASAYER VORSTELLUNG OR TRACH VISUALISER.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Using the talents of Yoshi Sodeoka we have created a moving visual for every song on our new album </span><i style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">FRAGRANT WORLD</i><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> and have hidden them all over the internet. The visuals will live on the web until Friday Aug. 3, at 8pm EST. You'll have a few days to find, listen, and most importantly, hear the album from our hands first. at 8pm sharp, </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">PSCYVOTV will be removed.</span><br />
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A challenge has been issued - a kind of 21st century online whacky races for music lovers is underway. <a href="http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/08/yeasayer-scavenger-hunt-fragrant-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29">Wired magazine</a> have already described the operation as a "scavenger hunt" for fans.<br />
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Yeasayer's game isn't just novel though; its downright clever, utilising what Henry Jenkins has called <i>convergence</i>: "the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between media industries, and the migratory behaviour of audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want" (<i>Convergence Culture</i>: 2). Yeasayer fans will access the music in digital and multimedia forums, before they get their hands on their physical CD. And for fans who do engage in this treasure hunt, the investment in the music itself is likely to be all the greater, since they have actively participated in its discovery/uncovery. For these fans finding the tracks is an immersive investment: Finding the <i>Fragrant World</i> means entering it.<br />
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I'll certainly be joining the search (and I'll do my best to keep you updated on <a href="https://twitter.com/alterAlison">twitter</a>). For now, I'll leave you with the first track to have been found - Track 3. "Blue Paper".<br />
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So, "Blue Paper", "Henrietta", and "Longevity" all found: 3 down, 8 to go!<br />
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<u><b>Here's an Update with links to all the tracks [though they'll be gone by Friday 8pm]:</b></u><br />
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1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXJNmDZ9SeA&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=1&feature=plpp_video">Fingers Never Bleed</a><br />
2. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNWyuzEd06A&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=2&feature=plpp_video">Longevity</a><br />
3. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCdtryoFtfI&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=3&feature=plpp_video">Blue Paper</a><br />
4. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4rbhR_vsk&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=4&feature=plpp_video">Henrietta</a><br />
5. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBh_LO6HX18&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=5&feature=plpp_video">Devil and the Deed</a><br />
6. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2wV8aU4Mk&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=6&feature=plpp_video">No Bones</a><br />
7. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrwUkEMmKZY&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=7&feature=plpp_video">Reagan's Skeleton</a><br />
8. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgUD5ltRE1E&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=8&feature=plpp_video">Demon Road</a><br />
9. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqhJvuu9cvY&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=9&feature=plpp_video">Damaged Goods</a><br />
10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrJ9J_mTNg&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=10&feature=plpp_video">Folk of the Schtick</a><br />
11. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dtmKy_WHts&list=PLAD36EA8517288BEE&index=11&feature=plpp_video">Glass of the Microscope</a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-69986798595878985052012-07-27T12:15:00.000+01:002012-07-27T12:15:43.367+01:00Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature<div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sSEhnt84Pio/UBJ2s3vjSLI/AAAAAAAAAOI/n65bWa6EAFE/s1600/companion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sSEhnt84Pio/UBJ2s3vjSLI/AAAAAAAAAOI/n65bWa6EAFE/s200/companion.jpg" width="138" /></a>Over the last few years, I've been involved in co-editing the <i><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415570008/">The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature</a></i> with Joe Bray and Brian McHale and I'm so pleased that it's finally been published (in June of this year)!<div>
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A taster of the book, by way of the table of contents and the editorial introduction to the volume, can be found on the website for <i><a href="https://jacket2.org/">Jacket2</a></i>, an online magazine on modern and contemporary poetics.</div>
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For those interested, access it <a href="https://jacket2.org/commentary/routledge-companion-experimental-literature-introduction-and-table-contents">here</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-56682822182497262972012-07-10T14:21:00.001+01:002012-07-10T14:23:32.275+01:00"You've never experienced a novel like this"About two and a half years ago, I wrote an essay on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_36129678">Steve </a><a href="http://www.stevetomasula.com/">Tomasula</a>'s award-winning new media novel <i><a href="http://www.tocthenovel.com/">TOC</a></i> for a special festschrift on Tomasula's work for <a href="http://www.electronicbookreview.com/">Electronic Book Review</a>.<br />
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The collection of essays is now live on EBR's pages <a href="http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/fictionspresent">here</a>, including my own piece ' <a href="http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/fictionspresent/linear">"You've never experienced a novel like this": Time and interaction when reading <i>TOC</i></a>'.<br />
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Hope you enjoy!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-39724214424057478502012-07-08T16:32:00.000+01:002012-07-08T16:38:20.295+01:00The Book That Can't Wait<span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Buenos Aires-based bookshop and publisher <a href="http://www.eternacadencia.com/home.asp">Eterna Cadencia</a> (with the aid of marketing agency <a href="http://www.draftfcb.com/">DRAFTFCB</a>) have created a profoundly ephemeral literary object in the form of<i> El Libro que No Puedo Esperar</i>, or to translate that into English <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What makes <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> so unique is that it has been printed using special ink which, once exposed to the air, will begin to disappear.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The book comes securely sealed, air-tight, but from the moment it is opened, the words will begin to vanish. Within two months, the fiction contained in <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> will seem to be just that - a fiction - having completely disappeared, the book and its blank pages the only surviving remnants of the stories they once contained.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> is actually a special edition of <i>The Future is Not Ours: New Latin American Fiction</i>, a collection of short stories by emerging Latin American Writers edited by Diego Trelles Paz. It seems that the motivation for the special edition was to raise awareness of new writers - to make reading their works a priority and to provide them with greater exposure. And on all accounts this seems to have worked! The special edition sold out and certainly had a media-buzz surrounding it. Moreover, the marketing campaign won three Gold and a Bronze Lion at Cannes 2012. Here's the promotional video:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">As for me, I'm still getting my head around the idea. Both the publishers Eterna Candencia and the ad agency DRAFTFCB contextualise the design by reference to contemporary anxiety over the death of the book, the threat of extinction to the book as physical object created by digital technologies. <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> certainly engages in a self-effacing debate about its own materiality and immateriality. Yet as a reader and someone who appreciates the book as artefact, I feel strangely torn. On one hand, the concept of <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> is beautiful and its transience is surely at the heart of this. But I can't help thinking that in three months from purchase date when I find myself looking down at empty pages, I might feel somewhat cheated. For now, like the future pages of <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i>, I'm lost for words.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">(With thanks to my friend Tom Stafford for bringing <i>The Book That Can't Wait</i> to my attention. Visit his blog <i><a href="http://idiolect.org.uk/">Idolect</a>.</i>)<i> </i></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-73969257898104066982012-06-12T13:57:00.001+01:002012-06-13T12:05:24.005+01:00Why We Broke Up<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZmP-KM_V4Xs/T9cvxvwOsuI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4GIbaeYCzZ0/s1600/Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZmP-KM_V4Xs/T9cvxvwOsuI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4GIbaeYCzZ0/s200/Cover.jpg" width="146" /></a><br />
I recently read the book <i>Why We Broke Up</i>, a fiction written by Daniel Handler and featuring art by Maira Kalman. The novel itself is a story of first love, or perhaps first infatuation is the best way to describe it. <i>Why We Broke up </i>tells the story of Protagonist and geeky old-movie enthusiast Min ("short for Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom" p.18) Green's relationship with high school (American) football jock Ed Slaterton.<br />
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<i>Why We Broke Up </i>is a young adult book, and reads like one. I don't usually go for books in this genre (though I loved <i><a href="http://tsspivet.com/">The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet</a></i> by Reif Larson) but at the time I wanted something light and this ticked that box. Interestingly, when reading this, there is a sense of incredible hindsight: While I did find it reminiscent of experiences of one's first school boyfriend, what struck me was that although it is written for younger readers, perhaps currently in the throws of their own young romance, there are hints of awareness about the relationship at the centre of the novel that offer an adult retrospective, viewed from an emotional distance that Min couldn't possible have.<br />
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There are three things that interested me about the book, forming the motivations for me choosing to read it. Firstly, <i>Why We Broke Up</i> is written as a break up letter from Min to Ed. The letter of course guides the reader through the entirety of their relationship from start to inevitable end. However, this means that it is interesting from a linguistic point of view. In terms of deictics, it is written in first person (the 'I' representing Min) to a story-internal character 'you' (Ed). It also means that the book itself is the (anti-)love letter, and the reader therefore appears to have access to this personal dialogue.<br />
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On the left, you can see the opening page. It starts with the epistolary genre salutation, 'Dear Ed'. Typographically, these words are presented as handwriting, thus in academic terms, they are considered to function through discursive import by symbolising the act of hand writing, albeit transposed into the context of a printed book. While the font subsequently returns to a conventional looking typeface, the 'Dear Ed' is presented like this in order to intimate the letter format.<br />
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Secondly, <i>Why We Broke Up </i>is multimodal. Each chapter opens with an illustration from artist Maira Kalman. Moreover, the pictures are not mere illustrations. They form part of the narrative world since not only does Min directly comment on them, they are also narrative artefacts, objects that trigger stories in the genesis of Min and Ed's relationship. Indeed, the letter-book itself is supposed to come in a box that Min drops off at Ed's door, together with all these objects of doomed young love. The first image (which opens the second chapter) for instance looks like this:<br />
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The image depicts the box in which the letter and associated objects are supposed to arrive. The text, too, directly references it: "The thunk is the box, Ed. This is what I am leaving you" (p.3).<br />
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The third reason I chose to read this book was the most persuasive. In marketing <i>Why We Broke Up</i>, the "<a href="http://whywebrokeupproject.tumblr.com/">Why We Broke Up Project</a>" was created.<br />
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I first heard about of this through <i>The Guardian</i>'s life style pages (see the article I first read <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/may/11/42-ways-to-split-up?CMP=twt_gu">here</a>) but it has its own website and is promoted on the back of the novel's dust jacket. The dust jacket states, "Min and Ed's story of HEARTBREAK may remind you of your own" and instead of endorsements about the book, features testimonies by famous authors (such as Neil Gaiman, M. T. Anderson, and Brian Selznick amongst others) about their own experiences of heartache. Similarly, the website says, "That's their break up story - <u>What's Yours?</u>" and invites users to post their own testimonies. As a reader, you can also search the testimonies by categories: "I can't believe how disgusting you were", "I can't believe there was someone else", "I can't believe you did that", "I can't believe you wore that", "I can't believe that's what you thought", "I just can't believe it", and "I'd take you back in a minute".<br />
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As such, the book becomes part of a larger dialogue in the form of the Why We Broke Up Project. With confessions that are both funny and tragic by turns, the Why We Broke Up Project offers an intimate yet collective insight into heartbreak, and it is this that I find fascinating.<br />
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<a href="http://whywebrokeupproject.tumblr.com/share-your-breakup">Why did YOU break up?</a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-82115980587977191612012-01-12T08:35:00.000+00:002012-01-12T08:35:51.703+00:00In Homage to Graham Rawle...On my walk into work this morning in Leicester, I encountered a solitary playing card lying on the pavement. Of course, it reminded me instantly of <a href="http://www.grahamrawle.com/">Graham Rawle</a>'s forthcoming novel <i><a href="http://www.grahamrawle.com/thecard/index.html">The Card</a>.</i> So I hastily took a photo, and this is my homage to him...<br />
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Rawle's <i>The Card</i> isn't released until June of this year, and I am already eagerly anticipating its arrival! It looks likely to be a surreal mystery in which the protagonist Riley finds a card, in a similar way to my own discovery this morning. Riley's card however spurns hidden clues and coded messages that lead him down a secret trail...<br />
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Sadly, no such enigmas surround my card, a tattered 6 of diamonds. Even a random found card that Rawle mentions on his <a href="http://grahamrawle.blogspot.com/">blog</a> appears to hold more secrets than mine (read the entry <a href="http://grahamrawle.blogspot.com/2011/10/card-found.html">here</a>). Oh well... Perhaps I should inscribe my own message and disgard this card on the streets of Sheffield...? Suggestions on a postcard please... or perhaps that should be, a playing card.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-33939227921953306372011-12-29T11:42:00.000+00:002011-12-29T11:42:54.603+00:00The landscape of the bookJust a quick post on another artist making books into sculptural works of art, <a href="http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php?/intro/">Guy Laramee</a>. His books works come in the form of two projects, <i>Biblios</i> and <i>The Great Wall</i>. Interestingly, Laramee conceptualises both projects through a story of civilisations, perhaps in a way that offers links to the work of altermodernist artist Charles Avery (see previous blog posts on Avery's <i><a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/07/islanders-introduction-charles-avery.html">The Islanders</a></i> and <i><a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/07/onomatopoeia-port-charles-avery.html">Onomatopoeia</a></i>).<br />
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<i>Biblios</i> is based around an ancient peoples called The Biblios. The Biblios invented words for the world around them, and so that they these words didn't die, they began to collect them in libraries. Moreover, the Biblios believed that words contained the spirit of the thing they designate.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iOFCWmkTtHI/TvxONq8ywwI/AAAAAAAAALc/ZqLVIc5xKmE/s1600/Biblios.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iOFCWmkTtHI/TvxONq8ywwI/AAAAAAAAALc/ZqLVIc5xKmE/s400/Biblios.png" width="400" /></a></div>The Biblios, as a people, die out, and according to the legend which Laramee writes, "It is generally agreed that Biblios dies under the weight of their knowledge". To read all of Laramee's commentary on Biblios, visit <a href="http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php?/biblios/biblios/">here</a>.<br />
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<i>The Great Wall</i>, on the other hand, is about a civilisation from the future, a Chinese Empire of the 23rd Century keen to chronicle the histories of "The Great Panics" of the 21st and 22nd Centuries. The result was a vast encyclopaedia entitled 'The Great Wall'.<br />
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Laramee's work are intriguing objects, blending the bookwork as art, with landscape and fictional archaeology. Interestingly, Laramee's own artistic statement links his bookart projects to the supposed death of the book in the early 21st century. He goes on to say:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. piles of obsolete encyclopaedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simple IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.</span></i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-12382353616071297092011-12-23T22:00:00.000+00:002011-12-23T22:00:09.979+00:00The Other Side - Ian BreakwellJust about to finish in the new year is a showing of Ian Breakwell's (2002) short video projection <i>The Other Side</i> at the <a href="http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/millennium-gallery/home">Millennium Gallery</a>, Sheffield. During his residency at The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea in 2000, Breakwell was apparently struck by the Pavilion's community, and particularly the tea dances held on the terrace. It is upon this dancing that Breakwell's film focuses.<br />
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According to the exhibition material, Breakwell wrote of the Pavilion tea dances: "<span style="color: #d5a6bd;">There was this whole atmostphere with the setting sun, calm sea, cheesy music and old people gracefully dancing. It was almost kitsch but at the same time there was something almost magical about it.</span>" Watching Breakwell's film certainly evokes such kitsch magic.<br />
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In the film we see the terrace as the sun goes down, the camera moving back and forth while the old couples dance outside on the terrace. All of this is set to music from Schubert and features occasional close-ups of the couples in silhouette.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d7GvMgTX6Z4/TvT15KCmAcI/AAAAAAAAALE/yUI1xWLAUVQ/s1600/art+stuff+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d7GvMgTX6Z4/TvT15KCmAcI/AAAAAAAAALE/yUI1xWLAUVQ/s320/art+stuff+009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>When the film ends, the image fades to black and the music dies, replaced instead by the sound of the sea and gulls. In itself, such sound would not be unsettling; it might be calming perhaps. However, because the preceding film offers a hypnotic lullaby, the ocean sounds <i>are</i> disruptive. They puncture the tranquility and evoke a melancholic contemplation on our mortality and the paths of our human lives...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-67045940659171835822011-12-23T21:05:00.001+00:002012-01-12T09:05:26.254+00:00The Infernal Dream of Mutt & Jeff - Zoe Beloff @ Site Gallery<a href="http://www.sitegallery.org/">Site Gallery</a>, Sheffield, is currently showing an exhibition of <a href="http://www.zoebeloff.com/">Zoe Beloff</a>'s work, entitled 'The Infernal Dream of Mutt & Jeff'. Having first encountered Beloff's work through <a href="http://www.stevetomasula.com/">Steve Tomasula</a>'s new media novel <i><a href="http://www.tocthenovel.com/">TOC</a></i>, I was excited about seeing more of the artist's work.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bb7LGgGi14w/TvTlLrp-jzI/AAAAAAAAAKI/sCjr-jb-Rwk/s1600/art+stuff+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bb7LGgGi14w/TvTlLrp-jzI/AAAAAAAAAKI/sCjr-jb-Rwk/s320/art+stuff+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The exhibition seemed to be divided into three key pieces: an animated film of Mutt and Jeff, the central characters of America's longest-running comic strip (created by Bud Fisher), a triptych film combining two old industrial films from the 1950s and a new film starring Kate Valk (of <a href="http://thewoostergroup.org/blog/">the Wooster Group NYC</a>) and a contextual commentary which featured cronocyclography. All in all, the exhibition puts forward a complex network of works and ideas. The Mutt & Jeff film clearly evokes a sense of popular culture and of media society.<br />
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The triptych film is pretty fascinating. The two 1950s films which it uses are <i>Motion Studies Application</i> and <i>Folie a Deux</i>. Both are instructional: the former designed to achieve uttermost efficiency on the production line and the latter to educate viewers as to how to recognise a particular mental disorder. In itself, the pairing of subject matter is somewhat at odds, and creates a tension of meaning. The new film however complicates the art work further, adding another layer of meaning.<br />
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In the new film, Wooster Group actress Kate Valk can be seen 'going through the motions'. Her actions, be they related to product-assembly or mental illness are out of joint, out of time; indeed, they are often slowed down so that they become hyper-real, perhaps exposing the mechanics of a capitalist work force. At other times, Valk's actions move in sync with the participants of <i>Motion Studies Application</i> or <i>Folie a Deux</i>; setting up a further dialectic in the form of an alienation of self.<br />
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The Croncyclography in the exhibition was perhaps one of my favourite parts. The exhibition material explained, "Frank and Lilian Gilbreth photographed workers performing a task and wired with a light attached to their finger". Afterwards, the Gilbreth's created sculptures based on the light paths. Beloff's exhibition included photographs of Valk's actions in the film:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xQEgs0QjYp4/TvTrNauW9BI/AAAAAAAAAKs/-S3q-RYxXxw/s1600/art+stuff+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xQEgs0QjYp4/TvTrNauW9BI/AAAAAAAAAKs/-S3q-RYxXxw/s320/art+stuff+008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The croncyclographs show up productive motion of the body. Moreover, it shows up the relationship between time, motion, and capital. The fiscal value of the productive body is shown up in the photos and sculptures as a real and tangible thing.<br />
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Zoe Beloff: The Infernal Dream of Mutt & Jeff is on at Site Gallery until 21st January 2012, and is well worth a visit. You can also read an interview with the artist on <i><a href="http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/imagenarrative/numerous">ebr</a>.</i><br />
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</i></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-68920829997767791772011-12-23T19:44:00.002+00:002012-03-17T14:20:06.253+00:00Occupy ComicsWhen writing the Introduction for <i><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415570008/">The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature</a></i> with <a href="http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/McHale11/">Brian McHale</a> and <a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/people/bray">Joe Bray</a>, I was thinking about the possible futures of experimental literature.<br />
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I wrote:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">"<span style="color: #d5a6bd;">The present experimental literature, of globalisation and/or altermodernism, seeks to challenge the forces of globalisation, internationalism, and capital markets. In keeping with such subversion, current events such as the 'Occupy Wall Street' campaign might fuel literary reactions. 'Occupy Wall Street' began on the 17th September 2011 in Manhattan's Financial District, and spread to major cities in the Western world. Other recent unrest is not unconnected: the 2010/2011 violent civil uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia stemming from political corruption, democratic deficiency, and fiscal problems, and in Greece and Italy in relation to the Eurozone debt crisis. We may, therefore, envisage an experimental literature that addresses what may be seen as the contaminated rule of capitalism.</span>"</div><br />
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Unbeknown to me at the time, but newly discovered, my predication was already coming to fruition in the form of <a href="http://occupycomics.com/"><i>Occupy Comics</i></a>.<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MwMplFU1oLE/TvTUGwDlsVI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/ZQHyWb9hfVw/s1600/occupy+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MwMplFU1oLE/TvTUGwDlsVI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/ZQHyWb9hfVw/s200/occupy+poster.jpg" width="140" /></a><br />
Occupy Comics is a project in its earlier stages. It stems from the conviction that the Occupy Wall Street campaign was originally promoted using art and particularly comic art.<br />
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This poster, for instance, designed to promote the campaign clearly draws not only on the iconography of street artist <a href="http://obeygiant.com/">Shepard Fairey</a>'s O'Bama poster but also graphic art and in particular the cover art of <a href="http://www.alanmoorefansite.com/">Alan Moore</a> and David Lloyd's <i>V for Vendetta</i>.<br />
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The idea behind <i>Occupy Comics </i> is to tell the stories of the Occupy campaign (without the demonisation that media coverage often injected) through art and stories.<br />
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Here's the promotional video:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyhtoAXLmzsn-YECCzKXHNyfLGlO-P8hNLNJI7HnAGfIS5y5POaY8aril84_US0ETspsnpLdYTt1Mvq82uRkA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
For more information about the campaign, you can go to the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1817933359/occupy-comics-art-stories-inspired-by-occupy-wall">Kickstarter site</a> or to <i><a href="http://occupycomics.com/">Occupy Comics</a></i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-15752298368715812702011-12-23T18:41:00.000+00:002011-12-23T18:41:53.978+00:00Altermodenist Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GAIXz3XxekA/TvTFzWaZRKI/AAAAAAAAAJk/pKotVcPHsik/s1600/altermodernist+fiction.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GAIXz3XxekA/TvTFzWaZRKI/AAAAAAAAAJk/pKotVcPHsik/s400/altermodernist+fiction.png" width="400" /></a></div>I've recently completed editing <i><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415570008/">The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature</a></i>, with <a href="http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/McHale11/http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/McHale11/">Brian McHale</a> and <a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/people/bray">Joe Bray</a>. As part of the collection, I wrote an essay on 'Altermodernist Fiction'. Obviously, I can't share that here, but I'm sure a few details won't do any harm!<br />
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Altermodernism is, according to Nicolas Bourriaud, the cultural milieu in which we now find ourselves. Bouriaud introduced this conception of the present epoch and its artistic movement in the most recent <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/altermodern/">triennial</a> at London art institute <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/">Tate Britain</a> in 2009. The exhibition, which Bourriaud curated, continued the Tate's triennial project in showcasing the best in new British art. The exhibition featured artists such as Charles Avery, Peter Coffin, David Noonan amongst others.<br />
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In the exhibition catalogue, Bouriaud reveals that, to some extent, altermodernism has a literary inspiration: the writings of W. G. Sebald. As such, in my essay 'Altermodernist Fiction', I consider the features of contemporary experimental altermodernist fiction. As I explain, altermodernism is "defined by an implicitly politicised aesthetic resistance to globalisation, refusing standardisation, stability, or stasis". Moreover, altermoderist fiction (in line with Bourriaud's consideration of altermodernist art practices are characterised by the treatment of Form, Time, and Identity.<br />
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In the essay, I provide analysis of four texts: W. G. Sebald's <i>The Rings of Saturn</i>, Liam Gillick's <i>Erasmus is Late</i>, Brian Castro's <i>Shanghai Dancing</i>, and Charles Avery's <i>The Islanders</i>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-noTCCp0rD6E/TvTLUc2zkvI/AAAAAAAAAJw/zS-m9uxwSLM/s1600/altermodern+books.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-noTCCp0rD6E/TvTLUc2zkvI/AAAAAAAAAJw/zS-m9uxwSLM/s400/altermodern+books.png" width="278" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-31320840945458609612011-12-23T16:46:00.000+00:002011-12-23T16:46:45.046+00:0012 Months of Neon LoveBeginning on Valentine's Day 2011, and set to finish in 2012, <a href="http://www.victorialucas.co.uk/">Victoria Lucas</a> and <a href="http://www.richardwheater.com/">Richard William Wheater</a>'s collaborative project <i><a href="http://12monthsofneonlove.blog.com/">12 Months of Neon Love</a> </i>doesn't seem to be a million miles away from <a href="http://www.jennyholzer.com/">Jenny Holzer</a>'s work. The project is UK Arts Council funded, and presents romantic song lyrics (1 a month for a year) in red neon on a rooftop in Wakefield.<br />
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Heading closer to completion, here's a few the images so far:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D4kUtxwXgY0/TvSwPK2k7nI/AAAAAAAAAJY/Jn9DMCgWqGg/s1600/12-MONTHS-OF-NEONFINAL-PLAINSMsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D4kUtxwXgY0/TvSwPK2k7nI/AAAAAAAAAJY/Jn9DMCgWqGg/s400/12-MONTHS-OF-NEONFINAL-PLAINSMsm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Well worth checking out the website!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-63954857606947797412011-12-23T16:22:00.000+00:002011-12-23T16:22:41.813+00:00Postmodernism at the V&A<span style="text-align: justify;">Back in October, I went to the </span><a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/" style="text-align: justify;">Victoria & Albert Museum, London</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> to see their latest exhibition </span><i style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/postmodernism/">Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990</a></i><span style="text-align: justify;">. I intended, of course, to post about it much sooner, but life got in the way a little...</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog.rca.ac.uk/unmakingthings/files/2011/11/dezeen_Postmodernism-Style-and-Subversion_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://blog.rca.ac.uk/unmakingthings/files/2011/11/dezeen_Postmodernism-Style-and-Subversion_04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The exhibition sought to provide an introduction to Postmodernism for the general public, offering an insight into its manifestations in a number of different arts, from art, design, and architecture, to film and fashion. I have to say that I really enjoyed it, but I was disappointed that postmodernist experimentation in the literary arts was almost completely neglected. My visit was rather a long time ago now and so, rather than attempt to review the exhibition, I'm just going to mention two works that seemed particularly powerful and evocative to me.</div><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6aQVsGpSJ4A/TLDeji2r_DI/AAAAAAAAB3g/qSksbSXxBu4/s1600/pruittigoe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6aQVsGpSJ4A/TLDeji2r_DI/AAAAAAAAB3g/qSksbSXxBu4/s320/pruittigoe2.jpg" width="320" /></a>The exhibition started with the death of Modernism and the uprising of Postmodernism. The museum information stated that while any attempts to date the shift from Modern to Postmodern has been controversial and contested, Architecture critic <a href="http://www.charlesjencks.com/">Charles Jencks</a> points to the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project (with its embodiment of modernist design in concrete with its simple lines) in St. Louis at 3.32pm on 15 March 1972.<br />
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At this point in the exhibition, the work of Italian architect and designer Alessandro Messini was cited. His art work, <i>Destruction of Lassu Chair </i>(1974) seems to perform and embody the rejection of modernism.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kEmOPdXaHgs/TvSlGLeTb1I/AAAAAAAAAIc/IiVcHPfgWAY/s1600/Alessandro_Mendini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kEmOPdXaHgs/TvSlGLeTb1I/AAAAAAAAAIc/IiVcHPfgWAY/s400/Alessandro_Mendini.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>A Lassu Chair, simple and and pure in form and design, was set on fire, photographs laying witness to it as a burning sepulchre. The images captured by the photographs embody an attack on modernist design, the end of an era, and the emergence of a new cultural moment.<br />
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The second piece that I instantly loved was an image of a light installation by <a href="http://www.jennyholzer.com/">Jenny Holzer</a> (whom I've mentioned previously in relation to the avant-garde art collective Franklin Furnace - see <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/03/franklin-furnace.html">here</a>). The installation in question, quite typical of Holzer's neon and light projection work, was installed on a billboard between 1984-6.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ogFoqnndskU/TvSoXXr2-xI/AAAAAAAAAIo/Z2M_ZBV_5MQ/s1600/holzer+protect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ogFoqnndskU/TvSoXXr2-xI/AAAAAAAAAIo/Z2M_ZBV_5MQ/s400/holzer+protect.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>'Protect Me From What I Want' is beautiful in the way it speaks directly to deeper human emotions while simultaneously working with its location and environment to offer a critical commentary on consumerist desire and capitalist economy. I love this.<br />
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Anyway, that's enough from me.<br />
There's still time to see the V&A's <i>Postmodernism</i> exhibition - its on until the 15 January 2012. There's also a basic but interesting powerpoint, intended as a teacher's resource for those interested <a href="http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/website/uploads/files/teachers_resource_postmodernism.pdf">here</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-61315164021755156182011-10-10T10:29:00.001+01:002011-10-10T10:49:43.289+01:00Gomringer at DMUIn September, Eugen Gomringer visited the UK as part of a celebratory tour of his life's work. As such, Gomringer spoke at the <a href="http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/royal-festival-hall">Royal Festival Hall</a> in London, <a href="http://www.dmu.ac.uk/home.aspx">De Montfort University</a> (DMU) in Leicester, the <a href="http://www.derby.ac.uk/">University of Derby</a>, and <a href="http://www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/shandy-hall.php">Shandy Hall</a> (home of 18th century author Laurence Sterne) in Yorkshire, amongst a few other places.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9PkTEg-I7Fo/TpKtidMQ5rI/AAAAAAAAAHU/XOJjZhi9tNc/s1600/gomringer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9PkTEg-I7Fo/TpKtidMQ5rI/AAAAAAAAAHU/XOJjZhi9tNc/s320/gomringer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Born in 1925, Gomringer occupies an important place in the history of European art and poetry as the founder of the concrete poetry movement. His tour involved readings, talks, and exhibition openings.<br />
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The event at DMU exhibited works from the Conz collection, a selection of artworks donated to DMU by Italian art collector and avant-garde publisher Francecsco Conz. The donation, organised by Nicholas Zurbrugg, then Professor of English and Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts at DMU, coincided with Eugen Gomringer's first visit to the University in 1996.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HQlaSFE43VQ/TpKwibcmyzI/AAAAAAAAAHY/1QCEGeS1628/s1600/figures.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="109" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HQlaSFE43VQ/TpKwibcmyzI/AAAAAAAAAHY/1QCEGeS1628/s320/figures.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">L to R: Francesco Conz, Eugen Gomringer, and Nicholas Zurbrugg</div><br />
From the early 1970s, Conz began to work with experimental artists, such as key members of the Fluxus movement who were dedicated to exploring art in mixed media forms. Through his publishing company<i> Editions Conz</i>, he also produced large scale ink-on-canvas prints of concrete poetry, among which featured many of Gomringer's concrete poetry creations. Gomringer's works from the Conz donation have been exhibited in the Clephan building at DMU, home to the department of English and Creative Writing, and the Faculty of Art, Design, and Humanities.<br />
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The actual exhibition of large canvas prints is impressive. I've obviously seen and read about Gomringer's works in academic books and journal articles, but it really was a different experience to see them for real. There were four pieces which I particularly liked. The first two can be seen below.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lpbkMm7U1SM/TpK1BiINQQI/AAAAAAAAAHg/k_IIgPQPwZc/s1600/gomringer+mem-wind.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lpbkMm7U1SM/TpK1BiINQQI/AAAAAAAAAHg/k_IIgPQPwZc/s400/gomringer+mem-wind.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">L to R:</div><div style="text-align: center;">'memoires, memories, memorias' (1983)</div><div style="text-align: center;">'wind' (1953)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></div>As with all his concrete-poetic works, Gomringer makes use of white space to explore the visual possibilities of the sign. 'wind' is rather self-explanatory, the scattered letters evoking a sense of dynamic motion, the letters themselves looking as though they have been blown by wind. 'memoires, memories, memorias' is somewhat more complicated. Gomringer writes the word 'memories' in French, English, and Spanish, arranging them to form a square, but with one side missing. In his talk, Gomringer mentioned this saying that he had deliberately left this absence, for another language, something else, perhaps beyond the sign.<br />
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Another of my favourites was 'kein fehler im system' (1969), shown below, which translates as 'no error in the system'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zMkZ2C9Ry3I/TpK3CrgDaAI/AAAAAAAAAHo/kIXQuOWgtmo/s1600/no+error.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zMkZ2C9Ry3I/TpK3CrgDaAI/AAAAAAAAAHo/kIXQuOWgtmo/s320/no+error.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><br />
The clever thing about 'kein fehler im system' is its playful performance of seeming error, amidst a clearly patterned system. With each repetition of the line, the 'f' from 'fehler' moves one position to the right, thus causing an error in terms of correct language use. However, at the same time, there is clearly a system, a code, which structures this concrete-poem. The code itself is exacted perfectly - there is no error in the system - evolving the text until it arrives full circle at 'kein fehler im system' after its series of permutations.<br />
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Finally, I can't not mention Gomringer's most famous piece, 'Silencio' (1954).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2r3qcOfu_Eg/TpK4FYKn7OI/AAAAAAAAAHs/_Qg2Nhgabow/s1600/phone+stuff+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2r3qcOfu_Eg/TpK4FYKn7OI/AAAAAAAAAHs/_Qg2Nhgabow/s320/phone+stuff+002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Again, Gomringer arranges language so that it performs. Here, the word 'silence' is arranged repeatedly in a rectangular shape. To look at, the block black repetition of 'silencio' appears visually noisy. And yet, in the centre, Gomringer leaves a perfect white space. A blank, which iconically depicts its meaning (and creates a synaesthetic mapping), the visual emptiness metaphorically performing sonic silence.<br />
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All in all, the Conz collection at DMU is remarkable. It adorns the walls of the second floor of the Clephan building, outside an undergraduate lecture theatre. Its presence there is understated, subtly imposing, and I do hope those who walk past it take note!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-31663812285469645562011-10-09T16:02:00.001+01:002011-10-09T16:24:15.583+01:00Altered Book WorkshopLast month, my friend Alice and I took ourselves along to an Altered Book Workshop, here in Sheffield hosted by the <a href="http://www.creativeaction.net/">Creative Action Network</a>. The idea behind the workshop was to explore the ways in which old or unwanted books can be transformed into art objects and sculptures. Anyone who reads this blog (and particularly has read the posts on the book-sculptures of <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-as-art-reading-sculpture.html">Isaac Salazar</a> and <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-altered-bookart-works.html">Brian Dettmer</a>) will know that I am interested in the material form of books and their creative potentialities. With this workshop just on the doorstep, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up! ...Time to get involved and have a go myself!<br />
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<a href="http://www.creativeaction.net/view.php?id=21">Charlie Hill</a>, a Sheffield-based mixed media artist, was running the workshop and she began by showing us her own work in altered books as well as work by other altered book artists. Charlie introduced us to two artists in particular for inspiration.<br />
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The first was <a href="http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/">Su Blackwell</a> (who incidentally is from Sheffield!). Her book-sculptures create intricate and complex scenes, often from the realms of a fairy tales and folklore. They really are beautiful delicate installation pieces - See for yourself:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KcD0gHHrFdY/TpGtnXVV-xI/AAAAAAAAAHE/UkVvisUPYro/s1600/su+Blackwell+books.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KcD0gHHrFdY/TpGtnXVV-xI/AAAAAAAAAHE/UkVvisUPYro/s400/su+Blackwell+books.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Above: Top Left: 'The Extasie' (2006);</div><div style="text-align: center;">Bottom Left: 'The Baron in the Trees' (2011); Right: 'Hope' (2009)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>What I wouldn't give to own one! ...and if you'd like to see more, there is a <a href="http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/portfolio-book-cut-sculpture/">full gallery</a> on her website.<br />
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The second artist was Nicholas Jones, an Australian sculpture. His work is much more about the the ways in which the pages of books can be folded or cut into in order to create new shapes and designs:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_DFtvoBYTIU/TpGydmqx_SI/AAAAAAAAAHI/5wAZu1vFhqY/s1600/Nicholas+Jones.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_DFtvoBYTIU/TpGydmqx_SI/AAAAAAAAAHI/5wAZu1vFhqY/s400/Nicholas+Jones.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Above: Top Left, Bottom Left and Centre are taken from Jones'</div><div style="text-align: center;">'The Tower of Learning' exhibition at Pablo Fanque, Sydney, 2008;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Top right: 'The Blue Wave'; and Bottom Right comes from</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.geelonggallery.org.au/exhibitions/view/year/2009/id/75/exhibition/nicholas-jones-the-garden-of-forking-paths">'The Garden of Forking Paths' exhibition</a> at <a href="http://www.geelonggallery.org.au/">Geelong Gallery</a>, Victoria, 2009.</div><br />
And if you'd like to see more of Nicholas Jones' work, he also has a <a href="http://www.bibliopath.org/?page_id=61">gallery</a> on his website.<br />
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Obviously, seeing these artists works, we had a lot to wonder at! Though I warn you now, this was a <i>beginner's</i> workshop, so don't expect to much! In the workshop, we learnt mostly about the different techniques for folding in order to create new shapes, revisioning the book as it were<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-qHcOJqojo/TpG1r_HGN0I/AAAAAAAAAHM/wfNA9lZoNkM/s1600/My+book+art.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6-qHcOJqojo/TpG1r_HGN0I/AAAAAAAAAHM/wfNA9lZoNkM/s320/My+book+art.png" width="320" /></a>This was my greatest achievement for the day, which I've decided to call 'leaves', playing on the pun of the pages themselves being leaves (homage to Mark Z. Danielewski, of course!):<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3fWVz_BY-Ag/TpG2aix0naI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/7NNSuWt_5h4/s1600/313641_10150376788011206_522256205_10419056_1836692211_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3fWVz_BY-Ag/TpG2aix0naI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/7NNSuWt_5h4/s200/313641_10150376788011206_522256205_10419056_1836692211_n.jpg" width="150" /></a><br />
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And this is part of the process of folding, created by my friend Alice.<br />
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Dan Williamson was also at the workshop and he created three really good pieces, all of which can be seen on his lovely photo blog: '<a href="http://rokurokubi.tumblr.com/post/10362408683">This is not a refuge</a>', '<a href="http://rokurokubi.tumblr.com/post/10362648036">donkey cabbages</a>', and '<a href="http://rokurokubi.tumblr.com/post/10363015659">The Spring and the Egg</a>'.<br />
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All in all, I really enjoyed the day. It made a nice change to be more creative!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-61954748132837684232011-07-26T13:54:00.000+01:002011-07-26T13:54:12.258+01:00Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2011I went along to the <a href="http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/">Royal Academy</a>'s Summer Exhibition last week. I'd read a few reviews and seen Alastair's Sooke's entertaining special for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011wnkv">BBC's The Culture Show</a>, so I had mixed feelings about what to expect. On the one hand, there are clearly some big names in the show and these figures from the art world seemed to receive the most praise, while much of the public work was seen as rather second rate.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SmL37H6V5Sc/Ti6xERRRyUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/p_gpv_jIzzY/s1600/art+day+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SmL37H6V5Sc/Ti6xERRRyUI/AAAAAAAAAGo/p_gpv_jIzzY/s320/art+day+007.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;">Jeff Koons' Coloring Book in the RA courtyard</span></i></div><br />
I have to say, I actually really enjoyed the exhibition, but it did nevertheless have its highs and lows. Here are some of my favourites...<br />
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<u>Michael Vogt</u><br />
The exhibition opened in Wohl Central Hall which featured photographic works. I was particularly struck with the work of <a href="http://www.michaelvogt.co.uk/">Michael Vogt</a> who had two pieces in the show.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-45bYj_D4OMw/Ti6xWhnlDII/AAAAAAAAAGs/-a8mH1DgKBA/s1600/michael+vogt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-45bYj_D4OMw/Ti6xWhnlDII/AAAAAAAAAGs/-a8mH1DgKBA/s400/michael+vogt.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;"><i>H34 Robert (Left) and H32 Daguerre (Right) by Michael Vogt</i></span></div><br />
Working in contemporary fine art photography, these come from his <i>Heterotopia: In Ruins</i> series, in which the industrial ruins of today are collaged with an image of classical ruins. For me, there is a kind-of temporal jarring, a coexistence of incongruent times and worlds, which in itself holds a strange and haunting beauty.<br />
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Another photographic piece that caught my eye was by Royal Academician and previous Turner prize winner <u>Gillian Wearing</u>.<br />
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Titled <i>Self Portrait As My Mother Jean Gregory</i>, the image reminds me of Cindy Sherman's work in the sense of assuming other indentities. The photograph comes from a series of six, called <i>Album </i>in which Wearing transforms herself into the image and pose of family members as taken from an old family album.<br />
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<u>Cornelia Parker</u>, herself a Royal Academician, was one of the big names in the show, and one of the highlights. Her work included the photographic <i>Self Portrait With Budget Box</i> as well as the stunning <i>Endless Sugar</i> in which 30 pieces of silver plate had been flattened and hung so that they appeared to levitate above the floor.<br />
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The latter was a real stand out, and I don't think any image can do justice to the sense of magic it seems to hold.<br />
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In another room, I liked the work of another Royal Academician <u>David Nash</u> whose work <i>Funnel</i> was a hollow Oak, as seen in the gallery image below.<br />
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In this same room, was a charming little sculpture by <u>Dae H Kwon</u> of a man casting a shadow. It had the potential, I suppose, to be quite kitsch, but in fact it was simple and beautiful.<br />
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The final piece I'd like to mention is a work of collage (surprise suprise - I do love collage). The work is by <u>Simon Leahy-Clark</u>, and called <i>Library II</i>.<br />
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The intricacy of the collage was really quite something. Each part, for instance a man's face, is composed of scraps of many faces, and as an overall image it just worked.<br />
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The Summer Exhibition 2011 is on at the Royal Academy until 15th August 2011.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-64767012894255552522011-07-26T12:32:00.000+01:002011-07-26T12:32:58.837+01:00Onomatopoeia: The Port - Charles Avery<i>Onomatopoeia: The Port</i> is the next phase in Charles Avery's <i>Islanders</i> project (launched with <i>The Islanders</i>, discussed <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/07/islanders-introduction-charles-avery.html">here</a>). The Prologue to this second book opens exactly as did the first: " I first came to the Island at the end of the great kelp rush..." Initially, <i>Onomatopoeia</i>'s Prologue appears identical, but subtle variations start to arise, until eventually, the narrative becomes wholly original.<br />
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As readers, you could start with this book. However, the new additional narrative relies on readers' memory of details from <i>The Islanders</i> in order to unlock some of its narrative intricacies. For instance, towards the end of the Prologue, our narrator Only McFew informs us that as he began to explore the port of Onomatopy on the Island, he "exercised my new status as a tourist by standing in line to purchase a poke of moules and two eggs from <i>Marcel's Casserole</i>". Ordinarily, this is not particularly surprising information. Yet readers of <i>The Islanders</i> are aware of the infamy of the Island's eggs: In <i>The Islanders</i>, we learn that they are branded Henderson's eggs, and are "bitterly disgusting, yet ruinously addictive". The most any one can eat is three apparently, before they are "completely hooked". Indeed, Avery writes, "Many of the prospectors who came to the Island during the kelp rush did not prosper, but instead found ruin in the form of the eggs". Thus, at the end of <i>Onomatopoeia</i>'s Prologue, when the narrative ends with the words, "I bit into my second egg", those readers who know of the eggs' power interpret the sense of foreboding these words contain, and the slippery downfall for Only McFew at which they hint...<br />
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After the Prologue, <i>Onomatopoeia</i> really consists of Avery's stunning illustrations. It opens with a reproduction of Avery's large scale drawing of the port of Onomatopoeia (which featured in <a href="http://www.britishartshow.co.uk/">British Art Show 7</a>, discussed on this blog <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/03/british-art-show-7.html">here</a>).<br />
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Since the original image is so large, the subsequent illustrations are essentially close-ups of areas of this initial picture, allowing the reader/viewer to really admire the detail of Avery's drawings.<br />
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Finally, echoing the structure of <i>The Islanders</i>, <i>Onomatopoeia</i> concludes with an Epilogue. As the final words of the Prologue implied, all is not rosey for Only McFew who states that he is "profoundly lost". He tries to write an inventory to keep his mind sharp, detailing the contents of his bag as well as "Self: I am called Only McFew (really!)" - Incidentally, this is troubling since this is the name Miss Miss understood, and seems unlikely to be the narrator's real name. In itself, this raises all sorts of questions for the reader concerning Only McFew's state of mind and well-being.<br />
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Enigmatically, the Epilogue to<i> Onomatopoeia</i> ends, "And finally I have started to wonder if, beyond the shops and bars and lights of Onomatopy, beyond the Plane of the Gods, where the defunct machines and litter are strewn, underneath the mountains and the flowers and the dust and the bones of the hunters, there is an island at all?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-13067055894234713682011-07-18T21:55:00.001+01:002011-07-26T12:35:25.389+01:00The Islanders: An Introduction - Charles Avery"I first came to the Island at the end of the great kelp rush, although I was not aware of that at the time. On the contrary, I had sought out this strange land with a view to being its discoverer."<br />
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So begins Charles Avery's <i>The Islanders: An Introduction</i>. <i>The Islanders</i> is, on one hand, a book, a fictional travelogue which catalogues a place called 'The Island' as encountered by the book's narrator. On the other, it is the first part of Avery's lifetime project, documenting the first four years of the Scottish artist's magnum opus.<br />
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The project itself is composed of large scale drawings, maps, sculpture, taxidermic specimens, and even a 3-D computer generated model of the Island (though Avery sees the latter "as a tool for me to use", rather than an artwork in itself). The objects and artifacts of <i>The Islanders</i> can be seen in gallery exhibitions such as the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/altermodern/">2009 Tate Triennial <i>Altermodern</i></a> or the more recent <a href="http://www.britishartshow.co.uk/">British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet</a> (reviewed on this blog <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/03/british-art-show-7.html">here</a>). And of course, they are documented in this book.<br />
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But <i>The Islanders</i> is more than an exhibition catalogue or archive of the artist's work: It is a fictional world of Avery's imagination, an altermodern archipelago, a new and unknown territory.<br />
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Having found the Island, the narrator prepares to leave, untying his boat, but is startled by a strange noise. Coming towards him is a beguiling young woman with whom he falls in love. The prologue concludes, "Through a series of misunderstandings, I came to believe her name was Miss Miss, and she, that I was called Only McFew. Miss Miss was to become my close companion and sponsor on the Island - although she consistently and firmly resisted any further advances. I remain to this day her devoted admirer."<br />
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Staying on the Island, perhaps because of love, perhaps because of curiousity and a calling to hunt and explore, Only McFew becomes familiar with the Island's inhabitants and its myths, as documented in the book. As readers, we learn about the various parts of the island such as the Avenue of the Gods, a lively market or bazaar; we're told of the prestigious role of the Hunter in Island society; we're introduced to the Island's peculiar (and strangely real) Gods; and we hear legends about its uncanny and surreal creatures.<br />
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In many ways, <i>The Islanders </i>is a conceptual exercise. It's about creating something and somewhere, it's about representation, its boundaries and its limitlessness. Even so, the book is strangely absorbing, and this is down to the detailed execution of Avery's drawings. They are undeniably masterful; the expressions on the faces of the Island's inhabitants, the Island and it's people's otherly familiarity...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N9QVYHxKp3s/TiSaRFOFj7I/AAAAAAAAAGQ/lYyBmpi1Xwo/s1600/EMA+%2526+ANA+026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N9QVYHxKp3s/TiSaRFOFj7I/AAAAAAAAAGQ/lYyBmpi1Xwo/s400/EMA+%2526+ANA+026.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
...It's quite simply compelling... and intriguing. I am genuinely curious about what Avery will think up next for this imagined realm.<br />
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Interestingly, Avery seems to predict this. In an episode about the hunting and killing of an Aleph (a creature of the Island), Avery offers the following illustration:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKfmHOhqoyM/TiSdZBt4g2I/AAAAAAAAAGY/C6a32ljvjKI/s1600/EMA+%2526+ANA+025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKfmHOhqoyM/TiSdZBt4g2I/AAAAAAAAAGY/C6a32ljvjKI/s400/EMA+%2526+ANA+025.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The illustration depicts two 'Triangleland Bourgeoisie studying the head of an Aleph'. 'Triangleland' is the name for the other world - reality, in other words. Implicitly, then, there is an art gallery context being inscribed here, as though Avery is implying our own complicity in the project, the fact that the Island, however fictional, is something we lay witness to in his exhibitions.<br />
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The project continues with <i>Onomatopoeia: The Port</i> (which I subsequently blog about <a href="http://iconnote.blogspot.com/2011/07/onomatopoeia-port-charles-avery.html">here</a>), but in the meantime, Avery concludes <i>The Islanders</i> with a tantalising direct address: "I cannot tell you how this world really is - I have no idea - I can state only the facts as I perceive them. You must be satisfied with this or you must travel there yourself sometime, and see these beings in their natural environment, for this place is utterly subjective".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-18689835917469919862011-07-09T13:30:00.001+01:002011-07-09T13:30:52.544+01:00The Island of Misfit ToysOn Thursday 8th July 2011, I went to the opening of 'The Island of Misfit Toys' at <a href="http://www.archipelago-art.co.uk/">APG works</a> in Sheffield. The exhibition showcases works by Parisian artists <a href="http://emarama.bigcartel.com/">EMA</a> and <a href="http://anacao.com/">ANACAO</a>. The opening itself was buzzing, but the art itself was certainly the highlight.<br />
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Spread across two rooms, EMA and ANACAO's work collectively sought to represent, in APG's words, "a gloomy universe populated by vintage, romantic, and strange toys inspired by Japanese pop animation, 70's science fiction and graffiti". Indeed, the work (which the photos taken on my iPhone really don't do justice!) has a surreal, almost psychedelic feel, with each artists distinctive style complementing the other.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Usnf6HdVFWI/ThhIu-ezuiI/AAAAAAAAAF0/knV2qs9bQcg/s1600/for+blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Usnf6HdVFWI/ThhIu-ezuiI/AAAAAAAAAF0/knV2qs9bQcg/s400/for+blog.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">The image above shows work by ANACAO (left) and EMA (right) respectively.</div><br />
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The exhibition features a new series of oil paintings, drawings, and screen prints, as well as the installation shown above. It runs until the end of July 2011, so if you're in Sheffield get to it!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-46192502296855206622011-06-12T17:58:00.002+01:002011-06-12T18:02:08.826+01:00Ulrike and Eamon: Compliant<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">It's Friday afternoon, and walking around the city of Sheffield, I stumble across an inimitable wooden box or room. There are air holes drilled into it and clipboards hanging on the side.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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Curious, I approach and examine the clipboards. There are two, each of which gives a brief biography of a militant terrorist:<br />
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I am intrigued so, perhaps against my better judgement, I enter the box-room.<br />
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Inside, there is a screen on the wall showing a woman being interviewed, or perhaps interrogated. On the wall in front of me is a shelf with a mobile phone and some instructions. I follow the instructions: I pick up the phone and press the green dial button twice. It has started.<br />
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A voice on the phone asks me whether I am Ulrike or Eamon. I comply and dial 1: I am Ulrike. The voice then asks me to leave the box, telling me which direction in which to walk. I am going towards an empty office building. When I get there, I must face the doors of the office and call him back. I comply.<br />
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"Hello Ulrike, thanks for calling me back". The voice speaks directly to me. He asks me about myself: "Are you a hesitant of decisive person?" After the beep I respond "My name is Ulrike. I am a decisive person". I stand with my back to the world, looking inside the desolate office space. I feel at once absorbed in an intimate conversation with the enigmatic voice on the phone but self-conscious; back to the world I am unaware of what is happening and it makes me feel strangely vulnerable.<br />
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I move off, following the directions of the voice, but he advises "Keep your eyes open. Act natural." Between directions, the voice tells me about my life. The choices I have made. How he admires my courageousness. How I once said that to set fire to one car is a crime, but to set fire to 100 is political. How I choose to place my children in an orphanage, and how it made him wonder why I would have done so.<br />
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I am asked to make a decision. Do I want to continue walking down this street: If so stay on the line. Otherwise hang up. I comply and stay on the line. I'm involved now. I walk towards a sheltered spot, under a tree. The voice says "Pick a person on the street. Look at them. Think about their home. Think about who they love." I comply. Doing so, the way I feel about this person is hard to describe: One of the things I feel for them is a strange sadness as they walk passed me in the rain, unaware of how they absorb my thoughts.<br />
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I move off and continue on my journey. The voice directs me down a deserted alleyway.<br />
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When I reach the bottom, he asks me if I'd like to see this thing through. Am I prepared to face the questions? Or am I the type of person to run and hide? I've come this far - I stay on the line, and the voice says "Ok Ulrike, I understand, You're prepared to face the questions". I am led to a meeting point. I nod as instructed at the 'contact' and I am led to another wooden box-room.<br />
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There are two chairs, and a mirror on the wall. A man tells me to take a seat and sits down opposite me. I hadn't expected this. I don't feel prepared. But I comply.<br />
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"What would you fight for?" His eyes fix me in place.<br />
"Personal Freedom", I mutter nervously.<br />
"Against all odds?" "Where do you draw the line?" "What are you prepared to do for this? Could you kill in the name of personal freedom?"<br />
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It is intense. An interrogation. Finally he asks me, "Are you a hesitant or a decisive person?"<br />
"I am Ulrike. I am a decisive person."<br />
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"Thank you" he says, and leads me out of a door on the other side of the room. He walks me around the box to a window. "Wait here" he says and leaves me. I look through the window, I realise the mirror in the box-room was a two-way mirror. Somebody was watching everything I said.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mta4q1wqP1Y/TfTvqkm-SkI/AAAAAAAAAFg/V659IV51wBY/s1600/June+2011+034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mta4q1wqP1Y/TfTvqkm-SkI/AAAAAAAAAFg/V659IV51wBY/s320/June+2011+034.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Horrified, I stand there looking in as a woman is led into the room. She sits, as I did, and the interviewer starts again:<br />
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"What would you fight for?"<br />
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<i>('<a href="http://www.dlwp.com/dlwpinternational/venice/index.html#">Ulrike and Eamon: Compliant</a>' is the creation of <a href="http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/">Blast Theory</a>, and first presented at the Venice Biennial. I saw it in Sheffield, UK as part of the <a href="https://sheffdocfest.com/">Sheffield Doc/Fest</a>)</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-42943804205397201972011-06-10T13:59:00.005+01:002011-06-11T13:50:17.513+01:00LIES Inc.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M0MVe5nlR_I/TfIJ-5NinUI/AAAAAAAAAEs/e3jqPvOgmAQ/s1600/June+2011+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M0MVe5nlR_I/TfIJ-5NinUI/AAAAAAAAAEs/e3jqPvOgmAQ/s400/June+2011+007.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
You know an exhibition is going to be out of the ordinary when, on entry, you're greeted by a disclaimer: "Please be warned - you enter at your own risk". There's been a lot of buzz surrounding <a href="http://www.sitegallery.org/">Site Gallery</a>'s newest exhibition 'LIES Inc.', a retrospective of the work of <a href="http://www.0100101110101101.org/">Eva and Franco Mattes</a> (its been touted in <i><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/04/this-weeks-new-exhibitions">The Guardian</a> </i>and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13710202">BBC</a>). These are notoriously playful artists - 'pranksters' the BBC calls them who in <i>The Guardian</i>'s words will be up to "some kind of no good". Controversy and intrigue are words that come to mind. Afterall, the two are known for stealing, with the help of distraction and a Swiss army knife, fragments from famous artworks by the likes of Warhol, Kadinsky, and Beuys.<br />
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The Sheffield exhibition opens with the pair's signature <i>Catt</i>, a sculpture which features a cat in a birdcage that Eva and Franco Mattes duped the art world with by passing it off as a work by Maurizio Cattelan. The most facinating piece exhibited in Site Gallery was, for me, a work called <i>No Fun</i>. <i>No Fun</i> exploits a live-webcam software tool called Chatroulette in which users 'gamble' by accessing and communicating with other Chatroulette users at random. When the unwitting participants click 'Next' and reach the live-feed from the camera Eva and Franco Mattes have set up, the image which greets them is that of an uncomfortably real-looking (but of course, staged) suicide. In <i>No Fun</i>, we can see both live feeds, the fake suicide and the different user's reactions.<br />
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I was mesmerised by <i>No Fun, </i>watching and listening to the other user's reactions for some time. The experience is really unsettling, not least because it exposes the immoral side to human nature (In the time I watched it, only 1 person called 911; some didn't take it seriously but most of those who did quickly disconnected, keen to alleviate themselves from the situation and any form of moral responsibility).<br />
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The other thing at 'LIES Inc.' that really got me was a new work, <i>Plan C </i>and the ominously named <i>The Liquidator</i>, described by site as a "sculptural merry-go-round". At the end of the Gallery exhbition, we saw a short film called <i>Let Them Believe</i> which documents the development of <i>Plan C</i>. In doing so, it depicts the creation of <i>Plan C </i>as an undercover research trip to Chernobyl, torn and shattered as it is by the 1986 nuclear disaster. According to the film, the merry-go-round was part of an amusement park being built, and was opened early so that it could be enjoyed before the world seemingly ended. <i>Plan C </i>itself was the recovery of a merry-go-round from the site, housed for a few short days at a secret Sheffield location as <i>The Liquidator</i>, the merry-go-round now regenerated or at least cobbled together from materials taken from the Chernobyl site<i> </i>25 years on. And the materials themselves still hold/emit low-level radioactive charge.<br />
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To go on the merry-go-round, we had to sign a disclaimer (!) and were asked to wear Hazmat suits for protection from the radiation. Below you can see Alice, Sarah, Rob, and I all kitted up!<br />
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The ride itself was actually really fun. Who doesn't like a merry-go-round? And its location in a disused Sheffield factory by the river was beautiful - street art by <a href="http://www.kidacne.com/">Kid Acne</a> and <a href="http://emarama.bigcartel.com/">Emarama</a>.<br />
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At the end of the ride, we were measured for radiation, as was the ride, with the count continuing to rise.<br />
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<i>Plan C </i>and <i>The Liquidator</i> are brilliant works of art, and so unnerving. There's something really perverse about enjoying yourself and having fun on a merry-go-round which signifies tragedy. However, with Eva and Franco Mattes' reputation, can they be trusted? Is <i>The Liquidator</i> really what it claims to be? Or is it another elaborate hoax, with the <i>Let Them Believe </i>film serving to authenticate it? Whichever it is (and I think walking the line between the two is in itself fascinating), it works to expose to us the triviality of artfans contemplating how such a work of art made them feel in the context of the horror and tragedy of Chernobyl, itself with timely parallels to recent events in Japan.<br />
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Despite, or perhaps fundamental to, the duplicitous nature of their art, Eva and Franco Mattes certainly have a serious message, and one that asks us to confront who and what we are.<br />
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(Pictures come from my iPhone and the kindness of Alison Geldart who has a very interesting blog about words <a href="http://alisongeldarteditorial.wordpress.com/">here</a>)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-31314449005701223092011-05-30T18:07:00.000+01:002011-05-30T18:07:42.721+01:00XYZLast week, my friend Alice and I went to see XYZ at <a href="http://www.sitegallery.org/">Site Gallery</a> in Sheffield. Site has some great exhibitions and its great to do stuff in the Steel City (rather than always having to hop on the train to London). XYZ is an artistic exploration of augmented reality, so I was really looking forward to it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/3091">XYZ</a> was commissioned by Site Gallery and is an augmented reality sculpture project, with sculptures generated by <a href="http://www.sarahstaton.com/">Sarah Staton</a> and interpreted within virtual space by <a href="http://www.christopherhodson.co.cc/">Chris Hodson</a>. To view and experience these 3-dimensional virtual sculptures, you needed iPhone technology. After downloading the app (Junaio, in this case) and selecting the XYZ channel, you held the camera on your phone up to a black and white geometric image. Soon enough, the Junaio platform reinterprets reality, bringing the virtual into view.<br />
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In their own publicity material, Site Gallery question the material form of sculpture: "What happens to sculpture when it is rendered virtual? What do you gain and what do you lose? In virtual reality concrete can float, liquid can solidify, but the materiality of sculpture, the space it takes up in relation to bodies, its inherent gravity is gone". XYZ indeed raises some interesting questions about the nature of sculpture and of art itself. How do we judge an art form which is seemingly intangible?<br />
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Importantly, the tangibility of XYZ comes from the very corporeal act of the viewer / iPhone user - your act of bringing the art work into being itself is the tactile foundation of each sculpture. What I found interesting was the precariousness of manifesting the sculptures. Move your phone too quickly and they vanished; reach out to try to touch them (your hand blocking the motivating image) and they disappeared. Interestingly, this somehow made them precious. Intriguing and precious.<br />
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XYZ closed at Site Gallery last Saturday, but they've got lots of exciting things coming up... So Sheffield folk - keep an eye out and an ear to the ground!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7511787152042456745.post-41006577905230173352011-05-27T09:19:00.000+01:002011-05-27T09:19:53.253+01:00BLA BLAInteractive art film <a href="http://blabla.nfb.ca/">BLA BLA</a>, by Vincent Morrisset is definitely worth checking out.<br />
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The story is divided into six chapters, which each tell us something about the act of communication. Crucially, in terms of the project's theme, just as the film itself is interactive so too is communication. As the viewer-user, your actions are what manifests the conversation with these quirky but lovable characters.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0